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The connectedness of life

Posted in from the dark room, life, photography on September 4, 2007| 3 Comments »

It is impossible to understand anything in isolation. If you really want to understand something you have to consider it in its contexts or environments. I think that plants make that point beautifully. Think how a plant cannot exist all by itself. Think how it connects to other parts of nature in order to live, to grow and to reproduce.This time of year you can see an amazing diversity of strategies that plants use to spread their seeds.

Wind dispersal can carry the seeds to some pretty unusual places –

Some of those places are more useful to the plant than others –

A quite different strategy is to hook onto passing animals. I’m not sure if this is a Scottish term or not but we call these “burrs” –

These are such vivid ways of showing us the interconnectedness and interdependences of nature.

Humans are the same. We spread ideas, thoughts and even feelings. We can spread them deliberately, or randomly, but in neither case can we control where they’ll end up!

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Day Moon

Posted in from the dark room, photography on September 4, 2007| 4 Comments »

Day Moon, originally uploaded by bobsee.

The moon at night is often beautiful but when it comes up in the daytime I think most people don’t even see that it’s there.
Here it is!
Look!

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Ben Ledi Grey and Pink

Posted in from the dark room, from the music room, music, photography on September 3, 2007| 5 Comments »

Ben Ledi Grey and Pink, originally uploaded by bobsee.

The view from my window…….I find this very soothing.
I can’t see and a grey and pink scene like this without having one particular song play through my mind…..

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Celtic cross

Posted in from the dark room, photography on September 2, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Celtic cross headstone, originally uploaded by bobsee.

Maybe it’s because it’s part of my culture and has been familiar to me all my life but Celtic knots, and Celtic crosses are very appealing to me.
Probably one of my favourite symbols in the world is the “yin-yang” symbol but I think the Celtic Cross captures a lot of the same ideas as that Eastern design for me.
I love the circle around the cross itself which creates a very pleasing sense of something holistic but its the Celtic knots which I really love. I love tracing them with my finger, following the curves and sweeping lines, under and over each other, intricately intertwined. Such a strong sense of the inter-connectedness of everything.
I love how there are no beginnings and no endings.
And most of all I love the continuous FLOW of the lines.

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Patterns

Posted in from the dark room, perception, photography on September 1, 2007| 4 Comments »

Patterns in river and fields, originally uploaded by bobsee.

What caught my eye here was how the pattern in the river was so like the pattern in the field. Almost like a fractal or something. And the more I look at this, the more it pleases me.
It shows me how amazing the human brain is, especially at spotting patterns. We’re doing that all the time. They catch our eye and then we wonder “what’s that pattern about? what does it mean?”
I suppose we often don’t get the answers, or we don’t stop long enough to ponder to allow the answer to be discovered.
Here’s something to do today – what patterns do you see around you? And when you see one, could you just stop for a wee while and ponder it?
Tell me what you see

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Here comes autumn – coming to fruition

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, photography on August 30, 2007| Leave a Comment »

blackberries, originally uploaded by bobsee.

This season, moving out of summer and into autumn, is a time of berries coming to fruition.
These ones look juicy and ripe. They are the advance guard. The first to come to this stage.
Ripe. Ready. Just waiting to be picked and enjoyed. I never buy berries like this but I do enjoy them as I walk to work only at this time of year. This is one of the tastes of autumn for me.
What tastes, colours, smells, do you associate with particular seasons of the year?

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Here comes autumn – endings or beginnings?

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, photography on August 30, 2007| Leave a Comment »

brown leaves falling, originally uploaded by bobsee.

Look at this! I took this photo this morning (August 30th) – look how many leaves have turned brown and fallen already!
So its the start of the season of autumn (or Fall as people in the US call it)
Is this the season of endings or beginnings?
It’s the end of summer (OK, in Scotland we’re thinking “what summer?”) but its traditionally been the time to start a new academic year. In the UK doctor training jobs all start for the first time after graduating at this time of year.
Of course some of you will be saying every ending is a beginning and I’m sure that’s true too – its all about what perspective you view it from isn’t it?
But what does it say to you? On balance, does this time of year give you turn over a new brown leaf feelings of starting anew? Or does it feel a time of endings and loss?

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The geography of self

Posted in from the living room, life, photography on August 29, 2007| 3 Comments »

Thistle, originally uploaded by bobsee.

How do we get a sense of self?
I think “self” is created by the narratives we tell ourselves and others. We make our own sense of self from our experiences, mixing them constantly with our memories with our imaginations.
One of our key capabilities as humans is language and our ability to handle metaphors is at the root of this.
So, what I suggest you do is to see if you can become aware of the stories you tell yourself every day. The ones you create the sense of “Who am I?” from. There are many. Really many. But one that came to my mind was provoked by the sight of this thistle.
I took this photo of a thistle on my morning walk to work the other day. This is SUCH a powerful symbol for me. The thistle is Scotland. And I am Scottish. This place, this physical place, where I live, towered over by Stirling Castle high on its rock, surrounded by green fields stretching to the brown and grey and green hills, this is where I come from. This is where I belong. My family goes back in this town for a couple of centuries and more. I can feel my roots here. I feel sustained here. The energy, the colour, the smell of the air, the sunshine and the rain, the rocks, the trees and the plants, they all imbue me with a strong sense of who I am.
What’s your geography of self?
How does the place where you live, the physical environment in which you live, create your sense of who you are?

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The texture of life

Posted in from the dark room, photography on August 27, 2007| 5 Comments »

Weathered wall, originally uploaded by bobsee.

How aware are you of the textures of the world you live in? I notice colour a lot and when I have my camera with me (which is ALWAYS) it’s often the colour of something which attracts me.
However I am also VERY aware of textures. I realise my favourite clothes are probably ALL my favourites primarily because of their textures (much more than their design or their colour)
What catches your attention on an everyday basis?
Colour? Shape? Texture? Scent? Sound?

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