A Botanical Oasis on a Difficult Day

 It's a long time since I've been to the Arboretum in Reno.

I feel somewhat a stranger there now.  There is such a tender loneliness about it that is hard to define.  Though it is a well-used place, there is an undercurrent of neglect.  There are so many sources of wonder if one cares to look.  Though, when one does, there is the feeling that you are maybe the first person in a long time to have done so-- to have tried to understand that hidden beauty in the margins, beyond the flowers and butterflies.

 And in trying to see, one always finds so many things watching back.  Sometimes it is an owl who might look at you intently for a while, with mild curiosity, before deciding to go back to sleep. 
You wonder what it recognized in you, if anything.

A Peaceful Morning Explore

Tiny, tenuous steps along the sand--
grains undisturbed by their gentle passing

A delicate, endearing nervousness--
and yet an effortless lightness and grace

If one's heart could move like this all the time...
Maybe it will find its way after all.

Sketchin' 4: Slow Going

 "Somebody Needs to Work on his Perspective and Shading"

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"My Killdeer is Plotting Something"
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 "Overly Dignified Black Phoebe with Terrible Pine Needles"

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"You May Notice This Isn't a Bird"

Taken on a beautiful morning.  Not pictured- a beautiful sketch.