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Category Archives: Postaday2013

Sunbeams, Hyacinths and Winter Sky

1 Just for a few moments this morning, sunlight found the slim trunks of our Himalayan Birch and made them glow.

Sunshine lighting up the white bark of the Himalayan Birch

2 I have ‘planted’ some hyacinth bulbs in water in the beautiful old glasses that were my Mum’s. She planted them up every year for flowers for my birthday and the New Year which is what I am aiming for. They are now all in a dark cupboard.

Mum’s old hyacinth glasses

3 Today was very cold, 4.5C, but the sky was very blue. In fact, it was a perfect crisp winter’s day.

Winter blue

NaBloPoMo

10 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 22, 2013 in Beauty, environment, garden, nature, photography, Postaday2013

Tags: Himalayan Birch, hyacinth bulbs, NaBloPoMo, winter sunshine

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unexpected

22 Nov

Meeting these two beauties last September in the National Trust car park for Kynance Cove in Cornwall, was certainly unexpected!

What a surprise to meet these two in the car park!

Find others in the challenge here.

NaBloPoMo

31 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 22, 2013 in Beauty, Cornwall, nature, photography, Postaday2013

Tags: Kynance Cove, NaBloPoMo, Weekly Photo Challenge: Unexpected

Lights, Reflection and Pizza

21 Nov

1 We were in Truro again this evening and though I don’t put our own Christmas stuff up so early, the city was beginning to look lovely. I really like these delicate snowflakes which are in all the streets. I’ll show you more as we get closer to Christmas!

Snowflake in lights

2 We went for a meal out before going to the cinema to see Gravity. I loved the reflection of the wine glass and the red wind on the table.

Reflection

33 My pizza was delicious!

Pizza

NaBloPoMo

7 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 21, 2013 in Food, photography, Postaday2013, Uncategorized

Tags: Christmas lights, NaBloPoMo, pizza

Peace, Pablo Neruda’s ‘Lemon’ and City of Lights

20 Nov

1 Today I have joined Bloggers for Peace. I like their philosophy.

Bloggers for Peace

2 I have long loved the poetry of Pablo Neruda and on the Bloggers for Peace blog found this gem from him that I hadn’t heard before. As one who loves cooking and words, I really appreciate this.

Let me give you one of my favourites, a really beautiful evocation of that lovely fresh fruit, the lemon. Read it slowly and you can taste the lemon as you do so.

A Lemon

Out of lemon flowers
loosed
on the moonlight, love’s
lashed and insatiable
essences,
sodden with fragrance,
the lemon tree’s yellow
emerges,
the lemons
move down
from the tree’s planetarium

Delicate merchandise!
The harbors are big with it-
bazaars
for the light and the
barbarous gold.
We open
the halves
of a miracle,
and a clotting of acids
brims
into the starry
divisions:
creation’s
original juices,
irreducible, changeless,
alive:
so the freshness lives on
in a lemon,
in the sweet-smelling house of the rind,
the proportions, arcane and acerb.

Cutting the lemon
the knife
leaves a little cathedral:
alcoves unguessed by the eye
that open acidulous glass
to the light; topazes
riding the droplets,
altars,
aromatic facades.

So, while the hand
holds the cut of the lemon,
half a world
on a trencher,
the gold of the universe
wells
to your touch:
a cup yellow
with miracles,
a breast and a nipple
perfuming the earth;
a flashing made fruitage,
the diminutive fire of a planet.

3 Tonight, in the wind and the rain, we have been to Truro to see the beautiful City of Lights Parade which warms the cold winter streets with the glow of enormous paper lanterns made of twisted willow and tissue paper. Here is a selection of the ones I was able to photograph. Click on any one to see the detail. The last one is the Tyrannosaurus Rex that I helped twist the willows for. It is made by Laura Frances Martin.

