Happy Friday!  I can't believe the weekend came so fast, but I won't argue about it!  I hope you have plans for a fun weekend--my husband and I are spending time with two of our dearest friends.  I'll make time for laundry and vacuuming next week...this weekend friends and family come first.  Here's a fun little poem penned by Sir Walter Scott that sums up my enjoyment of Door County.  I hope you like it too!

Hie Away...

Hie away, hie away,

Over bank and over brae,

Where the copsewood is the greenest,

Where the  fountains glisten sheenest,

Where the lady-fern grows strongest,

Where the morning dew lies longest,

Where the black-cock sweetest sips it,

Where the fairy latest trips it:

Hie to haunts right seldom seen,

Lovely, lonesome, cool and green,

Over bank and over brae,

Hie away, hie away.



Cave Point State Park, Door County, Wisconsin



Have a wonderful weekend--I'll be back on Monday morning with some thoughts (and new pictures?!) of Emily Dickinson!  Do you like her poetry as much as I do?

When you take Monday and Tuesday as vacation days, the week sure seems to fly by!  Here it is Thursday already, and I must confess, I'm not even completely unpacked from camping.  Since I'm still wishing I was in Door County, I'll share with you one of my favorite places in Peninsula State Park--Eagle Bluff.  My family finishes up supper and dishes in time to jump in the car and drive over to this spot and watch the sunset over the water.  Small islands dot the horizon and you can sometimes see a sailboat or two making for land as the last rays hit the water.  It is beautiful, peaceful and serene.  Perhaps Wordsworth had a favorite place like Eagle Bluff....

Sonnet No. 4

William Wordsworth

It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,

The holy time is quiet as a Nun

Breathless with adoration, the broad sun

Is sinking down in its tranquility;

The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the Sea.

May your day be as calm and lovely as this picture!  Do you have a favorite vacation place?

What's nicer than a little vacation time, removed from the world that 'is too much with us'?  I am back from one of my favorite get-away locations, beautiful Door County, Wisconsin.  This little peninsula at the top of north-eastern Wisconsin juts out into Lake Michigan, with Green Bay on one side and Lake Michigan on the other.  The tiny hamlets of Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, Ephraim, Sister Bay, Ellison Bay, Gills Rock, Bailey's Harbor and Jacksonport (each with populations ranging from 200-2000) are friendly, welcoming, and remind me so much of New England.  The views are spectacular and after a day of hiking, picnicking, and kite flying, nothing is better than a campfire, some s'mores and a delicious piece of Door County cherry pie.  Today it's back to work, but even while I'm sitting at my desk I'm sure I will be dreaming of my next trip 'up north'!  Here's a poem by Emily Bronte--she must have felt the need of a small vacation also.

A Little While, A Little While

Emily Jane Bronte

A little while, a little while,

The noisy crowd are barred away;

And I can sing and smile--

A little while I've holiday!

Where wilt thou go, my harassed heart?

Full many a land invites thee now;

And places near, and far apart

Have rest for thee, my weary brow--

A little and a lone green lane,

That opened on a common wide;

A distant, dreamy, dim blue chain

Of mountains circling every side;

A heaven so clear, an earth so calm,

So sweet, so soft, so hushed an air;

And, deepening still the dream-like charm,

Wild moor-sheep feeding everywhere.

I hope you have a great day.  Thanks for stopping by to read my blog!  What are some of your favorite destinations?  I would love to hear from you!

You can find the full poem at:

http://www.wuthering-heights.co.uk/emily-bronte-poetry.htm#littlewhile

All pictures are my own.



Sunset at Eagle Bluff, Peninsula State Park

 And...it's the weekend!  My husband and I are off to beautiful Door County, Wisconsin for some much needed r&r and a long weekend of hiking, reading, golfing and camping in the beautiful 'up north' country on Lake Michigan.  Hopefully I will have some nice pictures to share with you when we get back.  We are tent campers and I'll be far away from wi-fi and computers, so please look for my next blog on Wednesday morning.  Until then, have a wonderful weekend and carpe diem! 



after a storm, Ephraim Harbor






Lautenbach's Orchard Country Winery near Fish Creek



Fern Trail in Newport State Park



Happy Friday!  The work week is drawing to a close, and it's time to start thinking how you want to spend your weekend hours--hopefully you have plans to spend time with family and friends, perhaps work on a project or just find a place to curl up with a good book and relax.  I know laundry needs washing and floors need scrubbing, but we need time to refresh our souls as well as tidy our homes!  I woke up this morning with this tune in my head...I imagine many of you will recognize it from the Cat Stevens' version or perhaps from church youth campfire sing-alongs.  The lyrics were actually written by Eleanor Farjeon, for inclusion in a Scottish hymnal, Songs of Praise, in 1931. The editor of the hymnal, noting a need for a hymn to give thanks for each day, asked English poet and children's author Eleanor Farjeon "to make a poem to fit" the lovely Scottish tune Bunnesan.  May we always remember to give thanks for each day!  Take a big breath, let it out slowly and may the peace and gentleness of the words flow over you.

Morning has Broken

Morning has broken, like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird

Praise for the singing, praise for the morning

Praise for the springing fresh from the word.

Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven

Like the first dewfall, on the first grass

Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden

Spring in completeness where his feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning

Born of the one light, Eden saw play

Praise with elation, praise every morning

Gods' recreation of the new day.



Morning mist, New Hampshire 2011





Good morning!  I've got travel on my mind today...many of my co-workers are on vacation, my daughter and her boyfriend are just heading back from the Black Hills, and my brother and his family is heading towards Utah.  I am looking forward to a long camping weekend---walking by Lake Michigan, sitting around a campfire and marveling at the star studded night sky.  I think Walt Whitman was feeling the same urge to get and up go with this excerpt from Song of the Open Road.

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,

Healthy, free, the world before me,

The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,

Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing.

Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,

Strong and content I travel the open road.

The earth, that is sufficient,

I do not want the constellations any nearer,

I know they are very well where they are,

I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

I think heroic deeds were all conceived in the open air, and all free poems also,

I think I could stop here myself and do miracles,

I think whatever I shall meet on the road I shall like, and

whoever beholds me shall like me

I think whoever I see must be happy.



White Mountains, New Hampshire



May your day be filled with happiness!!

Good morning!  I was sitting on my deck early this morning enjoying a cup of tea before work, and I saw a lovely spider web shimmering in the sunlight.  It reminded me of a story I heard last September when visiting the Orchard House in Concord, MA.  Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women at Orchard House, and I love visiting her home and soaking in all the history and anecdotes about the Alcott family.  Our guide shared a story about Thoreau, who was a much loved family friend, and the Alcott sisters.  He always enjoyed taking them on nature walks, and would point out spider webs as 'fairy handkerchiefs'.  A few days later my husband and I were visiting Robert Frost's farm in Derry, NH, and came across a lovely fairy handkerchief in the meadow. 

A noiseless patient spider

by Walt Whitman

A noiseless patient spider,

I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,

Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,

It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,

Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,

Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,

Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,

Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,

Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

I hope your day is filled with magical moments!