Photography

Simple things

In Grafton Street, Dublin, you never get bored: an army of street performers takes care of your entertainment. Stationed along the path, they do their best to impress the by-passers and earn some cash. Grafton street is only 180 m long and 6 m wide, but that afternoon at least nine talented performers gathered crowds and made the street lively providing all sort of amusements.

The biggest and the most happily looking crowd surrounded a young couple creating giant soap bubbles.

Simplicity and magic of their performance was truly fascinating.

The little ones ran around catching the bubbles; the grown-ups just stood there, staring in awe.

Simple things. What our life would look like without them?

Cuteness of a baby animal; a delicate flower…

… a green leaf…

… a barley spikes moving in the wind…

“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.” – Italian actress Eleonora Duse

Even successful relationships are based on accumulation of the simple things that people do together. Simple like that.

One of my favorites – Zero 7 and their album Simple Things.

Zero 7 – Simple Things

Have a great weekend!

Mountain Grove

One of my first WordPress posts was the one about Jenkinstown Woods. Now, after a year, I am visiting another bluebell forest, Mountain Grove – a loop trail just outside Piltown, Co Kilkenny.

Mountain Grove is an old woodland part of Piltown forest that is located in South West Kilkenny, covering an area of 1,823 hectares. The forest stretches to the Tipperary border on the west and to the Waterford border on the south, along the river Suir. The main tree species growing in the forest include Sitka spruce, larch, Douglas fir, beech, ash and oak, with the broadleaves dominating in Mountain Grove – as you can see in the images.

Starting off from the tiny parking spot, I meet two dog walkers and from this moment I am there alone for a whole two hours.

The quietness is almost surreal. The birds are nesting and prefer not to expose themselves, and I don’t see any presence of the mammals either – dogs have scared them away from the grove.

The bluebells are scarce but nevertheless their fragrance is intense, sweet and alluring. I walk off the trail and feel like I disappear from the world and become a part of the wild woodland.

The Early purple orchid, once a common plant, is a rare guest in the woodlands. Many wild orchids are legally protected, but this fact does not stop people from picking them… A friend went to the Mountain Grove just three days later and didn’t find a single flower – all gone. People don’t realize that it takes years for the orchids to germinate.

The early purple orchid is the “long purple” of Ophelia’s garland, as referred to by Gertrude in Shakespeare’s Hamlet:

“Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, that liberal shepherds give a grosser name”

Different species of Ferns started unrolling their young fronds. In the image below – Hart’s tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium).

And of course there is a beautiful yet nameless stream.

I will be back!

Hope you enjoyed the woodlands.

Have a happy week!

Light, Water and Firmament

It is raining all the week: even the birds don’t want to sing any more. Everything is soaked with water. “Let’s there be light!”… There is no light, and the days a grey from morning to dusk. Not that I complain. It is a good enough time for photography.

I stop my car and take some pictures. Suddenly the hail storm begins, and in a blink of an eye the hailstones cover the front seat and dashboard while I am frantically scrolling the car window up. The hailstones are melting in my hands… My “models” run away. Oh well..

The firmament suddenly cleared and the light was restored. All the way across the pass, driving down to Clonmel, Tipperary, I had the voice of Lisa Gerrard in my head. As far as I could see, there was not a single human around. Low, heavy clouds and distant blue mountain tops; ravines filled with fog … This place is right for me.

I chose this video for my post – Gregory Colbert‘s study of interactions between humans and animals, and a beautiful song The Host of Seraphim by Dead Can Dance.

Now we walk down to the sea.

The sand trees are as fascinating as the frost flowers on the window glass.

Is it a message? I have a sinking and sobering feeling that there are countless messages of a great importance that we either miss or cannot read.

Lisa Gerrard – Seven Seas From album ‘Twilight Kingdom’

Have a peaceful weekend!

If you are feeling lonely

If you are feeling lonely like the Moon – make yourself comfortable and enjoy the space. Loneliness is not an isolation – you have never been closer to the core of all things. Loneliness is the time of your growth and evolution.

If you are feeling lost – look around. Introspect on where you stand.

Take a path and keep going. You have already done it many times in your life. You are an expert.

Just believe in yourself. And keep going.

Some things are bigger than us, so we yield to them. It is not always fair, but it is just.

A good song comes in handy when you are feeling lonely.

Til The Ocean Takes Us All – The Cat Empire

Have a good day!

Fairytale

Once upon a time there was a powerful Fairy Queen living in the Woods. She was beautiful but lonely.

Poor travelling musician touched her heart with his tunes… But there was another heart looking for love…

A girl living in the woods with a pack of wolves for a family heard him sing and fell for his voice before she ever knew him.

Love and Music walk hand in hand, you know.

So, the powerful Queen and the human girl both fell in love with the musician… It happens on a regular basis – there is nothing new under the sun.

And yet something has changed. Actually, everything has changed. Harmony was empowered with magic; magic was subdued by simplicity; poor girl married the musician and they lived happily ever after.