Taking It All In

Lunch Box – A Great Place to Eat

The Lunch Box – a great little place to eat in Frederick, MD

Sunset Beach, NC

Sunset Over the Mountains

A Bee In My Bonnet

“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don’t they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.” 
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

My Favorite Barn

A Wooded Walk

“My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She’s ninety-seven now, and we don’t know where the heck she is.” ― Ellen DeGeneres

 

A serene forest path

Wondering What’s Inside

A Little Island Adventure

“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

Walking back to the little island

The little foot bridge to the island

Feeling Nostalgic About Picnics

Our picnic table at the lake

Snapshot of an Italian Family Picnic

I can’t express the profound joy of a simple family
picnic, the culmination of at least two days of cooking
and a sleep over by the men to secure the perfect spot.

Under the shade trees the flag was hung and a
magnificent table was set groaning under the weight of
roast chicken, eggplant Parmesan, lasagna & more. The
tantalizing yet unconventional aroma spread to nearby
parties with stragglers wandering over for a taste.

While the adults played cards the children took great
pleasure splashing through the creek and walking
gingerly on the mossy rocks with bare feet while slices
of sunshine cut through the canopy of leaves.

Music mixed with laughter sounded on the wind blowing
ever so slightly through our hair. The dancing had begun
only to be halted by the occasional firecracker thrown
from our grandmother’s mischievous hand; a lawn chair still
bears the scar.

Looking back at the snapshot from this day causes emotions
to flood the soul; the pain of so many gone from its frame
along with pieces of my heart. But yet happiness &
warmth along with their laughter rings in my ears if I
sit quietly to listen, a challenge in my grown up world
serving as a reminder of the lasting effects of a
carefree existence of feeling utterly satisfied.

by Lynn Barclay ©2012

Elisco Family 4th of July Picnic (w/flag flying upside down)