Leaves found while walking along along The Causeway in Steventon, Oxfordshire. You can read more about The Causeway here: http://www.steventon.info/Causeway.html
Posts Tagged ‘autumn’
just leaves, and wonderfully so
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged autumn, colors, Inspiration, leaves, nature, nature photography, Oxfordshire, Photography, Steventon, The Causeway, walking, water on November 13, 2013| 13 Comments »
jordan, an autumn interlude
Posted in Guest Contributor, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged autumn, children, family, fatherhood, guest post, happiness, Inspiration, joy, leaves, nature, parenting, Photography, play on November 12, 2013| 2 Comments »
Jordan Playing in the Leaves
My brother is not off the hook for his guest post about music and mountains, but I must admit that this photo he did share of his son at play in a field of leaves was quite an autumn treat. A 3-year old the size of a 5-year old with big brown eyes filled with wonder at the world. My brother wrote that it is an image that makes him want to sit and write “about the joy and emotions of Fall and Winter.” I hope he does put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and that Jordan keeps playing in the leaves. 😉
unlike gene kelly, i have not been singing and dancing but …
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged autumn, fun, gene kelly, humor, Inspiration, landscape, nature, Oxford, Parks, Photography, rain, singing in the rain, travel, trees, water, youtube video on November 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »
… for long spells of time I have been having much fun walking in the English rain. I even hummed a bit as I walked through Oxford University Parks yesterday. Until the rains became too heavy … 😉
As for the reference to Gene Kelly, here’s a short youtube video of him Singing in the Rain. Enjoy!
tree
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged autumn, Branches, colors, dublin, Inspiration, ireland, landscape, nature, Photography, travel, trees, University College of Dublin, walking on November 8, 2013| 12 Comments »
There are many beautiful trees making up the woodland walks of the University College of Dublin – Belfield Campus. There are actually 5 walks that were formed through the purchase of old estates with woodland areas dating back to the 1800s, and the subsequent planting of many new trees. According to the campus website, there are now over 50,000 trees in place representing over 75 species. More information can be found here. I am still sorting through pictures from my campus meanderings, but I think this tree is one of my favorites — new growth against an old estate wall, bright leaves and bark on a cloudy afternoon.
leaves beneath the surface, in morning sun
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged abstract, autumn, colors, dublin, Inspiration, ireland, leaves, light, nature, Photography, st. stephen's green, sunlight, travel, water on November 5, 2013| 7 Comments »
a blackbird trapped in night
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged autumn, colors, essays, grief, Inspiration, leaves, Lorraine Berry, memoir, Middlesex Fells Reservation, nature, Photography, storytelling, sunset, Talking Writing, walks, writer's block on October 28, 2013| 3 Comments »
Words taken from Wordless: Writer’s Block and Grief, a beautiful essay out today by writer Lorraine Berry in Talking Writing Magazine. As the title suggests, it is about a writer dealing with grief. It is a moving piece that I hope you have a chance to read. It was startling to read of black birds in the first paragraph of her essay. Birds of that dark shade have been on my mind of late though none did I see on a recent walk through the Fells. A friend faraway, who is dealing with grief, had mentioned as part of a larger conversation of seeing blackbirds outside of his house. And though I was not close enough to hug him as he might have liked, we did spend a while talking about the wings of the bird and how they glistened iridescent in the sun. Mostly on my walk through the Fells, I saw leaves. 😉
simply leaves along somerville avenue
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged autumn, beauty, colors, Inspiration, leaves, nature, Photography, Somerville, Somerville Avenue, trees, urban landscape, walking on October 24, 2013| 9 Comments »
A recent festival in Union Square closed off Somerville Avenue. For the most part, I kept my hands in my pockets as I walked along enjoying the sights. But after a while, those leaves!
Good thing there were no cars as I meandered along with my head in the clouds and eyes on the ground.
I even took some leaves home.
a rainbow in a leaf
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged autumn, colors, friendship, Inspiration, leaf, nature, patterns, Photography, rainbow on October 16, 2013| 9 Comments »
A friend passed this leaf and its mate on the sidewalk. Struck by their beauty, she paused, picked them up and asked herself, “What can I do with these? I know! I’ll give them to Cynthia to photograph.” How humbling is that? 😉
there are the windows through which I see the oak …
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged autumn, colors, Inspiration, landscape, nature, oak, Photography, seeing, trees, windows on October 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »
if obama were white, would republicans fight so hard?
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged autumn, culture, government shutdown, landscape, leaves, light, Martin Luther King, musings, Mystic River, nature, opinion, Photography, politics, river, society, water on October 1, 2013| 5 Comments »
Just one of those random questions running through my head this morning as I have the luxury of sitting in my home sipping strong coffee in the warmth of my kitchen while there are those in great need of food and shelter who have nothing this morning because the politicians in the fortress of solitude in DC can’t get it together to stop being children in a playground. Anyway, racism, classism, and all those other -isms are too easily used to excuse the behavior of the men and women in Washington (and those who pay them in the various ways our system allows). If Obama were blonde haired and blue eyed and with the same ideals there’d still be a fight … because indeed there was one. Look at the Clinton Years.
Politicians aside with their blinders, fat pockets, or indeed “righteous ideals,” what bothers me most are the people who sit back and do nothing. And maybe that’s because there are too many distractions. I mean, on the morning news, immediately following one story of government shutdown, there was a story of a movie star’s fight with his girlfriend. Really? That’s the next important story?
One of my favorite letters in American history is Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. It was not a letter written to Klansmen or segregationists or to all those others who outright hated; it was a letter written to those who expressed a desire for change but were waiting for the right moment or not wanting to make any waves or simply did not understand the gravity of the situation. I fear that people have lost sense of our interrelatedness, and thus do not understand the implications – the ripple effects – of the actions (and purposeful inactions) certain politicians are pushing. If you have a well-paying corporate job with great benefits, why engage in a dialogue about health insurance or food stamps? But as MLK wrote, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
I am proud to be an American, of its landscapes and its peoples and of course its opportunities. Or at least of those opportunities that I perceived as a child growing up in Virginia. And I was proud of its politics. Probably using a different set of text books than are being allowed in school today, I thought I learned in World History, Civilizations, Civics and Government courses that, my goodness, what a wonderful system of government with its checks and balances, and opportunities for dialogue and debate (and yes, negotiation and compromise). What a wonderful system. What has happened?
Anyway, no more caffeine for me today. Caffeine plus anger gives me a headache. Perhaps I will be able to take another walk by the Mystic River, the source of these images. I hope where ever you are, you find a peaceful moment too. Have a good Tuesday.
