Last Looks

Oh Vermont, ours has been a forty plus year love affair which I still cling to even while I prepare to move west. Happy lake time runs from May into October and brings a constant treat. Diving in takes precedence on most afternoons, yet each time I consider myself lucky. There are more than 800 lakes and ponds in Vermont, one more spectacular than the other: I have done my best to swim in lots of them, although I have found favorites they are all fabulous. Of course there is more to my love than one season’s occupation. There is the richness of green hills against the brilliant blue sky, the sweet smell of yellow flowers that run Spring through Fall, as well as the stark black and white beauty of Winter. All an integral  part of me now.

As the movers lift the last of our boxes into their truck, I am certain it will all come with me.

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Paradise Garden

In the most auspicious of circumstances, we have found ourselves living in a paradise garden for the last five weeks. “Gardens of Paradise take their name from the old Persian pairi dez , meaning “surrounded by a wall”. Transliterated into the Greek as paradeisos and henceforth known to us as Gardens of Paradise , they are in essence self-contained refuges for flora and fauna, with humans as their keepers and end users” (AKDN). Walled in by bamboo we are indeed separated from the bustling complexity of this Los Angeles world yet are connected to earth, water, fire and air in this sacred place, filled with morning light, afternoon sunshine, and a whole changing sky above. Here, in this garden, one finds paradise.

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