Month: August 2020

The Theory Of Willlessness

A pine tree top against a background of dark storm clouds.
Before the storm. Photo © Mihaela Limberea

Nothing can be willed into being, only waited on, for, or waited out.

A.K. Ramanujan from “Journeys: A Poet’s Diary”

I often find myself thinking of Ramanujan‘s words, especially when the blank page stares at me, the cursor steadily flickering its accusatory blink. I delete more than I write. The inner critic is always on duty. But write I do, in the end. After all, “you can always edit a bad page; you can’t edit a blank page.” Jodi Picoult would know.



Garden Life

Bumblebee on echinacea (Echinacea purpurea var. Magnus). www.limberea.com
Summer garden with lots of echinacea (Echinacea purpurea var. Magnus). www.limberea.com

All the hard work of the last four months has paid off (thank you, Covid-19, for the unexpected time off). The garden is lush and vibrating (literally) with insect life; as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I planned the garden to attract wildlife.

Painted lady butterfly (Cynthia cardui) on echinacea (Echinacea purpurea var. Magnus). www.limberea.com

Painted lady butterfly (Cynthia cardui) on echinacea (Echinacea purpurea var. Magnus).

Tortoise-shell butterfly (Aglais urticae) and bumblebee competing for the same echinacea flower. www.limberea.com

Tortoise-shell butterfly (Aglais urticae) and bumblebee competing for the same flower.

Tortoise-shell butterfly on aster (Aster amellus). www.limberea.com

Tortoise-shell butterfly on aster (Aster amellus).

Painted lady butterfly in a sea of echinacea.

Painted lady butterfly in a sea of echinacea.

A bumblebee hard at work on a pink echinacea.

A bumblebee hard at work on a pink echinacea.

Peacock butterfly (Inachis io) on echinacea.

Peacock butterfly (Inachis io).

Bumblee on great masterwort (Astrantia major).

Bumblee on great masterwort (Astrantia major). Notice the raised leg, warning off other insects from the flower.

Two brimstone butterflies (Gonepteryx rhamni) have a meeting on a pink echinacea flower.

Two brimstone butterflies (Gonepteryx rhamni) have a meeting. Exchanging tips on best echinacea, maybe?

Painted lady butterfly (Cynthia cardui) on echinacea (Echinacea purpurea var. Magnus).

Now I’m off to the garden again, weeding, and deadheading, and watering, and, and, … work never stops in a garden. Or fun.

I hope you have a good summer, considering Covid-10 et al. Stay healthy, stay calm, and soldier on. And don’t forget to laugh. 


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Fragmentary Blue

Man and Pegasus statue by Carl Milles, at Millesgården, Sweden. Photo © Mihaela Limberea www.limberea.com
Man and Pegasus by Carl Milles, Millesgården, Sweden. Photo © Mihaela Limberea

Why make so much of fragmentary blue

In here and there a bird, or butterfly,

Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,

When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?

Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (as yet)—

Though some savants make earth include the sky;

And blue so far above us comes so high,

It only gives our wish for blue a whet.

by Robert Frost (1874–1963)