During my school days, our Headmistress would often urge us to notice what's around us saying, 'Even the thorn bush by the wayside is ablaze with the glory of God.' I've come to appreciate over the years that she was absolutely right.
Today I was reminded of this as I saw, not a 'thorn bush' but an ordinary drainage ditch, 'blazing' with beauty: colour, texture and pattern.
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I have intentionally adjusted the photo above with texture and colour as I contemplated the beauty on display. The red colours in the weeds to the right were actually there, and brighter. I've muted them so as not to 'take over' the image as a whole. It's the raindrop circles that particularly entranced me— the way they refracted and reflected the light.
When the sun came out after a morning of heavy rain, the light in the forest was dramatic. Intense and beautiful— light and shadow; texture and pattern; colours and hues.
The nuthatch population seems to be thriving as there are many at our feeders every day. They flit so quickly its hard to 'catch' them in a photo. I'm grateful that this one paused briefly, and posed in such a classic nuthatch posture. As a bonus for this shot, we can see something of what he's caught for his lunch.
The Turkey Vulture is one of the strangest of the winged creatures here on the island. Its naked red head seems all out of proportion to the rest of it’s large body. Soaring overhead, its broad span casts a shadow on the grass, and at rest on the tangle of dead limbs, its folded pinions make the high collared look caricatured in drawings of vultures and vampires.
On its stark perch, the image above is one that, for me, holds an ominous tension. It is not what I would call a ‘beautiful’ bird, but it is a marvel of design and function, consuming carrion right down to the bone, finding its life in the scouring of the shore and forest.
glimpses of the extraordinary amidst an ordinary day
