There is no light without shadow, just as there is no happiness without pain. ~Isabel Allende

Taken in my friend's garden last summer.

© 2013 Nicola Riley

It's our challenges and obstacles that give us layers of depth and make us interesting.

~Ellen DeGeneres

"Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That's the problem." ~A.A. Milne

The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness. ~Elif Safak

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature. – Joseph Campbell

If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos. ~E. O. Wilson

The insects beat me to this piece of chocolate. Happily it is now a more interesting chocolate for Macro Mondays:)

“It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.” —David Attenborough

Life begins the day you start a garden. – Chinese proverb

“If light is in your heart, you will find your way home.” Rumi

Crazy Tuesday- backlit

A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms.- Zen Shin

Mushrooms are miniature pharmaceutical factories, and of the thousands of mushroom species in nature, our ancestors and modern scientists have identified several dozen that have a unique combination of talents that improve our health.

Paul Stamets

True friends are like bright sunflowers that never fade away, even over distance and time. ~Marie Williams Johnstone

There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how you use them. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

Souvenir from Lake in Michigan

The whole secret of the study of nature lies in learning how to use one's eyes... George Sand

"True courage is in facing danger when you are afraid...”

L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz

"The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting ...."

~Eden Phillpotts

kitchen scrubby

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. ~ Helen Keller

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.” — Wendell Berry

Yerba (white) and Soraya. At Staple Fitzpaine, Taunton Deane in Somerset.

“Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams.” – Paul Gauguin

He tried to imagine the sound of the color red.

Pete Hamill

“True friendship comes when the silence between two [beings] is comfortable.”

– David Tyson

Snail hunting in the rain

HMM!

Mushrooms are the food of the gods. ~Greek proverb

Paddling in the millstream at Staple Fitzpaine, Somerset.

I believe the world is incomprehensibly beautiful — an endless prospect of magic and wonder. –Ansel Adams

Grow through what you go through

In the January frost.

Otherwise known as - Physalis alkekengi, bladder cherry, bladder herb, Chinese lantern plant, devil's berry, devil's bladder, Japanese lantern, red nightshade, red winter cherry,

strawberry tomato, strawberry-and-tomato, winter cherry.

Two tiny beetles on a magical mystery tour.

In a hedgerow at Mill Farm, Staple Fitzpaine in Somerset.

“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”— Henry David Thoreau

"Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. "–~John W. Gardner

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The hum of bees is the voice of the garden.

-Elizabeth Lawrence

Celebrate Life. Care for others and share whatever you have with those less fortunate than you. Broaden your vision, for the whole world belongs to you. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Real flowers are much more beautiful than plastic ones, in part because of their impermanence. People appreciate the seasons, the autumn and the spring, because the seasons are a process of change. Each season is a precious time. In this way, impermanence is beauty.

~Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again. ~Gautama Buddha

The snake that cannot shed its skin perishes. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

“Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values all the utilities in the world.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Dragon Fruit Flower blooms only one or two days each year. In Florida it blooms in Autunm (September). Seeing this beautiful tropical flower bloom is a great joy of Autunm.

“Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.” George Eliot

Pets are humanizing. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life. James Cromwell

“When the dog looks at you, the dog is not thinking what kind of a person you are. The dog is not judging you.” – Eckhart Tolle

Plants are my best buds!

Carpocoris mediterraneus

Photo in explore Sept. 30, 2020

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent.” –Milan Kundera

The mixture of weird textures and organic surfaces creates an interesting dialogue.

Kelly Wearstler

Wood painted by my niece Josephine:)