Full Moon 6/9/17

I am enjoying a full moon. Earlier I visited damselfly, ladybug and wasp, all considered “beneficial insects”.
wasp and ladybug
great hunters in the garden
seeking their dinner
~ Raven Ariana Simons ©2017
awesome damselfly
you are settled and resting
then you’ll be hunting
~ Raven Ariana Simons ©2017
breaking through the clouds
the light of the moon shines bright
illuminating
~ Raven Ariana Simons ©2017
Bright Blessings, Namaste, Namu Amida Butsu
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
~ Raven

Ladybug, Ladybug 6/4/17

A hot and windy day so far with ladybugs making new ladybugs 😉  Also aphids in the first photo and another lone ladybug cruising along.
we are so grateful
for ladybugs and others
who help us garden
~ Raven Ariana Simons ©2017
Lovely Ladybug Blessings, Namaste, Namu Amida Butsu
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
~ Raven

At Home With Hummingbirds and Milkweed Friends 10/3/15

“It just may be that the most radical act we can commit is to stay home,” says Terry Tempest Williams. ~ From Terri Windling’s October 1st blog post
Saturday, October 3, 2015 – Mostly overcast with some rain today for the 3rd day of OcPoWriMo.  While I rarely follow the prompts, in part because my poetry follows my picture project and it seems haiku (as I play with it) a nice fit, I will say that lately my biggest blocks to my creativity and writing have been more physical than emotional (though there are emotional components that arise out of the physical).  They have ranged from dsl connection issues (as most of my writing is here on this blog and on pollinator/earth activism pages I manage on fb), old equipment and failed software, and health issues.  It is kind of ironic because this blog originally arose from a daily photo project I started on Facebook on January 4, 2012 to help get me up and about after an extended period of illness and being abed.  I do have some chronic health issues, like too many people I know, that stem from what I believe to be the way humans live in and treat the earth and all of its creatures (including the plant people).  One of the types I have takes down my immune system and it can take quite some time to get better (I’m still in an activation phase of this one).  When we live in a world where humans spray poisons to get rid of the plants and animals that they don’t want, we tend to forget that we are poisoning ourselves as well as the creatures we love.  All of life is necessary and I believe we need to find our way back to a sacred re-connection to our world and all in it.  This includes a connection to where we live and to all of our neighbors (including the plant and other beings).  Terri Windling’s blog, Myth and Moor, has been examining the connection to the places we live, our communities, and how we relate to the sacred in these places over the last couple of weeks (September and October).  I encourage you to go check it out 🙂
“my friends are still here
while the milkweed is turning
it’s migration time”
~ Raven Ariana Simons
“This is my living faith, an active faith, a faith of verbs: to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh, cajole, create, confront, confound, walk back, walk forward, circle, hide, and seek.”
~ Terri Tempest Williams
“connecting with home
I am tender to spider
and my other friends”
~ Raven Ariana Simons
Namaste, Bright Blessings, Namu Amida Butsu ~ Raven

A Bit ‘O Spring – 3/16/15, 3/17/15

“sweet spring is your
time is my time is our
time for springtime is lovetime
and viva sweet love

(all the merry little birds are
flying in the floating in the
very spirits singing in
are winging in the blossoming)

lovers go and lovers come
awandering awondering
but any two are perfectly
alone there’s nobody else alive

(such a sky and such a sun
i never knew and neither did you
and everybody never breathed
quite so many kinds of yes)

not a tree can count his leaves
each herself by opening
but shining who by thousands mean
only one amazing thing

(secretly adoring shyly
tiny winging darting floating
merry in the blossoming
always joyful selves are singing)

sweet spring is your
time is my time is our
time for springtime is lovetime
and viva sweet love”
~ e. e. cummings

Forsythia on 3/16/14.

Click here for the post to photos for March 16, 2012, 2013, and more 2014.

Sunday, March 16, 2015 – A warm day with partly cloudy skies.  The neighbor’s ornamental plum is blooming and growing leaves so fast that they blossoms are already falling.  Yesterday they were mostly buds with a few blossoms open.  The early tulips are directly beneath the tree and the box elder bug is on my Oregon grape.

“The sun just touched the morning;
The morning, happy thing,
Supposed that he had come to dwell,
And life would be all spring.”
~ Emily Dickinson
“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
“blossom unfolding
coaxed by warm weather and sun
gilded with pollen”
~ Raven Ariana Simons

Thai chili pepper blossom on 3/16/14.

Click here for the post to photos for March 17, 2012, 2013, and more 2014.

Monday, March 17, 2015 – Today was another unseasonably warm day that started off clear and sunny and developed into clouds.  I saw my first butterflies, a checkered white (no photo of that one) and an orange one that I think is a silver bordered frittilary.  If you click on the photos you can see that one has a ladybug at the bottom of the dandelion where the orange butterfly is sipping nectar.  I also have my neighbors’ Buddha dressed up for St. Paddy’s Day and if you look closely at the horizontal photo you can see a jumping spider photo bombing his hat.  A dove and a robin grace the day, along with tulips, plum blossoms, and a honeybee bum (at the top of the page).


