Sunshine And Shadows

Warm sunshine has returned to our garden.

Looking out of the French windows showed me that Jessie’s moon butterfly solar light, deprived of the sun for three days of gales, can be expected to glow once more after dark, this evening, and

our pair of bird cruets on the kitchen shelf display beneath shadows on the wall led me to wander around the garden on the first of two days while the car is in hospital following an M.O.T. test.

Speaking of hospital I received a message from Boots Opticians saying I was not eligible for cataract surgery. Upon my enquiry this translated as my vision is not yet bad enough. I hadn’t thought it was.

The front fence provided a canvas for the shadow of a chair back,

as did the wooden poppy for those of roses.

Stronger sun than we have seen of late tipped the edges of fluffy clouds and

silhouetted some trees and shrubs, while

a few golden leaves still clung to the Weeping Birch.

The winter Clematis Cirrhosa also caught the sun,

which burnished one of the dead stumps flanking the Back Drive.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s wholesome shepherd’s pie with onion, tomato, and onion additions to the creamy mashed potato topping; crunchy carrots; firm cauliflower, and tender runner beans, with which she drank more of the Sauvignon Blanc and I drank Azinhaga de Ouro reserva 2019

77 comments

  1. The sun must have been a very welcome sight after the past few days! I love the chair shadow. I’m also drawn to the second photo. There is something about sun coming through a kitchen window that I find very comforting.

  2. Mysteries solved!
    I’m so glad you don’t need cataract surgery just yet.

    Some five years ago the optician told me I had cataracts. At the time I was also seeing a private consultant for my glaucoma. On my next visit I asked why he hadn’t mentioned the cataracts, his reply was that it’s standard practice to never inform patients at the early stage, we monitor instead. You have many years before it needs to be dealt with.
    I haven’t asked about it since and no one has mentioned it.

  3. The solar moon light is beautiful. I was lucky enough to get to see our total lunar eclipse night before last. It was visible only for a time until rising fog obscured it.

  4. The pictures today are extraordinary. I am glad you don’t need cataract surgery right now. I agree with tootlepedal. Judging by the pictures you posted today, your eyesight is good. 🙂

  5. Lovely and innovative photos. Again and again, you take the seemingly ordinary and make it exquisite, like the fly on the burnished wood stump.

  6. What would we be without light and shadows, huh? Flat cartoons of ourselves, I imagine. I find that most often, the subject matter is not what makes the picture – it’s the light. It’s one of the most important discoveries in my quest to take better photos.

  7. Those are beautiful studies in shadows and light, Derrick. The clouds are always a favorite, shadows lending depth and character to these aerial wanderers.

  8. Beautiful photos…so artistic! Nature is artistic and you know how to photograph it artistically! 🙂
    I always love the light and shadows “paintings”. 🙂
    YAY for the sun shining!
    That solar light is so lovely! I’m glad it will shine again!
    I’m so very glad you don’t need the eye surgery now.
    (((HUGS))) ❤️

  9. I agree with you and Liz about the light coming through the kitchen window. I think that photo and the top one are my favorites today, but I like them all. ?
    I had wondered about your cataract surgery, since usually they do monitor it for a while. I hope your car is feeling better soon.

  10. Derrick you have outdone yourself with this gallery. Seeing the sunlight and knowing the recent storm history, I couldn’t help but think of the Maureen McGovern song “The Morning After”. It fits these images IMHO.

  11. So glad to see the sun out. Your cloud photos and the ways you captured shadows were magical. I love the dead stump photo flanking the Back Drive. You are such a talented photographer, Derrick. No wonder your followers keep coming back day after day to enjoy what your lenses are going to share tomorrow!

  12. Gorgeous photos, Derrick.

    It’s nice not to have to do the surgery yet, but it is surely nothing to worry about when it does come time. I’ve taken both my husband and my mom to have both of their eyes done ( 2 different days) and it is shockingly quick and easy. Not a complaint from either – just relief over how easy it was.

  13. Derrick – you shared some stunning photos for the theme of sunshine and shadows
    The photos are artsy and flowed so well!
    Really enjoyed them

  14. Also – side note
    The title of this post was actually the name of a book I worked on more than ten years ago with Norma – a lady in her 80s and we were putting together some of her poems –
    After she died – the project fizzled out and her children were in a different mode
    But I plan on writing about it in a book called the Norma project – and will use snippets of sunshine and shadows manuscript (which was almost 100% done ) and it will be a way to utilize the work with plan b

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