Spring’s return, and the new green earth is awash in golden light. We have blue skies today, if a bit on the pale side and wrapped around the edges in thunderheads, but the air is warming again.
If only the wind will remain calm, this day might actually feel like spring.
It already looks like it: ground cover the color of new-polished jade, blades already high enough in places to be susceptible to mowing; buds on trees and bushes finally opening, their own fresh green supplanting the pollen that has bedeviled us all. The butterflies are here, and at least one early hummingbird, already having availed itself of the feeder I hung out when it first appeared last week.
And everywhere, there are flashes of brilliance, young and early spirits animated by a golden sun’s light: the dandelions, their own faces miniature suns, their roots and leaves earth’s medicine; the goldfinches, males at last come into their own yellow cloaks after spending their winter with us, out of season and well off their migratory path; the yellow-headed blackbird, here early, too, now taking up residence in the willows outside the kitchen door, settled enough already that he does not fly away when I am near.
The opening of the sunflowers is still some months off yet, but the younger flowers, hardy and more brash, will begin opening this week. They, too, reach upward to wrap themselves in the glow of the sun.
Today’s featured work is the embodiment of these flamboyant blossoms, all wide-open petals and silvery light around a glowing golden center orb, a bit of green rising from beneath. From its description in the Accessories Gallery here on the site:
Summer Wildflowers Barrette
Summer wildflowers rise from green-tipped stalks to blossom and dance in the light. Wings summons these spirits of warmer winds in this barrette, hand-milled in a random profusion of silvery petals across a gently arcing rectangle of medium-gauge sterling silver. In the center of the barrette, a single round citrine rests in a saw-toothed bezel, a small wild sunflower amid the larger blossoms. The “stalk” is formed of an elegant silver pick made of sterling silver half-round wire, hand-stamped in a repeating pattern of directional arrows alternating with tiny sacred hoops down its length. At one end, the pick is anchored by an elegant oval peridot cabochon, beautifully translucent in the color of summer greenery, set securely into a saw-toothed bezel. The barrette is 3-5/16″ long by 1-3/4″ high; the citrine cabochon is 1/4″ across; the pick is 3-7/8″ long by 3/16″ across (save at the bezel); the peridot cabochon is 3/8″ long by 1/4″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Another view shown below.
Sterling silver; citrine; peridot
$775 + shipping, handling, and insurance
There is much in the world that is dark now. Dangers are very real, and very near. As we remain in isolation, for the good not only of ourselves but of our whole communities, it becomes more important than ever to recognize and honor the beauty of our world.
And in the face of so much ugliness, there is so much that is beautiful. Blue skies, violet clouds limned with silver, an emerald earth . . . and so many beings here for the first time this year, ready to resume their roles of pollination and of medicine. We have already the birds and butterflies, the tiny petals, too, young and early spirits animated by a golden sun’s light.
~ Aji
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