It's Still Life

1) Attention to detail. There is sheer joy in the beauty of noticing things. (the iron hinge on the village church door.) Things are old around here — I’m thankful that they’re appreciated.

2) Snowdrops in the church graveyard. Every spring they bloom over the heads of those below. No, it is not morbid or mournful.

I’m thankful for continuity.

3) Thankful to see this refractive lens image. It’s called a dewdrop effect. A raindrop, clinging to the bare limbs of the apple tree that both magnifies and inverts its surroundings.

4) The daffodils are open, and not by halves; flung wide, shamelessly, and thankful to have escaped the winter. Me, too.

5) Flooding has caused supply chain issues in the UK, particularly in the southeast, so I’m thankful to have an orange and a few grapes to munch on.

6) Witch hazel is notoriously susceptible to frost damage, soggy soil, pigeon pecking, too much heat, too little heat, too much wind — squirrels and mice. I am thankful that it braved winter weather. It’s one of my favourite plants in my garden.

7) Thankful for my beautiful, smart, kind-hearted granddaughter, Emma, who turns 18-years old this week. She was 3 in this photo, arguing with her nana—there are no mouths in feet (so she watered the blossoms and refused to water the roots).

8) Always thankful for new words: Gliddery, from glidder (to glaze over; to cover with ice) + -y. slippery, smooth, treacherous. “Two men led her down a steep and gliddery hill…” Thank you, Lorna Doone: a Romance of Exmoor. 1869.

9 Playing with my very old Canon camera, and being totally surprised by how brilliant it still is (and that it still works!). Just ordered a new battery for it. Thankful that Amazon stocks things that are difficult to find elsewhere.