Chasing the light
The skies over the past few weeks have been grey –
So I’ve been chasing down the light.
I found it framed in golden fog
Hanging over the lake;
It danced over the football field
On fairy rainbow feet.
And, there – at last -
Like a cold winter flower
It blossomed in rays of light.
For more de-light-full posts, please visit: Skywatch.
A bench in the sun
As the sun sets in a blaze of glory,
There is no better place to watch the play
Of cloud and light
Than on a bench in the setting sun.
For more blazing skies, please visit: Skywatch.
Sun star
When the sun shines
And twinkles like the star it is…
That can only mean one thing:
The ice has melted
And the lake is now a golden bowl of water.
For more stars, please visit: Skywatch.
Golden moments
A boatful of gold
There is something special about the early autumn light:
A clarity that turns spider webs into pearls,
And leafy loveliness into stained glass windows.
It takes the first leaves of autumn
And turns them into amber beauty
And just before the sun sets
It fills the boats with liquid gold.
For more golden moments, please visit: Our World.
Lighting the way
Even after all this time,
The sun never says to the earth,
You owe me.
Look what happens with
A love like that.
It lights the whole sky.
~ Hafiz of Persia
A luminous heaven, summer perfection, serenity at sunset.
Moments like these take my breath away.
For more glory, please visit: Skywatch.
Swimming into the sunset
What better way to celebrate the long light evenings of a Swedish summer
Than enjoying the sunset
And then diving into the broken yolk
Of the golden sun – at ten o’clock in the evening?
For more golden moments, please visit: Camera Critters.
Golden motes of light
Sometimes
When the light is just right
And the shadows weave a tapestry with the sun –
If you take the time to look closely and marvel
Even the humblest sight – like a cloud of midges -
Can become a magnificent and beautiful cloud of gold dust
Reminding us that we all have hidden depths and beauty within.
A cloud of midges glowing in the sunset
For more golden moments, please visit: Skywatch.
Angel dust
There is something magical about the light of spring.
It dances in the air like golden angel dust
And fills the soul with sun.
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air’s salubrity.” — Emerson
For more sunny skies, please visit: Skywatch.
Sipping from the cup of sunlight
At last!
The spring sun made the buds shine like pearls
In the pure blue of the sky
And turned the tulips into bowls of sunshine.
“The sun admitted…
I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in darkness,
The astonishing Light
Of your own Being!” — Hafiz
For more sunlight, please visit: Skywatch.
Springter
Springter is that time of year when spring and winter compete to see who is going to rule the weather.
One day the sun is shining and spring is shaking loose with a rainbow of melting snow.
The next day, winter is back with a vengeance – fresh snow and ice make art out last autumn’s leaves
Still clinging to the trees in a display of perseverance.
A bud tries to unfurl but is caught there between seed and flower
Between spring and winter
Between hope and promise.
To get away from my icy pictures, please visit: My World!
(Don’t know about you – but I think this pretty much describes middle age too.)
The deliciousness of blue
Have you ever seen anything more startlingly lovely
Than a bird singing in the blue of a winter sky –
Or tasted anything as delicious as the creamy snow
Glittering on the shelves of trees?
And have you heard anything sweeter
Than the music created by sunshine
Streaming in through a stained glass window of branches?
For more deliciousness, please visit: Skywatch.
High exposure
Sometimes the body can be starved of sunlight just as the heart is starved of love.
And when you finally get what you long for, your whole body tingles with delight.
You sing with the joy that life brings you.
I grabbed my camera and went out on a photo shoot (it’s been ages since the last one because of the cloud cover).
I didn’t realize for a while that I had left my ISO on a high number, but these over-exposed shots somehow reflect what I was feeling.
The colours were so strong and vibrant that they hurt my eyes with their intensity.
Somehow, the unaccustomed sun made everything so bright -
A dazzling feast for the eyes with splashes of merry colour here and there.
And even after I adjusted the exposure, that wonderful light persisted.
The light of life, of love, of spring in my mind.
For more stories, please visit: My World!
A real Viking winter
February is traditionally the coldest month in Sweden. And it hasn’t disappointed us yet…
The weekend dawned bright and very cold. And when I say cold, I mean colder than – 25 C.
So, what do Vikings do during the winter ?
Well, they (by which I mean Sir Pe) fetch the newspaper in dressing gown and bare feet…
They (by which I mean me) spend a long, long time getting dressed.
Thermals on, three layers on the legs and a further five layers on the torso underneath that warm winter jacket.
Don’t forget the balaclava – winter’s must-have fashion accessory.
It goes nicely with icy hair and glasses!
Vikings (by which I mean me again) take their dogs out for long walks in the cold
Pausing for a few seconds to enjoy the scenery.
Eventually they stumble home
Because there is so much ice on the inside and outside of their glasses that they can hardly see a thing.
They warm up inside, ready to do it all over again at lunch time!
You don’t have to be crazy to enjoy a Viking winter – but it helps.
For more crazy tales, please visit: My World.
Invincible summer
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.
Albert Camus
This quotation sums up my year, inspires me when life gets tough and helps me look forward to the future with hope.
May you carry summer in your hearts all year round – and may the coming year be kind to you.
For more skies, please visit: Skywatch.
Sun dogs
Seeing double…
A sun dog reflected in the lens,
And one swimming in the molten sunset of the last golden days of September.
(I entered this photo in a competition recently and was very surprised to see it on a page of its own in our local newspaper.)
The true pleasures in life are simple: a friend, a stunning sunset, a humbled spirit.
For more golden skies, please visit: Skywatch.
By the way, these photos (and more) are available on my new Red Bubble site. (Red Bubble is where you can share or buy art, photos, writing.)
Treasure on the wind
“I would like to believe when I die that I have given myself away like a tree that sows seeds every spring and never counts the loss, because it is not loss. It is adding to future life. It’s the tree’s way of being. Strongly rooted perhaps, but spilling out its treasure on the wind.”
– May Sarton
Don’t you just love those glorious late summer skies? What treasures are you grateful for?
(Click the photo to enlarge.)
For more lovely skies, please visit: Skywatch.
In summer, the song sings itself
High summer is here. At last!
It’s amazing how a single sunbeam can chase away the shadows
And make the heart sing.
Summer means that it is respectable, almost required, to be lazy
And dazzled water laughs in the sun.
Summer days – stretching out like friendly hands -
Making it easy to see the perfection of a perfect day,
A child’s laughter filtered through the sunlight.
I’ve only just got back from England so haven’t had time to sort through my photos. These are shots of summer in Sweden (that I took just before I left).
For more perfection, please visit: My World!
Hot dog
Have you every thought about how difficult it must be to go around wearing a thick woolly sweater all year round?
There you are – one minute playing out in the sunshine with a football…
…
…
… and the next minute, you deliberately go off in search of snow in order to cool off!
For more cool pets, check out: Camera Critters!
Of rainbows and marshmallow skies
For one glorious day this week, the clouds disappeared
And let the sun frolic in a sky that was
The fragile blue of a jay’s wing.
And floating up high were delicious marshmallow clouds
That beckoned and said, “Come, take a sweet sticky bite of the day!”
Not to be outdone, the sun gleamed and glittered
Leaving a trail of sparkling rainbows
Like laughter
To lift up the spirits so that I shouted out in joy.
For more glittering skies, please visit: Skywatch!
A little bit of nothing
Have you heard of the term moblogging? That’s short for mobile blogging.
I’m nothing if not cutting edge! Hard to believe I’m in the middle of nowhere.
Doing a lot of nothing.
Who says what?