It is well worth the read!

You’re welcome!

Thank you, Shantha!🤍
Happy Sunday✨

Thank you, Matt! I think these birds are some of the happiest I’ve encountered😊 Happy Sunday✨

Thank you, Mary 🩵🫶
Happy Sunday✨

Thank you, Liv!🤍🩵
Happy Sunday✨

Thank you, Belle🤍🤍
Happy Sunday✨

This is a Pulitzer Prize-winning story of a family during and after the Civil War who represent many like them who struggle(d) with the consequences of trauma and its aftermath. The main characters are a 12-year-old girl, her mother whose traumas have rendered her incapable of caring for herself or her children, her Irish grandmother and her magical ways, and her father, a sharp-shooter in the war who has suffered a traumatic brain injury. It is a beautifully written saga of survival, resilience, chance, fate, and the bonds of love. Highly recommend!

This week I finished
Night Watch
by Jayne Anne Phillips
2023, 276 p.

I loved this book!
For a synopsis, see Alt
#BlueBrewBooks

It sounds wonderful, Susan! I follow her and appreciate her words in general. Thank you for the recommendation📘

I love this book. I began reading “Orwell’s Roses” because it was highly recommended in David George Haskell’s new book, “How Flowers Made Our World” and also discussed here briefly in BlueBrewBooks with Trina Carter. I was in search of Solnit’s writing about Columbia’s industry supplying roses to the United States. I continued because of the sheer delight of reading her essays, and then because of my increasing fascination with the similarities between Orwell and Solnit as they were committed to the wonders of nature and good writing. From there, as NPR notes in their review of the book, “‘clarity, precision, accuracy, honesty and truthfulness are values to him, and pleasures,’ (Solnit) writes about Orwell. But she might as well have been describing her own, or this book’s aesthetic values and pleasures as well.” So far, I’m pretty blown away. I’ve been reading the seven sections in any order according to my whim, and it has worked well for me. I’m about halfway through, and I’ve already touched on trees, roses, lilies, the writing of “1984”, and Orwell’s life in the Spanish Civil War and the London Blitz. It all circles round, again and again, to Orwell’s roses. I’m there for it.

#BlueBrewBooks

This week I’m reading

Orwell’s Roses
by Rebecca Solnit
2021 268 p.
plus notes and index

see ALT/text for more

Thank you, Rashi! This plant needs a lot of water and light, and thrives easily with both💜

💙🫶

You’re welcome!😊

Me and Taz caught a glimpse of the Sun Setting.
Here is to beach life.🏖️⛱️🍹

Nothing Else Matters🩳🏖️🍹☀️😌

Descended clouds and a tangled forest create something out of a fairytale (or horror book depending on your perspective).

#ForestFriday
#ColorADay
#BWFri
#GreatSmokyMountains

a dark and introspective self portrait lit with a single light, i tinted my irises blue while playing around in Photoshop to make them stand out better and add an exotic element after reading about the demise of Pluto from planet status to planetesimal

Self Portrait 'Pluto' (Benthic, 2011) -- Bushwick, Brooklyn, NYC

'God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another" — William Shakespeare

#HumansOfBlueSky ✨ #ClassicMono ✨ #Scape ✨ #ImageAndVerse ✨ #BWFri ✨

#Photography #BlackAndWhite #Monochrome
#Portraiture #ECK #JayceeCrawford

a rocky harbor at low tide reveals tidal landscape pools with crabs small fish and snails... in the distance on the horizon, the Porcupine Islands

'Outgoing Tide, Rock Pool' (2023) -- Tidal Sand Bar, Bar Harbor, ME

#Scape ✨ #ForestFriday ✨ #Stunday ✨ #MountainMonday ✨ #RockinTuesday ✨ #TidesOutTuesday ✨

#Photography #BlackAndWhite #Monochrome
#ClassicMono #ECK #JayceeCrawford

rough and craggy, dead and fallen trees and exposed gnarled roots, remnants of the previous winter storms and spring flooding partially obscure the hiking trail on the backside of Mt Kineo

'Beware the Jabberwocky' (2023) -- Mt. Kineo, Moosehead Lake, ME

'Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality' -- Lewis Carroll

#Scape ✨ #ForestFriday ✨ #BWFri ✨ #ImageAndVerse ✨

#Photography #BlackAndWhite #Monochrome
#ClassicMono #ECK #JayceeCrawford

A view of the facade of St. Vitus Cathedral (the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert), Prague, Czech Republic. There are people in front of the cathedral taking in the scene. In an attempt to include all of the cathedral in the shot, the perspective is quite disorienting with both the vertical and horizontal elevations not as expected. The building appears to be horizontal with the ground sloping away vertically in front of it. St. Vitus Cathedral is the largest and most important church in the Czech Republic, known for its French Gothic architecture. Construction on the cathedral began in 1344 but was not completed until 1929.

