Posts from the “Photo Sets” Category
“The leaves had fallen from the trees and lay crisp and crackling beneath his feet. Picking one up he marveled, not for the first time, at the perfection of nature where leaves were most beautiful at the very end of their lives.”
~Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling
*****
Photo by Sandra Peterson Ramirez.
“But my heart is always propped up
in a field on its tripod,
ready for the next arrow.”
~Billy Collins, Aimless Love
“To get back up to the shining world from there
My guide and I went into that hidden tunnel,
And Following its path, we took no care
To rest, but climbed: he first, then I — so far,
through a round aperture I saw appear
Some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears,
Where we came forth, and once more saw the stars.”
― Dante Alighieri, from Inferno Canto XXXIV, Robert Pinsky translation (1995)
Happy Solstice
“The festival of the summer solstice speaks of love and light, of freedom and generosity of spirit. It is a beautiful time of year where vibrant flowers whisper to us with scented breath, forests and woodlands hang heavy in the summer’s heat and our souls become enchanted with midsummer magic.”
― Carole Carlton, from Mrs Darley’s Pagan Whispers: A Celebration Of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality And Traditions Of The Year
“The best fantasy is written the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real…for the moment at least… that long magic moment before we wake.
Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli…fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer.”
~George R. R. Martin
“Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”
~Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections
We have some cactuses growing in pots on our back terrace. They are pretty and harmless, unless touched … or, so I’d thought. I had never really looked at them up close until recently. Robin took some photos of them out in the sunshine, thinking that I might enjoy them, and looking at the results made me realise two things: firstly, that I really like the aesthetics of cactuses, which I’d never thought much about until then; secondly, that we are harbouring an alien colony, which may or may not be planning to destroy us.
Nevertheless, they are tiny, so I think we don’t have to worry just yet. Having said that, anyone who ever read The Day of the Triffids understands that all it takes is a random catastrophe to strike humanity, permanently weakening our capacity for self-defense, in order for botanical horrors to take over our planet. And to think that people have been worrying about zombies all this time.
This one is pretty, I think …
“A trap is only a trap if you don’t know about it. If you know about it, it’s a challenge.”
~China Miéville, King Rat
“Alone. Yes, that’s the key word, the most awful word in the English tongue. Murder doesn’t hold a candle to it and hell is only a poor synonym.” ~Stephen King