It's hardest to love the ordinary things, she said, but you get lots of opportunities to practice.

-Brian Andreas, Story People

I'm grateful for the beauty the ordinary things bring to my life :)

The nighttime shadows were fading fast as I switched to an ultra-wide view (only a few minutes after the shot posted yesterday). A magical place, this, sacred to the Blackfoot and other people of the plains. It was an honour and a privilege to stand there and watch night turn into day.

Like yesterday's shot, this one lay dormant in my RAW folders for 18 years; I wasn't happy with my attempts at processing, using the tools available at that time. Then I forgot about it, and it disappeared beneath the avalanche of newer work (ie. my next 408,000 frames... approximately). I'm glad I looked back. I think I got close to the feeling of being there. This one's like a whisper in my ear, saying something I can't quite articulate. Sometimes only a photo will do.

Photographed in Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, Alberta (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2007 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

Think this female Ruby-throated is the chubbiest hummingbird I have seen. Well, she got all the flowers, different varieties and nectars she can feast on at NYBG (New York Botanical Garden).

All hummingbirds are small, and many are minute. Even the largest, the giant hummingbird (Patagona gigas) of western South America, is only about 20 cm (8 inches) long, with a body weight of about 20 g (0.7 ounce), less than that of most sparrows.

Hummingbirds have compact, strongly muscled bodies and rather long, bladelike wings that, unlike the wings of other birds, articulate (connect) to the body only from the shoulder joint. The architecture of the wing permits hummingbirds to fly not only forward but also straight up and down, sideways, and backward and to hover in front of flowers as they obtain nectar and insects from them. The rate at which a hummingbird beats its wings is the same during directional and hovering flight.

The ruby-throated hummingbird has a wing-beat rate of about 70 per second in the male and about 50 per second in the female.

---britannica.com

May it be an evening star

Shines down upon you

May it be when darkness falls

Your heart will be true

You walk a lonely road

Oh! How far you are from home

May It Be - Enya

Impariamo dalle Piccole Creature della Natura...

Listen!!!

Very little grows on jagged rock.

Be ground.

Be crumbled.

So wildflowers will come up where you are.

You've been stony for so many years.

Try something different.

Surrender.

~ Rumi

not always easy

but always essential

balance is found

not only in things that coexist

in peace and harmony

but also in things that

oppose and contrast each other

light and dark

heat and cold

predator and prey

life and death

to survive

mother earth/nature constantly adjusts

to maintain

balance

"...one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself"

~ Jessye Norman ~

Meet Tayyab Parvez, a 22 year old man from Southampton, UK. He was waiting to have his haircut and very kindly allowed me to talk to him and take his portrait.

Tayyab was born in Southampton and has lived here all of his life. He works as a security guard, usually in large supermarkets, but it could be any venue in which he is required.

From my own experience in similar roles, Tayyab seems to me to possess the "The Right Stuff" for such a job. He is articulate, easy to talk to and has a quick sense of humour, exactly the traits that allow someone in his position to negotiate rather having to resort to force.

I hope I have the good fortune to meet him again.

Photographed with his permission at St Mary Street, Southampton, UK.

This picture is #001 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page

AffTP1_8516

Took a short walk around yesterday and found these succulents emerging after a long cold winter. Used the flip-out articulating screen on the camera to get a low PoV.

“the world is full enough of hurts and mischance without wars to multiply them.”

~ j.r.r. tolkien, english writer and author

.

"We're going to meet a lot of lonely people

in the next week and the next month and the next year.

And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say,

'We're remembering. That's where we'll win out in the long run'.

And some day we'll remember so much

that we'll build the biggest goddamn steam-shovel in history

and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up".

(RAY BRADBURY, "Fahrenheit 451", 1953)

.

Gold Fishin'! (Golden Fisherman)

: )

Hello my friends!!!

...Dedicated to a special friend, included in the text below...

