This is life

Brewster's Woods Wildlife Sanctuary, Massachusetts   

Sparkling Concord is well over her banks.
  The trees are in water up to their knees, leafing and flowering. Ready to endure. 
    I guess, this comes with the territory; if I cannot move, I stay and adapt.

  Being a tree. Close to the river.

  Birds still come and perch on my branches.
   Small islets below look like safe places to build nests.
    
  Some of the water comes as a present to close-by ponds and their turtles.
    Where swans find it perfect to start their family.

    All alive and well... 

All Lush and Alive

Stony Brook Wildlife Sanctuary, Massachusetts

 From the bridge where the marsh meets the pond,
  I look around...
 
  Exotic Lythrum grabs the eyes though being regarded as an outsider and a major threat to wetlands.
 
  Water Lilies are smiling...
 
  Heron on descent over there.
    Muskrat swims with a purpose while turtles bask in pure calm.

  Swallows have borrowed a house from Wood Ducks to raise their family,
    a little one has just taken the first flight... must be the MOMENT, one step closer to the freedom...
 
  And they all enjoy to be here...  

They Are Back

Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Concord, Massachusetts

Still cold and windy on Great Meadows...
   ... leafless trees bring this wintry feeling... except for the sounds of frogs and sun-bathing turtles...
   ... and in the air,
       Tree Swallows in their acrobatic fly-overs...
   ... this may be their first day here, and their first meal after long trip...
   ... I can't take my eyes off of them... mesmerized... they are back...

Water as a Pond

Black's Nook, Fresh Pond, Cambridge, Massachusetts

It is summer... and in summer, we humans think about water... water as a pond, a lake... we can plunge into and forget the heat... is THIS nature's call?... is this the time when we become lotuses, turtles, ducks?... when our primeval instincts take the form of a pond, a lake?...

Aquarelle Reflections

Mass Audubon Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary, Massachusetts

Drain the swamp... can be heard these days around each corner... the slogan humans like to use without thinking about its true meaning... the wording goes well back in human history... and deeds indeed... we have always been intimidated by our inability to habituate swamps... these pieces of wilderness that simply won't let go... unless we drain and kill them...

... water lilies blooming... little turtle resting... aquarelle reflections... of being alive...

This is Her Home

Mass Audubon Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary, Massachusetts

Trees and Birds... their melodic chit-chat suffuses the place... Muddy trails. Board walks. Lily ponds... A turtle over here... sunbathing. A duck over there... napping. Lazy river at a standstill... or it seems... Geese in high grass... lurking... THIS Swampy Feeling... and Birds love IT...

... I derive more of my subsistence from the swamps which surround my native town than from the cultivated gardens in the village... Why not put my house, my parlor, behind this plot, instead of behind that meager assemblage of curiosities, that poor apology for Nature and Art, which I call my front yard?... Yes, though you may think me perverse, if it were proposed to me to dwell in the neighborhood of the most beautiful garden that ever human art contrived, or else of a Dismal Swamp, I should certainly decide for the swamp...

HENRY DAVID THOREAU