Tales From The Labyrinth

Thinking of Maggie...

Margaret Cranford Kirkpatrick Wetzel

April 30, 1925 ~Hampton, Virginia
May 22, 2008 ~ Alexander Valley, California

From Maggie's journal, April 7, 1986...

"When I see people there they will say 'Where have you been, what have you been doing?' And I will say that I have been at my beautiful vineyard planting my garden during holy week, hiking through the high lupine-filled meadows and flying kites with my grandchildren."

No words can convey how this beautiful woman graced almost my entire life... She and her family have given so much to the world through their love of life and beauty. Being at her memorial service, in her garden, was like being in a painting that Maggie orchestrated with her own hand... The beauty she inspired in me is a foundational pillar of my life...

Photo: watercolor of her Alexander Valley home, while thinking of Maggie... Click HERE to read more about the Wetzel Family, their renovation of the historic Cyrus Alexander home and property, and their Alexander Valley Vineyards Winery.

Butterflies in the Garden

Imagine...

Thirty-five or so...
little butterflies...
Kindergarteners,
just about to become first-graders...
Waiting to zip over the picket fence
and into the garden....

Dancing
through the flowers,
buds,
and climbing stalks and grasses into the sky...

These little gems
darted here and there...

finding nectar everywhere they turned...

Filling the garden
with even more sweet joy...

Buds waiting to open and bloom...

beauty ever unfolding...

Butterflies...
dusting the garden with joy and beauty...

Photos: Lynnette Scolari and Michelle Bellefeuille of Belle Feuille Garden Design take the neighborhood charter art school Kindergarteners through our meadow.

Pleiades Conjunct the Sun

The skies,
the heavens,
celebrate the Pleiades
conjunct the Sun...

Seven sisters
walking the earth...

I celebrate this path,
this life before me...
and walk...

into beauty...

Photos: Our Santa Rosa Labyrinth
and heart-space alter ~ May 19, 2008

Cascade of Roses...

Sometimes...

There are no words...
Only cascades of rose petals...

buds opening...

bursting into life...

a fountain of beauty...

sighing into the round
of a posy...

a gift for the mother,
I so love...

Photos: Cecil Bruener Roses in our garden...