Flora & Fauna 2

Single Magnolia Bloom, high up on tree

This one bloom was twelve feet above me or so and just caught the light as the late aft6ernoon sun waned. The blue of the sky behind it lifts the whole thing and gives it its’ ‘Moment’ here. Nature is truly magnificent in all the endless variations of beautifulness it gives us, even as it uses its’ multifaceted design capability to actually do things out there and produce tangible results like growth and flower/fruit supplies –alongside oxygen for the Humans here. Wonderful.

Moss on branch

The different mosses on this elbow of the tree leaning out above the river below attracts the moisture coming off the surface and is a great environment for these mosses to flourish and grow in the sunlight that comes back most days to grace them beautifully for this shot. Wonderfully subtle hues here, and shape, and textures. The more you look the more you’re awed by the design and capability that goes into creating such awesomeness – available almost wherever you look,

Yellow/Gold Broom flowers in sunlight

This plethora of beautiful yellow hues of the Broom Shrub is everywhere as January approaches here in Scotland. The wind here is wrenching some around to see if they’re serious about staying where they are – the rest of them pushing ever prouder upwards and into the life-giving sunlight they came for. The dark greens of their parent bush leaves, with the spiky cactussy look and feel, gives the lie to the provenance of this particular rampantly ‘everywhere’ shrub/bush/treelet, as January approaches and becomes a New Year full of all sorts of good Promise which Humans around them, might just slow themselves down enough to actually see and notice, and appreciate – and be humbled by being surrounded by so much unfailing love and beauty – for our pleasure as well as for our essential lung oxygen supply. Clever scientists & horticulturalists have worked out the Broom & Gorse Shrubs can produce 21% & 17% protein respectively and the plants covering Scotland could easily be processed to feed the whole population of the Scottish Mainland. Elsewhere the same could easily happen with planting and management, So the only real question, in this world where we have to find sustainable ways to stop dealing in climate and Human-damaging meat production and consumption, will we please get on with it now !?

Daffodil Wood 1

This small daffodil wood is on the edge of a small farm on the west coast of Scotland and has all sorts of little places where these voracious sun-eaters vie for space to suck in as much life-giving sunlight as they can as SpringTime springs. Yellow white and a sort of dark russet colour are what you mostly see. Other plants seem to like co-existing with daffs and in the strong sunlight of midday, everything can look as vibrantly alive for real as in these eight shots or so. Impossible not to smile and sense joy when you’re surrounded by these blankets of optimism !

Daffodil Wood 2

This small daffodil wood is on the edge of a small farm on the west coast of Scotland and has all sorts of little places where these voracious sun-eaters vie for space to suck in as much life-giving sunlight as they can as spring springs. Yellow white and a sort of dark russet colour are what you mostly see. Other plants seem to like co-existing with daffs and in the strong sunlight of midday, everything can look as vibrantly alive for real as in these eight shots or so. Impossible not to smile and sense joy when you’re surrounded by these blankets of optimism !

Daffodil Wood 3

This small daffodil wood is on the edge of a small farm on the west coast of Scotland and has all sorts of little places where these voracious sun-eaters vie for space to suck in as much life-giving sunlight as they can as spring springs. Yellow white and a sort of dark russet colour are what you mostly see. Other plants seem to like co-existing with daffs and in the strong sunlight of midday, everything can look as vibrantly alive for real as in these eight shots or so. Impossible not to smile and sense joy when you’re surrounded by these blankets of optimism !

Daffodil Wood 4

This small daffodil wood is on the edge of a small farm on the west coast of Scotland and has all sorts of little places where these voracious sun-eaters vie for space to suck in as much life-giving sunlight as they can as spring springs. Yellow white and a sort of dark russet colour are what you mostly see. Other plants seem to like co-existing with daffs and in the strong sunlight of midday, everything can look as vibrantly alive for real as in these eight shots or so. Impossible not to smile and sense joy when you’re surrounded by these blankets of optimism !

Daffodil Wood 5

This small daffodil wood is on the edge of a small farm on he west coast of Scotland and has all sorts of little places where these voracious sun-eaters vie for space to suck in as much life-giving sunlight as they can as spring springs. Yellow white and a sort of dark russet colour are what you mostly see. Other plants seem to like co-existing with daffs and in the strong sunlight of midday, everything can look as vibrantly alive for real as in these eight shots or so. Impossible not to smile and sense joy when you’re surrounded by these blankets of optimism !

Daffodil Wood 6

This small daffodil wood is on the edge of a small farm on he west coast of Scotland and has all sorts of little places where these voracious sun-eaters vie for space to suck in as much life-giving sunlight as they can as spring springs. Yellow white and a sort of dark russet colour are what you mostly see. Other plants seem to like co-existing with daffs and in the strong sunlight of midday, everything can look as vibrantly alive for real as in these eight shots or so. Impossible not to smile and sense joy when you’re surrounded by these blankets of optimism

Daffodil Wood 7

This small daffodil wood is on the edge of a small farm on he west coast of Scotland and has all sorts of little places where these voracious sun-eaters vie for space to suck in as much life-giving sunlight as they can as spring springs. Yellow white and a sort of dark russet colour are what you mostly see. Other plants seem to like co-existing with daffs and in the strong sunlight of midday, everything can look as vibrantly alive for real as in these eight shots or so. Impossible not to smile and sense joy when you’re surrounded by these blankets of optimism !

