Afternoon On a Hill

Another snowy Sunday.

I spent the afternoon on a hill, in a manor of speaking...I visited one of the students and families that I mentor in an international youth exchange organization. The host family lives in a magnificent old farmhouse on a remote hill that I could only access via an extremely narrow winding road through the woods. It was quite a beautiful location and I wish I had stopped to photograph the fat wooly sheep in their front yard or the lovely old stone hen houses. Everything about the place seemed preserved from 100 years ago, yet still full of warmth and life. But I felt it would be rude to stand outside their window and photograph their property...

Alas, I failed to get any good shots today, and am resigned to this orchid in my own window. The flower and the "afternoon on a hill" remind me of a poem I taught my 5th grade English students last semester, from Edna St. Vincent Millay. For your enjoyment:

Afternoon on a Hill

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds
With quiet eyes,
Watch the wind bow down the grass,
And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to show
Up from the town,
I will mark which must be mine,
And then start down!

~Edna St. Vincent Millay