Friday 8 July 2016

The Light From Stars. Photography. Art Works. Imagination.

                                               ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN
This is a mixed gallery taken over the last few weeks. Rain storms and frequent heavy showers have been a feature of this period as the air heats up and thunderclouds building during the afternoon humidity often release biblical downpours. The traditional seaside holiday resorts of the Clyde Coast used to welcome day trippers for a week or two during the "Fair Fortnight" when working class folk from Glasgow, Paisley, The Vale of Leven/Dumbarton/ Clydebank etc would get time off work to have a break.
Whoever thought of giving a holiday to families then,( During July and August as each town/district had their own staggered dates to spread out the population more evenly) must have known rain would be a major feature of that holiday in the UK ( and especially Scotland with its mountains) but maybe they wanted their workers keen to get back to work. Give them an extended break when the weather was more settled and predictable and they might not come back.
Most of my childhood holiday trips during the Glasgow Fair I enjoyed but it did seem to rain a lot and any woods nearby became lifelong friends. Also...if you stay still for a long time without movement ... things happen.... to your surroundings and inside yourself. You notice far more. Mystics have known about this natural effect for centuries as the brain always amuses itself when the body is static for a while. The elastic power of thought I first discovered then.   It was humid so thunder and lightning storms were common and intense heavy downpours could appear at any time, usually miles from anywhere and trees became important natural shelters to stand or sit under until they eased off.
Hordes of flies and midges descending on sweaty, rain chilled children at this time of year seemed perfectly normal back then as well. Real magic can be found at this time of year though... and captured on camera. Turning base metal into gold and ordinary everyday landscapes around my local district of Anniesland, Glasgow into extraordinary visions of beauty and delight. As above-so below.

When the afternoon thunderstorms do eventually clear they can leave wonderful skies and fluffy clouds behind in their wake, captured here with a cheap ( £3:50) pair of sunglasses held up to the lens to act as a filter.
You can then add artwork to the mix. A natural sunset with "Green Egg." And why not?

Or planets. A match for Saturn here.
Or maybe a blue moon sliding out from behind a cloud.
Or several.
A local fox on the hunt.
Skies become oceans of imagination, serene islands floating above with clouds as perfect mirror reflections in any water below and long lasting sunshine until 10:00 pm at night which turns an evening walk into a special journey of discovery and wonder all it's own. If you let it transform and do its work on you that is- meadows and green hills come alive under the fading rays as they are dipped in gold and bronze. That rare and illusive 'sparkle time.'
The deciduous woodlands of Bearsden hide many grand mansions with the sunlit Campsie Fells as a backdrop.
An unusual coloured duck. This is it's true colours, probably a mallard hybrid.... maybe....or.....
Colour drenched flower after rain.
Sometimes you can walk over familiar green hillsides around Annie's Land and the Templar Woods, remembering Red Town, the old mines, and the hunting forests of yesteryear as if it was a day ago it happened. Modern houses fade and Templar Knights with hunting horns are dimly heard in the forests below the slopes again.... if past legends be true.
With summer growth and numerous grasses four feet high in places it becomes a wild and tangled land again...
and you can easily slip inside a fairy tale world for a short time in your mind. Sweet "Tink" with dust to sprinkle over ordinary surroundings and inhabitants so that you see the mundane and average everyday surroundings as "special.".... and it's so easy to do with the right lighting effects provided by nature and the time to see it.
Just see the world for what it is today. This is heaven ..... now. A million angels would die in vain to live on this fair ball spinning through the multiverse yet we grumble and complain daily..focused on the everyday or the trivial... each seeing in inches it seems.
And we all exist in it.
And surely that is the real magic here.
I do believe in Fairies... and her name is.................. my companion on this walk :o)



 A nice video of the secret places and scenic gems Scotland has to offer. Not as secret as they used to be though :o) Best watched full screen.

















12 comments:

Linda W. said...

Love your photos of the fiery clouds!

Rosemary said...

Some lovely images here with lots of magic touches, but the view of the Campsie Fells has taken me back many, many years. We used to see them from our hilltop home in Milngavie, and loved to watch their changing moods during all the seasons.

blueskyscotland said...

Hello Linda W,
We get a lot of sunsets on the west coast. More rain than Edinburgh but nice evening clouds and rainbows as a consolation.

blueskyscotland said...

Hi Rosemary,
I have several friends up there in Milngavie and Bearsden who look onto the Campsies every evening. A smashing backdrop to have in all weathers.

Linda said...

Nice video and your photos are gorgeous! Here in Montreal we have had pretty hot and humid conditions and are due to get a lot of rain today. We need it, though, and hopefully it will break the humidity and provide us with more comfortable temperatures. :)

Mike@Bit About Britain said...

Fine photographs and a wonderful, at times almost lyrical, narrative to go with them. Sorry I've not visited for so long - still trying to get on top of commenting having switched to Wordpress and have settled on a kind of compromise. But, having put your blog on Bloglovin, it won't let me leave a comment. Aargh...! You're not the only one, either.

blueskyscotland said...

Hi Linda,
I've noticed here we wait eternally for heatwaves and when they do happen with humid sticky temperatures most folk can't sleep at night and end up irritable at work. The human condition :o)

Kay G. said...

Lovely photos as always. Now, do you really think you need to add anything to them, like that blue ball or green egg? I will allow it for now but I will scold you next time! :-)

blueskyscotland said...

Cheers Mike,
"almost lyrical" is the effect I usually aim for in posts :o)

blueskyscotland said...

Hi Kay,
As I take so many sunset shots every year I thought I'd put something extra into them. I sometimes place little extra items in my photos anyway that most folk miss so I thought I'd make it more obvious this time. I like them. Call it a David Bowie visual tribute if that makes you any happier... or a round ball for the number of times Adele said the F- word at Glastonbury.... for no obvious reason.
Next week a very colourful Katy Perry video- as she works in vibrant colours as well and I already know you like her :o)

Carol said...

I'll watch the video in a bit (I'm at work). Some really other-wordly skies there with your various tricks! ;-)

Our July and August used to be superb when I was a kid - red hot and we were outside all the time. June has always been wet though...

blueskyscotland said...

Hi Carol,
I use "tricks" to get around not having an expensive camera... hence a pair of sunglasses instead of a professional set of filters for bright cloud conditions and switching to sunset mode on the selection wheel instead of auto mode when its an evening shot..etc. I also like trying to capture vivid colours as I see them in reality so maybe it's my own internal vision that is wrong as I try to present the world as I see it through the camera. To me that is how I actually see the outdoors around me. An accurate depiction of what I am looking at... or as accurate as I can get it with the equipment I have as few cameras can capture everything in full detail exactly as it is.
As for the various sized moons and different colours.. The moon in its long history has been much closer to Earth in the distant past and might well have looked like that at some point... so that may be an accurate depiction as well :o)
Opposite up here... June usually dry, July and August loads of downpours due to the mountains and increased heat.