Mountain Hare moves first

Chooses direction later

Move and see what's coming...

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Haiku ~ Mountain Hare originally appeared on Taexalia on September 14, 2011.

It's a while since we journeyed to Orkney, but it's never too late to share snippets from the journey...

Travelling along the main road (which by the by is two lanes - one in each direction) we saw a howe (hillock or knoll) in the middle of a field, and we stopped in by to make arrangements. Further along the road we saw the Barnhouse Stone, protected by fencing in the middle of farmland. As we travelled towards a narrow causeway between the Loch of Harray and the Loch of Stenness, we could see a landscape unfolding marked by stones rising from the earth, some solitary, some in alignment, some in groups and in the distance the hazy hint of a great ring.
The road took us past the spit of land where a couple of houses overlooked an insignificant hump - where recent excavations have revealed an important site described as a "stone age cathedral." Just last year gave up the only example of "painted" walls in a Neolithic site in Britain. The dig is closed until June, so we simply drove by musing about the way these islands continue to reveal our past.

And then the Stones of Stenness loomed before us and I was almost out of the car by osmosis... I stopped just inside the gate to take them in, their towering size and their placement within the wider landscape. These stones mark the oldest stone circle in the Orkney Isles, and one of the oldest in the British Isles. The whole circle was really an ellipse and it is believed this circle was never finished, with possibly two of the twelve stones never erected.

I walk amongst the stones and am immediately centred. I cannot see the modern fence lines, power lines, buildings... I see the stones in the landscape without clutter. They are welcoming and somehow peaceful despite the hard, cold wind that is blowing my fingers to ice. The stones have ragged edges and many lichens soften the aged shapes - the air is so clean up here.

I walk slowly and listen with inner ears and then I step towards the stone that speaks. I lay my hands to him at shoulder height and lean my body in so that my heels are off the ground and I close my eyes. The sense of spinning and the vision of a vortex offer to sweep me away, and for a few moments I let them.

Then it is time to go, and just as we are turning away from the stones, a group of three young men arrive. There is a smile between us as they approach, and I muse about the more than five thousand years that these stones have been connecting people as they stand in silence...

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Meeting The Standing Stones of Stenness originally appeared on Taexalia on June 14, 2011.

I found this little fellow on my garden path looking a bit dazed and confused. He seemed to be trying to get somewhere, but unable to fly.

Our bees are precious and they are under threat and I tried to help by sending Himself inside to dilute some honey with water on a saucer. I nudged the bee off my finger onto the plate and he immediately began to drink. It took quite a while for him to get his fill, but then a bees tongue is a tiny, tiny thing - can you see it in the photo?

Once he finished drinking, he climbed onto a twig I had provided and spent another wee while just resting before he flew away. I hope he's guzzling lavender pollen somewhere as I type...

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Red Tailed Bee Taks A Dram originally appeared on Taexalia on June 7, 2011.

I gaze out at the hazy blue sky, relishing the bright sunshine after days of wind and rain. I am up early, getting things done, energised. A movement catches my eye and I am mesmerised by the sailing shape of a Buzzard. This is the front window that looks over the town to the Forth and I am used to watching Buzzards out the back windows. I relish this unusual sight.

Then a Crow flies into the picture and swipes at the tail of the Buzzard, disturbing the smooth soaring motion. Another Crow joins in as they harass the Buzzard to move along. I cannot choose between them, admiring the Buzzard for its solitude and graceful flight and also the Crows for their gutsy defense of their boundaries.

Perhaps today I am more about the Buzzard, moving on and away from distractions and crazymakers...

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Flying Solo originally appeared on Taexalia on April 7, 2011.

Staying with the icicle theme because they will be gone soon enough, and I'm enjoying the challenge of trying to do them justice. The second shot involved lying on the floor under the window to get most of the 2' + length of the icicle in without a background of houses. It's a beezer! I had to shoot through glass too (there's probably a setting on my camera for that but I'm not that sort of a photographer).

I'm thinking about creativity and the way that some folk seem to attach to a creative person in an unsupportive way - wanting to make it a competition for instance... I'm not interested in competitive talk, one-upmanship or my photo is better than your photo... I just want to express myself and do my own thing, you know?

The icicles are a symbol of living in the moment, but today I kind of like their spikey boundary around my creativity.

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Ice Maiden originally appeared on Taexalia on December 3, 2010.

The icicles at my bedroom window today... They have an Otherworldy quality with the mix of sunshine and black clouds. Patience caught a drip in motion. Part of me wants them to stay forever...

The person I was yesterday is not the person I am today and in the next moment I can be different again, if I choose.

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Transient Pause originally appeared on Taexalia on December 2, 2010.

This is the view from my bedroom window this morning. But then again, the view has changed. The sky has since filled with dark grey clouds and I played with some photo editing software to get the orange horse effect. Can one improve on nature?

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December Window originally appeared on Taexalia on December 1, 2010.

Just playing with an image I grabbed yesterday... experimenting with software... thinking...

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Altered Tree originally appeared on Taexalia on November 28, 2010.

Doorways, gateways, arches, wooden doors with big iron hinges and locks, caves, animal burrows and places where trees meet across a path... These can all be liminal spaces, places where a transition is made.

I found a wonderful liminal space whilst walking at Lochore Meadows, Fife. As I ambled along the path and rounded a bend, I was taken with the vision of the natural archway that the Hawthorn and Scots Pine made, and the way they framed the Sycamore and Alder trees in their Autumn glory.

Another perfect Samhain vision as the threshold of winter slips past and we move into the darkness, but not without a last blast of vivid colour...

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Autumn Gateway originally appeared on Taexalia on November 1, 2010.

Samhain, Hallowe'en, the end of summer...

The life force is ebbing inward

The oak leaf is reborn with each new colour

When it is gone

The acorn holds

A promise

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Life Death Rebirth originally appeared on Taexalia on October 31, 2010.