Here are some sweet little violets I’ve been saving for a day when I really didn’t feel like doing this…. which would be today.
And from John O’Donohue:
In a sense, this is what beauty is: possibility that enlarges and delights the heart.
Category: Flora
Day 47 – Rhododendron
The Rhododendrons are just starting to peek out. I have a hard time photographing Rhody’s because those long stamens are not very attractive. But I backed up a little for this one to get the contrast of pink and green and that works for me.
Today’s quote is from Stephen David Ross:
But beauty interrupts restrictions in every place and thing.
Day 46 – Lupine
Here’s a lovely Lupine for day 46.
From John O’Donohue:
Architecture is one of the most public and permanent stages on which a culture displays its understanding of beauty.
Day 44 – Camellia
This may well be the last blossom my Camellia bush puts out this year. I have been photographing it off and on throughout the project but never came up with an image I liked until now.
My reading today in John O’Donohue’s book is about “The restless beauty of the Ocean”. I wish I had a new ocean picture to share with you. Maybe before the project is over…. Meanwhile I can really relate to John’s words:
The words ‘sea’ and ‘ocean’ are too small to image such wild divinity. The ocean is beyond language. The flow of the ocean presents a most beautiful dance.
Day 43 – Iris
My favorite Iris is now in full bloom. I can’t get enough of macro shots of the inside of an Iris.
John O’Donohue has moved on to shape and form and movement:
The grace of a river is a reminder of how nature seeks elegance and achieves immense beauty of cohesion and balance.
Day 42 – Another Poppy
Lots of Poppies in bloom around the neighborhood. They are always so photogenic.
Today’s quote from John O’Donohue captures the essence of the poppy:
While yellow reveals the outer joy and kindness of light, the working of light have entered more deeply into the color green. Green is the color of growth, the color of hope.
Day 41 – Trillium
My Mom always says the Trillium must be in bloom before you can find morels. I’m here to tell you it was not for lack of Trillium that I came home empty handed today.
I confess, I skipped ahead a couple section to John’ discussion of Yellow:
The color yellow holds such warmth, brightness and attraction for us because it is the color of the source that sustains us.
Day 40 – Lilac
In the space of a week the Lilacs went from perfection to over the hill. This one still looked pretty good though. Apologies for misidentifying yesterday’s image. It is Periwinkle not Honeysuckle. Thanks to Gail Anderson for catching me out.
I had to read a long way today to find the word beauty even mentioned as John O’Donhue explored the concepts of light and darkness, black and white. Then he moved on to “the Passion of Red” and I found this in the first sentence of that section:
The night breaks when the red fire of dawn is kindled and the world glows again in the beauty of color.
I can envision a book in which I go back and attach these quotes to exactly the right photograph. This one definitely belongs with a sunrise picture.
Day 39 – Periwinkle
I came across some Periwinkle on my walk yesterday.
Today’s quote is from Plotinus:
The beauty of color…derives from shape, from the conquest of the darkness inherent in Matter, by the pouring in of the light, the unembodied…
Day 38 – Dandelion Seed
Today’s search for beauty had me on my knees with the 180mm macro lens photographing dandelions gone to seed. This one was just about to let go.
Today John O’Donohue reminds us:
We inevitably associate beauty with perfection. But there can also be great beauty in something that is imperfect and unfinished.