Autumn Colour

Tulip Tree leaves

Parthenon

This is no Parthenon I build here

No libations or offerings shall I bring
To lay with its colonnaded serenity
Deities will shun it; other will mock it
But I shall marvel and take joy in it
Though its true be false to the eye
For this was built of my cunning
And to me it a wonder of my world

Triptych

 

A Triptych* (three panelled painting) of Pampas Grass (ok not a triptych in the strict sense of the word but similar) ok , ok not a triptych at all then

 

 

 

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triptych

* A triptych is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works. The middle panel is typically the largest and it is flanked by two smaller related works, although there are triptychs of equal-sized panels. The highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction was $142.4 million for a 1969 triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, by Francis Bacon. The form can also be used for pendant jewellery.

The triptych form arises from early Christian art, and was a popular standard format for altar paintings from the Middle Ages onwards. Its geographical range was from the eastern Byzantine churches to the Celtic churches in the west. Renaissance painters such as Hans Memling and Hieronymus Bosch used the form. Sculptors also used it. Triptych forms also allow ease of transport.

From the Gothic period onward, both in Europe and elsewhere, altarpieces in churches and cathedrals were often in triptych form. One such cathedral with an altarpiece triptych is Llandaff Cathedral. The Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, Belgium, contains two examples by Rubens, and Notre Dame de Paris is another example of the use of triptych in architecture. One can also see the form echoed by the structure of many ecclesiastical stained glass windows. Although strongly identified as an altarpiece form, triptychs outside that context have been created, some of the best-known examples being works by Hieronymus Bosch, Max Beckmann, and Francis Bacon.

 

Here's a real one

 

 

 

Master of Frankfurt, (Maestro de Francfort), Triptych: Sagrada Familia con ángel músico, Santa Catalina de Alejandría, Santa Bárbara, 1510-1520, Museo del Prado, Madrid

 

 

Bridge

But what may cross this bridge?

Surely vanity would glide
Mist evaporating under levelling sun
Pride would swim
Thrashing water churning haste
But I may cross this bridge
For I built its back
And it will bear me now
For I lighten with age

Garden 2014

Grapes and Walks

Gardening

What we create we love

Thought it tears aging backs
Makes hands stiffen into earth
Depletes rainy day war chests
In grand designs of caprice
And yet we carry on
Even if in the end of things
Wilderness cannot be restrained
Nature shall again, love it more
It is an innate state of all we tame
To always turn order back to chaos
No human endeavour lasts forever
But remember this
What we create we love
And that which we love is creation

Jewels

Summers tongues pickled and tamed

The artisan awaits now winter's will
His jewels adrift within a briny pool
Sit now atop the sunny windowsill

Garden September 2014

Fly agaric (poisonous hallucinogenic) - no mushroom risotto with this please

Long Tailed Tit
 

 

Thinking why can't I fly?

 

Grapes nearly ready

 

Garden September

 

2 Fine Lilies

 

 

Peacock on Cosmos

 

Coming in to Land

 

Honey Fungus

 

Halloween Toadstool

 

Perfect Dandelion Clock

August Garden

First pine cones on one of the conifers (20 years waiting) - large ones too, they're hanging off the tree like bunches of bananas

A Courgette (zucchini flower)

 

The Hosta flower

 

Blue Hydrangea and Corkscrew Hazel

Flowers and Macros

Toad (2-3 years old)

Tortoiseshell Butterfly

 

 

Newly emerged Frog

 

 

Spider macro - ok, yuk but still amazing 

 

Chain links

 

Begonia

 

Dahlia

 

Buddleia

 

Red Water lily

Garden July

Salvia

Oh, Salvia the summer Queen

In cottage border often unseen
Purple spire from green rosette
To flower till September set
Solace is given to the humble bee
Beauty the gift for you and me
With a nectarous elixir it espouses
To nurture progeny of royal houses

More Pond Pictures

The count of dragonflies (from the empty nymph cases) is now at 20. I think that's enough pond pictures for a while unless some of the adults return.