A day is a miniature eternity

A miniature eternity by Jo Bradford

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I subscribe to a series of podcasts of the essays of Poet and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson which are very enjoyable ways to pass time.  Emerson died on this day in 1882 and to day I just wanted to share a few more of my favourite lines from Mr Emerson, beginning with the line used to title this post...

"A day is a miniature eternity."

...

A few of his words on artists and on creativity follow....

...

"Artists must be sacrificed to their art. Like bees, 

they must put their lives into the sting they give."

...

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, 

we must carry it with us or we find it not"

...

"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn" 

...

RIP Ralph Waldo Emerson, an inspirational man whose words still hold meaning in our contemporary society.

Step out grandly to the Infinite

Infinite Expression by Jo Bradford

With stammering lips and insufficient sound
I strive and struggle to deliver right
That music of my nature, day and night
With dream and thought and feeling interwound
And only answering all the senses round
With octaves of a mystic depth and height
Which step out grandly to the infinite
From the dark edges of the sensual ground.
This song of soul I struggle to outbear
Through portals of the sense, sublime and whole,
And utter all myself into the air.

~Excerpt from "The Soul's Expression" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning~

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Swallows return...

The swallow, bonny birdie, comes sharp twittering o’er the sea,
And gladly is her carol heard for the sunny days to be;
She shares not with us wintry glooms, but yet, no faithless thing,
She hunts the summer o’er the earth with wearied little wing.

~ Thomas Aird  ~

A couple of days ago I saw the first swallow of the year, wheeling and darting across the sky above the orchard, and I felt thrilled at this happy portent of summer!  It reminded me that I made some pictures of swallows and their young at the end of last summer some of which are now in my area of the Getty Images library.  

I don't think I shared these pictures with you at the time, so here they are now....  more wildlife work than art but I just wanted to share them with you. 

Happy Easter xx

Hope you are having a happy easter!!

Jo
x

This image is from my 365 Ways to Say Goodbye Polaroid Project.

And the lucky winner is......

Congratulations to ........{drumroll}....... Quercus Silver, 
who chose the print Riviera as her prize.

Thanks to everyone who took part, 

Jo xoxo