Single stand of Daffodils in woodland on bluff

This steep little hillside has just one stand of Daffodils right in the edge where it can catch the sun moving across that bluff up there and get all the energy it needs. There will be many more stands as years go on. In Springtime, Life-in-all-its’-fullness finds a way to reach out to the sun in sure commitment to live in the light – while it may.

Green leaves emerging from bud 1

These weepy-looking green, almost wet, leaves, will get going and reach out strongly but for now have that kind of ‘hanging-down-look’ as they get used to being out of the constraints of the bud and into the freedom and wash of clean dry air and they start their journey towards death, at the end of their season. And all winter long, these trees have branches that are quietly developing the internal capability to push out zillions of these buds and their contents – at just the right time ! Where, actually, is the ’Real plant/Tree/Shrub ? Is it the roots, the stem, the branches, the buds, the leaves, the flowers, the bark the fibrous material inside the bark ? ? ? etc., It’s not one single part of it at all. It’s every single part of it, working in complete harmony with each other part, to produce all the various elements that end up giving the soil, the animals and the Humans, exactly what they need at exactly the right time ! Now !That’s! what you call an ‘Intelligent Design’ – and you don’t have any kind of design that could be called that without a seriously Intelligent Designer or Creator. Have a look at the 66 Books of the Christian Bible and find that Creator there, and all He says to us all, is clearly there for the taking – just like the fruits on His uncountable plants and shrubs all across our Shared Planet. “Your Very Life / Is A Reason / for Be-lief-in / El-Shaddai”

Green leaves emerging from bud 2

These weepy-looking green, almost wet, leaves, will get going and reach out strongly but for now have that kind of ‘hanging-down-look’ as they get used to being out of the constraints of the bud and into the freedom and wash of clean dry air and they start their journey towards death, at the end of their season. And all winter long, these trees have branches that are quietly developing the internal capability to push out zillions of these buds and their contents – at just the right time ! Where, actually, is the ’Real plant/Tree/Shrub ? Is it the roots, the stem, the branches, the buds, the leaves, the flowers, the bark the fibrous material inside the bark ? ? ? etc., It’s not one single part of it at all. It’s every single part of it, working in complete harmony with each other part, to produce all the various elements that end up giving the soil, the animals and the Humans, exactly what they need it exactly on time ! Now !That’s! what you call an ‘Intelligent Design’ – and you don’t have any kind of design that could be called that without a seriously Intelligent Designer or Creator. Have a look at the 66 Books of the Christian Bible and find that Creator there, and all he says to us all, is clearly there for the taking – just like the fruits on His uncountable plants and shrubs all across our Shared Planet. “Your Very Life / Is A Reason / for Bel-lief-in / El-Shaddai”

Green leaves emerging from bud 3

These weepy-looking green, almost wet, leaves, will get going and reach out strongly but for now have that kind of ‘hanging-down-look’ as they get used to being out of the constraints of the bud and into the freedom and wash of clean dry air and they start their journey towards death, at the end of their season. And all winter long, these trees have branches that are quietly developing the internal capability to push out zillions of these buds and their contents – at just the right time ! Where, actually, is the ’Real plant/Tree/Shrub ? Is it the roots, the stem, the branches, the buds, the leaves, the flowers, the bark the fibrous material inside the bark ? ? ? etc., It’s not one single part of it at all. It’s every single part of it, working in complete harmony with each other part, to produce all the various elements that end up giving the soil, the animals and the Humans, exactly what they need it exactly on time ! Now !That’s! what you call an ‘Intelligent Design’ – and you don’t have any kind of design that could be called that without a seriously Intelligent Designer or Creator. Have a look at the 66 Books of the Christian Bible and find that Creator there, and all he says to us all, is clearly there for the taking – just like the fruits on His uncountable plants and shrubs all across our Shared Planet. “Your Very Life / Is A Reason / for Bel-lief-in / El-Shaddai”

Field of Dreams 1

Whatever ‘The Dream’ is or can be - it stretches out ahead of us in uncountable potentials. ‘All’ we have to do is decide to walk into and through it and not shrink from whatever it takes to do that – if it means enough to us to do so. There is always ‘Journey’, There is always ‘stuff-to-get-through-to-get-wherever “There” is. What’s it worth to live at your best ? Have a look at what’s in front of you and decide if you will retreat or take on the challenge of going forward and finding out who you are and can be – at your best Just like these wild sheaves. Gazillions of them – between where you are and where you may want to choose to get to – and there always all sorts of other barriers as well, between us and the ‘Field’ we need to go through. No chosen destination that has anything of Good in it will come at less than the actual cost of getting yourself to it.

