What in the World is a hedgeapple? Day 356

I have never seen these before.  I have never even heard of them.  I loved the way they looked though and I thought the pictures came out pretty good!

All things must change to something new, to something strange.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!"
Dr. Seuss (One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish)

"Strange is our situation here upon the Earth."  Albert Einstein

And I thought that Arizona had thorns! - Day 355

I have never seen thorns like these before.  They grow right out of the trees.  They had a rather strange beauty all their own.  

"And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers 

is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns."   

Thomas Moore

Life is thickly sown with thorns, 

and I know no other remedy 

than to pass quickly through them. 

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, 

the greater is their power to harm us.   

Voltaire

The flower which is single 

need not envy the thorns 

that are numerous.  

Rabindranath Tagore

Macro Friday - Yellow Color in the Green - Day 354

I am linking up today with Blogging From Bolivia for her weekly Macro Friday.  I loved these little plants.  The tiny heads were each smaller than a pinky nail. The entire plant blended in with the grass.   I loved the colors. 

Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair...  ~Susan Polis Shutz

Tarzan lived in Kansas - Day 353

I thought this was so cool!  The vines hang down from the trees like they are just waiting for you to grab one and go for a ride.  Looked like it would be fun (except for the possibility of snakes and spiders, of course).

Let us keep the dance of rain our fathers kept and tread our dreams beneath the jungle sky.

Arna Bontemps

Man is lost and is wandering in a jungle where real values have no meaning. Real values can have meaning to man only when he steps on to the spiritual path, a path where negative emotions have no use.

Sai Baba

The Webb - Day 352

"The means to gain happiness is to throw out from oneself like a spider in all directions an adhesive web of love, and to catch in it all that comes."  Leo Nikolaevich

"Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steady gains in strength, at first it may be but as a spider's web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel."  Tryon Edwards. 

Indian Creek - Day 351

One of the things that I enjoyed in Kansas was walking along the creek in the evening.  I just thought it was beautiful, serene, calm and peaceful.  It was so peaceful to be able to walk among the trees and listen to the endless sound of cicada's dancing in the evening breeze.  

Peace is not merely a distant goal

that we seek 

but a means by which we arrive 

at that goal.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life is lived in the present. 

Yesterday is gone. 

Tomorrow is yet to be. 

Today is the miracle.

Sometimes, I don't want to sleep - Day 350

As I say good-bye to this so sweet little girl, my mind has a hard time believing the time has flown so fast.  The next time I see her, she will be a couple of months older and look completely different.  Thank goodness for Skype to help me pass the time. 

If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.
Vincent van Gogh