Where, oh where did this glorious jewel of a day come from. 

The weather forecast said clouds and showers, but this morning I was first up and 'what to my wondering eyes did appear' but an upside down bowl of pure blue with just a few wisps of white like the remnants of whipped meringue dropped from a heavenly spoon.

After turning on the percolator the camera and I flew down the steps and into the garden.  Such bliss, - faint fragrances, long shadows and poppies shimmering in the morning sun.

Around in the shaded borders the delicate volunteers that have taken up residence crowd

 together in delicate cheerfulness.

The Abraham Darby catches the morning rays

The lovely new yellow rose lies shaded under its bright green leaves

A few new Stargazers open their petals to the sun

Down the path a little way, and the remnants of the peonies gathers itself together

 for a surprise day of sunshine.

The Philadelphia Orange flings its creamy blossoms against the heavenly bowl

I stop to admire the last of the iris to bloom 

and then to go in and retrieve a cup of fresh perked coffee to enjoy with

the quietness, the lovely mystical air of the morning garden

and the wonderful serendipity of this gift of sunshine

amidst days of lowering clouds and showers.

Skywatch Friday

Variable Similkameen Skies

Sunday evening, as the sun slipped away the skies to the north resembled an approaching forest fire....

The next morning blue sky and pure white clouds promised a fine day.....

By mid-afternoon things were looking troublesome to the south ....

Though the evening sun in the west lit the pasture a few miles to the south it was dark and foreboding.

and it's been raining off and on ever since!   The Optomist  amongst us watches the cherries ripen and knows by the time they are ready to pick the skies will have unloaded all their moisture and sunny cherry picking weather will be with us again....

For more worldly skies visit here at Skywatch Friday.

ABC Wednesday

The letter this week is the veritable V

V is for Vanity

One of the Seven Deadly Sins.

To paraphrase Wikipedia, Vanity is the conviction that one's own attractiveness to others exceeds reality.

This was not always the meaning of Vanity, - at one time before the 14th century it merely meant futility, and perhaps in the end that is what self idolatry is all about.

"The stories of Lucifer, Narcissus, and others attend to a pernicious aspect of vanity" - resulting in one becoming divorced from the graces of God(s).

Two famous painting depict the peculiar self-pride that is vanity, one by Frank Cadogan Cowper and the other by Titian.

Cowper

Titian

And poor Narcissus "As divine punishment he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool, not realizing it was merely an image, and he wasted away to death, not being able to leave the beauty of his own reflection."

But perhaps the picture that most morbidly depicts the reality of Vanity  is that of C. Allan Gilbert.

His picture is an optical illusion in which what appears to be a large grinning skull reveals itself to be a young woman gazing at her reflection in the mirror, reminding us that the passage of years will rob one of shallow vainglory.

An unsettling thought, but one that speaks to the virtues of humility and its comfort in old age.....

I am sure there are more cheerful aspects for the letter V at ABC Wednesday and you can visit them by clicking Here.