New leaves in Spring.
The rains have come, early and welcome, and the lane is in the cool green shadows of new leaves. The graded dirt road winds around a sagging barn. Along the sandy road, tracks of animals--fox, rabbit, dog, deer, field rats, mice, birds, gopher tortoise--and an occasional coyote, mix together, sometimes showing signs of struggles won and lost in keeping Nature's balance.
A flash of red and white against black and than a heavy "thud, thud, thud" announces a pileated woodpecker. The red-tailed hawk that usually roosts high on a dead tree branch hasn't returned yet, but will be here again soon to keep the rodents in check.
Away from the trees, the sky seems to blend with the pastures that roll away into a slight morning fog hanging low. Thousands of dandelions face the sun on long stems like prairie dogs looking for predators. Licorice permeates the air from the tiny white flowers of plants whose name I don't know, but which are welcome, never-the-less, on this delicious, quiet morning. I wonder just how much the human eye doesn't see, and I can't imagine how this experience could be improved upon on a day like this.
But then I hear the neighbor's peacock's attention-getting call and see its iridescent blue feathers in my mind as it perches high in a tree with its long tail plumage seeming to threaten to drag it to the ground....and I remember those days in India where peacocks were part of a full assault on all of my senses at once, and I feel surprisingly at peace.
Dandelions in the pasture.