Saturday I was feeling the spring in the air... and felt the need to get out of doors and walk around some. Commune with nature. Get some life flowing in my life.

But where to go?

I remembered someone telling me about some simply hiking trails in Brand Park in Glendale - just a few miles from my house. So I went to check it out. It's a neat building, the Brand Library... used to be some rich family home in Glendale, then was donated to the city to become a library or something. I forget the story, but it's not important to this tale.

I had my Canon and my lenses and I figured I'd make a day of hiking and shooting nature wherever she caught my eye. I wanted to get some proof that spring had sprung and that lighter days were ahead.

I was surprised to find a rather pagan statue at the start of the nature trail. A goddess of the woods is asking humans to help save the trees. I had never heard of the Green Cross before... the Red Cross, yes, but green? It seems it was an environmental group from 1926 or so. Dedicated to keeping alive and abundant nature's most precious resources. Soon after, I was greeted by a baby lizard. New life. Hatching. Good omen, I thought.

I continued up the trail, which wasn't much of a challenge until I got up high enough to see a nice view of Glendale back and below. I shot a few pictures of trees and grasses, but nothing too interesting, really. Then on the way down, my perspective changed. I began to see odd and interesting things in the middle of the brush on either side. A vine growing among the branches of a tree that had small flowers blooming along its way. I saw the green moss growing on dead wood, showing life in the midst of death. Now that is Ostara!

Back at the base of the trail, I wandered around and found various gardens - a Japanese tea house with cherry blossoms and roses, the "Doctor's House" museum with something that may or may not be lilacs and irises... in short, flowers showing off their colors and new life everywhere. It was a good hike on what was a good day.

I needed that reminder that even in the midst of death and decay, the universe is creating, always creating...