SkyWatch Friday

Similkameen skies from the past.....



July 1st, 2007



The 17th of August, 2008. A lovely evening for skies, - here are two more from the same day.





There are all sorts of marvelous skies from all over the world, - hop on over to Skywatch Friday and treat yourself to some wonderful photos.

ABC Wednesday

E is for Eventide



To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love´s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise on your lips. Kahil Gibran

Such a beautiful time of the day, but so easily missed if you aren't paying attention to how the light gently changes, sometimes with a glow; sometimes with a softening of the air; gradually the night descends and there is quietness and peace as the light dims.
 
Aurelious Fedor Van Kregten (1881-1937)was a self taught Dutch painter. He was for a time a student of Anton Mauve, upon whom he modeled his style. There were seldom people in his paintings, - he loved landscapes and animals, mainly sheep and cows.

Here is how he interpreted Eventide.....



and in keeping with this lovely pastoral picture an excerpt from Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard...

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds:

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower
The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.

Keep your eye out for Eventide, - it is a daily show. A time of long shadows and hazy hills. A time to sit out on the verandah with a cup of coffee and meditate a little.....

And for more E's visit here
at ABC Wednesday, thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt.

"Let me enjoy
this late-summer day of my heart
while the leaves are still green
and I won't look so close
as to see that first tint
of pale yellow slowly creep in.
I will cease endless running
and then look to the sky
ask the sun to embrace me
and then hope she won't tell
of tomorrows less long than today.
Let me spend just this time
in the slow-cooling glow
of warm afternoon light
and I'd think
I will still have the strength
for just one more
last fling of my heart."
- John Bohrn, Late August


Up at the top of one of the scarlet maples a small twig turns yellow, tipped with crimson.

The large sunflowers host a bevy of small birds, feasting from a plate of seeds surrounded by fading petals.

In the orchard they are picking delicious sweet plums, the apples begin to colour and somewhere the pears start to ripen.

Twilight comes early, and morning dawns late. This morning I was drawn from my bed just after four o'clock, and was treated to a lovely pre-dawn sight of the thin crescent moon, with Venus, a jewel hanging beneath it.

I love September, but 'let me enjoy this late summer day of my heart, while leaves are still green.......' and the asters and sedum and mums slowly prepare to slide into their brilliant autumn splendour.