ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN
Whether we know it or not all things exist on Earth under the moving hands of a great clock.
In every country, in every city, town, village, and hamlet the great clock ticks...
...It ticks us into life .... and it ticks us out... rich or poor alike...
Ancient cultures built monuments like The Henge and Egypt's Nilometer markers to better understand the workings of its moving mechanical hands.... they also constructed lasting stone monuments to the solar battery that powers all life on Earth... the sun. Each questing cluster of humanity in different scattered locations trying instinctively to get a few inches closer to that earliest worldwide all seeing god.... the original light giver in an age of true darkness and savagery. In our myriad towns and cities, from continent to continent, soaring churches, chapels, synagogues, mosques, pagan temples, and even skyscrapers prove we are still repeating a modern replica of that early upwards homage today. We also used that handy golden light pouring down to mark time on the ground with a upright stick casting it's own shadow to denote each passing hour. Countless generations later- science attempted to explain it in more detail, removing some of the mystery surrounding the concept of Demeter, Persephone, Hades, and Helios. and gave us individual timekeepers to wear on our wrists...calendars to hang on our walls... tiny replicas of that great, largely unseen, still ticking clock.
Yet the wonder and sheer miracle of seeds planted in the ground coming into life at certain times of the year still remains and should never be taken for granted.
The first and greatest religion of all....that if more people still worshiped it...adored it... not just farmers...and revered it... truly treasured it.... as the all important life giver it surely is... we might just survive into the future...
Even a dim understanding of what this gives us should be enough...yet humanity in particular... seems not only capable of enhancing and enriching existing beauty... but equally capable of destroying it.. and ultimately us... as well...
Our greatest paradox... is to somehow overcome.... our own cruel thoughtless nature...
Rubbish in the canal...from a throwaway culture.
As a simple, mostly instinctive, life-form myself the visual wonder of nature's gift... is often enough for me... beauty and colour combined... literally grown from wet soggy winter mud in this instance... is that not a superior form of alchemy?
... to be able to walk in the footsteps of Persephone when she reappears each Spring is a huge gift indeed...with the golden god Helios smiling down... more than enough for me to enjoy and take pleasure in... observing her glorious scented lawns...her servants.... the bees, other insects and butterflies, doing her bidding without question. Do they enjoy it? Do they feel the same euphoria as me at all this daily splendour around them each spring or are they just driven by instinct alone?
... to plant seeds and watch them grow at the correct time of year is still a seasonal miracle greater than any dark church or glimpse of saintly bones in a crypt for me personally...
... as is sampling the rich harvests of Demeter.... a feast for eyes, soul and body....
and watching all other forms of life.... dance, hop, jump, crawl, or flutter around me... each with their own internal clock driving them on-wards... from birth to eventual death...
... and the powerful burst of hedonism of just being alive during Spring and early summer...' the rapture'
... by far my favourite time of year...
in this, the autumn of my own days... in this particular body....
but with the magic of thousands of youthful travels... at this time of year...
...still enshrined in past memory...
...with hopefully... a few more yet to come...
in the always delightful...
company of Persephone...
..............A cherished lifelong friend....and iridescent sparkling jewel...
This sums it all up perfectly... and best watched full screen... enjoy.
13 comments:
Lovely to read about Spring and view your lovely pictures - especially as it’s been snowing outside as I did so!
This is a lovely post Bob - both thughtful and very beautiful to view. Humans, but not all of then, are the only blot on our wonderful landscape.
I love spring too but I think it's joint favourite with summer for me - providing it's a nice, hot, dry summer!
For once, after a major bulb planting session last autumn, my garden actually looks as good as your flower photos in the various parks - it's a riot of flowers this year - first time I've ever achieved that in any garden!
I always think of the sun (and worship the sun) as being a giver of heat - I'm not fussed for the light as I love darkness too and bright sunlight just makes me screw my face up and squint!
Cheers Anabel,
yes, some 10 degree drop in temperature overnight and frost on the grass, pavements and cars first thing in the morning.
Thank you Rosemary,
even gardens are a form of clock as you can tell the month of the year just from what flowers are in bloom. An accurate visual calendar.
Hi Carol,
I used to like summer as well when I was younger but in Scotland in the mountains, (as you know) it too often means rain... or humid sweaty conditions...poor distance views... or biting clegs, ticks, flies, and midges...or these days crowded car parks and paths....or all five at once. These days I prefer quieter locations and lower levels where you get far more sunshine in a day without any pests. I also worked out years ago only one in four Scottish summers is a reasonable one although that seems to be shifting with global warming.
Can't go wrong with bulbs. For the last 30 years I've had an annual display of snowdrops in January,Crocus and forsythia in Feb,Daffodils in March, Tulips and hyacinth in April then blubells in May. This year I'm trying Cosmos and Californian poppies in the borders for summer so I hope it's a sunny one otherwise they might struggle.
I though spring had arrived last weekend. The chatter of birdsong, wild flowers blooming and walking in shorts. Then I drive home from the cinema last night in a snowstorm and its barely above freezing outside this morning
I'm desperate to grow some orange crocus but they never come up! Don't know why.
I'd forgotten about all the ubiquitous biting insects of Scottish summers - you're right, they do spoil it up there!
Some stunning images here bob - the match of the pink on the First bus with the cherry blossom is brilliant! Such a change in the weather from last week - I overheard a Mum saying that she'd had her little ones in a paddling pool on Sunday afternoon and building a snowman on Thursday morning!!
Cheers Andy.
Thanks for this blog. I have visited Glasgow a number of times, for both business and leisure, but I have never looked up or given much thought to its history and architecture. You have inspired me to look up more in both my home city and current city of residence (both developed on the proceeds of Empire during the 19th century) and pay attention to the details of the buildings. Instead of just scurrying along getting quickly from A to B.
Cheers Carol L,
might be an age thing or as you say being busy for work. When I was younger I didn't think too much about the history of the buildings around me or how things might have evolved to reach that stage but age, as well as having drawbacks has some benefits, and one is having the time to relax, attempt to understand, and do stuff before the page turns and closes on my own history book. Also decades of personal lived experience of how each UK city has evolved over time to look back on. I'm still learning and discovering though as it took an old drunk guy at a Glasgow bus stop recently, beside Central Railway Station, to point out the statue of Altas holding up the world on a nearby rooftop, having waited at that same stop hundreds of times before and never noticed it once.
Beautiful spring photos! And a deep reminder that we need to be a part of nature, not apart from it. To quote your perfect line, 'Our greatest paradox... is to somehow overcome.... our own cruel thoughtless nature...' If we love something, than why do we abuse it? When we are a PART of Nature, we then behave accordingly. If we somehow believe we are above or beyond or superior to Nature, then we disregard it, allowing ourselves to destroy what we profess to love.
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