I meant to do my work today......

I meant to do my work today....
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
and a butterfly flitted across the field,
and all the leaves were calling me.

And the wind went sighing across the land
tossing the grasses to and fro,
and a rainbow held out it's shining hand
so what could I do but laugh and go?
       Richard Le Gallienne (1866-1947)

As we headed south by way of Toulouse then west by way of  Arles and Aix-en-Provence, it became evident that we had left the verdant green valleys of the Dordogne and had entered the Mediterranean climate of romantic Provence.  The heat of summer had finally caught up to us and the rains and unseasonably cool days of the last 4 weeks were left behind in the Dordogne, Loire Valley and Colmar.       
The yellows, blues and shades of ocher and browns washed the landscapes we passed through and from time to time along the way....the bright blue/greens of the Mediterranean would explode ahead of us as we rounded a curve or crossed over the foothills of the Luberons.  This is the land of Van Gogh.  Once here, you see the unending fields of sunflowers, bright red poppies, vibrant purple lavender with visions of Van Gogh standing at his easel franticly painting to capture the beauty before the season passed.  

I first heard the above poem by Gallienne when I was in college.  It had always taken me back to my youth and captured my feelings while I grew up in a rural setting.  The totally carefree days with no responsibilities other than following my whims and dreams to see where they led me.  We had stopped at the field of sunflowers when I took this picture.  Without thinking at all, the poem again flashed across my mind as I stood feeling the warm breezes of Provence calling me.  Somehow I knew the poem was written for me to experience that moment in the sunflower field.  Poetry is like that...only words spoken with a particular rhythm but so personal.  

Dan