Tag Archives: beauty

Reiman Gardens: “Mirror, Mirror on the Phal”

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Last Friday – the day before the first day of spring – was windy but warmish. With hopes of buds on trees and new plants poking out of the ground, I grabbed my camera and headed to Reiman Gardens on the campus of Iowa State University. The discovery of the day was a special exhibit in the Hughes Conservatory: “Mirror, Mirror on the Phal.”

“Phalaenopsis orchids are like faces: if divided from top to bottom, one side reflects the other. Such symmetry occurs throughout nature. Just look around – mammals, insects, and many leaves exhibit this quality. Where can you spot symmetry?”

Reiman Gardens Website, https://www.reimangardens.com/exhibition/2021-patterns-unfolding/, 3/23/21.

“Of course, another place to see a reflection is in a mirror. The Evil Queen in Snow White made famous the phrase, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” We think nature presents us with the greatest beauty, whether symmetrical or not. We see it reflected in the drama of a sunset, the simplicity of a Phalaenopsis, and even within ourselves.  At the start of 2021, we invite you to reflect and seek all the beauty you can find. Even just by looking in a mirror.”

Reiman Gardens Website, https://www.reimangardens.com/exhibition/2021-patterns-unfolding/, 3/23/21

The reflections in the hexagonal mirrors were so much fun! I’m planning to go back some afternoon – rather than the morning – just to take pictures when the sun is coming from a different direction.

They have set it up for one-way traffic through the Conservatory and masks are required. But it’s not a large place, so I was thrilled when I was the only one in there. The last photo is looking back through the exit doors.

Hoping you’ll take a few minutes to reflect on all the beauty you see – especially when looking in the mirror!

Great Blue Heron

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A beautiful morning for a walk and for watching this great blue heron!  After startling him (her?) into flight when I got near the pond, I paused awhile to watch.

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Walking along the north bank of the pond.  Photo:  TLClark, 6/13/19.

When I wasn’t quite paying attention, he flew back to the south side of the pond to do a little fishing.

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Catching something small.  Photo: TLClark, 6/13/19.

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Posing.  Photo: TLClark, 6/13/19.

Crossing the pond again and this time I was ready!

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Great Blue Heron in Flight.  Photo: TLClark, 6/13/19.

After capturing a picture of the heron flying I continued my walk down the bike path.

On the way back I found him playing with his food … dropped the fish on the bank (behind where he’s pictured), picked it up, carried to the pond, rinsed it off, and finally swallowed it whole.  I wouldn’t have guessed there fish that big in the pond!

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Breakfast!  Photo: TLClark, 6/14/19.

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A Drink to Wash the Fish Down.  Photo: TLClark, 6/13/19.

Rather than repeat what others have written, click on the following links to read about this majestic bird:

Spring Leaves

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A few more leaf pictures from Thursday’s morning walk.

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Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.

So little!
So colorful!

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Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.

Such strange flowers / seeds hanging below the leaves.

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Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.

Such shapes!
Such texture!

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Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.

Leaves and sky and water.

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Leaves over Woodland Reserve Pond, Ankeny, Iowa.  Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Three of a Kind

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Have you looked, really looked, at leaves on trees in the springtime?
As in walk over to a tree and examine the little bits of green growing on the branches?

New leaves are AMAZING!

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Tiny New Leaves. Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.

Tiny and perfectly shaped.
Reaching for sunlight.
Connected to branch to trunk to earth.

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New Leaves Reaching Upward.  Photo: TLClark, 5/2/19.

Growing from branches old and new.
Unfurling as they expand.
Ready to dance in a breeze.

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*******

Thank-you, Nancy Merrill, for this week’s photo challenge:

… take three photos of the same subject, but from different angles or distances or whatever. This will give you the chance to look at your subject in a lot of different ways. This is the only rule, so have fun.

The pictures are from yesterday’s morning walk (to see post click here).  There are more leaf pictures to come!

Photo Challenge: Surface

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Thinking about the large aquarium in the waiting area of the Infusion Suite at Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, I grabbed my compact digital camera before we headed there yesterday.  Frank’s Tuesday Photo Challenge this week is surface and I wondered if I could capture the water’s surface.

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Aquarium, Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.  Photo: TLClark, 2/21/19.

I had to turn off the camera’s automatic flash, move around to get the right light, and watch for people appearing in the frame.  The bubbles as well as the reflections of plants and fish on the surface of the water in the large aquarium exceeded my expectations.   A bonus: the room being reflected on the glass surface of the aquarium.  A side bit of fun: an older gentleman offered to get me a fishing pole.

With my imagination primed and a camera nearby, I started seeing bubbles, reflections, or interesting textures everywhere I looked.

There were bubbles from a carbonated beverage on the inside surface of a paper cup.

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Bubbles in Paper Cup.  Photo: TLClark, 2/21/19.

As the docetaxel dripped its way through tubing into to my beloved’s veins, droplets clung to the inside surface of the top vial and air bubbles appeared on the surface of the liquid.