“Describe plum-blossoms?
Better than my verses…white
Wordless Butterflies”
~ Reikan
“butterflies dancing
dear dandelions blooming
sip nectar my love”
~ Raven Ariana Simons
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Namaste, Namu Amida Butsu, and Bright Spring Blessings ~ Raven

Happy All Soul’s Day – Day of the Dead – La Dia de los Muertos 11/2/14

“He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man.”
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Flashback Friday, November 2, 2012 – This is my pick photo for today and stars lily pads and reflections of autumn leaves in the pond where they grow. There are a few leaves in there, too.
Flashback Saturday, November 2, 2013 – This is my pick photo for today and it stars one of the ladies drinking from a little place that I leave for creatures to drink from 🙂
Sunday, November 2, 2014 – The temperatures have fallen and we had rain today.  I saw a ladybug pupa on a clover leaf along with the rain drops.
“leaves are getting wet
as the rain falls from the sky
sips for thirsty souls”
~ Raven Ariana Simons

“Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.”
~ George Eliot
“When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”
~Kahlil Gibran
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Namaste ~ Raven

Milkweed Aphids, Ladybug and Snail 10/8/14

“Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terror, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them.”
~ Anais Nin
Flashback Monday, October 8, 2012 – This is my pick photo of the day and stars these pretty asters with the super sparkly light background.
Flashback Tuesday, October 8, 2013 – This is my pick photo for today and it stars a duck at a park I stopped at today.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 – This year has seen an excess of aphids on my milkweed late in the season.  The ladybugs have been fewer in number.  I haven’t done anything except observe.  It is a full moon with a full lunar eclipse and day 8 of the month long poetry challenge.
 “Living means constantly growing closer to death. Satisfaction only temporarily relieves hunger. Find the balance, and plant your feet.”
~ Jackie Morse
“predator and prey
balance one with the other…
each necessary”
~ Raven Ariana Simons
“wee cute traveler
crawling along so slowly
a home on your back”
~ Raven Ariana Simons
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Namaste and Full Moon Blessings ~ Raven

Peeping Hummingbird, Pollen Pants, Ladybug Eyes, and Others In the Garden 9/13/14

“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.”

~ Eckhart Tolle

Flashback Thursday, September 13, 2012 – This is my pick photo for today and it shows my neighborhood blue jay running the goldfinches off of the seed sock! This bird is totally bold and full of fun personality 🙂
Flashback Friday, September 13, 2013 – This is my pick photo for today and it stars one of my resident hummingbirds looking unhappy about being out in rain.
Saturday, September 13, 2014 – Today I am enjoying a few of our resident pollinators in the garden. The very first picture is of a peeping hummingbird.  This one wants to visit the feeder and is on alert for us and the other hummingbird that is still around.  We also have some other little friends.

“Peeping hummingbird
waits to see if we will go
and leave the nectar.”
~ Raven Ariana Simons
“Bees bouncing around
to clover and sunflowers,
fuzzy pollen pants.”
~ Raven Ariana Simons
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Bright Pollinator Blessings and Namaste ~ Raven

Drops From a Downpour 9/8/14

Flashback Sunday, September 8, 2012 – This is my pick photo for today and stars a squirrel eating leaves in a tree over the Jordan River on the west edge of the International Peace Gardens in Jordan Park. I really love how you can see the action in this photo and detail on the squirrel’s coat.
Flashback Monday, September 8, 2013 – This is my pick for today and it stars the crescent moon through clouds shortly before is sets behind the Oquirrh Mountains.
Tuesday, September 8, 2014 – Today there’s a full Supermoon and it is the third of three in a row. It rained so hard it flooded streets and there was a small stream running down my driveway deep enough to cover the tops of my feet even with my shoes on.


Drops from a downpour
bringing life and bright blessings,
flowers sparkling clean.
~ Raven Ariana Simons
Wet little lady
sheltering under milkweed
bejeweled by the rain.
~ Raven Ariana Simons
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Namaste ~ Raven

Beetles In Love 8/25/14

Flashback Saturday, August 25, 2012 – Today’s photos have been all about the clouds and my resident hummingbird. My pick photo shows the hummer this morning with some lovely clouds.
Flashback Sunday, August 25, 2013 – This is my pick photo for today and it stars a bumblebee that looks like has been partying with the Fae!
Monday, August 25, 2014 – Today revealed the matings of little beetles.
“May you live every day of your life.”
~ Jonathan Swift

“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”
~ Paul Coelho
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Namaste ~ Raven

Natives in the Milkweed 6/18/14

Flashback Monday, June 18,  2012 – To me this photo is very painterly and impressionistic yet captures the energy when I see honeybees in flight going to their flowers.
Flashback Tuesday, June 18, 2013 – This is my pick photo of the day and it stars my resident hummingbird right after the sun has set.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014 – Today I saw two sizes of bumblebees gathering nectar, carpenter bees sipping, and a ladybug tucked in to sleep in the milkweed.
“I see trees of green,
red roses too.
I see them bloom,
for me and you.
And I think to myself,
what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue,
And clouds of white.
The bright blessed day,
The dark sacred night.
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world. ”
~ Louis Armstrong
“The colors of the rainbow,
So pretty in the sky.
Are also on the faces,
Of people going by,
I see friends shaking hands.
Saying, “How do you do?”
They’re really saying,
“I love you”.

I hear babies cry,
I watch them grow,
They’ll learn much more,
Than I’ll ever know.
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world. ”
~ Louis Armstrong
“Yes, I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.”
~ Louis Armstrong
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Bright Bee Blessings and Namaste ~ Raven