Tyrannosaurus Rex by Laura Frances Martin

13 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 20, 2013 in Beauty, Cornwall, photography, poetry, Postaday2013, sculpture, Truro

Tags: Bloggers for Peace, city of lights, Laura Frances Martin, lemons, NaBloPoMo, Pablo Neruda, Truro's City of Lights Parade, Tyrannosaurus Rex by Laura Frances Martin

Weekly Photo Challenge: Layers

20 Nov

We’ve moved the furniture, including the bookcases, out of the sitting room ready to decorate and the books all piled up seemed to offer themselves up for this challenge, layers of beautiful book spines.

Layers of book spines

Find others in this challenge here

NaBloPoMo

11 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 20, 2013 in photography, Postaday2013

Tags: book spines, Weekly Photo Challenge: Layers

Dalai Lama, Book Spines and Periwinkle

19 Nov

1 These important words from the Dalai Lama came into my inbox today:

If we are demoralised, sad and only complain, we’ll not solve our problems. If we only pray for a solution, we’ll not solve our problems. We need to face them, to deal with them without violence, but with confidence – and never give up. If you adopt a non-violent approach, but are also hesitant within, you’ll not succeed. You have to have confidence and keep up your efforts – in other words, never give up.

2 After a busy weekend with the Grandchildren, we have come home and decided to decorate the sitting room! As I cleared a bookshelf, the beautiful tooling on the spine of these little books caught my eye.

Golden spines

3 I love this very pale Periwinkle flower, flowering in the bitterest of winds today.

Periwinkle

NaBloPoMo

7 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 19, 2013 in Beauty, environment, flowers, nature, photography, Postaday2013, quotations

Tags: dalai lama, NaBloPoMo, periwinkle

Nasturtium, Help and Home

18 Nov

1 It was a typical November start to the day, a misty moisty morning* as we took J to school. It was so lovely to see him line up and be a part of the whole school experience, sadly no photo. When we returned I took this photo of a Nasturtium in the garden.

Nasturtium with raindrops

2 Walking down the hill to the tube train, I had help all the way from Grand-Baby T. What a little star she is!

Help with my case

3 It is always so good to come home!

*The weather this morning reminded me of this little nursery rhyme which my Mum always used to say on mornings like this and which I couldn’t remember in full so I have looked it up.

One Misty, Moisty Morning

One misty, moisty morning,
When cloudy was the weather,
I chanced to meet an old man
Clothed all in leather:
He began to compliment,
And I began to grin–
“How do you do?” and “How do you do?”
And “How do you do?” again!

8 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 18, 2013 in Beauty, environment, flowers, nature, photography, Postaday2013

Tags: misty moisty morning, NaBloPoMo, nasturtium, nursery rhyme

Busker, Ice Skating and Science Museum

17 Nov

1 On our way to the Science Museum this morning, T was entranced by the busker and took him some money.

2 Outside the Natural History Museum was a seasonal ice rink where people were having a lot of fun. I have always admired ice skating and even more, roller booting, something I have always wanted to try.

3. The Science Museum kept us all amused for hours! From Stephenson’s Rocket to the Apollo Capsule and all the hands-on activities for the children – it’s a brilliant place to spend a day.

NaBloPoMo

14 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 17, 2013 in Beauty, Grandchildren, London, photography, Postaday2013

Tags: Apollo capsule, NaBloPoMo, National Science Museum, Stephenson's Rocket

Park Adventure, Autumn Berries and Winter Festival

16 Nov

1. We took the Grandchildren to the park this morning where they had adventures crossing the stream and hiding in the bushes.

2. The autumn colours are gorgeous.

3. The local church had a winter festival and I have never seen a church used so creatively or so full of happy creative families. There was a bouncy castle in the middle of the nave and activities of all sorts for the children including the handling of a snake!

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 16, 2013 in Beauty, Grandchildren, photography, Postaday2013

Tags: NaBloPoMo, winter festival

Escalator, Reflection and Homework

15 Nov

1. We all went up to town today to see the new developments around King’s Cross. Grand-baby T loved being on the tube, the escalators and having lunch out.

2 The snowflake decorations were in the trees and on the walls and T loved seeing herself in the mirrored ones.