Today hasn’t really been autumnal – much too grey and drear, where autumn should be all russet, yellow and rich earth tones. And of course the nights are drawing in, so the curtains have been drawn and the lights have been on for hours: it might be winter already.
Continue reading “not exactly summer”
Tag: weather
unawares
I miss living en el pueblo, where the skies were clear for so much of the year and I was always aware of the phase of the moon.
There, unless it was full moon, I had to remember to carry a torch to walk back from the village if I was coming home after dark. The Milky Way stretched high across the dark dome of the sky and we saw plenty of shooting stars even when there was no talk in the news of meteor showers.
Continue reading “unawares”
a world in a drop of rain
The other morning, after heavy rain in the night, one of the neighbour’s shrubs – perhaps a Cotinus coggygria – was covered in a silver sheen of water droplets, the effect of which I fear I have utterly failed to capture in the photos here.
I was reminded that when I first lived in California I was convinced that the weather there was perfect: sunny and warm all day and rain every night. I’m not sure how long I’d been there before I realised that in fact the song is right – seems it never rains in Southern California – and the cool green lawns were due to timer-activated sprinklers.
Continue reading “a world in a drop of rain”
last of the summer
It’s September already and although we’ve had a fair bit of sunshine this week, there begins to be a decidedly autumnal hint in the air. This morning, though, before the rain started, I was surprised to come across this glorious reminder that it really is still summer: not just a golden sunflower, but a – fairly well-camouflaged – bee.
Since I took the picture a few hours ago, the wind has got up and the rain has come in earnest, but I am safe and warm indoors so I’m not really complaining. Despite the temptation, then, I didn’t feel I could justify calling this post “last of the summer whine”.
day’s end
The day’s nearly over, but I still have time to publish a post commemorating the anniversary of the birth of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. The main image above is a detail from a stained glass window he designed for St. Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham.
I knew I had a photo of one of the Burne-Jones windows, but had forgotten that it was entitled The Last Judgement. Now its subject matter has reminded me of the sky I photographed one evening recently, which was a beautiful, if somewhat disturbing, brimstone yellow.
Continue reading “day’s end”
don't confuse the narrator 