Category Archives: Spring

a colourful start

just before sunrise

I was up early,  and out to the  Point  to enjoy the brilliant dawn colours. Katrina enjoyed sniffing the trails of the raccoons and deer that had visited overnight while  I watched the shifting colours and the morning flights of gulls, geese, and ducks.

The rarity of an almost cloudless sunrise allowed me to identify just how far the sun has moved north. More light, more warmth. And it's most welcome!

Willow shapes

 

"Willow Shapes" - click on the image for a larger view

Yesterday, walking in Galiano's Heritage Forest, my eye was drawn to the shapes of the trees— the shapes that will soon be hidden by the profusion of leaves.
Mixed with the evergreens are are are several willow trees of varying kinds, along the main path. They’ve been there, as their size indicates, for years and years, but it wasn’t til yesterday that the light caught them in a certain way, and I ’noticed’ them. They are, to me, absolutely beautiful—  the stature of the tree as a whole, and the detail of the slender curves…

I will likely post several more photos of these and other trees in the days ahead, either here or on my Curious Spectacles Facebook page which you can find here.

huckleberry buds

A lattice of huckleberry twigs and buds: click image for a larger view

Maybe because we've waited so long for spring this year,  or maybe its just that these wonders are more precious with each passing year, but surely the delicate beauty of the huckleberry buds opening has never been quite so breathtakingly beautiful to me.

 

morning light on camellias

click on the image for a larger view
click on the image for a larger view

Though the afternoon had been drizzly and the days fairly cool, the camellia doesn't seem to mind. She's blooming, determined spring is really arriving. I cut some and arranged them in the old white milk jug, and set them on the dining table. The next morning the sun was up before I was so I was greeted with this glimpse of beauty sunlit beauty.

Photo Notes: this piece is adapted from my original RAW photo using Lightroom and Topaz Impression.

with bowed head…

glory displayed with head bowed 2015-03-31IMG_4387IMG_4387

As I've watched the daffodils bud and come to blossom this spring I've noticed what they do just before they open their colourful blossoms and display their full glory:  they bow their heads,  as in humility.

Maybe because  this week is Holy Week, ( the week in the Christian year between Palm Sunday and Good Friday,  leading to the great feast of Easter) this detail of their downward movement has struck me.  For this is what we see — the glory of God mostly clearly, fully   displayed in the humility of Jesus who, "... though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,  but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,  he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. (see Philippians 2:5ff).

❧❧❧

For more reflections on Holy Week, you can check out my 'Lection Section' Blog here.

 

 

a bonus walk

clematis climbing up the carport post (click on image for larger view)
clematis climbing up the carport post (click on image for larger view)

In the course of the day's demands, which today included the simple task of having a brake light replaced on my car, we found ourselves walking in a neighbourhood we hadn't explored before. The repair folk needed us to leave the car with them for a while, so off we set to explore the neighbourhood around the car dealership.  What an unexpected treat. The streets were quiet— almost deserted— and spring gardens were burgeoning with blossoms: japonica, forsythia, hyacinths, daffodils, pansies, flowering trees in full bloom including magnolias and cherries. So much colour. So much design and care and beauty.

The clematis that was climbing tenaciously up the supports of a carport, adorning an otherwise unassuming piece of architecture, was just one of the many strikingly beautiful treats on our walk.

And now my brake light is replaced! (bonus!)

❧❧❧

Photo Notes

Since I wanted to draw attention to the clematis itself, I've adjusted this iPhone photo using Photoshop for layers and masks, and Topaz Impression to add the desaturated  / textured/ drawing effect on the perimeter of the photo.