Dear Reader:
When I read the title quote for today’s blog (Rumi) I knew this is what I wanted to address today… because every day when I wake up I have the opportunity to discover something new and exciting. For me beauty is life…and I realize that it is the continuous search for beauty that makes my life so fulfilling.
It is what motivates me to write a blog post every day. I simply want to share the beauty of the world with the rest of the world. It appears in so many diverse forms…but if we look hard enough and long enough…we can find beauty in most situations we encounter in life…sometimes it takes awhile to reflect back on a challenging situation and see it differently with the passage of time… as being synonymous with beauty…but beauty is so in twined with life… it is impossible to separate the two.
There is the beauty of new relationships, the beauty of old relationships, and the beauty of the security of on-going relationships. There is beauty in words, phrases, and sentences…in comments, compliments, and conversation. There is beauty in the eyes of loving, giving individuals, beauty in laughter and even sometimes tears, beauty in birth and death.
We rise each morning to the beauty of glowing dawns and bid farewell to the day with the beauty of the myriad of colored sunsets. When we think about it….God created our home here on earth filled with beauty before He created us. He wanted everything to be just perfect before we entered the scene. And what a magnificent job He did.
*(I won’t spoil the beauty of this post today with how man has taken this mind-boggling gift and continues to destroy it with some of the worst choices ever…most involving greed…but we all know this anyway!)
Yesterday I walked around my garden and smiled at all the green stems slowly pushing up through the ground to reveal themselves and since I still can’t remember where everything is planted…I search in happy anticipation each morning to see what beauty will unveil and reveal itself to me.
It was just so drop-dead gorgeous yesterday I got in my clean “Surcie” and drove around the back roads and older sections of Summerville… stopping occasionally to pull over and just take in the sheer moments of beauty.
Pine Forest Inn Summerville, SC
One of the most historic sights in Summerville is the old “carriage” entrance to the famous Pine Forest Inn where once Presidents and celebrities roomed.
The preserved entrance (the inn is long gone) is beautiful in every season as you can see. The title picture I took yesterday and the rare, memorable winter entrance scene (2018 Summerville snow and ice storm) I saved as a favorite.
As I continued along this historical neighborhood I had to stop and pull over again…look at this gorgeous (bush/tree…it has grown so tall)…At first I thought it was a red tip blooming but look at the clusters of red berries…it took my breath away. Any idea what it is… anyone?
*I was under this tree shooting the picture upward….where I could see the azure blue of the sky through small patches of branch openings…It is the closest I have ever felt to being transformed to a magical land…For a moment I thought I was in a technicolor movie.
In the beauty battle between the camellias and azaleas this season the camellias have definitely won…they came early, bloomed and continue to do so even as the first round of azaleas are already wilting and drying up…gone for another year. Still the azaleas are fabulous as well as the pretty petite purples that pop up unexpectedly in old hanging baskets…proudly announcing their survival of the winter season.
So until tomorrow…”May the beauty of what you love be what you do.” Go find the beauty that defines you.
“Today is my favorite thing.” Winnie the Pooh
Let me introduce you visually to Martin De Porres Wright and his lovely wife Bernadette from Ireland. Please stop by the Drop-in, Reception, Show and Sale this Saturday from 4-8 at Anne Peterson’s home…131 Scalybark Road (Walnut Farms) and meet the Wrights. You can’t go wrong!
*If you are like me…just listening to the Wrights talk makes me happy. 🙂
*Anne took this photo of the Wrights getting ready for the show…the all important hanging of the paintings….they make a great team because they have this part of the process down (excuse the pun) to a “fine art!”
ichaseferalcats
John Turner
Legally Ohm
Becky Dingle
Oh I wish I could come to the art show. It will be wonderful .
Let us know what that beautiful plant is and as before…I love the romance of the carriage gate.
You’re right…the carriage gate does exude romance and the allure of romantic times in the past. I think it is the reason why I am drawn to that part of town… to cut over traveling back and forth through Summerville …so I have an excuse to pause and appreciate the remnants of our town’s past one more time.
Writing again from British Columbia, Canada. Last Tues. we had snow; this Tuesday we were out in our sundresses and shorts with temps near 80 degrees! Yes, tomorrow is officially spring and we can believe it here in the Pacific NWest with crocuses popping up everywhere. Soon our Pieres shrubs will be blooming too. (They love the same sort of soil as the camelias and azaleas that come before them).
So, yes, I’m guessing the plant that you were asking to be identified is likely one of the Japanese Adromeda Bushes which go by many names. Another lovely name is Lily of the Valley Shrub…esp. if the flowers are white as in your photo. Sometimes the Pieres have pink flowers and often the leaves change from greens to deep reds, so a very interesting and lovely bush in many ways. If I’m wrong about all this, please forgive me. Maybe someone else will have the correct answer!
Your answer is beautiful…an arborist from the area let a friend of mine, Michele know that it is a Red Tip Photinia….a cousin to the usual red tip bushes/trees we have around here…but the names of your bushes are much prettier. Speaking of weather…here we are in a semi-tropical region and spring is coming in today (March 20) chilly (high of 52) and cloudy….definitely not our typical spring weather by a long shot…climate change is definitely happening….next week we are supposed to be back in the seventies…knocking on the door of 80. Crazy “elevator” weather like you!
Looks like we are never too old to learn something new! Thanks for this info and correction, Becky. Now I will have to research and find out if we happen to have Red Tip Photinia in this part of the country.