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

Goodbye Bertha ~ Hello Super Moon ~

Gentle Reader ~~~ Bertha blew and played a tune of the wind as it blows, and the trees danced like dervishes, whirling and twirling on the wildly wuthering wind of the west ~~~ later, as the storm passed by, the sky in its wake lightened and brightened and, as the sun set on the weary grey day, the sky lit up, a blaze of contrasting colour as the sun said Goodnight {and goodbye} to Bertha ~~~

A short while on and the August Full Moon, a Super Moon and the second Super Moon of three in a row this year {a rare phenomenon indeed} peeked above the houses and climbed steadily into the sky ~ up and up and up she rose into the deeply darkening night sky ~ high above the rooftops and the chimneys of the drowsing cottages and nodding trees in The Shire, sailing into the sea of night above the tree~lined shores below, bestowing upon us the silver light of a full moon night ~~~ 

On again, on again, on until morning she sails through the ocean of night, on again 'til the last star still shining is tucked up in bed and the sun peeks over the edge of the world, arising again, shining again, showering golden light again over The Shire ~~~

~~~ and the relentless, endless chase begins again ~~~

Waterfalls in the Night Garden ~~~

Gentle Reader ~~~ Last night I dreamed that I was hiding in a waterfall ~~~ then claps of thunder came, rolling across the sky, and lightening flashed and crashed, and I awoke and discovered that it was raining heavily, percolating, drip by drip, drop by drop, into my dreams, and maybe I was behind a waterfall after all ~ dream~invading rain falling in torrents, like the streams of a dream of water falling down a rabbit hole ~~~ indeed, by suffusing my sleep it brought strange memories of standing in a real surreal cavern behind Seljalandsfoss in Iceland ~~~ where a narrow path trickles behind a screen of falling water, where, with care, you can creep along the slippery ledge into the small cavern carved out by centuries of falling water and experience a waterfall from a whole new angle ~~~ it is very noisy, very wet, and incredibly wonderful!  

Here is a link to my Flickr Iceland photographs album where you can find many more waterfalls and other Icelandic treats ~~~

Rain fell, curtains of water, drenching the parched earth, and the sky across The Shire was grey and heavy; somewhere in the distance the grey fields reached up into the grey sky but where they met no human eye could tell ~~~ all was grey and wet, sodden after night~long hours of heavy grey rainfall, blown sideways in the grey winds of former Hurricane Bertha, falling as if squeezed from some giant grey bath sponge hidden in the grey sky being rung out by a massive hand hiding in the grey clouds, so as to fall upon the grey land below in great grey sheets of water ~~~ 

The winds are freshening now and apparently will blow with ferocity later this afternoon.  The sun is shining, all is bright and shiny and fresh, clean and green, with flashes of colour from the few tenacious blooms that survived the onslaught of the night. Later, I will survey the damage, which doesn't seem, at first glance, anywhere near as bad as it could have been; watering cans are not needed today, but as ever ~~~ 

~~~A Gardener's Work is Never Done~~~