Valentines and Vacation

"I will make you brooches and toys for your delight,
of birdsong at morning and starshine at night.
I will make a palace fit for you and me,
Of green days in forests
And blue days at sea."

Robert Louis Stevenson

It's hard to believe Lent is here already!  Besides Ash Wednesday's being so early this year, our family was on vacation last week, and it has taken me a little while to readjust.  We deliberately planned the trip to be just before Lent begins, a week-long Mardi Gras of sorts.  And if you're like me, walking under soaring redwoods and over rocky shorelines trumps beads and parades any day. (Though I do love pancakes! ;))

But now we're back, and thanks to the gradual easing-in of the traditional Septuagesima, I'm not feeling completely unprepared.  The Stations of the Cross booklets are out, our prayers to learn are framed and ready, penances are chosen, calendars are drawn up, spiritual reading is chosen.

But in the midst of this seasonal shift, I find myself still thinking back to our little trip, and I wanted to share a bit of it here--particularly our time spent in nature study.  We may be suburbanites, but thankfully, we live in one of the most beautiful places in the country, I think, and it's great to take advantage of that now and then.  Some of the nature-related highlights of our trip:

Deep in the redwoods - super chilly and eerily quiet (well, until we got there--ahem).

Redwood sorrel and sword ferns were everywhere, as well as all different kinds of moss and fungi.

At the coast - we just finished the landforms section in C.C. Long's geography text, so this beach outing was a really fun opportunity to see all we had read about in person: mouth of a river, delta, bay, peninsula...

river on the right, ocean on the left

The river side of the beach was calm with quiet currents...

...while the seaside was rocky with crashing waves.

And back at the house, we did plenty of bird-watching (herons, ducks, egrets, jays), nature-journaling, and laying in the sun, watching the river run by.

 Oh, and this guy greeted us the first evening:

Hello, Mr. Fox!

The kids were thrilled; I was less so (after getting a few photos of him, naturally!).  We didn't see him after that first night, though.

In our poetry reading this morning, I came across the poem I quoted at the beginning of this post.  It's one I have read many times, but today the children and I were tickled at how well it suited our adventures of last week.

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight,

of birdsong at morning and starshine at night.

I will make a palace fit for you and me,

Of green days in forests

And blue days at sea.

God's valentine to us: our beautiful world.  In the midst of the prayers and fasting of this penitential season, time outdoors is a welcome balm to the soul.