STELLAR JAYS return at SUNSET...

AUTUMN SUNSET by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) (excerpts)

The sun sets on some retired meadow, where no house is visible, with all the glory and splendour...

where there are solitary wings gilded by it, or some brook in the midst of the marsh...

just beginning to meander, winding slowly round a decaying stump.

We walked in so pure and bright a light, gilding the withered grass and leaves,

so softly and serenely bright...

I had never bathed in such a golden flood, without a ripple or a murmur to it.

Every wood and rising ground gleamed like a boundary of Elysium,

and the sun on our backs seemed like a gentle herdsman...

...driving us home at evening.

So we saunter toward the Holy Land,

one day the sun shall shine more brightly...

...shall perchance shine into our minds and hearts,

and light up our whole lives,

a great awakening light,

as warm and serene... 

and golden...

.... in autumn.

Photographs 2026

 

BRAVE BIRDS.....

"God is in the small details: in the simplicity of a bird's song, in the serene dawn, or in the first autumn leaf falling..." - Animal wised

                                    "Hold onto dreams......." - Langston Hughes

Stellar Jays, hogging the birdbath...

"More beautiful than the song of birds are their flights. Not every song is of joy, but every flight is of freedom...." -Mario Quintana

      Finch sinking his head into his feathers, being brave against the rain...

(Brave Hum  Hum in the twilight)

"Better than the sound of silence, only the singing of birds....."

-Aerton Guimares

"Faith is the bird that feels the light and SINGS  when the dawn is still dark.." - R. Tagore

Juncos.... buried in the Katura Tree leaves, hiding from  the rain.............

Flicker pauses in a rat- a- tat- tat moment...

"My wish is to stay like this forever...to live peacefully in a corner of nature...." -Claude Monet

     "Look at the birds of the air..." - Matthew 6:26

Flicker eats and eats and eats eats....while a Towhee ( minus its tail) gets away ( and lives to tell the tale!) from the clutches  of  neighbourhood  cats. Towhee hops and flies and swings around the trees, giggling at the cats below...very brave...

"Soar on wings like eagles. Run and not grow weary....." -Isaiah 40:31

"Nature always wears the colour of the spirit...." -Emerson

"Birds were not designed just to be beautiful jewels of the sky, but to serve as the eyes of heaven." -Suzy Kassem

Stellar Jays gobbling as many 

seeds as they can......they do NOT like sharing...

"Be as the bird perched on a frail branch, she feels bending beneath her. Still she sings all the same, knowing she has wings...." -Victor Hugo

 "I wake up every morning, FREE as a bird.." - Ashley Cole

"Tomorrow the birds will sing.  Be brave. face LIFE.." - Charlie Chaplin

                                 (Another Towhee with its tail intact.......happy and brave.... )

Photographs 2024

SOMETHING TOLD....

"August was smoking hot,then Sept walked in cool as a cucumber, and made her presence felt.." -Charmaine J. Forde

One of favourites:  "SOMETHING TOLD THE WILD GEESE" 

                                                            by Rachel Field (1894-1942)

Something told the wild geese it was time to go........

Though the fields lay golden something whispered " Snow"

Leaves were green and stirring

Berries, luster-glossed

But beneath warm feathers something whispered "Frost"

All the sagging orchards

Steamed with amber spice

But each wild breast stiffened

At remembered ice

Something told the wild geese

It was time to fly

Summer sun

was on their wings

Winter

In their cry..........

"You are the doorway to the season that awakens my soul.." 

-Peggy Toney Horton

"For all I can do is stand here in September's rain, savouring, soaking it all in, simply holding on to poetry for dear life...." 

                                                         -Sanober Khan (Turquoise Silence)

Photographs 2023