The Daily Respite

Good morning!

It’s Sunday, and it’s just begun to snow. Not a delicate powdery parmesan kind of snow but a billowy popcorn one that makes plop sounds when it hits the water.

Before we head back up to the house for hot chocolate, let’s stand here for a minute. I’ve spotted a loon that is very eager to show us how long it can hold its breath under water.

“It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea.”

― Dylan Thomas

Onwards we go,

Clara

p.s.—You can also watch today’s video via this link.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailyrespite.substack.com/subscribe

Good morning!

It’s Sunday. We’ve bundled up and time-traveled back to a softer snowy day by the water. There’s a bit of a wind, but the air smells of woodsmoke and salt water. We’re bundled up and ready for whatever the day may bring.

“There is peace even in the storm.”

—Vincent van Gogh

Onwards,

Clara

p.s.—You can also watch today’s video via this link.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailyrespite.substack.com/subscribe

Good morning!

It’s Sunday, and it’s Christmas Eve. Instead of our usual stroll to the ocean, how about a woodland adventure?

We’ve stepped off the dirt road and tiptoed across grass until we spotted a small opening between two ancient cedars tottering at the edge of the woods.

Let’s see what happens if we walk through that opening and see where it leads. Is that water I hear in the distance?

“If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you’ll come to understand that you’re connected with everything.”

—Alan Watts

Onwards,

Clara

p.s.—You can also watch today’s video via this link, should the above player cause any troubles.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailyrespite.substack.com/subscribe

Good morning!

It’s a glorious Sunday. For today’s nature Respite, let’s not stand still.

We’re headed down the old dirt road that leads to the ocean. We’ve made our way through the blueberry field and are now in the woods. Down one small slope we’ve gone, and then past another, stopping just short of the Hill That Requires a Commitment.

Here we pause and ponder. Do we have that commitment? Or should we return home for pancakes?

I vote pancakes.

“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.”

—Abraham Lincoln

Onwards,

Clara

p.s.—Should the above video player give you any troubles, you can also watch today’s video via this link.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailyrespite.substack.com/subscribe

Good morning!

It’s Sunday, and the sun is setting before 4pm now—so don your coat, lace up those walking shoes, and meet me at the door.

There’s a brisk wind blowing from the southeast, so I’m taking us to a sheltered cove where we can watch the waves in peace.

“It is quiet and peaceful here, the air is good, there are numerous gardens, and in them nightingales sing and spies lurk under the bushes.”

—Maxim Gorky

Looks like we’ve been spotted!

See you tomorrow,

Clara

p.s.—You can also spy on the waves using this link, if the above video player gives you troubles.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailyrespite.substack.com/subscribe

Good morning!

It’s Thursday, and it’s the last day of August. Stand with me at the edge of the field, and let’s listen to the sounds together. (Just tap the right-pointing triangle up top and make sure your volume is turned up.)

“The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last forever.”

—E.B. White

E.B. White’s crickets lived about 12 miles from here. Could we be listening to their great great great grand-cousins?

Onwards,

Clara

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailyrespite.substack.com/subscribe

Good morning!

It’s Thursday. Yesterday morning I headed outside to feed the birds, as I always do—although who am I kidding, most of the seed gets stuffed under the house by the squirrels. Anyway, I’d taken only a few steps when I heard a sound that stopped me in my tracks. A sound as seasonally symbolic as the first spring peepers, but far more spine-tinglingly magical at its core. I heard my first hermit thrush of the year. Usually it sings alone, but yesterday it had a whole bird chorus keeping it company. (Tap the right-pointing triangle up top to listen.)

Onwards,

Clara

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailyrespite.substack.com/subscribe

Good morning!

It’s Saturday, and I invite you to stand on the porch with me and listen to the most glorious, joyful sound in Maine at the moment. It is the sound of the spring peepers, or pseudacris crucifer, which have finally come back to life after their long winter freeze.

What are these “peepers” exactly? They are frogs. Very musical frogs. Their song begins at dusk and sounds rather like sleigh bells from deep in the woods. Its the male peepers singing their hearts out in the hopes of finding true love. For several weeks, this will be our evening soundtrack. You’ll also hear some deeper clucks and blurps of other frogs that can’t resist joining in the chorus.

“They heard and felt the breath of spring, and they stirred with new life and hope. There was a good, new smell in the air, a smell of earth waking after its long sleep.”

—E. B. White, The Trumpet of the Swan

Onwards,

Clara

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailyrespite.substack.com/subscribe

Good morning!

It’s Thursday, and another sign of spring is the return of the seasonal help wanted ads. They’re always the same: Hotels need housecleaners, restaurants need servers and kitchen staff. Summer can’t begin without them.

Everyone feels the urgency. Just yesterday, a pair of Barred Owls stationed themselves deep in the woods and called, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?” back and forth to each other. Listen now.

“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.”

—Eugene Ionesco

Fair enough.

Onwards,

Clara

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailyrespite.substack.com/subscribe

Good morning!

It’s Monday. There’s a church just a few blocks away from where we’ve been staying. It’s nothing grand by French standards, though stunning by anyone else’s, I’m sure.

I’ve never been inside, but I have heard the bell. It’s beautiful, with a deep and sonorous resonance that you feel in your chest. They ring this bell every night before the service. Not once, but twice, but for several minutes.

Last night I went out and recorded it so that we could listen together as we embark upon this new week.

“The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.”

—Matsuo Basho

Onwards,

Clara

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailyrespite.substack.com/subscribe