…when I’ve got this outside!
Spring sunshine!
Spring oxygen!
Spring growth!
Spring green!
Spring birdsong!
Spring fresh air!
Spring joy!
Spring flowers!
Can you find any of the above in the following images?
Or better yet…go out and find them yourself.
After the death of winter comes a rebirth of life, of beauty, of joy.
What is this? …overflowing with the bounty of beauty…
Stroked out. Just about three years ago that I was no better than a ‘side of beef’ on a gurney in the back of an ambulance. Four weeks later I was in a wheelchair on the way to a neuro-rehabilitation clinic in the Berner Oberland.
When I arrived, my wife wheeled me to the end of the hallway for a look out through the window. This is what I saw.
Magic in the landscape
What I thought? Only to be able to walk this path. Well it happened. First time sitting up. First time getting out of bed by myself. First time standing. First time with rollator. First time standing without rollator. First step on stairs. First time up one flight of stairs. First time down one flight of stairs. I don’t understand how. Great physiotherapists. Great ergotherapists. A miracle. Faith.
I walk every day now in the Berner Oberland–no rollator–no sticks. Unbelievable.
And that image, that path–magic in the landscape. Thankful.
Hope, I hoped I could take that walk. Hope can be grasped. Step by step. Every morning.
Where to find it?
Today I was lucky.
I discovered hope in a simple home made courtyard.
When looking for hope…it can always be found…don’t give up…expand your search…change the scale of observation…works for me. Primula vulgaris and flagstone paving.
As I observe old age taking interest in my body, it shades my observations of the landscape.
This apple tree is also under the influence of old age; yet it has retained a balance even though having experienced extreme events during its lifetime. Everybody struggles through life. But how to achieve balance? That is a mystery. Faith? Hope?
There is something clean and inspirational in this landscape.
Or, am I under illusion?
…clouds, mountains and forests…
Here is a collection of images I have taken of plants and landscapes the past days as winter descends and the first frost arrives.
Winter descends. Previously we had snow only 2000 meters elevation and above. Last night, I fell asleep listening to the slow and peaceful pitter patter of rain falling softly on the roof. I woke up this morning to find the snow had snuck down to 700 meters elevation.
After this tree’s branches and trunk have built barns, built and heated homes, the remnants have become the nourishment for how many other living entities? Everything gets eaten in the end.
Frost bite, frost burn, yet there is some beauty in this image. Is there a lesson to be learned?
The frost is not the end but a tell that the end is near. In the background, the babbling brook runs away from that truth.
It happened last night.
Woke up this morning and winter had snuck in. Winter! And I had not yet even finished the requisite autumnal post.
Snow down to 3,000 meters. Above image shows in the foreground two valleys at 600 meters. The valleys drain the north side of the Jungfrau Massif, part of the Berner Oberland in the Swiss Alps. If you magnify, you can see Jungfrau, Monch and Eiger in the left center background.
Railing about what?
Once upon a time…and then it was yesterday…and you are reading this today.
In a land of mountain trains–funiculars, cable cars and narrow gauge cogwheel trains. They are slow and they get you high.
Why? Why get high?
I’ll let the following photos tell the story. You will be in the Bernese Highlands of the Jungfrau Region, the northern pre-mountains, above 2,000 meters in the Swiss Alps. Why build these mechanical contraptions to get high?
Here are the trains that get you high.
Passenger cars–note narrow gauge and cogwheel. Start at 600 meters, finish at 2,300 meters.
Passenger cars and engine–small and strong–electric power.
Engine close up–attached in front of the engine is a cart for transporting goods and construction materials.
Once you are high…the air is thin, fresh, cool and the distances…magical.
Mountains–Eiger, Monch, Junfrau with the Mannlichen gipfel amidst the clouds in the foreground.
Paths to explore, paths for discovering.
Discoveries.
Going deep in.
Can’t get enough.
