Acts of Beauty

I think this was goodbye to one chapter, and the setting sun on the trees reminding me of summer…

I was given a most wonderful present for Chrismas, that invloved, a bottle, fairy lights, and glass paint, and I have since been merrily painting and getting absorbed in colourful-light-land…

Well, I couldn’t leave the Christmas period without making something lovely out of those most wonderful green edibles.

I picked a whole stalk of them from the garden, and every tiny dot is an actual sprout ready to grow, all from the same stalk.  The outer leaves are the stalk tops, finishing with the inside of the stalk top at the bottom right hand corner, which itself looks just like a sprout.  Basically it is a fractal (the growing plant I mean).

Ah, yes, I was meant to be cooking dinner.  Sorry about the delay!  They were tasty too.

Post Christmas eatings brought me this visual feast today

And later we said goodbye to the landscape, just as the last glimmers of sunset-light were vanishing beneath the hills, leaving a herringbone pattern in the sky.

Always wonderful
Strumble Head
See you again soon

The sunset tonight, with the moon behind…

big patterns,

journeys into the sky,

I couldn’t resist putting all four of the following photos. First is the moon, taken at the exact same time as the sunset photos, just in the opposite direction.  Following that is the same photo, altered by my photo software ‘make this better’ button.

This then is the altered image, where the moon is caught on the clouds:

It’s like theatre from above!

And here’s more, a few moments later:

Ah give me the sky above…

this Christmas’ entertainment:

Christmas day, five drops of morning magic:

and the rest of it was… just , yes!

Late writing about this.  And all other things I see.  I call this a slow blog.  It’s a part of the slow movement.  it involves less technology, more people and nature.  More sleeping, cuddles, running around, cats, families, cooking and eating, buying vegetables, dreaming, making, talking, thinking, breathing, learning (slowly), helping redecorate houses (bit by bit), and planning on having ‘no-screen’ days, and ‘no-screen’ months even.

I once saw a band play called Yhat Kha (from Tuva, north of Mongolia in Siberia).  They were incredible, each member incredible.  The drummer had an amazing presence, fierce, firm, almost in a trance, and completely in the room both at the same time.  In the programme I read that he takes half the year off to row in his canoe down the rivers in the forest, all on his own.  He meets no-one in that time.  Well, it really showed.

Here was my Christmas Eve – some pieces of it.

The ice tin:

This was halfway through making a present for Rob.  A prize if you can work out what I was making.

I numbed my hand whilst enjoying the patterns:

It is quite hard to hold ice and photograph it at the same time, because it is quite painful after a while…

but worth it.

I love Christmas Eve, it is a wonderful point during Christmas where everthing has slowed down and Christmas celebrations are finally proper.  Wonderful smells in the kitchen, plus a settled feeling.  And today, a feeling of gathering of people, as we bundled into the car (packed with surprises), and drove off to our family retreat in Pembrokeshire.

As we drove we were joined by the setting sun:

And that was the feeling I had on Christmas Eve.  A little wonderful.

(Soundtrack in the car was Norah Jones and Ravi Shankar – not that my life is a movie or anything…)

I took a journey today from England to Wales, and I brought with me a snow heart,

the heart shone in the light,

I put the heart on the bonnet of the car, nestled in front of the windscreen wipers,

and the sun shone down.  I had no idea how long my snow heart would last, if it would career off at the first turn, or break into pieces in the wind, but I took the journey anyway.

it rained,

the trees were breathtaking; the heart began to chip away,

the sun shone through the snow clouds,

the landscape and the light changed,

The sun began to set,

with a beautiful glowing light.

The moon rose,

we arrived  – I’d had the snow heart with me for four hours longer than I’d expected.

Finally home, night light time, English snow arriving in Wales.

Going to the Ashridge estate on the first proper day of snow was almost the most beautiful day of my life.  The words Winter Wonderland could be used in a real un-trite way.  I was in complete heaven.

First we arrived to see deer running off to hide.  You can just see them through the trees:

these photos show the incredible patterns of the branches that the snow makes visible:

branch ballet,

a wizard tree,

a scene where I am sure magical creatures live,

this is a beech forest so there were occasional patterns of red leaves against white,

thick patterns over the brambles,

here I am!