It's a Wonderful World ~~~

Hello Friends!

I consider myself truly blessed to live where I do. Even though, at the moment, I cannot get out and about in all the coast and countryside where I live, I am deeply grateful for all the photographs I have taken over the years to bring me closer to the beauty of my Shire.  Just stepping outside my cottage door and breathing in the fresh, countryside air that permeates from the surrounding land into my garden lifts my spirits and fills my heart with abounding joy. Of my Shire, my heart will never tire.

I have always enjoyed photography, but my life behind the lens was transformed in October 2006 when my late Daddy gave me a huge surprise for my birthday ~ the gift of my first digital camera. How that transformed my life! There were two things I could not get over ~ first, that I knew instantly whether or not I'd captured the shot, and second, the cost of being able to take hundreds of photographs and print off only the ones I needed to, rather than paying to print off everything from a 35mm roll of film, and paying to get even the out of focus shots that I can now simply discard.  I'm not decrying 35mm photography, it has a charm of its own, the same way old vinyls do when compared to CDs. I think most of you know, and understand, what I am saying!  In a time when we strive for the perfection that comes with progress, you cannot beat that grainy 35mm film, any more than you can top the hiss and crackle of a vinyl record on an old player.

Today, while my prayers hold my friends across the west of America where fires rage, those in Texas recovering from Harvey, and my friends in Florida recovering from Irma, and we all watch, with baited breath, the progress of Jose, we in Wales are waiting for what might prove to be our first named storm of 2017/18.  Aileen will be her name, if she develops to storm force, and she is here about six full weeks ahead of when we should be looking at the start of our storm season, usually in November.  We are told to expect winds in excess of 75 mph! Oh! Joy, Bliss, and Rapture ~ I don't think.

I notice on the list, here, that several Celtic and Gaelic names are included, giving equal representation to the four home nations.

My garden is not prepared, many plants are still flowering and a long way from being ready to be put to bed for Winter, so scurried attempts to bring things temporarily inside, and shelter that with which Summer is not yet done, must be top of the tasks today.  I think we all felt we had Autumn to look forward to, in all her magnificent, colourful array, and wind down gently into November, but no! We must prepare and batten the hatches this very afternoon!  Looking out of my window across the garden, glittering and green, underneath a blue, nearly cloudless sky, who would think in a few hours we will be hunkered down as the storm rages?  But hark! I hear the chimney rattling already ~ the winds that reconnoitre the path ahead have already arrived!

So, as I cannot get out and about as I should like to do, I'm wandering through my old photographs, of which there are many, and popping a few from my archives on here today ~~~

The first few photographs are of tree bark in my garden ~ I love how diverse bark is, from tree to tree, and the inspiration for art, or textiles, that I glean from it ~ Nature is a wonderful source of inspiration ~~~

Bountiful fruits of the season ~ blackberries, haws, crab apples and Autumn fruiting raspberries abound ~~~

Shhhhhhh! be very quiet, for faeries live within, and if we are very still and do not break the magic, why! we may see one flitting about ~~~

Clematis

 Gossamer webs are woven all across the bushes, trees, and shrubs ~~~

 Here is a sheet of Autumn coloured colouring in I did ~~~ I love the stylised acorn and leaf patterns ~~~

So, my friends, Stay Safe, wherever you are, and these storms will pass ~~~

Until next time ~~~
~~~Deborah