The world gives us so many beautiful views throughout the year that I thought it would be fun to post a thread we can use at any time, not just in the Fall. I invite you to upload any beautiful, instructive, whimsical, serious, or other images you find that reflect your experience with God’s environment.
For example, here is the sunrise out our front yard. We had an ice storm last night–if you look close, you may be able to see crystals on the branches. Snowblowing is more fun with views like this!
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I heard some sandhill cranes flying high overhead a few weeks ago as they migrated through our area. Never could see them, but they have distinctive calls when flying.
Yes, they come here in the summer too–they sound kind of prehistoric, don’t they?
Beautiful pictures, @MarkD. On a rotation in 3rd year residency, I stationed in Parker Indian Reservation on the Colorado River. There were lots of interesting things I learned there, but on a long weekend vacation, I drove through beautiful California all the way to the Oregon border, through Yosemite, Sequoia, Yreka, near the Shasta forest, and turned around just after the border. You have some beautiful country side.
I can never get close enough to the cranes to photo them–good job, @dale. thanks.
I’ve got some iOS Live photos of the cranes – they are in effect short videos in a format that is proprietary to Apple, I guess, and can only be shared directly using Apple’s Messages app, but I discovered that I can turn them into short .mov files, but losing the audio, apparently. Bummer. With sandhill cranes, that is definitely part of the enjoyment.
Putting them on my Google drive, I can share the links and post them here:
Another bummer – they are truncated. If anyone is more familiar with the genre and knows how to manipulate the files to share them better, I would not be adverse to learning.
The first flower of the year on our Camellia is always a highlight for my wife and I. Sadly, the rather washed-out images don’t do the brilliant red flower justice:
Not really, January in the south of England can be really bitter (though it rarely snows). Our Camellia usually flowers towards the end of January/beginning of February. However, this winter has been very mild. We’ve had hardly any frost at all and there is currently a couple of house sparrows building a nest in the lintel above our bedroom window!
Meteorologically speaking, Spring usually begins here late-February/early March. Although, I tend to measure springs arrival phenologically by the appearance/activities of certain plants, animals, and insects. That’s what the final line of the Haiku was driving at; if the camellia is in flower then spring is on the way (even if it is still several weeks away yet!).
I was last in England over 20 years ago, but our visits to the gardens of Devon and Cornwall were a particular treat.
Here in Ontario, spring comes much later than your spring (though it’s a big province, so it depends on where you are). Our earliest harbinger of spring is often the flowering of the crocuses, which usually comes sometime between late March and mid-April. They’re quite hardy little blossoms, and don’t mind a bit of snow around their feet (which they often get!).
It kind of depends on the year. Some years summer barely arrives at all, when it’s cool and rainy most of the time. Other years, summer comes by early June, with hot temperatures followed quickly by high humidity (which I dislike).
When Ontario was first settled by people from the British Isles and Continental Europe, the custom in summer was to wear the woolen clothes worn in places like England, Ireland, and Scotland – at least for people like soldiers. Trust me, when summer arrives here, you don’t want to see any wool!
Speaking of Cornwall, I took this photo from near the car park for the art museum we visited there twelve years ago. Many of the old stone churches are beautiful in themselves. But the light and water here feel very mediterranean.
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