Good Planets are Hard to Find

... Aren't we lucky we found this one?

“When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.”
Supposedly said by the Buddha.

Here are some morsels of that perfection that arrived in my mailbox this week:

From Yankee T., a glorious magnolia blossom from her local Botanic Garden.

I don't know what it is about magnolias; they are so ... blatant, I think would be the word. Strong, heavy, sturdy-looking, but so impermanent; like a loud shout of laughter. The buds look like individual flames, flaring joyously up from the bare branches.

C. Corax saw this catbird singing a Leonard Cohen song, one morning on the way to catch the bus to work. "It definitely made me smile!" she writes.

All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it!
Bob Newhart

We attribute human-like attributes and ideas to our animal neighbours, sometimes correctly. I wonder what this alligator lizard (Elgaria coeruleus) is smiling about?
Contributed by Celeste, of Dzonoqua's Whistle. More details on her blog.

Here's the lizard, in all his slithery length. (Click on the photo to get the full benefit.)

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
Aristotle

I asked Laurie what made him smile. He remembered this photo from some years back: a sassy little widgeon confronts a bigger mallard who tried to grab the crumb he wanted. She seems quite taken aback. The little white dots in front are bird food that I was tossing while Laurie snapped away. At Reifel Island bird sanctuary.

More disruptions in avian affairs; seagulls ignoring a "Danger -- Keep Off the Ice!" sign. Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver.
Good sex, ours or someone else's, always brings a smile. Robin of Dharma Bums caught these two in the act last week.

Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one spot.
Josh Billings

Poles; totem poles, Maypoles, poles for the birdmen of Papantla, and more, feature in the celebration of the beauty of our earth. Kim Herdman sent a totem pole from K'san village, topped with a man in a decidedly western-looking hat and suit.

And a telephone pole from Strathcona, Vancouver, from my collection: I labelled it "Post No Bills".
Wrenaissance Woman says, "goldfinches hanging upside-down to feed always make me smile."

Cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age.
Christopher Morley

One final photo; a few years back, in the bright sunlight after a heavy snowfall, we went out for a walk by the river. This little dog had been enjoying every moment of his own walk.
And to quote another celebrity; "Th-th-th-that's all, folks!"

Next "Good Planets" will be up June 23, in two weeks. I'd like to suggest a couple of concepts to play with, two opposites; fragility and durability. Do you have photos that speak to either or both of these ideas? Send them along!

But do feel free to send other photos of our "good planet" that you would like to share. Send them to me, at susannah AT dccnet DOT com, by Friday the 22nd.

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Quotations from here and here.

P.S. C. Corax posted a wonderful and apposite poem in the comments.