Almost Heaven ...

Well, I've just been on the road ... for a long time (which is why you haven't seen me around for a while). But a week or two before I hit the road again, I spent some time traveling along country roads. If you'd like some accompaniment while you travel with me along my country roads, click the link below the photos and listen (or hum or sing along). And yes, I saw some of West Virginia, but that's not where these scenes are from. Hope to see you soon.

[update] perhaps it's my eyesight but the photos only appear to be in focus when I click on them vs how they appear in the post; is it me or are you seeing that too ?

An autumn evening

I couldn't conjure up appropriate words for this evening's display, so I turned to the muse.


An Autumn Evening

Dark hills against a hollow crocus sky
Scarfed with its crimson pennons, and below
The dome of sunset long, hushed valleys lie
Cradling the twilight, where the lone winds blow
And wake among the harps of leafless trees
Fantastic runes and mournful melodies.

The chilly purple air is threaded through
With silver from the rising moon afar,
And from a gulf of clear, unfathomed blue
In the southwest glimmers a great gold star
Above the darkening druid glens of fir
Where beckoning boughs and elfin voices stir.

And so I wander through the shadows still,
And look and listen with a rapt delight,
Pausing again and yet again at will
To drink the elusive beauty of the night,
Until my soul is filled, as some deep cup,
That with divine enchantment is brimmed up.

[Lucy Maud Montgomery  1874 - 1942  author of Anne of Green Gables]

It's a beautiful morning ...

... or I should have said it was a beautiful morning a few days ago even though my wife interrupted my (much-needed) beauty sleep to tell me of a sunrise that I should see. Knowing that the lifespan of a sunrise is usually measured in minutes, I was outside in a flash, camera and tripod in one hand while trying to remove cobwebs from my eyes with the other.

You might recall the song (click link below the photos) which came to my mind - and stuck around - while I basked in the early morning sun (and those of you who've been around my blog for awhile know that that's a rarity).

I hope your new week is off to a similar auspicious start !

Reflecting on autumn

"I loved autumn, the one season of the year that God seemed to have put there just for the beauty of it." [Lee Maynard]

“No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.” [John Donne]

“There is something incredibly nostalgic and significant about the annual cascade of autumn leaves.”  [Joe L. Wheeler]

“Time remorselessly rambles down the corridors and streets of our lives, but it is not until autumn that most of us become aware that our tickets are stamped with a terminal destination.” [Joe L. Wheeler]

Starry, starry night

Psalm 8
[3] When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, [4] what is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him?

Have you ever been out on a clear night far away from city lights and stared up at the stars ? We're lucky to be out in the country where only clouds can interfere with seeing them. A few nights ago I set out to capture star trails - this is just a small sample of the myriad galaxies and stars in the vast universe created by our Father. Who can look up and not be in awe ?

Take a few moments to listen to the song (link below the photo) while you count the stars (these were produced over a 1-hour period):