Another photo from the beautiful Greek island of Crete : )

I captured this one on an early morning trek out to the beach... and saw no one else except for this lone person fishing (on what looked to be a sea of gold!)

This is another photo taken with my older Sony HX60V compact camera, after my newer one had broke a few days before.

I remember it was very bright & hard to see through the LCD screen (even though the morning had been hazy) and I had to zoom in to capture this scene... as they were quite far away and I was on another pier.

I missed the articulating screen & viewfinder of my HX90V (I have another one now!) but I was still pretty happy with the outcome of this photo : )

(These colors are SOOC)

Decided not to crop this one as it portrays the way I remember the moment... a huge, empty morning of golden ocean & sky, solely filled by this lone fisherman on their pier : )

Dedicating this one to my friend Charlotte... charhedman ... who inspired me with her own fisherman photo recently (which included a lovely quote about solitude).

Thank you my friend : )

She has a gorgeous photostream, please visit her & say hello while you're there : )

I may be off for the next day or so... but will be back to catch up with everyone soon as I can!

Thanks for taking a moment to have a look, appreciate your support so much guys : )

Hope you find something enjoyable or interesting here : )

Have a wonderful new day my friends!

CRUSH

"be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. and the point is, to live everything. live the questions now. perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer."

~ rainer maria rilke

"Das vergangene ist nicht tot;

es ist nicht einmal vergangen.

Wir trennen es von uns ab und stellen uns fremd."

(CHRISTA WOLF, "Kindheitsmuster", 1976)

.

"life is sometimes prickly." she said

"but its when you get poked to the point of bleeding that you know you're alive!"

Tualatin Commons, Tualatin, Oregon.

Articulating boom lift:

JLG 340AJ

www.jlg.com/en/equipment/engine-powered-boom-lifts/articu...

C&E Rentals

19700 SW Teton Ave

Tualatin, OR 97062

www.canderentals.com/equipment.asp?action=category&ca...

Camera: Samsung NX1000

Lens: Samsung NX 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6

Focal length: 45mm

Exposure: 1/40 sec. at f/8, ISO 100

"While intelligent people can often simplify the complex, a fool is more likely to complicate the simple.”- Dr Gerald Grumet

Every time I sat on a bar stool I understood this, without ever articulating it into conscious thought.

The other writings are records of successful cross-channel swims.

The White Horse, Dover.

The sphenoid bone is an unpaired bone of the neurocranium. It is situated in the middle of the skull towards the front, in front of the basilar part of the occipital bone. The sphenoid bone is one of the seven bones that articulate to form the orbit. Its shape somewhat resembles that of wings extended.

Son, you've got a way to fall

They'll tell you where to go

But they won't know

Son, you'd better take it all

They'll tell you what they know

But they won't show

Oh, I've got something in my throat

I need to be alone while I suffer

Son you've got a way to kill

They're picking on you still

But they don't know

Son you'd better wait to shine

They'll tell you what is yours

But they'll take mine

Oh I've got something in my throat

I need to be alone while I suffer

Oh, there's a hole inside my boat

And I need stay afloat for the summer long

Oh, I've got something in my throat

I need to be alone while I suffer

Oh, there's a hole inside my boat

And I need stay afloat for the summer

Son you've got to wait to fall

They'll tell you where to go

But they won't know...

Way to fall - Starsailor

Wonderful place, the marvelous Neotropical Butterfly Park at Lelydorp not far from Suriname's capital, Paramaribo. It's one of the largest Butterfly Parks I've ever seen. But more importantly, more than only for show-casing Butterflies, this Park is also a home-industry for rearing them for export to gardens in the US and in Europe. The entire process is utterly fascinating. The guide is articulate and knowledgable even though she's had no formal training in entomology. Moreover, the Garden is situated in a forest and you will be taken on an hour's walk to see its marvels.

Here's Laparus doris in its pupal stage - but given this particular glitter, let's keep to the term I learned in school: chrysalis. In a week or so: presto! they'll turn into the Flighty Stage that will delight any visitor.

