Swan light
I do believe
The wings of the swan
Love the light of the setting sun.
“Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.” — Mary Oliver
For more lovely light, please visit: Skywatch.
Spring sparkles
It was one of those perfect spring evenings
When the sun made stars out of water
And Oscar made abstract art
Out of water pearls.
On the way home, I turned around
To see my daughter caught in the fairy glitter
And become one with nature.
The setting sun
Threw its golden drops
On grass and woodland flowers
As if to say: Stop. Look. Listen.
And appreciate.
For more fairy glitter, please visit: Our World.
Wispy ears and love
Everyone should have a loyal friend –
With or without wispy ears –
To share a sunset with.
For more heart-warming shots, please visit: Camera Critters.
Dawn gold
Something woke me up far too early (before 5 am).
Perhaps it was the golden silence
Calling my name;
Or the beaver in the lake
As he swam through watery clouds.
Perhaps it was the glory
Of a new day whispering:
Do not miss a single golden moment.
For more gold, please visit: Skywatch.
Metamorphosis
Nature often holds up a mirror
To show us change as one season glides into another,
(This is winter going into spring.)
It shows us renewal and transformation through stormy phases
And, finally, softens into peace and beauty.
(All shots are of my local lake over the past couple of weeks.)
For more changes, please visit: Our World.
Musical birds
After the silence of winter,
Spring makes itself heard in the loud
Symphony of birds
Twittering, singing, warbling.
It’s a feathered harmony of music!
For more song, please visit: Camera Critters.
Beribboned
An April sunset
Of soft ribbons in the sky
That blush as they kiss
The still surface of the water.
A lone tree and I
Enjoy the sight of a double bridge
Of crimson beauty.
For more loveliness, please visit: Skywatch.
Wonderful firsts
It’s always exciting to experience the first stirrings of spring.
And even though they happen every year, it feels as if I were experiencing them
For the very first time.
It’s magical when the ice finally melts …
When the first patch of crocuses appear in the neighbours’ garden…
When we can finally get out into the woods again
And witness birds singing on trees.
Even the faded beauty of an old cottage in the woods
Takes on new beauty
And the old window
Reflects back a stately tree.
Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect. -Alan Cohen
For more fresh starts, please visit: Our World.
Putting winter on ice
The lake is now water
And the cold spring is just waiting to burst into flower and warmth (sometime soon, I hope).
But before that, I wanted to post one of my favourite photos from this winter.
The purple sunset over the iced over lake
And Oscar looking majestic.
For more cool pets, please visit: Camera Critters.
Burnished copper
On Earth Day, nature gave us the gift
Of big rolling skies and dramatic clouds;
Of our local jetty, finally revealed
As the ice melted away
To leave a lake of burnished copper.
The canopy of the sky
Seemed so close and so beautiful
That all we had to do was reach up
And touch it.
For more dramatic skies, please visit: Skywatch.
The Yin and Yang
A while back, my daughter received a bouquet of flowers after singing in her school show.
As they graced the kitchen table, I notice a bright beam of light leading the eye to
A bud holding the fuzzy promise of hope to come –
In stark contrast to the unfurled beauty of a tulip already in full bloom.
I took the bouquet outside
Into the gentle snow,
And enjoyed the yin of the white snowflakes
On the yang of the rich red petals.
Suddenly, my philosophical mood was broken
By Oscar photobombing my photo session.
But I guess that’s what yin and yang is all about –
Complementary forces (even if it is just a dog’s tail)
Forming harmony to remind us
That we are all part of a greater whole.
For balance, please visit: Our World.
Tentative spring
It’s still cold here
And there’s ice on the lake.
But Oscar took me for a walk
To find the first tentative signs
Of spring.
For more hope, please visit: Camera Critters.
I’m fighting a heavy cold so please excuse me if I don’t get round to visiting you.
Those big April skies
April seems stuck in the beauty of winter.
A couple of weeks ago, we enjoyed
A pink panorama of big skies and fluffy clouds.
And only a couple of days ago,
The snow cover on the lake was gone
And the cold mist seemed to make
The clouds as silver and soft as silk.
Gently, almost secretly, spring is approaching!
For more panoramas, please visit: Skywatch.
Finding rainbows
Sometimes you can find beauty in the most unexpected places.
Entering the interior of Paris’ oldest church, Eglise Saint-Germain-des-Pres, once so mighty but now eclipsed by Notre Dame,
I was struck by the beauty of a humble set of chairs next to some ancient chipped pillars.
