A spring morning
A daisy glowing in the morning sun
Close up photography, is one of my favorite ways to photograph things.
For the past 21 days I have been very sick with flu, my energy levels are shot to pieces, and I have not been doing much cooking, (lots of juicing though), so no food to photograph.
It was such a nice morning that I thought I would go outside and lay in the grass to soak up some sun and pick my energy up a bit. So here I am laying on the grass looking at the garden thinking, I really should be weeding, but then I started looking at all the pretty colours and then the textures of the grasses and plants, and it was like an injection into the arm of life. Here am seeing another world away from sickness. Life everywhere, there were bees in the rosemary, crimson Rosellas in the blackwood trees, the was a crested pigeon wandering round eating seeds out of the lawn. There were little flies on the daffodils.
The flowers were giving off a fluorescent glow in the morning attracting so many little insects, saying come to me, I have food for you.
So here I am, laying on the ground getting warmed by the sun and starting to glow like the flowers, when I thought to myself, I just have to capture what I am seeing, was such a joy to behold. I picked myself up and went inside for a camera and then spent a glorious half an hour just laying on the ground photographing the beauty in my messy little garden.
It might be messy and unweeded to our eyes, but to all the bugs, and insects, and the birds and all the critters that live or visit it, it is a haven filled with life-giving food. And that’s how we should see a garden, a haven for life, not how perfect it is or straight the edges have been trimmed and what we “should” be doing. We “should” be enjoying all the beauty that comes to it.
So here is what I saw.
Rich colours to tease the eye, the heavenly scent of the jonquils, the shapes of the clover as the were getting ready to send their seed far and wide.
The teeny-weeny bird feather left behind from a visiting parrot, just blowing in the breeze.
Photos are copyright of Rachel Helmreich, all rights reserved.
Please click on photos to see them full size.
Clover, getting ready to spread its seed far and wide
Jonquils, whose scent is a delight to the soul
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
White clover, food for the bees
A newly opening head of a daisy
A little feather, left behind from a visiting crimson rosella parrot, just blowing in the breeze
6:07 am
Hi Rachel,
Thankyou for such a beautiful spring post. I hope you are feeling better, and your little morning jaunt with nature was just the recipe for a moment of wellness for you. Your photos depicting that moment in time are stunning and beautiful. I love those simple things in life, that most of us are too busy to see or sense. Thankyou for helping us to stop and smell the daffodils today. Thankyou for dancing with creativity and sharing the delights of mother nature, you took time to witness. All recipes are awesome, even the “juicy” ones.
p.s your addition of wordsworth poem was the icing on the cake:)
Muchas Gracias
Marieke Xxxxxx
6:17 am
Hi Miss Marike!
I am so glad you like a little of Bemboka, it truly has been stunning here,Hoping this finds you well