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.
Yeah, I know it’s dangerous to call ‘Spring’ in mid-March, in the Northern Hemisphere in the mountains.
But these harbingers were shouting at me.
The problem is…I have misplaced Winter.
Clouds, almost like lingerie on a quiet, sunny winter day–the level of mystery–what is really there that I can’t see? I want to see more.
Lord Byron saw it in storm and had quite a different take, documented in his poem, ‘Manfred‘.
The view south toward the Jungfrau massif from the Interlaken region. Real estate agents might call this the million dollar view.
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?
The presence and absence of sunlight…
…on earth, water and air.
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.
Most of the time I take photos of plants, gardens or landscapes where I attempt to share something beyond sense perception. That is my fun.
The other day, not far away, I found this sign. Tomorrow is when? Tomorrow never comes. Now isn’t that the funny truth?
And after all, it is not a stretch to say beer is the ideal people and plants linkage. Ethnobotany at its finest.
See you there tomorrow for free beer.
