We’ve had two quiet days, just enough time to change the sheets and replenish the pantry, and now our son and daughter-in-law are here for a couple of nights. What a beautiful time and place and weather for visiting. Still no new baby to announce, but much to savour as we wait. . .
And as August begins to slide summer’s curtain to a close, ever so slowly, the season becomes even more precious. So here we go, 5 (or 6) summer scenes, from sunrise to sunset. . . .
1. Sunrise at the beach, from my deck chair. My cuppa.What more could I want?
2. The delicate fragility of a dandelion-seed parachute is so deceptive. By next spring, some of these will have transformed themselves into that tough, brassy plant we love to hate. But for now, their tiny feathery selves caught against the friction of a rock’s surface transfixes me. Magic.
3. Two redheads in the sun, waiting for the wading pool to be filled.
4. There’s a fourth kit ahead with Momma. These fellows have to check out everything before they catch up. I estimate about two weeks and perhaps another pound, perhaps only half, before the cute wears completely thin. Meanwhile though, adorbs, right?
5. Finally, as the sun sets, Paul and I paddle around our little island. Here’s the busy side, the opposite one from ours. The day’s last blaze highlights and transforms, so that the gulls’ white breasts nearly glow, as they settle on the log booms. . . .
and the logs themselves do some technicolour tricks, their tree-flesh a sockeye-salmon red, calling out to every red within eyeshot to give a holler. . .
I always seem to have to pause here, to balance my paddle carefully across my middle, and manouevre the camera carefully out of my lifejacket pocket. . . .
May you find time this weekend for a significant, if brief, pause. A chance to look around, to see what’s gleaming or glowing or smiling or drifting gently or traipsing cutely across your field of vision. . . . and perhaps you’ll tuck that treasure away to savour on some dark rainy November day. . . .and/or perhaps you’ll share it with us right here.
Whichever you choose, Happy weekend!
Please Mater, please, take down that beautiful photo of your child and granddaughter. My husband works for CEOPs and I know rather more that I'd like about how innocent images like this are harvested and manipulated/altered, then sold on. Please take it off the Web.
with love, and urgency, Lettys
Thanks for caring so urgently, Lettys. I've cropped the photo.
Thank you, Mater, for these lovely images and thoughts and calls to watch out for the unexpected treasures to shore up for the darkening days. You've just inspired me to take my morning coffee out and to walk around my sadly neglected garden and to notice all the unstoppable signs of life which are doggedly continuing despite my indifference. It's very much a case of bloom where you are planted out there at the moment, but my plot's generous disposition and the early sun through the trees is the most uplifting sight.
And thank you too, to Lettys for her caring message and to her husband for fighting, on our behalf, all that is so dark
There's so much to appreciate when we stop for a minute, isn't there? My garden's in its usual poor, late-summer state,water restrictions giving me a good excuse for neglect — I'm just being green, right?
Early sun through trees — it really does uplift, Yes!!
I'm not much for sunrise, so I'm especially grateful for your dawn photo – and for all these evocative photos and captions that bring me back to places in my past even though I've never been to their literal locations.
I don't capture moonlight shots, lark to your owl, I guess. . . 😉
It's funny, isn't it, and quite wonderful, that photos can evoke such different times and places from what they literally represent.
No pausing, but a hike:). And a shared appreciation for redheads!
Enjoy the hike! All those trainer sessions paying off on the trails.
Darling pair of redheads. Your daughter resembles you. We spent a lot of time pausing this past couple of weeks – the world is so full of beauty in spite of the atrocities that go on and on. Nature is a solace.