Everything that has a beginning has an ending.

Make peace with that and all will be well.

~ Buddha

I try not to get bogged down about gear. What I have does the job, and I’m far more interested in places and moments in time than the equipment I’m using to make images. Generally speaking, if one of the YouTube crowd uploads a video about the latest offering from their chosen brand, it gets the swerve from me. I’ve stuck with the same manufacturer throughout, and I only went in that direction in the first place because I had some old lenses from the days when I used to dabble in film. Imagine my surprise when I was told they’d work on the shiny new digital camera I'd just ordered from the grey import zone?

But recently I’d been ruminating over a possible shift change, and only because of one thing. This summer, for the first time in a number of years we have a mildly adventurous escapade planned. North of the border and on foot, where weight becomes an issue. And what was particularly troubling me was the lack of a decent lens that didn’t weigh half a ton and that I could plonk onto the camera body and cover most of the focal lengths I might need on such a trip. It had got to the point where I was seriously considering the acquisition of a mirrorless affair by another brand, with a longer term view to shifting everything and moving lock, stock and tripod over to an entirely new system. All because I wanted something light to carry on an eighty mile hiking trip across Scotland. Usually, wherever I go I’m carrying a camera that’s built (and ever so slightly shaped) like a tank, and three equally lumpy lenses, not to mention filters, microfibre cloths, rocket blower and whatever else is lurking in the bag. And a tripod. The telephoto lens alone weighs almost two kilos, and I’m not getting any younger. I’m intent on getting to the top of a mountain or two this summer, and the thought of lugging all of that gear to a lofty highland summit without the assistance of a team of sherpas seems a bit much. So maybe I’d invest in the much lighter set up that some of you are using, and see where it went from there. I had a look at prices from my favourite second hand kit websites and prepared myself to part with a four figure sum. Only just four figures, but even so, that’s a holiday for two right there.

My fear was I’d end up torn between two systems. You see I really like what I already have, and I’m really not that keen to pack it all up and send it off to MPB, especially having seen how well second hand values for an indispensable 100-400mm lens from the other side were holding up. Still, I was in no rush. I’d wait and review the options. It was only when one of you shared a post elsewhere about the budget lens you’d just purchased (from the same place) that a light bulb exploded between my ears. I’d had that lens several years ago before selling it (to the same place again) as I upgraded from a crop body to full frame in advance of the first Iceland trip. I liked it at the time, and quickly remembered that it had been my main lens when Dave, Lee and I had once spent three highly productive winter days in Glencoe. Not long after returning to work, the guys in the reprographics department tested their new large format printer with one of the images from that trip and filled half a wall with it. It looked good enough to me. Six years later it’s still there in fact - I know because I popped in to say hello over Easter. Why on earth had I ever let that lens go? I started to keep an eye on second hand prices.

It wasn’t long before one appeared on our favourite auction site at a very agreeable price, and just a few days later the postman arrived with a small parcel at my front door. Its first test run was in the usual place, on an unexpectedly glowing evening. I still have a crop body that gets regular outings thanks to its articulating screen, but I knew that for a very reasonable second hand price I could pick up an even smaller model, which despite the size difference is pretty much the same camera. I now have a walking set up that cost me less than a third of the mirrorless assembly I was considering, which weighs under a kilo and fits comfortably well into a generously sized coat pocket. And I can use the new gear with my existing collection. Ali has yet to notice that a third camera has mysteriously arrived into our home. I've taken to leaving them around the house in separate places in the hopes that she doesn't spot the subterfuge. Ok, so I’m sure the mirrorless system wins out on sharpness if you start zooming in at the corners, but not by three times the price worth it doesn’t. This will do very nicely for me thank you. I can’t stop picking it up and marvelling at its miniscule proportions.

