The Urban Jungle.Glasgow In October.

Everyone is inspired by different things.Some are inspired by the idea of wilderness with no sign of  any human habitation in sight.A building in the landscape is a distraction.Others by black and white photography.One of my friends who takes beautiful pictures prefers to use this medium  for most of his output.I like to see in colour and I try to find the wonder in everyday surroundings.For me some of my inspiration comes from a fusion of both wild and urban and I like the idea of the creeping Jungle,that nature is just waiting in the wings to reclaim any city given the chance.Hopefully this set of photographs will highlight this.

The autumn colours this year have been really vivid.One of the best displays I can remember,despite a lack of  certain nuts and fruits for the wildlife that depend on them.Horse chestnuts are so scarce this year that they had to send down a request to England for supplies to hold the annual conker tournament at Peebles.

This is a grey guarding his precious cargo from intruders.Some of the best autumnal colours take place in country estates and city parks as the trees have been hand picked from all over the globe for their colour and variety.People have risked their life's daily, striving after a pure vision,sweating through swamps,over mountain ranges and valleys worldwide to collect the treasures we often take for granted around us in every city park. That concept of what nature should look like,how it could be improved.Hi rise flats fit in very well with this outlook.Man made mountains, as impressive in their own way as any ruined temple sticking out the jungle.

Living in them has its compensations.This is the view of the Campsies from only four floors up.Imagine what the view is like on the 19th floor.Imagine the sunrise,sunsets and the mist inversions.

A view of the Kilpatrick Hills from the same flat.I still  remember the first time I looked through a Kaleidoscope and I knew with certainty then that the world could look like that sometimes.You just had to find it.

All it would take is one little nudge to tip the balance and the age of the strimmer,the lawnmower and tarmac would be over within a generation and the kaleidoscope would shift into a new pattern.

A row of shops that have burnt to the ground in a couple of unguarded hours during the night.Nothing is as permanent as it appears at first glance.Communities can change in an instant without warning.Being left outside the morning rolls and a bundle of daily records were all that survived.Well fired rolls of course.

Demeter and Persephone have never looked so beautiful together after a summer of unsettled weather.A last gift before winter.

A gift that can transform the everyday into the extraordinary.Would you have guessed this is Bellahouston Park?

Dogwalkers out for a last stroll before night descends and the frost crystals form over the puddles as Persephone sinks below.The end of days.Her yearly demise.

Which is why sunsets are so spectacular at this time of year.Her hair reflecting in the sky from the glow of fires that heat the underworld.What other explanation could there be?

Is this a recreation of Mount Olympus perhaps.All walled gardens have their roots buried deep in a mythic past.

Maybe that's a question best left for deepest hours of the night when the shades descend to feast on human souls.Cant you see the smile on the moon as he looks down? The world is still full of mystery and wonder.You just have to go looking for it
Todays video continues this theme.
Coco Rosie.  Fairy Paradise.
Two very talented sisters.When they get it right they sound like no one else out there.Completely unique and original.