Field of Dreams 2

Whatever ‘The Dream’ is or can be - it stretches out ahead of us in uncountable potentials. ‘All’ we have to do is decide to walk into and through it and not shrink from whatever it takes to do that – if it means enough to us to do so. There is always ‘Journey’, There is always ‘stuff-to-get-through-to-get-wherever “There” is. What’s it worth to live at your best ? Have a look at what’s in front of you and decide if you will retreat or take on the challenge of going forward and finding out who you are and can be – at your best Just like these wild sheaves. Gazillions of them – between where you are and where you may want to choose to get to – and there always all sorts of other barriers as well, between us and the ‘Field’ we need to go through. No chosen destination that has anything of Good in it will come at less than the actual cost of getting yourself to it.

Leaves & Flowers out of bud on twig 1

When I first saw these extraordinary flowers and looked at the relatively tiny bud they came out of, and then the thinness of the twig/stem the buds are anchored in, I laughed out loud as the thought came to me there must be lots of small plant-assistants everywhere furiously going round tucking in these way-too-big-flowers and leaf things into the twigs so they can pop out at just the right time – how else do you get them !in! there in the first place ! Wonderful. I couldn’t design that and make it happen – could you ?!

Leaves & Flowers out of bud on twig 2

When I first saw these extraordinary flowers and looked at the relatively tiny bud they came out of, and then the thinness of the twig/stem the buds are anchored in, I laughed out loud as the thought came to me there must be lots of small plant-assistants everywhere furiously going round tucking in these way-too-big-flowers and leaf things into the twigs so they can pop out at just the right time – how else do you get them !in! there in the first place ! Wonderful. I couldn’t design that and make it happen – could you ?!

Apple Blossom on tree

When this blossom is out on the trees it is everywhere and a panoply of white and off-white fills everything you look at, and the smell sort of carries you on a small heady admixture of joy and an almost out-of-reach buzz. These delicate leaves are soon degraded as the air and sun, wind and rain drench them with life outside the bud, but for a brief while they are magnificent in all their whiteness and bursting glory as the sunlight halos them with love.

Buds opening for flowers to exit

This is the engine room of manoeuvre in the world of ‘let’s-get-going!’ At just the right time, for each individual bud, a command goes out and that specific bud starts to release its’ tension and allow itself to be prised apart so as to let out the flower that has already been pre-prepared to exist once that opening happens. Multiply that by several gazillions worldwide and you have something of the enormity of the awesome provision our Loving Creator, El-Shaddai, ahs blessed us all with – even before we get up in the morning !

The vines behind the fruits.

This mass of stripped bare thin long strong flexible branchlets is a maze of useful shape and juxtaposition of the very architectural bedrock for all the leaves and flowers that will start emerging from these thin wispy-looking things - at just the right time. Without all these essential elements being in place and working – from soil to branchlet – you can forget this years’ good growth and wonderful leaves and flowers and the massive gift that is to all forms of wildlife, as well as the sheer beauty of it all to the Human eye. Form and function, perfectly joined together.

Yellow/Gold Broom flowers in sunlight

This plethora of beautiful yellow hues of the Broom shrub is everywhere as January approaches here in Scotland. The dark greens of their parent bush leaves, with the spiky cactussy look and feel, gives the lie to the provenance of this particular rampantly ‘everywhere’ shrub/bush/treelet, as January approaches and becomes a New Year full of all sorts of good Promise which Humans around them, might just slow themselves down enough to actually see and notice, and appreciate – and be humbled by being surrounded by so much unfailing love and beauty – for our pleasure and for our essential lung oxygen supply. Clever scientists & horticulturalists have worked out the Broom & Gorse Shrubs can produce 21% & 17% protein respectively and the plants covering Scotland could easily be processed to feed the whole population of the Scottish Mainland. Elsewhere the same could easily happen with planting and management, So the only real question, in this world where we have to find sustainable ways to stop dealing in climate and Human-damaging meat production and consumption, will we please get in with it now !?

Bluebells in woodland

Uncountable Bluebells (and ‘Whitebells’) emerge unstoppably come Springtime. The UK has more Bluebell areas than the rest of Europe put together – not a lot of people know that !) The muted late afternoon light here brings out their delicate detail but, like Snowdrops, these are hardy plants and will come out early in cold weather and stay long through hot and windy seasons, only gradually dying out much later in the year than you may assume without looking. A field of these takes your breath away.

New Tree Growth

In between these two strong older tree trunks, a plethora of new green young twangy twig/stems/branchlets are vying for best positions to get as much of the passing sunlight as they can each 12hrs. The pale late afternoon sunlight brings out the subtle older patinas on the mature parts of this elderly tree . Extraordinary that even relatively small trees like this can suck up tens of gallons of water each 24/7 just to stay alive today !