So I’m ready for Scotland now. Well I will be once I’ve spent some of the money I’ve managed to cling to on a cast iron midge net, six gallons of tiny flying vampire repellent (Avon Skin So Soft if you were wondering), and a suit of armour for when the other two items fail. The last of which will probably pay havoc with the weight savings.

"Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you."

Saint Augustine

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The comfort of having a friend may be taken away - but not that of having had one.

(Seneca)

The wide variety of flora:

Flowering Anabasis articulate (Jointed Anabis) in Wadi RumIn the protected area you can find over 160 species of plants that belong to almost 50 different plant families. Most of them are specially adapted plants that can survive in our harsh desert climate.

About 7 of them are useful as a source of wood;

Over 30 species we us for medicinal purposes;

Some 15 we avoid as they are known to be poisonous;

Around 50 are a source of food for different species of animals including our lifestock;

6 plants are endemic;

Back shot: i.imgur.com/QQ739js.jpg

So... I got a fair bit of critique for the last update I did. I admit, it wasn't as good as it could be. So I decided to fix Kolk up some more, once again.

I decided to try an idea suggested by 0nuku for the shoulders, and now he's got REALLY articulate shoulders. An outside joint for the actual upper arm, and an internal joint to get some "flexing" movement and other things.

As a result, the ENTIRE inner workings of the torso had to be redone. Needless to say, this is what came out of it.

I think it looks good, but I do miss the "suit" vibe he used to have. I tried to recreate that but with no success, so I'll take what I can get.

C&C is very welcomed and appreciated.

Dear Diary,

do you remember the last time-lost-in-time when I used to write things in-on you? Lifetime(s) ago, yet just a rain of drops-days on my aged back...

I don't know exactly what to tell you, but a silent friend made of virgin paper was a recurrent idea til today. You're true, it's no paper (I still use, though: don't point your finger!), and ticking on a keyboard is not exactly what it should be; but times change, just as hearts and people, faster than ever, and an electronic sheet is suitable as well for this intent. Will it work? I don't know. Will I know more about me? I don't know. Will I remain here, staring at you just as I did with white walls for poetry, for a long while. I just-don't-know. So listen.

All of a sudden the world becomes a huge spectacular ball to my eyes. Rethoric, maybe generated by the curiosity for astronomical things of my seven year old daughter Sara.

We were in the car, on sunday. The sun already fallen, a few stars shimmering above the luminous polluted horizon. "It's not a star", I said, when she pointed at the biggest white dot. "It's Jupiter, a big planet".

She started asking many questions. Once we get home I grabbed for her the encyclopedia, solar system volume. Both emotioned, we looked for Jupiter. "What is this black dot, daddy?" "It's the shadow of one of the four main satellites, love" "And the big red thing bigger that the Earth?" "Here, look. It's a rotating tempest that will never end..."

Weeks ago (before my own personal storm) we spent a beautiful day in a mountain wood, looking for some chestnut to roast after dinner. All the girls were happy, half legs covered with humid leaves. When we had enough, while we rested and ate some bread and Nutella on a concrete's bench and table in the shady yellow atmosphere, I placed a chestnut in a nicely lit spot, for a macro shot. When focusing and framing were ok, a little happy green bug appeared, walking thoughtless on the sheer brown surface. It seemed like a stubborn astronaut, proudly exploring what must have seemed a little planet's surface ...

We all are so little, not so silently standing on this runaway train called life.

We want anything, yet we cannot.

We constantly vacillate on the edge of our dreams just like fragile dwellers, trying to look/taste/hear far more than we can.

Knowing (life on Earth is one).

Knowing not (what really lies after/outside).

Endlessly rotating around this dichotomy; endlessly, just like the big red thing on Jupiter.