The light from the stained glass window behind them
Transformed the chairs into miracles of colour and form
And the floor, worn by centuries of visitors,
Became a dazzling thing of rainbow beauty.
(I have to say that out of all my Paris photos, these are some of my favourites.)
“The most astonishing thing about miracles is that they happen.”
G. K. Chesterton
For more everyday miracles, please visit: Our World.
There’s snow place like winter
As winter slowly slowly melts away…
It’s good to look back and see it was a good year for snow noses –
And snow moustaches.
For more adorable faces, please visit: Camera Critters.
La lumiere d’oree
That golden evening light
Painted a lovely picture of tower and sky
And lampposts that seemed to throw back
Golden orbs into infinity.
For more golden light, please visit: Skywatch.
Breathing Paris
According to Victor Hugo, ‘Breathing Paris preserves the soul.’
It is a city full of unexpected sights and surprises:
Like a vintage merry-go-round
Or the exquisite stained glass window
Of the Galeries Lafayette.
It is a place where you turn a corner
To find history towering over you –
And love being locked forever
On bridges while the ancient cathedral,
Notre Dame, looks on.
It is a mix of the old and the new,
History and modern day,
Light and life.
For more historic stories, please visit: Our World Tuesday.
Creatures in Paris
As you probably know, I’ve just got back from a trip to Paris.
Parisians love their dogs and you can see them following their owners off the lead in even the busiest streets.
Owners and dogs enjoy life along the banks of the Seine.
The pigeons on the many bridges of Paris
Are remarkably tame and pose willingly for photos.
This bird has one of the best backdrops in Paris –
Notre Dame.
My favourite animals, however, have to be
The stone gargoyles that decorate the many churches.
(This one is smiling at me from Notre Dame.
Like me, he seems happy to see some spring blossoms.)
For more animals, please visit: Camera Critters.
Plane skies
The hush of dawn at the airport.
A wooden floor of shimmering gold.
Dreams can come true too
If you fly off into the sunrise.
(Pictures taken with my mobile phone on the way to Paris.
My daughter directed and took the second photo.)
THANK YOU for all your comments.
For more happy-ever-after shots, please visit: Skywatch.
The Flatiron
As you read this, I’ll be enjoying a flaky croissant or three in Paris with my daughter (so won’t be around to visit until the end of the week).
Just over a year ago, we visited friends in another great city – New York – and, of course, I had to photograph some of its iconic buildings.
My daughter recognized it straight away.
“Look! It’s like one of those old-fashioned irons that people used to use in the olden days!”
Just imagine seeing it for the first time in a city that wasn’t yet used to skyscrapers back in 1902.
Alfred Stieglitz took a very famous photo of the building in 1903 –
And one that I tried to recreate for fun.
I’ll leave you with one of his quotations:
I have always been a great believer in today. Most people live either in the past or in the future, so that they really never live at all. So many people are busy worrying about the future of art or society, they have no time to preserve what is. Utopia is in the moment. Not in some future time, some other place, but in the here and now, or else it is nowhere.
Snow face
No matter who you are
Or what you look like,
A bad hair day can be much improved
By adding some extra sparkle and snow!
I’m off to Paris with my daughter for a few days, so please excuse me if I don’t visit you.
For more glitter, please visit: Camera Critters.
Snowscape
When the morning light hits the trees
In just the right way;
When the blue bowl of the sky
Hangs like a silken canopy over the frozen lake;
And when the sun sets
In soft pastel purples…
Then … yes then!
Winter is a glorious place to be.
For more amazing skies, please visit: Skywatch.
Snow blossoms
There is something so delightful
About the bright light of spring
And the cold of a lingering winter.
If you look carefully, you can find snow moons
Dancing on the snow.
And instead of flowers,
We have snow blossoms
And dazzling light.
And – just as in real life –
You might be lucky to find
A diamond in the rough.
For more hidden jewels, please visit: Our World.
Expectancy
You never know what might be waiting for you
Over the brow of that hill you’re struggling to climb;
(Can you see Oscar waiting for me?)
Or what small delights await
Around the corner.
Please forgive me if I don’t get around to visiting you this weekend.
We’re having problems with the Internet, which makes it incredibly slow and painful to visit blogs at the moment.
In the meantime, pay a visit to: Camera Critters.
Who says what?