Post after post and barely a new photograph to be had. Sorry times, but in truth this month of January does not inspire. I look at the camera as I go out and mostly can't be bothered to pick it up, and rarely regret it. Little is emerging in the natural world, and I lack the time or motivation to look further afield. And most of all, the light is dismal just now, rendering the colours of the landscape the shades of brown and green drab which I associate with this time of year and which have little to recommend them. Reason tells me I can't complain, I am thankful for safe roads on dark mornings, and the milder temperatures mean a saving on electricity and firewood. The evenings are perceptibly lighter already, if the mornings aren't, and in fact there are catkins and a few leafbuds here and there, and I have a tentative feeling that perhaps we've come through, and it could have been worse.
But I have so been missing taking pictures, and I was happy yesterday (Wednesday) when the daylight revealed a crisp white frost, and a bright sun just loitering below the horizon, and it wasn't a work morning. So a walk around the garden was called for, in dressing gown with bare feet in plastic sabots, ending in wet hems to pyjama trousers, to catch the moment.
Ice often seems to me like nature making art. Frost suspends everything alike; growth and decay, living and inanimate, are arrested at the same moment, their forms preserved, delineated and enhanced. What appeared to be brown dead matter and other garden rubbish momentarily regained a new and bolder identity, and drew the eye afresh.
Stalks and seedheads,
all caught and commemorated before they turn to dust and earth again.
(I took a lot of pictures, so I'll put them up in several posts.)
17 comments:
These are most beautiful. Wonderful.
Icing, frosting, all decorated and encrusted.
Exquisite! And what dedication and inspiration to go out in robe, pj's and bare feet!
Oh, wonderful!
Wow..there's still some coldness there..how's the weather? Do you still see snow till Feb? I love seeing all the stalks in their icy coats..thanks Lucy.
lucy, you inspire me to take out my nikon a bit more often. these are beautiful, thank you.
i try to remember which ones i like best, so i can mention it in the comment, and one after another charms me and i realise that i love them all.
Fantastic photos, Lucy. You have an eye. Or have I said that before?
I love to think of you out in the frosty garden in your pyjamas and dressing gown... great shots.
I'm hardly taking photos either - same reason.
These are very lovely. Shame there's not one of you in your dressing gown and sockless feet - that's really commitment to your art!
The first five sentences provide casebook evidence of someone almost driven underground by SAD (seasonally affected disorder). Time to call in the shrink, get loaded or put on the clarinet concerto. Which clt cto? THE clt cto.
The photos are lovely and melancholy.
Well, apparently it DOES inspire. Especially like the frosted ones, which look part animal.
T.
When the seedlings and little sprouts appear, they will have photographs of their aunts and uncles to look at! Coming on the heels of your memories of the aunts at alton, I can't help but think that nature has provided us with a contrast here.
Ah, yes. The frost woke you. Lovely photos.
i confess i find it difficult to see in the blazing heat of summer and must force myself to "shake it off" when the weather--and harsh light--are not to my liking and i go blind for a while.
If those photographs are the result of lack of inspiration, I wonder what we can expect when you are touched by inspiration.
So glad you ventured out pieds nus, Lucy. These are glorious. I like the ostrich vigilance of the first one!
Thanks all.
I meant I'm not inspired when it's dull and grey, the frost was inspiring! I had to be quick mind...
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