An all-around warmth

Some of which shines through windows

Hot water works too

Per rendervi accetti al prossimo e avere successo, parlate male di voi stessi, riconoscendo di avere difetti, vizi e dolorose malattie: fate cioè l'opposto di quanto fanno in genere tutti. Vi accorgerete subito di diffondere intorno un'atmosfera di benessere e soddisfazione. Quale compiacimento, per gli altri, apprendere i vostri insuccessi, delusioni, licenziamenti, scacchi amorosi e cedimenti fisici. Vi vorranno infinitamente più bene. Attenti però a non esagerare perchè se si accorgono che è tutta una commedia e che i vostri mali sono inventati si offenderanno mortalmente.

[Dino Buzzati]

The little nymph 'hoppers were hopping, but this one held for me to place my beanbag on the ground near it. So, handheld, camera on the bag, using the articulating screen to compose and focus. This is still a pretty large crop. I looked for the mantis nymph to tell it breakfast was served, but I couldn't find it.

I think that you can all tell that I am in a philosophical mood these days. There are so many complications in life that we, the people, have to solve and surely at the forefront is our inability to let go of the negative forces and embrace the positive ones. It is time for us to collectively come up with good reasons to work together for the better for ALL. In the long run, selfishness does not gain us anything, in fact we lose! Let's find ways to help one another, make the world a smaller place in which all are welcome. It is possible, we can and must do it!!!

Thank you for your kind visit. Have a wonderful and beautiful day! ❤️❤️❤️

Ontological status

Conceptual perspective

Articulates itself

To provide meaningful architecture is not to parody history, but to articulate it.

Daniel Libeskind

© All rights reserved Anna Kwa. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission

It's so much easier to be happy. It's so much easier to choose to love the things that you have, instead of always yearning for what you're missing, or what it is that you're imagining you're missing. It is so much more peaceful.

Meryl Streep's character in the movie "One true thing"

Photographer In The Landscape. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A solitary photographer works the evening light in a dust storm, dwarfed by an immense landscape of dunes and desert mountians.

You may wonder about the title of this photograph: “What photographer?” You’ll need to look closely, especially if you are looking at a smaller version of the photograph. The photographer is small! Or, more accurately, this landscape is very big.

There are some experiences in the landscape that are particularly powerful. Some are hard to articulate. Once, many years ago, I wandered away from the rest of my party at a timberline camp, sat on the ground and just looked, and I experienced a sudden sense of connection and content in that landscape that I’ve been unable to describe in words. On another occasion — halfway through a two-week solo backpack trip — it seem like the right thing to just sit atop a 12,000′ pass for a couple of hours. Many of these moments seem connected to the experience of being a very small figure in a very large landscape like this one.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

(( in Explore 2016-04-25 ))

Hello my friends!

This is a photo I took BEFORE joining Flickr... and wasn't sure how it would fit in with the rest of my photostream, but I really wanted to share it with you guys anyhow.

It's taken with my older camera (Sony HX60V) and I literally had to get down on my arms and knees to try and view this capture as I had no articulating screen or viewfinder then ; )

After being out one morning capturing early photos, I eventually made my way around to these docks and instantly loved this scene!

It was early December and the city had put up a huge Christmas tree (sometimes listed as the tallest real Christmas tree in the world, though I'm not sure how large this one from 2015 was) and you can see it in the background of this pic : )

I was focusing of course on the ropes that they had docked the ship with!

I found the colors of the ropes beautiful, their red & blue showed up so strongly in close-up focus too : )

Though I couldn't see what I was shooting so well (with my old camera), I still felt there was something special about this angle & capture.

This photo was SOOC (straight out of camera) and I've decided to leave it that way... as to keep the moment as I experienced it : )

Once I saw the green moss & grass growing from the cobblestone... as well as the old sailing ship in the background (and of course the holiday tree), I was very glad to have spent the extra effort capturing this morning scene : )

My favorite part of this scene may be the way the front of the ship seems to loom over the view when you're looking up the ropes!

I hope you guys find something enjoyable here too!

Appreciate your support so much... it's really good to be back : )

Thank you all & see you around soon!

