Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Sitting in the Shade

I enjoy relaxing outdoors in the late afternoon and evening hours.  Our summer daytime temperatures in the North Sacramento Valley near Red Bluff, California, are normally in the upper 90's.  We often have a mild breeze coming from the south in the afternoon.  After 4 pm, I sit in the shade by our small pond.  Large eucalyptus trees shade the area. 


















Large cottonwood trees line the north edge of this small ditch pond. 
Today, the irrigation ditches were flowing freely and we had nine hoses
slowly watering our trees.   














I sip iced tea and relax.  Sometimes my cat joins me.
Today I listened to Lee Riley's shakuhachi flute music,
"Music for Zen Meditation."


















Looking to the north gives me a grand view of many trees and shrubs. 
The ground is quite dry and all the spring grass is now brown and
shriveled away.

"I exist as I am, that is enough,
  If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
  And if each and all be aware I sit content.
  One world is aware, and by the far the largest to me, and that is myself,
  And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand
        or ten million years,
  I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness, I can wait."
-  Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1855, I Celebrate Myself, Line 413 

No comments:

Post a Comment