“The formed stone, the visible crucifix,
The dressed altar, the lifting light,
LIght
Light
The visible reminder of Invisible Light.”
T S Eliot (1934)
#photography #altar #IonaAbbey #IsleOfIona #Scotland #islands #Abbey #marble #IonaMarble #PotD #poetry #TSEliot
“Sunset drives a butcher blade
In the day’s throat.
We turn through an ebb salt and sticky as blood.”
George Mackay Brown (1954)
#photography #sunset #sunrise #clouds #golden #PotD #poetry #GeorgeMackayBrown #seascape #IsleOfIona #WestCoast #Scotland #islands #horizon #ablaze
Iona Abbey in the sun with Mull in the distance on a sunny day
“On Iona the last Gaelic speaker has died.
This winter when the gales battled each roof and window
He was blown out and into the wind.”
Kenneth Steven (1995)
#photography #IsleOfIona #Iona #Gaelic #IonaAbbey #Abbey #poem #Steven #Scotland #WesternIsles #Mull #PotD
“Were he to count a thousand, a hundred
Thousand sheep, they would all be scraggy
and stare at him with the stare
Of refugees, outraged and sullen”
Louis MacNeice (1952)
#photography #sheep #Iona #Mull #SoundOfIona #IsleOfIona #Poetry #MacNeice #sky #clouds #seascape #Scotland #WesternIsles
“But here’s the question: are the flower and fruit
held out to us in love, or merely thrust
up at us, their masters, like a fist?”
Don Paterson (2006)
#photography #flowers #PotD #IonaAbbey #IsleOfIona #CelticCross #StoneCross #Poetry #DonPaterson #Scotland
“Your beauty
shines with age
like a boat in the bay
fishing in the blaze
of a last sunset.”
Iain Crichton Smith (1984)
#photography #Mull #Fionnphort #IsleofIona #Iona #SoundOfIona #poetry #IainChrichtonSmith #Scotland #WesternIsles #MoodySky #boats #sailboat #PotD
“This wood burns a dark
Incense. Pale moss drips
In elbow-scarves, beards
From the archaic
Bones of the great trees.”
Sylvia Plath (1959)
#photography #trees #boughs #moss #church #IsleOfIona #HeritageCentre #Iona #Island #PotD #poetry #SylviaPlath #Scotland #WesternIsles #Mull #TheHighlands
“ August 14, 1973
Dear Gary [Snyder]:
Went walking to Iona Abbey ...
… Iona peaceful magic isle.
Love
Allen Ginsberg”
#photography #IsleOfIona #IonaAbbey #thistle #AllenGinsberg #GarySnyder #BeatPoets #Scotland #Highlands #island #WesternIsles #PotD
“Mosses do not hurry, but instead settle into a place and make it their own. They create a world where little things thrive, a lush green universe scaled to beetles and ants.”
Robin Kimmerer (2003)
#photography #moss #lichen #QuoteOfTheDay #IsleOfIona #MacroPhotography #NaturePhotography
"And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.”
John Masefield (1917)
#photography #boat #sea #sheep #SoundOfIona #IsleOfIona #Iona #poetry #JohnMasefield #Highlands #Scotland #Hebrides #seagulls #PotD
"The cat,
only the cat
appeared complete and proud:
he was born completely finished,
walking alone and knowing what he wanted."
Pablo Neruda (1959)
#photography #PotD #cat #IsleOfIona #StColumbaHotel #Abbey #gardens #poetry #Neruda #Scotland #island
"A tin cross on a peeling wall
hoards sunlight all afternoon—
then suddenly, like a beggar
opens its empty hands
and gives it all back." Anna Kamienska (1978)
#photography #cross #StOran #chapel #PhotoOfTheDay #IsleOfIona #sunlight #shine #reflection
The Sailboat and the PaddleBoarder
#photography #PhotoOfTheDay #sailing #sailboat #PaddleBoarding #SUP #WaterSports #oceanlife #maritime #MarkJardine #RedSails #IsleOfIona #Scotland #sea #coast #nature #ketch #lugger
Sparrow's Stairway to Heaven
#photography #nature #birds #sparrows #SeedPods #flax #plants #nature #landscape #IsleOfIona #StColumbaHotel
The Fern in the Window
#photography #PhotoOfTheDay #window #fern #sunlight #shadow #pattern #pane #ledge #IonaAbbey #IsleOfIona
In Praise of the Window
#photography #window #church #abbey #architecture #gothic #arch #medieval #lancet #mullion #tracery #intrados #symmetry #IonaAbbey #IsleOfIona #PhotoOfTheDay
Here's a magnificent sycamore tree
#photography #tree #sycamore #branches #foliage #canopy #stonewall #dappled #sunlight #nature #landscape #BlueSky #TreeLovers #HeritageCentre #Iona #IsleOfIona
Here's a nice window
#photography #window #plants #art #framed #ArgyllHotel #IsleOfIona #Iona #Mull #SoundOfIona #lounge #hotel #Highlands #Islands #Scotland #PhotoOfTheDay
Here's a nice Common Spotted Orchid
#photography #flowers #WildFlower #orchid #nature #grass #wild #beauty #CommonSpottedOrchid #WildOrchid #IsleOfIona #Iona #Scotland #flora #DactylorhizaFuchsii #botany #FlowerIdentification #PhotoOfTheDay
A crow on Tigh an Easbuig
#photography #ruins #IsleOfIona #Iona #IonaAbbey #landscape #coast #SoundOfIona #architecture #PhotoOfTheDay
All is calm....sitting outside, listening to corncrakes, the sea lapping on the shore, birdsong....a busy day draws to its conclusion #islandlife #bestill #unwind #isleofiona #dusk
"The mist clung round the Ben’s grey head,
Like a widow’s veil o’er the dying spread;
And the wind, like a dirge, sang sad and slow,
As it swept the glens far down below." James Hogg (1813)
#photography #PhotoOfTheDay #glens #mist #Mull #BenMore #Iona #IsleOfIona #Scotland #Poetry #JamesHogg #coast
Perfection
#photography #PhotoOfTheDay #yacht #sailing #sea #sailboat #calm #waters #coast #OnTheWater #BlueHorizon
#BoatLife #SeaLovers #OceanView #PeacefulMoments #TravelPhotography #Wanderlust #Iona #IsleOfIona #SoundOfIona
'Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God" [John 6] #faithjourney #isleofiona
Here's a nice dog driving a tractor
#photography #dogs #tractor #Labrador #humour #driver #agriculture #Iona #IsleOfIona #coast #harbour #pier #PhotoOfTheDay #Mull #mountains
'Then they said to him, ‘What must we do, to be doing the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent' [from John 6] #faith #scriptures #wordofgod #isleofiona #ponderings
St Columba Composite
#photography #StColumba #Celtic #Cross #silhouette #tree #sky #Iona #IsleOfIona #ColmCille #Gartan #Donegal #Ireland #PhotoOfTheDay
'And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness' [from Acts 4]. Praying that I can speak the word of God with boldness #isleofiona
Off on a boat trip with Staffa Tours to Lunga & Staffa...in the fab company of @audiehamilton.bsky.social 🫶🏻❤️⚓️🐬🛟 #staffa #lunga #isleofiona #dayoff