CRUSH

Everybody got mixed feelings

About the function and the form.

Neil Peart

The mushroom is the elf of plants,

At evening it is not;

At morning in a truffled hut

It stops upon a spot...

Emily Dickinson

HBW!

Basílica de la Virgen de la Peña, Graus, La Ribagorza, Huesca, Aragón, España.

La antigua basílica de la Virgen de la Peña se levanta en la villa española de Graus (Ribagorza, provincia de Huesca, Aragón). El actual templo se levantó a mediados del siglo XVI sobre un edificio románico anterior. Consta de iglesia, patio y hospital de peregrinos con un bello claustro-mirador.

Proponemos a los visitantes que comiencen la visita desde el interior de la iglesia. Allí quedan restos del edificio románico, en concreto en la parte inferior del muro del evangelio, donde hay una pequeña puerta en alto y sillares más pequeños. El edificio actual presenta, una nave única de dos tramos, cubiertos con bóvedas de terceletes (la de los pies era originalmente estrellada) y una cabecera plana sobre la que se levanta una torre poligonal rematada en chapitel. LLama la atención el achaflanamiento de los ángulos de los pies de la nave.

La puerta de entrada tiene arco de medio punto y abundante decoración: (candelieri, casetones, angelotes, escudos y guirnaldas) y se enmarca por columnas unidas por un entablamento. Frente a ella, el pórtico imita sus formas corintias. En su friso se encuentra la firma de Joan Tellet en dos cartelas junto a una pequeña ménsula que llama la atención del observador. Allí está también la puerta de la capilla de San Juan de Letrán y una escalinata que une el pórtico con el patio. la esquina de la iglesia nos hace comprender el achaflanamiento interior, ya que si no se hubiera adoptado esta solución los contrafuertes exteriores ocuparían el solar de esta escalinata.

La arquería del hospital se abre al patio. Allí vemos cómo la estructura de este edificio apoya sobre la de la iglesia. Otra arcada sobre columnas torsas nos ofrece una espléndida vista de Graus y de la confluencia de los ríos Ésera e Isábena. Al salir, bajando por la rampa, veremos la otra esquina de la iglesia y de nuevo entendemos el achaflanamiento interior la nave, pues otro contrafuerte exterior hubiera impedido el camino de acceso al conjunto.

Desde el exterior se observan diferencias en los dos tramos de la iglesia:

la primera fase de las obras articula sus paños con molduras y contrafuertes

la segunda, obra de Tellet, que presenta paños y esquinas lisos.

En el conjunto del hospital también se ven dos fases:

un modesto edificio de cuatro plantas (apoyado sobre la iglesia y sobre la entrada al conjunto) fue seguramente el primero en construirse y debía servir de residencia del clero

una ampliación, mucho más ambiciosa, de tres plantas: la primera, con la arcada de arcos de medio punto que cobija la rampa de acceso; la segunda, con el mirador de columnas torsas; y la última, de ladrillo y totalmente reconstruida, donde se hallaban habitaciones destinadas a hospital de peregrinos y donde se ubica actualmente un museo de iconos.

The ancient basilica of the Virgen de la Peña stands in the Spanish town of Graus (Ribagorza, province of Huesca, Aragon). The current temple was built in the mid-16th century on a previous Romanesque building. It consists of a church, patio and pilgrim hospital with a beautiful cloister-viewpoint.

We suggest visitors begin their visit from inside the church. There are remains of the Romanesque building, specifically in the lower part of the gospel wall, where there is a small high door and smaller ashlars. The current building has a single nave with two sections, covered with triplet vaults (the one at the foot was originally star-shaped) and a flat head on which rises a polygonal tower topped with a spire. The chamfering of the angles of the feet of the nave is striking.

