[Catchup & Quotes]. In love with the skies. Snaps from Jan-Feb

"The day, water, sun, moon, and the night - I do not have to purchase these things with money" ~ Plautus.

I don't have a clue where January, February...and this first half of March have escaped to. 

Life is precious. Every day is precious. Every moment in which we sit bored and complacent, just waiting for the next new thing... is time helplessly whittled away. We are innocent. After all, time is like sand through the fingers...it gets thrown into the dungeons of...space; some lost, untraceable dimension... 

Capture the moment.

Do what makes you happy.

Learn. Play. Challenge yourself. Have fun. Be cheerful. 

Be a candle. Share your flame; light the empty burners standing like statues in your shadow. Sharing will never make your own flame go out. Give light, let others shine. 

I've learnt so much these past 2 months. Nothing literal. Nothing which can be summed up in a paragraph, a list; or words even. I've learnt colors, emotions, outcomes, lessons, equilibrium...and thought. - So instead, i'll give the pictures a chance to explain...

Sometimes, no matter how much we try to get in touch with ourselves to find out who we are...We just need to take some time out. We need to turn around, and give ourselves the freedom to emerge away from our own scrutiny and criticism. We need to learn to let ourselves go...We need to let ourselves roam. We need to get rid of our own little curfews; the chores we set for ourselves. Only then, when we are no longer self conscious of our conscience, are we truly treated to a sighting of our inner being. And, when we become more accustomed to tuning ourselves in sync with reality ~ our persona is here to stay.  

I love colors. I love the sun. 

The solace photography has given me is inexplicable. It has always been a timeless escape; something to get utterly absorbed in. But this 'passion' (euck) was something I only really took notice of after purchasing the DSLR...(Hey...i'm a Leo...we Leo's need an audience, solid foundations and equipment to get truly revved...) But it's a funny thing; about 2 weeks before Christmas I had been wondering: "What is it that makes people passionate about something? Why would anybody wake up days on end for one thing? What constitutes a passion? How deep could a passion even be...it's just a hobby right?"

Wrong. Live. Live. Live. And see for yourself. x

What gives you purpose? What makes you feel? 

So...we are nearly 1/4 into 2014?!

Head's up kid's. 

My heart flutters for the Sunrise

Good morning!

Are you team granola with flaked almonds? Or without flaked almonds? I've been experimenting recently. Pretty much all brands sell them with the almonds. The ones which don't relish the fact that they can say theirs has 50% lower fat...kind of a no brainer. (Yes yes, I know. I'm bad and I buy granola which can be made for a tiny ass fraction of the cost at home) Sometimes the flakes almond type takes so freaking LONG to chew that my stomach actually gets past the 20 minute mark where it's supposed to tell me that it's full and I feel bloated. Like...I want a big bowl of granola. But the almonds kill the thrill of having a big mountain of oat clusters and milk.
ANYWAY I finally bought (cringe) Quaker granola. Just pure, fresh crunchy bliss. Though, I think the freshness is due to the fact that it's a spanking brand new box. It's 2014. And guess I should probably master how to seal things up more tightly so that crunchy cereal isn't a rare luxury.

No overly full feeling. It must be the combo of all the dense nutrients together that my I can't cope with in the morning. I added a banana too! Yum.

Does anyone else add fruit to their morning bowl....but eat it all separately anyway? I feel like I should invest my chopping time more wisely elsewhere and just eat the fruity stuff alone...

*Insert bowl of Quaker granola*

As you can tell by the absent breakfast, I haven't quite mastered the photography of food yet.

However, there is one type of photography which I have kinda (smugly) mastered. He He. Say hey to January 5th at 8:00-8:20am.

 I remember reading a foreword of a book once. The author who's name I can't remember...was about 30 odd. She said something I have never forgotten: "No sunrise is beautiful enough to wake me up in the morning".

My heart bleeds.

 Sometimes, I wouldn't trade early mornings for anything. 

 I love how this looks like a spider web. The sun being the spider, the trees being the web. Can you see it?

The most beautiful fog

Is anyone a  Diane Chamberlain reader?

She has a book with some chapters where she talks about fog. A little settlement on the cliffs by the ocean in the states which frequently gets smothered in fog, so heavy that the kiddies like to play hide and seek in it.

I can't remember the name! Does anyone know it? It's crazy. I have a shelf full of pretty much all of her books but I can't find that book? Either way, it's only a small part of the story, but something which has long stayed in my mind. The idea of that sorta fog baffles me. In London fog is accompanied by that annoying, misty rain which makes your hair poof before you get to wherever it is you commute. Diane describes it like another world. It's hard to believe that people live in such a contrasting place.

So naturally, when I was floating around in the low clouds before the clock even hit 7am one morning (I am an unswayed morning bird) on the 18th October (according to the photo 'Properties' button) I thought of Diane's little place.

The world is so silent at that time of the morning that it's eerie. It feels as if every little crinkly sound of your jacket is drawing too much attention. It got a bit creepy in the end. I was in the middle of this huge, foggy park with these horse-sized crows squawking around me in circles. Help. I took as many as I could before scooting away with saturated (literally) 'breathable' trainers. They went into the spin dryer and had to air for about a week. I guess it rained a lot the night before.

Little Foggy paradise:

Bliss. 

Just a Sky that wants to say Hi

Hi:

I'm a pretty morning sky. Some people wake up bright and early just to see me. I'm fairly shy though. As soon as too many people start opening their eyes and rolling on with their day, I tiptoe away and let the sun shine high in my place. 
If there isn't a cloud festival that day then you're in luck, buttercup. 

And here's my stubborn little cousin who ate lens marks for breakfast and left them all over her face so she could ruin Tash's picture, wahey! 

Sad face.

This could have been so pretty.

:( 

Sunrise or Sunset?

O.K

So

I have a question for you:

You are allowed to guess.

:)

Are these photos of a sun rise...or a sunset?

*Insert mysterious eyebrow gif*

The folder I found them in was actually named 'Sunrise or sunset'

I do know when I took them. But they even caught me off guard for a second, too.

I was taking a (insert time of day) stroll. The clouds caught my eye. I ran home in a bulky puffy coat with my keys and phone springing around in my pocket like never before just so I could get to my window and say hey to the clouds in time. Ice particles? I don't know what. But these colors were just insane:

Some sights make us feel lucky to be alive...do you ever feel this way?

Dawns

Its shots like these where I realize what a treat cloudless mornings can be. Whilst in the winter, you can easily score a view like these past 8am. Summer asks you to wake up before 5am in order to bag a real look at the sky for the day...October 2013 was a month of beautiful mornings. To me, dawn = crack of sun in a pink and purple sky with the world still sleepy. In winter, dawn is officially delayed (by definition) until this is witnessed.

P.S: Guess which one is the cheeky sunset? 

Funny. This was taken on the morning of the giant 'hurricane' sweeping over London. Some people got hit real bad. The sky here speaks for itself though. R.I.P flowerpot.

No day will eve paint the same picture.

Clue ^

I love increasing the brightness of silhouetted photos. It makes the image looks like a classy instagram that manages to capture the frosty, foggy haziness of a beautifully fresh pastel morning.

The sky pulled a moody right about here though. I guess he was fed up of being tamed to the camera, despite the hurricane warnings. Teadrops of  rain clouds?

Crack a smile sky, you know you want to.