Wednesday 4 April 2012

Aye, eye all around



The weather has been quite wet and rainy most of the week, March getting an early start on April showers, no doubt. The garden is moving along slowly to the promised May flowers and birds and critters are busy making a living.

Not a great week for photo walks so I did a bit of Spring clean up of my photo files and came up with this week's offering. A few of these may have been shown before, if so I apologize ahead of time.


This week the theme is about eyes again, but eyes in nature and in verse this time. The young mallard above, from last summer, was darting around the pond in front of the Planetarium, but keeping a little dark eye on me and my camera. The rooster below was very busy watching the hens, the other roosters and me.

"The eye is the jewel of the body."
Henry David Thoreau


"The eye speaks with an eloquence and truthfulness surpassing speech. It is the window out of which the winged thoughts often fly unwittingly. It is the tiny magic mirror on whose crystal surface the moods of feeling fitfully play, like the sunlight and shadow on a still stream." 
Henry Theodore Tuckerman



This Redwing Blackbird looks ready to chastize me for venturing too close to his territory. I liked how the reeds glowed in the afternoon sunshine.  The Anna's Hummingbird below reflects the red glow from the feeder. I may fill the feeders, but the hummingbirds still chitter at me and buzz me if I get too close at any other time. I once picked up a feeder to take it inside to clean and fill and surprised myself and the hummingbird sitting on the other side of the feeder; after a bit of a stare down the bird flew off.

I love the bright red Towhee eyes, I think it makes them look a bit comical though.



"With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things."
William Wordsworth



The female Redwing Blackbird, is so unlike the male, and this one was watching me carefully, I think I may have been close to her nest, which they build in in the reeds above the pond. A Sparrow stops foraging briefly to see that I am no threat.


"A beautiful eye makes silence eloquent, a kind eye makes contradiction an assent, an enraged eye makes beauty deformed. This little member gives life to every other part about us; and I believe the story of Argus implies no more than that the eye is in every part; that is to say, every other part would be mutilated were not its force represented more by the eye than even by itself."  
Joseph Addison


There are quite a few rabbits in the park, they forage in the grass and eat the leaves of the blackberry bushes, but they also have a very faithful group that supplies them with seeds, grains, pellets, carrots and vegetable bits.

"Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?" Groucho Marx


I don't know what this squirrel was carrying, maybe his purse, but this struck me as a funny pose.
"You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." Mark Twain


The compound eyes of a hover fly on an Echinacea flower (above) and below the "eye like" pattern on the wing of a butterfly. The butterfly picture was taken in a tent like structure that was very warm and humid, an atmosphere that the butterflies thrived in; I tended to wilt and went outside ocassionally to be revived in the cool air outside. This one seemed to be enjoying the fruit.

"Men trust their ears less than their eyes." Herodotus


The sheep and donkey are from a farm on Gabriola Island.

"The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the other hand, tends to be impatient, craves the novel and is bored by repetition."
W H Auden


The billy goat and horse I saw when I was visiting a local nursery, the horse was in a field close to where I parked.

This mama goat was having trouble with the "kids", they kept escaping under the fence.  Each day the owner would mend the fence and put them back inside and the next day they would be back outside again.





Well that is my spring cleaning offering.  It is fun to look through and air out the "photo closets" from time to time.

I have been rather lazy recently, partly to give my eye time to recover and partly because I got the cold/cough thing that has been making the rounds. Thank you to everyone for the good wishes following my surgery, I really appreciated it. I hope to be more perky and imaginative next week.



I did start on a couple of paintings but sadly nothing got finished; there is always next week.



Happy Whimsy Wednesday, until next week .............

33 comments:

  1. This is such a fun post. I enjoyed seeing your "spring cleaning" offerings. If they were posted before, I didn't see them. I think those kids might be my favorite. I enjoyed all the quotes, too. Have a wonderful day!

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  2. I sure wish my "spring cleaning" was like yours, maybe my back wouldn't be hurting so much! Such a beautiful collection of photos, loved the hummingbird and butterfly, but the "kids" are adorable!