The entrance door has a semicircular arch and abundant decoration: (candelieri, coffers, angels, shields and garlands) and is framed by columns joined by an entablature. In front of it, the porch imitates its Corinthian forms. On its frieze there is the signature of Joan Tellet in two cartouches along with a small corbel that draws the observer's attention. There is also the door to the chapel of San Juan de Letrán and a staircase that connects the portico with the patio. The corner of the church makes us understand the interior chamfering, since if this solution had not been adopted the exterior buttresses would occupy the site of this staircase.

The hospital archway opens to the patio. There we see how the structure of this building supports that of the church. Another archway on twisted columns offers us a splendid view of Graus and the confluence of the Ésera and Isábena rivers. As we leave, going down the ramp, we will see the other corner of the church and once again we understand the interior chamfering of the nave, since another exterior buttress would have prevented the access path to the complex.

From the outside, differences are observed in the two sections of the church:

The first phase of the works articulates its panels with moldings and buttresses

the second, a work by Tellet, which presents smooth panels and corners.

In the hospital as a whole there are also two phases:

a modest four-story building (leaning on the church and on the entrance to the complex) was surely the first to be built and was to serve as the residence of the clergy.

a much more ambitious extension, with three floors: the first, with the archway of semicircular arches that shelters the access ramp; the second, with the viewpoint of twisted columns; and the last one, made of brick and completely rebuilt, where there were rooms used as a pilgrim hospital and where a museum of icons is currently located.

I used to feel I had it all in my hands, it all came crashing down on me, yeah,

With lipstick on my overall, and it makes me feel so over awed, I'm sinking fast,

La, la, la, la, la, la, la India yeah,

La, la, la, la, la, la, la India yeah,

Well, there's just something that I wanna say, and that I wanna say,

You always feel so beautiful,

I wish there's somewhere I could get away, that I could get away,

To somewhere warm and beautiful...

Hey, everybody here I am, I'm the only man, who's ever had a problem,

In the whole world, again, and lately I've no time for friends as I was before,

I'll be again, don't think too fast,

Well, there's just something that I wanna say, and that I wanna say,

You always feel so beautiful,

I wish there's somewhere I could get away, that I could get away,

To somewhere warm and beautiful...

Oh, you're so jealous of the things that I've become,

You know, that you can't come back this time,

You know, that you can't come back this time,

Well, there's just something that I wanna say, and that I wanna say,

You always feel so beautiful,

I wish there's somewhere I could get away, that I could get away,

To somewhere warm and beautiful...

Oh, you're so jealous of the things that I've become,

You know, that you can't come back this time,

You know, that you can't come back this time.

(Don't you know that you can't come back this time)

India - Puressence

DEDICATED TO ALL OF MY FLICKR FRIENDS!

Thanks for every View, Fave & especially Comments guys : )

Hi everyone!

This photo was not originally my next choice to upload, but as Valentine's Day

(Hearts Day) is upon us and this is a 'heart shaped' red leaf, I thought it was very fitting : )

This photo is SOOC (straight out of camera) except for being cropped.

The full photo is actually very pretty (IMO) but I wanted the focus to be mostly on the heart shaped leaf : )

(( I did leave some green leaves in the photo for contrast ))

This image was such a lucky catch for me, as I was using my older Sony HX60V and could not see the LCD screen in the bright sunlight while shooting this leaf.

I had to take a photo, hide my camera in the shade from the sun... study the small screen, readjust & shoot again... then repeat!

(( I now have a Sony HX90V with an articulating screen & a viewfinder... it makes a world of difference! ))

I found this batch of bright red leaves in the Autumn last year (November) and returned to it the next day, when the sun was very bright, to capture this particular scene : )

I always liked it but never thought it would be an image I would upload here, so I'm very interested in how the response will be to it.

Happy Valentine's Day to those celebrating it!

If you celebrate this day under a different title (or language), please feel free to list the name of it in your own language in the comments section!

I think we'd all love to hear about it : )

Have a great day guys and thanks for having a look!

I truly appreciate your time : )

CRUSH

“Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.”