For Sabine's #PalacesAndGardens theme #outtakes A disorienting perspective of St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague, Czech Republic
In my attempt to include all of it in the shot 😀
#HumansOfBlueSky #UrbanGaze #prague #czechia #churches #photography #eastcoastkin

This image shows the Ring of Brodgar, a Neolithic henge and stone circle located in Orkney, Scotland. In front of the stones purple heather grows profusely. Above the stones, large white clouds and glimpses of blue sky add to the atmosphere. Built between 2500 BC and 2000 BC, it is the third-largest stone circle in the British Isles. Sitting within a natural amphitheatre of hills and surrounded by a ditch, 27 of the original 60 stones survive today ranging from 2.1m to 4.7m tall. The stone circle is 104 metres (341 ft) in diameter, The stones are set within a circular ditch up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) deep, 9 metres (30 ft) wide and 380 metres (1,250 ft) in circumference. The erecting of the stones and construction of the massive rock-cut ditch would have required considerable labour and organisation. According to legend, it was a religious shrine and possibly a place of ritual, while others believe the ring was built for the astronomical observation of the equinox and solstice. The site is situated on a narrow strip of land between the Loch of Stenness and the Loch of Harray. It is a major part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney UNESCO World Heritage Site.

#scape
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekOforOld
Ring of Brodgar, Orkney, Scotland.
A Neolithic henge and stone circle. Built between 2500 BC and 2000 BC
Believed to be a ritual or religious site,it may also have been used for astronomical observation.
Alt for more
#orkney #scotland #photography #eastcoastkin

So lovely, Nesrin💜

#UrbanGaze #scape #cityscape #Türkiye #Izmir #streetphotography #urbanphotography #lensculture #streetpic #travelphotography #photographersofbluesky #EastCoastKin #Bluesky

A forest with trees "wearing" their new spring green foliage, and with a multitude of white flowers all around. 📸 : Alexandra.

💚💛💚

Happy Friday, beautiful and peaceful weekend dear friends! 🍀🕊️

#ForestFriday

May you know your light gives others strength to bloom. May you know your presence is always creating inspiration and appreciation. May you know it and feel it with everything you are.

The shadow and the reflection with good luck to ride with you.

Here's Larry Little Grebes about to splash down like Artemis II at Stodmarsh Nature Reserve.

Corrine Cormorant was busily minding her own busy while speeding through the sky, sadly she didn't spot the 'Special Branch's coming up behind her to Nick her for speeding. Captured at Summer Leys Nature Reserve.

Jerry Jackdaw had been in trouble with the 'Special Branch's and the paparazzi wanted to get some snaps and gossip about what he had done wrong, but he had other ideas and went into a steep dive to get away from them. Captured at RSPB Bempton Cliffs.

Gabby Gannet was taking advantage of the strong winds but little did she know that the updraft would fetch right in front of the waiting paparazzi to get some sea shots while she was on holiday. Captured at RSPB Bempton Cliffs.

Time to take to the sky with some #BirdsInFlight on this beautiful #FlyDay, it's a good job birds don't need petrol or diesel to get around or they would all be grounded soon 😂

Here's Larry Little Grebes, Corrine Cormorant, Jerry Jackdaw & Gabby Gannet

#birds #ECK #ukbirding #CanonR5mkii #wildlife

Oh, the indignation!
Fun shot and story, Rob😊

Lovely, Graham💛

The last rays of a setting sun illuminate the right side of an emerging purple Azalea bloom with a second one visible to the lower left. The sky is a soft blue with light white clouds. Camera: iPhone 15 Pro.

The sun is leaving my little English garden now and it has been an above average day here. I hope my Bluesky friends have also got through the week relatively unscathed. The weekend waits.
#PurpleFriday
#Bloomscrolling
#FlowersOnFriday
#Azalea #ECK
#PhotographersOfBluesky