An escape from the stresses of the week, here and in the States — I wish I could send you all the crispness of the air and the scent of the woods.
Relax in the Woods — it may never happen!
Category Archives: Natural Beauty
Enchantment! What gets you out of bed?
We are possessed — we tumble out of bed at the first ray of sunlight, Bill to rush out and be electrocuted in the morning dew, forgetting to switch off the mains before moving the sodden leads so that he can see what he has caught in his moth trap!
I follow, not to resuscitate but because the one thing I hate more than early mornings is being left out! And it’s like Christmas — you just don’t know what you will get!
Just a few of the 100 plus species of moth we have photographed since July — you can’t say they are dull!
But these are what gets me tip-toeing down the dewy track as the sun peeps over the hill!
There seems to be a family of 7 or 8 babies and at least one adult that bask in the morning sun on the corrugated iron that we have put by the bench where we bask. They are charming and very brave — are they going to become accustomed to us and remain so as adults — I do hope so. We have made them an air-raid shelter but at the moment they seem to prefer to hide in the grass.
Takes your breath away!
The Trouble with Cameras!
Cameras are a constant source of disappointment to me because they rarely see what I see.
When I see the three dimensional majesty of the mountain peaks that surround me as I stand in wonder on the plain, the camera sees only the actual sky-line which is surprisingly flat.
Eyes are much better — they inject emotion. They integrate with the other senses to capture the euphoria of a landscape — the freshness of the breeze, the perfume of honeysuckle and hay, the buzzing of the bees and the birdsong. The vibrant greens of a valley re-awaken ancestral stirrings that draw us still to fertility and shelter.
Yesterday I drove to Rhyd in Snowdonia, it was a wonderful spring day — such a shame that the photos could not capture my mood (even if I had remembered the UV filter). These are the best of a bad lot.
Levels!
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In Winter one becomes more aware of levels, height above sea level, contours and isobars, temperature differentials and of things variable, that change ones view of the world.
Yesterday from the frosty world of the valley bottom we walked up through layers.
Through the chill mists that form in the valley like a rising sea level.
We climbed to where the sun skims the top of the hill to fill the opposite side of the valley with colour,
and makes silhouettes of the sheep on the horizon. Then we looked back over the hill tops, bathed in winter sunlight.
In the Rain Shadow…
…mythical creatures claw themselves free of the forest floor…
rise up on the verges of the ancient tracks…
and stretch out to drag you into their gully.
Warriors stand above their own graves and gaze through the larch vale, wind at their backs, looking down the valley to where we live in this land of spirits.
The tups on the hill are uneasy…
they feel it too. Something stirring beneath the wet grass — everywhere, everything — waking — stretching — on the move.
Nature’s Show Garden!
dianaashworth 