Limnodromus griseus adults,

Morro Strand State Beach, Morro Bay, California

Most of us think of bird beaks as solid bone, but some species are able to move one part of the beak relative to the other, i.e., articulating. Flexing the upper is known as rynchokinesis (beak-movement) and occurs only in cranes, shorebirds, swifts and hummingbirds (Wikipedia), though not all species of each group. Flexing the tip of the upper bill, as here, is called distal rhynchokinesis.

Last of the abstract macro set (for now), featuring a profile of some ancient face. Is it coming apart or coming together? If the latter, there be trouble brewin'... so I find this image a tiny bit unsettling.

But obviously it's dissolution; obviously paint and rust can only collapse onto itself and end up in the ground, or scattered by wind. Obviously these are merely fantasy scenarios. And I think that is the point: to free up the imagination.

Tomorrow, a final, fond look at the old Pontiac in situ. Not that I'm finished with it; this is an ongoing, long term project. And my filmmaker friend George is now working on a short film we shot ten days ago of the car and me, during which I try to articulate some of my thoughts about the old beast. He even flew a drone over me - and the car - in spectacular morning light with long shadows as I knelt with tripod for this shot and others recently posted. That is always a challenge - to try to say something coherent about what I'm doing while I'm doing it. George thinks he has plenty of good material, and I'm providing stills. It should be interesting to see his take on whatever it is that I think I'm doing...

Photographed at Rosefield, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2025 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

let your mind start a journey through a strange new world. leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. let your soul take you where you long to be...close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before.

Erich Fromm

Ships that pass in the night,

and speak each other in passing,

Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;

So on the ocean of life,

we pass and speak one another,

Only a look and a voice,

then darkness again and a silence.

-Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Coffee is real good when you drink it it gives you time to think. It's a lot more than just a drink; it's something happening. Not as in hip, but like an event, a place to be, but not like a location, but like somewhere within yourself. It gives you time, but not actual hours or minutes, but a chance to be, like be yourself, and have a second cup.

Gertrude Stein

I appreciate your having a look.

“Matter rather than Forms should be the object of our attention . . . for Forms are figments of the human mind.”

-Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning.

“Thus, it was not only Greek words of which [Plato] was to alter the meanings, nor only Greek and Latin words. Love and good, for instance, are neither Greek nor Latin, and beauty is only Latin remotely, yet the spirit of Plato really works more amply in them, and in a hundred others bearing on the presence or absence of these qualities, than it does in such specifically Platonic terms as idea and dialectic. Let us try and trace the origin of some of the meanings which are commonly attached to the word love. As in the Mysteries, so at the heart of early Greek philosophy lay two fundamental assumptions. One was that an inner meaning lay hid behind external phenomena. Out of this Plato’s lucid mind brought to the surface of Europe’s consciousness the stupendous conception that all matter is but an imperfect copy of spiritual ‘types’ or ‘ideas’—eternal principles which, so far from being abstractions, are the only real Beings, which were in their place before matter came into existence, and which will remain after it has passed away. The other assumption concerned the attainment by man of immortality. The two were complementary. Just as it was only the immortal part of man which could get into touch with the eternal secret behind the changing forms of Nature, so also it was only by striving to contemplate that eternal that man could develop the eternal part of himself and put on incorruption. There remained the question of how to rise from the contemplation of the transient to the contemplation of the eternal, and, for answer, Plato and Socrates evolved that other great conception—perhaps even more far-reaching in its historical effects—that love for a sensual and temporal object is capable of gradual metamorphosis into love for the invisible and eternal. It is not only in the New Testament and the Prayer Book, in the Divine Comedy, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and all great Romantic poetry that the results of this thinking are to be seen.”

-Owen Barfield, History in English Words, 106–7.

/******

I desired deep,

one led the way…

by invisible hand…

I grasp…

and she gently…

guided me….

beyond my senses…

beyond space and time…

before thought…

before articulating…

before feeling.

-rc