Last summer, when I visited a museum and saw Vincent Van Gogh’s painting Women Crossing the Fields for the first time in person, I felt a tug of recognition. It wasn’t just that I had previously seen reproductions of this work, but I felt I had seen it in life itself. It took me a […]
I stood at the French door in my bedroom looking out at a spring storm early last week, the sky greenish gray, the rumble of thunder booming. I was hoping for rain–here in the Texas hill country we’re in extreme drought–but we received, instead, only rather scary wind. I watched our cedar elms thrash large […]
i thank You God for most this amazing day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes –E. E. Cummings Nothing in nature represents “yes” to me more than trees, and I often repeat these lines of poetry from […]
Last week a friend phoned and asked, “Do you have any time left?” At least, that’s how I heard it at first. And thought–Gee, I hope so. Then I chuckled to myself when I realized what she actually said and meant was, “Do you have any thyme left?” Her own patch had faded, and, a […]
In legend, returning from the mountaintop can be a letdown, but, for me, settling back into home in these Texas hills after traveling in the mountains of Colorado feels comfortable, like replacing regular street shoes with cuddly slippers. There are just as many wonders close to home as there are far afield. One of my […]
Even in the heat of August and in the midst of drought, a walk along the diminishing creek shares secret glories. This week, here in the Texas hill country, I saw ordinary little miracles. A green kingfisher winged above the creek at my eye-level as I stood on the bank. Turkey gobblers lolled in the […]
Desert plants here in Baja California Sur often intertwine and lean on one another like the cardon cactus and elephant tree (torote) pictured above. A local plant expert described this to some friends, my husband, and me as being simbiotico; that is, a symbiotic relationship in which different organisms cooperate. Sometimes, he explained, well-meaning folks […]
Photo above: Bald cypress tree beside the river at the Fisher Place, taken at a time of extreme drought. I still feel the years of my growing-up in my bones. Somehow, forty-five years later, I still fish with my big brother Eric on the river at the Fisher Place and try to snag the old […]
Doesn’t this bald cypress look as though it has green toe-nails? Photo taken in November at Cibolo Nature Center
Studies in Color and Composition
Radical Retirement
A Glimpse into My Life & Passions
Joann Pensabene
Where observation and imagination meet nature in poetry.
pursuing a life of purpose
Writing our way to awareness
Living life outside the lines
A Story Circle Network blog for and by women
A Diary of Love, Literature, and Growing Up in Wartime America
Practicing Wonder 