I know there’s a tendency to promote the biggest as best – the greatest number of something, the largest something or the most powerful something.
I’ve read we live in the attention economy where businesses compete for our attention by promoting the outrageous, the extravagant or the ridiculous. They try to catch our attention with shock, fear and anger. It’s not very appealing is it?
So at the opposite end of the scale I thought I’d share this photo I took of a single plant growing on a rock in the middle of a pond.
Doesn’t it astonish you? How does a little seed find the inner strength and driving vital force to grow sufficient roots on the surface of a rock and stretch itself right up towards the sun, then at the top of that spindly but strong stalk it flourishes, producing a delicate, and delightful, little flower.
I often think Nature is astonishing and it’s usually something small but remarkable like this which catches my attention.
What catches your attention?
Heroes Not Zombies 
Another fascinating photo, Bob – thanks. There’s a famous landmark in the Scottish Highlands – a rowan tree growing out of a boulder beside the road to Glencoe, as it climbs up from Bridge of Orchy towards Rannoch Moor. It’s been there for decades – the mountaineers W H Murray and Hamish Brown have written about it in their books, and more recently there was a fascinating article about it in the Glasgow Herald in August last year. Rather larger than the plant in your photo, Bob, but it must have started very small, from a single rowan berry. So who knows the heights which your plant might reach?