It's all a dance as my day begins

The misty mountains (chi mi na morbheanna)                             click on photos for larger view.

Each morning if I rise early I can savour the silent moments just before dawn and on a clear day in Victoria (we do have a few), watch the rising of the sun from my hilltop. The cry of  gulls  fill the spaces as they swoop back and forth,  warming up for a day of foraging on beach and in parklands. Sometimes the soft honking of geese as they fly by will remind me of seasons and time passing all too quickly.

On a good day the clouds spread out like a celestial fan.  A  slowly creeping glow sets them alight as earth greets her constant companion and lord; old Sol, conductor of the dance, who unfolds his radiance across the sky and over the landscape.  

During the year the sun appears to move along the eastern horizon in a dance of his own alll the way over to Mt. Tolmie in Saanich and back again to the Esquimalt hills. In actuality it is our mother earth who not only spins day into night but  tilts and sways to and fro as she moves in her incredible  elliptical ballet through solar winds and epic space. She must dance to live, and to a music whose frequency our ears are not yet attuned.   I wonder if the angels hear the sound of her whirling passage as a loud swoosh or a vibrating hum.

In the pre dawn stillness I  too move through the rhythm of Tai chi steps and yoga poses.I try to listen to the breath of my own song of life and praise. As light begins to flow down the hill and into all the dark crevices  a day on earth begins it's own buzz and hum.  The thought of the harmonious om of the dancing spheres is soon drowned out  by another symphony; one of morning in motion with the gull's cry, the drone of cars taking people to work and school, hummingbirds arguing at the feeder, my things to do and the drip of the coffee maker as the dance goes on.

 

 

Sunrise Seasons



winter dawn over Esquimalt

And a deeper winter



 Brother sun breaks through the veil of an autumn morning

 

Misty Spring rising over the Gorge Estuary

Tequila sunrise in summer (between Mt. Tolmie & Mt. Doug with Mt. Baker showing through)

sunrise of another kind

Meadow dryad from  Visual solitudes

 

 

and check out my new page : Haunted Victoria  with Nina Simone

My photographic Musings

"praise be thou my Lord, with all your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun who is the day, beautiful and radiant, and praise to you through Sister Moon and the stars, in heaven you formed them precious and beautiful" (Francis of Assisi)


"And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two."
(dedicated to you my dear brother, much missed.
If only we could go one more mile)

My photography pages reflect my struggle with coming to a deeper awareness of my purpose and my relationship with nature in all it's wonder. I believe we have a physical and spiritual connection to the entire cosmos and to all those we are privileged to meet on the journey.

I have a love of travel and history and yet I also am enthralled with the technology of today and the ability to use it in an expression of art and creativity.
To this end I strive and know I have much to learn.

From a young age I took much pleasure in fairy tales and story telling and anything sacred and mysterious and I try to include these in my visual tales.

I hope everyone will always find wonder and magic in this world. We need only open not just our eyes but our inner eye and ears. There is always a message waiting for us.
I include some quotes that I find inspiring and that reflect my own beliefs
Jon Kabat Zinn and Pema Chodron are two of many teachers that have led me into a new direction with meditation and awareness. But I don't forget my old roots, and the Christian Mystics , some of whom  I became fascinated with as a child; Meister Eckhart, Francis of Assisi,Theresa of Avila, and the  modern Thomas Merton.

From childhood on I have had the dream of life lived as a sacrament. . . The dream implied

taking life ritually, as something holy.”- Berenson

 





A Promise of Spring

Oh wind, if winter comes can spring be far behind?

 

Study in Grey ( january day on the island)

 

pre dawn gleaming with Arcturus peeking from the clouds before winking out in the morning light

 

Selkirk Waterway

  

 

Heron Zen

 

Evening Beckoning



A Painter's Dawn

Just a short drive down Burnside Road East takes you into the Saanich area where you can find fields and woodlands and small lakes. Wildlife abounds so don't drive too quickly as a family of deer may be crossing the road before twilight and owls fly low with a loud swooshing



Through bushes and through briars




Farms and ranches are part of the scenic drive which lie just outside Victoria, BC.

Pastoral skies

I had to throw this one in though it was taken last year. I came across it in one of my albums as I was sorting - a young and solitary, moulting elephant seal that I almost stepped on at the beach last spring.  He was blissfully dreaming- but of what I wonder?  perhaps of when the seas were boiling hot,or shoes and ships and sealing wax, cabbages and kings?
anyway, a beautiful, silly faced creature who reminds us to take life slowly and to smile.

Blissful slumber- "e dolce far niente"

 

  

Dream studies

“Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” - Oscar Wilde

I sometimes use Gimp brushes by Obsidian Dawn and Frostbo

and have begun making greeting cards and prints of my images



the fairy queen

Morning is my beginning
^"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things" (Jesus of Nazareth)
This was taken in a field outside of Peachland in the Okanagan

The gardens of Victoria are delightful and magical and definitely enhance an evening walk on the estuary


Breathing the light of the garden
 










Night Falls on Fairieland

Fairieland Vespers

 

 

Tread carefully in the tulgey wood

 

The woods were made for the hunters of dreams 

 

Bravehearts in inclement weather

 

 

Almost Winter in Portage Park - Nov 2012


 

The peace of this place is always so soothing.  Snow berries line the path and  soon the winter unicorn will appear and finally a snowfall in the meadow. I can't wait.


I took the road less travelled and that has made all the difference  R.Frost

woodland magic

 More chapters for dreamers - dream shadows

 

 

for Christmas magic (from 2012)