Hurrah for May and Becky B’s month of squares. The themes are burgeoning, move forward, reconstruct, renew to interpret how we will. The only rule: the header photo must be SQUARE.
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This photo is a view of very familiar terrain as seen from the upstairs windows of our cottage in Much Wenlock. It was a piece of landscape we looked at every day for sixteen years. What wasn’t familiar was this glorious copper light and that cloud come visiting from a Baroque masterwork.
It was early spring, the sun already up at 5 a.m. a time I rarely saw. And now here was the field, usually so plain in the flatness of main-day light, quite transformed. It felt like a parallel universe. So, I thought, this is what Townsend Meadow gets up to when we’re not looking, showing itself off in this magically theatrical glow. What have we been missing?
I never saw anything like it there again, although there were many other light and cloud shows over the years, usually at sunset. But it made me think. Sometimes it pays to break a habit. And if that unexpected view changed the way I saw the meadow, what other bigger shifts may be possible?
#SquaresRenew burgeoning, move forward, reconstruct, renew
It’s a beautiful light, Tish, and you make a good point about mixing things up a bit occasionally. I’d also forgotten that we’re starting squares again, so thanks for the reminder.
yay for square reminders as love it when you are part of squares
Txx
at extraordinary light, it is more like a painting than a photograph and reminds me of an artist but sadly I’ll never recall whose work it reminds me of as my brain doesn’t work like that.
You are so right too about breaking habits and looking at things differently – it is good to do that sometimes
It did look like a painting, Becky. No added effects needed 🙂
amazing, so glad you were looking out when you were
I think the light must have penetrated round the velux blinds and woken me up. These days I’m often awake at that time.
Change can affect sleep as much as light. One of the things I will be investing in is blackout blinds as suspect I may need them living in a town
Agree on all counts, Becky. Black out blinds are a must – even here in Bishops Castle. We have a street light right outside our bedroom window.
Yeah I think I will have one outside my new place too. Is yours on all night? I have yet to find out what they do in BoA.
Ours is on most of the night. Heavens knows why.
It is totally bonkers isn’t it – not good for us nor nature, and as for the electricity usage. I have just discovered that BOA has been doing some work to understand their local bat population, and whether they need to rethinking their light strategy accordingly. Main problem they have in making change though is the fact town council not responsible for lights, the county council is.
So bureaucratic bonkers just to put the lid on things 🙂
exactly
If only we could control the light…
That’s a big wish, Thom. But yes…
I’m not a morning person so I am sure I miss many amazing sights. Maybe this will encourage me to break that habit and climb that hill to watch the sun rise.
Ah, now there’s a good objective. Go for it! You’ll take some fabulous photos. Or simply absorb the moment 🙂
Such an interesting thought prompted by this beautiful landscape – what is happening in our everyday world when we’re not there to observe it?
You’re a fine advert for early rising. I am one of nature’s larks, and though I’m usually awake, I’m rarely up at 5.00. Here’s a lesson in why it’d be worth changing my habits.
I’m not altogether keen on early rising, Margaret. But once in a while…
Superb, both photo and the thinking behind it, Tish.
Thanks, my dear.
🤗🩷
I thought the photo was a painting in a museum. Really.
It truly does look like a painting, Jennie. It did ‘in the flesh’ too. Hyper-real.
🙂
A fantastic light show!
What a wonderful story… 🌅✨ It speaks to us not only of the landscape, but also of the capacity for wonder when we slow down and look at the everyday with different eyes. That coppery light, so unusual, seems to have opened a crack towards a parallel dimension, as if the countryside took off its usual disguise to reveal something deeper, almost sacred.
I was especially moved by this phrase: “What have we been missing?”-because it refers not only to the meadow, but to life itself. To what we ignore by routine, by lack of pause, by not looking when it seems that “nothing is happening.”
And what a beautiful closing: breaking a habit can be the first step to see not only differently, but to truly change. As the theme of the month says: to blossom, to move forward, to renew.
Thank you for sharing this image not only visual, but emotional and transformative. 🌾📸💫
Many thanks for that very thoughtful response. It concerns me greatly that we spend too much time in a trance; not paying attention ‘in the now’. It leaves us ‘malnourished’, and also vulnerable.