Today, May Day, is the seventeenth Sunday in my Unplugged Sundays project. It was one of my favorite kind of days: totally unplanned with no need to go anywhere, do anything or even talk to anyone because my husband was away. The weather even cooperated. I wasn’t totally alone in my house.  Sadie, our golden retriever kept me company. Sadie is the perfect companion on an unplugged Sunday:  totally undemanding, great at hanging out, not expecting me to make conversation and with no problems for me to solve. Sadie the zenmaster below. I am generally a people person and I love all of the people in my life. I have no interest in living alone,  but I do find that I need alone time from time to time in order to recharge and reset my perspective. I tend to be a caretaker, a problem solver and a listener and I love being all of those things both in my relationships and my work (nurse, teacher) but I sometimes pay so much attention to others that I forget to pay attention to myself. When my children were little and I would have little snippets of time to myself, I often couldn’t even figure out what to do with it, I was so used to spending my days focused on tasks and attuned to the needs of little people.  So today, I tried to not do too much planning. I read, I did some prep for some sewing projects:  ironing and cutting out several future dresses and I took a walk. First I walked by myself on a quick 2 mile loop in our neighborhood. This was mostly a walk for exercise although as I walked, I really enjoyed the fresh green smell of the air just after a rain. It was cool and still a little misty but not actively raining. The world looked and smelled so fresh and green. I used to run a lot and this was my favorite running weather. When I got home, I decided to take Sadie out for a little walk. She will be ten this July and my 2 mile walk is a little long for her so I just took her around the corner and down to the end of the next street. Since I was walking more slowly with her, I noticed many things I hadn’t seen on my first walk and stopped to take pictures here and there. Soon I was noticing beauty everywhere. I couldn’t help it. I love the way the rain makes everything even more beautiful. Little green worlds everywhere.Flower glamour shot below.My daughters used to love to make fairy houses. You could just imagine flower fairies here.I love all of the shades of green. The tree below evokes the feeling of a person rooted to the earth with arms up-stretched. I love that without even trying, you see beauty and patterns and stories everywhere you look in nature. The sap coming out of this tree recently pruned looks like tears.  #treeshavesoulsI saw a couple of flowers hidden in the overgrowth on the borders between two houses. World’s tiniest white tulip below. All by itself in a little forest.A solitary daffodil nearby. Were these bulbs planted long ago? They aren’t part of any planned garden. Just hidden in these little areas of overgrowth. Magic.The overgrown, unruly spontaneous gardens are sometimes more beautiful than the those you plan.A lone violet amid the clover. Look at how much is going on-so many teeny tiny buds!Still life with tiny tree.Everything in the natural world is more beautiful up close.  A vine growing up our front step. I don’t even know what this is growing up out of the moss. Look at the raindrops, the texture of the stem and the colors. Wild! It looks a little prehistoric. A baby dinosaur plant!The beauty of lush, green new leaves.And these. Poison ivy? Pretty no matter what it is.I love all of the textures . I just looked down along the driveway and this is what I saw.More green at the base of a tree. I looked up and the texture and colors of the tree trunk were amazing. I have lived in this house for two years but never noticed this even though is right next to my driveway.More texture in the feathery moss.Walking up the driveway I noticed this old fence post. Slowing down today helped me see things in a new way.Thanks Sadie!