RED IS THE COLOUR OF THE FESTIVE SEASON

Let us start off in the right direction and enjoy some reddish bougainvillea along our way:

We stop in to see some beautiful flowers in remembrance of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice:

Just around the corner from my home are these Erythrina lysistemon:

Some food is required, so visit a fish market along the coast:

As tea is welcome at any time of the day, I regard this as one of the most perfect Advent calendars I have ever seen:

Finally, a stained glass window to remind us of one of the many layers of this festive season:

Wishing all of my readers happiness, cheerful company, good food and a pleasant festive season.

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A RANGE OF PATTERNS

Whenever I scroll through my photographs I am surprised at the number of patterns that jump out at me. At the risk of boring readers with yet another lot, I have a few more to show. The first are raindrops on the grass. There is a great delight in these shining drops for we received some unexpected rain last week – enough to green up the grass on my unmown lawn and to give the flowers in the garden a ‘lift’:

After the rain comes sunshine and these patterns shining on the side of our swimming pool caught my eye. The pool was filled with grit and leaves after the rain:

Thanks to the ongoing drought, it is a while since I have been able to enjoy large marigolds in the garden. None of the many seeds planted this year have shown a sign of sprouting. Nonetheless, I enjoyed finding this picture in my archives:

I have shown several Eucalyptus trees of late; here is a closer look at the leaves of one of the trees growing around the corner from where I live:

Next is a picture regular readers may be familiar with. This is Bryan, the angulate tortoise that came to live in our garden for some time until eventually the desire to travel on overcame him. I love the pattern on his shell:

Lastly, I cannot resist adding this stained glass window:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RED RED

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt began a verse like this:

Red, red gold, a kingdom’s ransom, child,
To weave thy yellow hair she bade them spin.
At early dawn the gossamer spiders toiled,
And wove the sunrise in.

As red plays an important part in the decorations of this festive season, I thought we could start with a ‘red, red gold’ sunrise as seen from our bedroom window – beautiful enough to make one wish to rise straight away and see what the day holds in store:

The drabness of the South African winter is brightened by the arrival of the aloe blossoms in various shades of pinks, through to orange and hues of red – they are certainly worth a ‘kingdom’s ransom’ at the time for their beauty and cheerfulness:

Proteas too lift one’s spirits:

Once the scarlet blooms of the Erythrina trees are over and the trees shrug on their green foliage, which later turns yellow and then brown before dropping, we are treated to the bright red of their seeds revealed when the black pods split open:

On a practical note, warning signs are red. Occasionally one has to ‘make do’ as here when the planks brought home were too long to fit into the boot of the car:

Lastly, on a more aesthetic note, see how red brightens up this stained glass window:

PATTERNS: STAINED GLASS WINDOWS 2

Here are two more stained glass windows from the chapel of the Diocesan School for Girls in Grahamstown.

For all the Saints who from their labours rest is the first line of the school hymn.

Note: Click on the photographs for a larger view.

Patterns around us

It is really only since becoming the delighted owner of a digital camera some years ago that I have been able to indulge my interest in capturing some of the various patterns that surround us. Some we pass by without paying them much attention while others demand a closer look.

The complex twisted appearance of this tree may catch the eye of some – an even closer look could reveal some interesting patterns that can grow as much as your imagination will allow. Sometimes one can be surprised by what a pattern turns out to be – as we did when we found a Scops Owl sheltering in a tree right next to our tent in the Kruger National Park!

True, these are all trees well away from home. Even in the garden are patterns worth exploring though: this fungus appeared on wood which had been lying in the garden for years.

I think a truly fascinating pattern is this very close look inside a nasturtium flower – I have Barry to thank for this image, which is almost from an insect’s point of view.

Stained glass windows are another source of fascination, each has a story to tell and some of the beautiful ones I have seen may be aired in time to come.