life-set / life-rise

A note to any visitors:

Seasonalists is a very new blog. I’m still working out how I want things to be here so, if you click around much, you may run into oddly formatted or empty areas. Please pardon my mess.                                                                                                                            ~ Verity

This photograph was taken in late March, 2012, when I had just moved from a rural farmlette to an apartment in a suburb of St. Paul, MN. This was my view from the deck of the apartment. I was transitioning to a new life, because (due to job loss, medical expenses, and the foolishness of youth) we had (literally) lost the farm. At about the same time, I wrote the following in my journal:

I spent the entire day (except for a trip to the dog park and a short practice drive with my boy) sitting on my deck, trying to find my place in my work. Whenever frustration overwhelmed me and I looked up from my keyboard, I could watch the Mallards and Canada geese glide around on the black water of the pond. (Did you know a cloudy sky turns small, still bodies of water black?)

Now that it’s after midnight, I can only listen to the sounds of the creatures that live beyond the deck-rail. Mostly, I’ve been hearing the geese and the easily identified spring peepers, but an unfamiliar frog is calling – actually sort of clicking – from the far bank. An owl – one that is not a barred owl like those that lived near my old house – is hooting in a strange, quavering voice. (Wait … now that I’m paying close attention, I realize there are two.)

Once in a while, the muskrat splashes in the water. I think he chirps to himself as he goes about his business … unless there are two of them here as well.

Last night, I found a quarter-sized painted turtle in the underground garage. When I released him onto a pile of damp leaves near the pond’s edge, I shined the flashlight into the water and saw fat, healthy leeches, quick little water beetles and dozens of silver-swift minnows.

It’s a good pond. One that will help me find my place, I think.

I watched a lot of sunsets over my beloved pond in the next four years, as our family built a new life and a new vision of our future.

Now, six years later (wow!) I’m writing this from my desk, as I sit next to a giant picture window, in a different apartment, which is located in a suburb of Raleigh, NC. We have a northern exposure, so I see neither sunsets nor sunrises from where I am now.

But I looked out the window a few minutes ago and saw a bright green Carolina anole sunning itself on the tree across the parking lot. (It must be a big one, if I can see it from this distance.) My view isn’t as pretty as the one from my old apartment — and I doubt I’ll grow as fond of the greenery beyond the parking lot as I was of my pond — but it’s pretty enough.

It will do as we find our place again.

~*~

Here are some responses to the WPC prompt “Rise/Set” that I particularly like:

French Sunrise / Spanish Sunset – an interesting take on the theme – Shades of the Sun – over flowers in a meadow – clouds on fire – a perfect companion for my entry – Grand Canyon – on a warm summer evening – Quite Magical – Norwegian harbor – Snowy Spring Sunrise – Story Bridge in Brisbane – cotton candy sky – the waters of Hamburg – sunset in black and white – ambient sunset – Sunrise, Sunset and all the Birds in Between – the sun and the moon – sunrise with mist – Mogador Sunsets – Sunrise on the New Jersey Shore – summers in Greece –  Set – the quality of the light in these two shots is stunning –

I may add more, as I browse more responses.