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  3. I enjoyed this walk through your files, Gillian. :) Wonderful shots of the birds and farm animals.

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  4. I love how you showed us all these beautiful eyes in nature. Great post and I found it very imaginative. I hope you are healing swiftly.

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  5. Seems like you have to have eyes in the back of your head to see everything all at once when in traffic and such so it is best to take it easy and give your eyes a rest. It is such a critical thing to have vision yet some have had to manage without. I think there is more than one way of seeing the wonderful world around us. :)

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  6. Hello Gillian,

    Lots of fun photos here, but I especially loved the butterfly enjoying the orange. What a colourful and interesting shot! Herodotus's thought about trusting ears less than eyes was really interesting to me (with music background), as was Auden's opinion that the ear craving familiarity but the eye is bored by repetition. And finally, I Ioved Mark Twain's quote about eyes needing the imagination to be in focus. Yours always is, by the way :) Hope that cold is better soon!

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  7. these are all gorgeous! the rooster, the hummingbird and the horse were my favorites! beautiful set!

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  8. Wonderful images of all your beautiful wildlife... so lovely to see.

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  9. Hi Gilliam! Wonderful collection of birds and critters. They are all wonderful much too hard to choose a favorite, I loved them all and the Mark Twain quote. I hope you are having a great week!

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  10. oh my, love your posting today with the many variety of birds, the animals. I especially loved the rabbits.

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  11. lots of nice creatures. How can anyone choose? :)

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  12. Such a treat to see these critters close up. I especially like the bird photos as I never get good bird pix myself, and also because it's so tricky to get close enough to our winged friends to see them eyeball to eyeball.

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  13. Glad you did clean out your files.....these are great bird shots. Love your hummer, wasp on a flower....beautiful space you live in....some of these birds I don't see around here. Hope you have a good weekend. Chris

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  14. A delightful post...and photos. Thank you for sharing.

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  15. Almost feel like I've been to the zoo, so many animals! Hope you are soon feeling 100% Gillian.

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  16. So many fabulous photos. I just love that rooster. And of course the humming bird stands out as well..

    Hugs~

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  17. Beautiful pictures of animals/birds, well photographed Gillian.

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  18. What a fantastic collection, Gillian! Each time I thought I had a favorite, you had something more! I love the hummingbird! Awesome shot!

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  19. What a pretty set of photos. Lovely critters all!

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  20. what a pretty collection of photo's. i lost track of my favorite, it kept changing as i scrolled!!

    i do love the redwinged black birds, they are one of my favorites. i love the bit of suprise splash of color as they take flight!!

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  21. Beautiful photographs. I am greeting

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  22. The eyes certainly have it in this wonderful post. I never tire of seeing photos of critters and yours were all wonderful. Thanks for that.

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  23. Oh...I love them all, especially the butterfly!
    Kiss

    BlueShell

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  24. Lovely collection of birds & critters photos. Eyes are so expressive that can’t hide the emotion lurking inside. One’s eye is the window of one’s heart.

    Yoko

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  25. When I visit your blog, I always find a large collection of portraits of animals and plants. Since I am a city dweller, it's a great pleasure for me.

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  26. I feel like I just paid a visit to the zoo. Very nice. I've always loved the zoo. Have a very happy Easter.

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  27. What great photos, Gillian. I love the variety and all the cute furry and feathered critters. So glad your surgery went well--it is amazing what they can do these days. Take it easy--as you said, "there is always next week". Happy Easter, my friend. Mickie :)

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  28. HI Gillian, I loved your pictures and I glad to hear your surgery is over and you are on the road to recovery. Happy Easter and don't worry you will be painting again soon.

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  29. Your first photo is particularly majestic and I simply am in awe of your capture with the butterfly.

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  30. Great series of "eyes" and your photos are beautiful. I especially like the way you find appropriate quotes for each section.

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  31. You did present quite a collection of eyes in all these pictures. I liked the black squirrel. There is only one place around here where the native Eastern Gray Squirrel is coal black and those are in the village where I was born. I think it is a gene thing that malfunctioned.

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  32. they are all staring at me lol. great shots!

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