How good it was to find you, to read this and to see Orkney.
I’m just back in Devon from a fourth visit and have such wonderful memories of sitting on the cliffs at Yesnaby on our Ruby Wedding anniversary back in 2016 and imagining, that day, what it would be like if if the stack collapsed before our eyes.
How wonderful to find that tiny flower, and what a beautiful poem. On a recent walk I came across a marsh orchid, not too rare where I live, but I had never seen one in this particular location, which has become very boggy following the excessively wet, and warmer, winter and spring. Some upsides to global warming perhaps.
Lovely, yes we get them here too and they are springing up all over the place right now. I love how orchids seem to suddenly appear as if out of nowhere, when the conditions are right.
“gleaming like a bright jewel amid close-cropped salt-blasted grass” A bright jewel indeed, Samantha, enhanced by your carefully chosen words. One might think a 2-millimeter wide face could easily escape detection. Seeing their several faces, announced by visual heraldry, suggests otherwise.
I’m glad your friend came, encouraging an exit from your studio out into the summer sun. Thanks for sharing words and photos again today. I’ll take the winds you described as an appealing alternative to the start of our hurricane season.
“But our experience of the moment was enriched and deepened by the attempt to find the words to share it.
Seeing begets speaking and speaking helps us see. Good words make pictures in the mind. Writing can be as visual as painting.”
Thank you Samantha.
I find there are certain stories that live beautifully in my memory… because I chose to put thoroughly-thought-through words to the experience and wrote it down.
Yes I think that’s true, or both writing and drawing. I have old sketchbooks from years and years ago, and when I open them I am vividly transported back to that very specific time and place…creativity is, I think, above all a practice of careful attention.
This is so beautiful to read and to see--the brightness of the primrose, the blue day, the unlettered light. How gorgeous. Thank you for sharing it all with us. 💜
One can never quote enough Kenneth White poems. Ah, geopoetics and Orkney.
Indeed, a bracing combination!
How good it was to find you, to read this and to see Orkney.
I’m just back in Devon from a fourth visit and have such wonderful memories of sitting on the cliffs at Yesnaby on our Ruby Wedding anniversary back in 2016 and imagining, that day, what it would be like if if the stack collapsed before our eyes.
The flower is just beautiful.
I think that every time I see it - somehow it looks precarious, like a tower of newspapers ready to slide into the sea at any moment...
“Seeing begets speaking and speaking helps us see.” Such a beautiful and true statement.
Writing and drawing belong in there too somewhere, don't you think?
Absolutely. Sometimes seeing begets other forms of wordless communication.
How wonderful to find that tiny flower, and what a beautiful poem. On a recent walk I came across a marsh orchid, not too rare where I live, but I had never seen one in this particular location, which has become very boggy following the excessively wet, and warmer, winter and spring. Some upsides to global warming perhaps.
Lovely, yes we get them here too and they are springing up all over the place right now. I love how orchids seem to suddenly appear as if out of nowhere, when the conditions are right.
“gleaming like a bright jewel amid close-cropped salt-blasted grass” A bright jewel indeed, Samantha, enhanced by your carefully chosen words. One might think a 2-millimeter wide face could easily escape detection. Seeing their several faces, announced by visual heraldry, suggests otherwise.
I’m glad your friend came, encouraging an exit from your studio out into the summer sun. Thanks for sharing words and photos again today. I’ll take the winds you described as an appealing alternative to the start of our hurricane season.
I thought so too, but the colour was so intense it sang out, right beside the worn footpath we were walking on.
“But our experience of the moment was enriched and deepened by the attempt to find the words to share it.
Seeing begets speaking and speaking helps us see. Good words make pictures in the mind. Writing can be as visual as painting.”
Thank you Samantha.
I find there are certain stories that live beautifully in my memory… because I chose to put thoroughly-thought-through words to the experience and wrote it down.
Yes I think that’s true, or both writing and drawing. I have old sketchbooks from years and years ago, and when I open them I am vividly transported back to that very specific time and place…creativity is, I think, above all a practice of careful attention.
Sharing because I “read” this photography piece this morning and it seems very much in synchrony with our conversation.
If you haven’t seen, you might appreciate. :)
https://open.substack.com/pub/poeticoutlaws/p/a-journey-through-old-florida?r=19lbt&utm_medium=ios
Wow, beautiful - and you couldn't get much more different from Orkney! Thank yu for sharing!
My pleasure!
This is so beautiful to read and to see--the brightness of the primrose, the blue day, the unlettered light. How gorgeous. Thank you for sharing it all with us. 💜