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Docetaxel.  Photo: TLClark, 2/21/19.

Light revealed the textured surface of a glass panel providing a bit of privacy for patients.

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Glass Panel.  Photo: TLClark, 2/21/19.

The glass roof below intrigues me whenever I walk by.  It was covered with snow on our visit three weeks ago.  Yesterday the surface reflected the buildings around it.

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Glass Roof, Pomerantz Family Pavilion, UIHC.  Photo: TLClark, 2/21/19.

Thanks, Frank, for a great challenge!

For those who are wondering, the chemo is working its magic with minimal side effects.  With all kinds of gratitude, Teressa

 

 

 

 

“The Wonderer” (6th Stanza: God)

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Photo: TLClark

Robert William Service wonders at “my Hand … my Eyes … my Heart … my Brain” in the first stanzas of “The Wonderer.”  Then he notes “You’re just as wonderful as I” and invites us to wonder and marvel at Creation.  In the sixth and final stanza, Service turns our attention to God:

If wonder is in great and small,
Then what of Him who made it all?
In eyes and brain and heart and limb
Let’s see the wondrous work of Him.
In house and hill and sward and sea,
In bird and beast and flower and tree,
In everything from sun to sod,
The wonder and the awe of God.

Wonder and awe.  Of Creation and Creator.

“In the beginning God created …”  Genesis 1:1

I understand the first chapter of Genesis as ancient poetry – beautiful, evocative, imaginative.  It is an invitation to take another look at the world and to wonder at our very existence.  As a person of faith in the current era, I am quite willing to stand in awe of the ‘Who’ of creation and not worry about the details of the ‘how.’  Nature is.  And God was at its beginning, is in its midst now, and will be present in all the days to come.

“Consider the lilies of the field ….”  – Jesus, Matthew 6:28

I invite you to look at a few flower photos (sorry, no lilies).  Notice the color, the texture, the raindrop or the shadow and to see the wondrous work of God.  Then gaze – perhaps at a person or pet near you or at the scene out your window – and notice other beautiful, marvelous works of God.

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Photo:  TLClark.

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Photo:  TLClark.

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Wildflowers of a restored prairie on a rainy day. The Morton Arboretum. Photo: TLClark.

This is the last in a series of posts in response to the poem “The Wonderer” by Robert William Service.  Read the whole poem by clicking here.

 

“The Wonderer” (Stanza 5 – You/Creation)

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In the first four stanzas of “The Wonderer” Robert William Service wrote of

  1. “the moving marvel of my Hand”
  2. “the wonder of my Eyes”
  3. “the wonder of my Heart”
  4. “the wondrous wonder of my Brain”

Lest you and I  think we are any less marvelous than he, the beginning of the fifth stanza of the poem assures us otherwise.

But do not think, O patient friend,
Who reads these stanzas to the end,
That I myself would glorify. . . .
You’re just as wonderful as I,
And all Creation in our view
Is quite as marvelous as you.

The pastor in me immediately remembered the words of the psalmist:  “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Ps 139:14a NRSV)  Not just me.  You, too, are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Nothing less than a marvel.

The rest of the fifth stanza – the way it is printed makes it look like it is not a new stanza – is an invitation to wonder.

Come, let us on the sea-shore stand
And wonder at a grain of sand;
And then into the meadow pass
And marvel at a blade of grass;
Or cast our vision high and far
And thrill with wonder at a star;
A host of stars — night’s holy tent
Huge-glittering with wonderment.

I searched through my digital photographs looking for sand and grass and stars.  I took time to marvel at the variety of unique flowers and wonder at the shapes of many individual leaves.  But flowers and leaves aren’t mentioned in this stanza of the poem.

I don’t take many landscape pictures.  Nevertheless I found a few photos that sort of reflect the fifth stanza of Service’s poem.  Hope you’ll take a moment to wonder or marvel or thrill – not so much at the pictures but of the memories you have of a sea-shore, a meadow, and the night sky.

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Beach, Golden Gardens Park, Seattle, Washington.  Photo: TLClark, 10/7/2018

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Sand on Fingers and Rock, Golden Gardens Park, Seattle, Washington.  Photo: TLClark, 10/7/2018.

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Meadow, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois. Photo: TLClark, 6/29/2013

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Blade of Grass after the rain.  Photo:  TLClark, 6/29/2013

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Epiphany Stars, Faith UCC, January, 2013

This is another in a series of posts in response to the poem “The Wonderer” by Robert William Service.  Read the whole poem by clicking here.  The first stanza is in my first post found here; the second is here, the third is here and the fourth is here.

Mud

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After all the rain this past week, my favorite bike/walking path had patches of mud.  It wasn’t as deep and widespread as what was left after the flash flooding at the beginning of July.  But it was still messy and slippery.

It was also kind of beautiful.

There were criss-crossing trails…IMG_7032

…and little mud-mounds formed from leaves.IMG_6961

Dirt and sand on the concrete path before the storms (from a child playing?) became works of art.

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Hoping you’ll find beauty after every storm.