Lavendar roses,
Incarnate fragrance,
Priestly hue of dawn,
Spirit unfolding.
Deng Ming-Dao
The thermometer said, 0.2C.
It was a still, cold, dark, morning, pre-dawn, as I pulled on my walking boots, tucked my scarf around my neck and set out for my morning walk in the muted darkness.
A tiny sliver of a crescent moon hung in the early morning sky, a new moon was but a day away.
I like to walk in the pre-dawn. The crispness, the unbroken day, the offering of so much to look forward to as the sun shakes itself loose from the horizon.
I don’t normally carry a camera in the morning, truth is I’d just rather enjoy the moments as they come. There is a blackbird at the moment who sits on a tv antenna and sings. I wish I could understand his song, but no doubt he has lots to tell his neighbours.
Two magpies yoddle at me from their perch above a street light. Soon they’ll be hunting on the wet grass below.
Deng says, that even on the road to hell, flowers make you smile. 🙂 You cannot, he says, force them to submit to your will.
I feel the same about light.
I reach the turn-around point of my walk. At the moment, it happens that sunrise is about that same time, so I walk out in the part darkness, and return as the light begins to play its magic over the shapes, form, tones, colour and patterns of the landscape.
It was so cold, that not only was there a frost, but a wonderful emphemeral mist rising from the river.
And so I stopped. Took out the ubiquitous phone, and wrestled with a composition over the chain wire fence at the river weir. Its been many months since water ran over the top, but the rains of the past couple of weeks have given the river a new lease of life, and as the water cascaded over the edge small clouds of mist added their own character to the moment.
As Deng says,
We should take the time to appreciate beauty in the midst of temporatily.
Until next time.
Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER - --doesn't mean I'm LOST 
Beauty and tranquility – a lovely image. Your last quote from Deng reminded me of the final stanza of a poem by Walter de la Mare called Fare Well. You quite possibly know it but if not, here it is:
Look thy last on all things lovely,
Every hour. Let no night
Seal thy sense in deathly slumber
Till to delight
Thou have paid thy utmost blessing;
Since that all things thou wouldst praise
Beauty took from those who loved them
In other days.
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Thanks Eleanor,
I remember the last couple of lines from somewhere, but would never have known the poet. Will look further.
Slightly connected to that thought is a discussion we were having the other day about the ‘permancy’ of some things. Such as the moon.
And how its intruiging to think that people, hundreds and thousands of years ago, gazed at it an were equally carried away by its presence. And here we are, thinking we are so advanced and the same moon gives us so much to contemplate. Or insert river, sky, mountains, ocean, etc for the moon.
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Beautiful thoughts, beautiful phot……which weir?
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Hi Cheryl,
RIverbend Historic Park, Werribee Vic.
37°52’44.1″S 144°38’40.7″E
Hope that helps.
DJ
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A beautifully expressed post David of your morning walk, and how wonderful to have water flowing again. We were glad for the few days of rain also. Yes it is all about the light, and how and where it falls, it gives meaning and shape to the unseen substance creating constantly changing vistas as it changes each minute of each day.
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Thanks Ashley, long time since I’ve really awoken early and gone out for the brillant landscape moment.
Hope your rain has had a good effect. At least give the water supply dams a top up.
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A beautiful morning and superb image! Lovely to see the water flowing over the weir again.
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G,day David, and its running a treat down at The Office at the moment. Ranger can’t get the 4WD over the old cobblestone causeway.
Melb Water is going to do some redevelopment just south of the freeway near the entrace over the next few months and eventaully Farm Road will be closed to traffic and the redirect will be somewhere further down, long term project but.
2 Burnt out cars at the carpark today.
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