A Morning walk by the river bank, 30km from Home ….
A Morning by the river Suir
30Km from home
Nigel Borrington 2020
Images from a great walk this morning on the banks of the river Suir, county Tipperary some 30km from home ……
Woodland Song …..
A Woodland Song
Nigel Borrington 2020
I sense suspense and peacefulness
where light and shadows loll,
it’s there my mindful heedlessness
now frees my soul to stroll.
A forest path empowers strength
that worldly cares conceal —
then demonstrates, beyond arm’s length,
a living scene surreal.
The way the arms of trees reach out
to all that share its space;
the way they wave their leaves about
and breathe wood scents I trace.
The little birds slip ‘tween the leaves
of understories, green —
where tiny fruits and bloomers tease
with scents that go unseen.
A red-tailed hawk, perched high in pine,
alerts with high-pitched call,
while restless ravens realign
in rowdy free-for-all!
There’s more that linger here unheard
that know I’m passing through;
their many eyes watch undeterred
‘til I am out of view —
I feel their spirit walk with me
and feel a sense I’m blessed;
all offer sense of reverie
and nature at her best.
If solitude shares strength renewed
and natural for free,
I’m sure to find that interlude
promotes reality.
There is no question of just when
I’ll go again to find,
that perfect place that pulls me in
so, I can lose my mind —
The woodland song, like silent friend,
knows all I can’t resist,
and there’s no need to comprehend
its soulful kiss, when missed!
2020 Joy A Burki-Watson
The way the river flows ….. (Nick Drake Lyrics “River Man”)
The way the river flows
Nick Drake Lyrics
“River Man”
Betty came by on her way
Said she had a word to say
About things today
And fallen leaves.
Said she hadn’t heard the news
Hadn’t had the time to choose
A way to lose
But she believes.
Going to see the river man
Going to tell him all I can
About the plan
For lilac time.
If he tells me all he knows
About the way his river flows
And all night shows
In summertime.
Betty said she prayed today
For the sky to blow away
Or maybe stay
She wasn’t sure.
For when she thought of summer rain
Calling for her mind again
She lost the pain
And stayed for more.
Going to see the river man
Going to tell him all I can
About the ban
On feeling free.
If he tells me all he knows
About the way his river flows
I don’t suppose
It’s meant for me.
Oh, how they come and go
Oh, how they come and go.
I dream of you, to wake, by : Christina Rossetti
Dreams of the morning light
Irish Landscapes
Country Kilkenny
Nigel Borrington 2020
I dream of you, to wake’ by Christina Rossetti
I dream of you, to wake: would that I might
Dream of you and not wake but slumber on;
Nor find with dreams the dear companion gone,
As, Summer ended, Summer birds take flight.
In happy dreams I hold you full in night.
I blush again who waking look so wan;
Brighter than sunniest day that ever shone,
In happy dreams your smile makes day of night.
Thus only in a dream we are at one,
Thus only in a dream we give and take
The faith that maketh rich who take or give;
If thus to sleep is sweeter than to wake,
To die were surely sweeter than to live,
Though there be nothing new beneath the sun.
Light between the trees poem: by Henry Van Dyke
The Light between
Irish Landscapes
Nigel Borrington 2020
Long, long, long the trail
Through the brooding forest-gloom,
Down the shadowy, lonely vale
Into silence, like a room
Where the light of life has fled,
And the jealous curtains close
Round the passionless repose
Of the silent dead.
Plod, plod, plod away,
Step by step in mouldering moss;
Thick branches bar the day
Over languid streams that cross
Softly, slowly, with a sound
In their aimless creeping
Like a smothered weeping,
Through the enchanted ground.
“Yield, yield, yield thy quest,”
Whispers through the woodland deep;
“Come to me and be at rest;
“I am slumber, I am sleep.”
Then the weary feet would fail,
But the never-daunted will
Urges “Forward, forward still!
“Press along the trail!”
Breast, breast, breast the slope!
See, the path is growing steep.
Hark! a little song of hope
When the stream begins to leap.
Though the forest, far and wide,
Still shuts out the bending blue,
We shall finally win through,
Cross the long divide.
On, on, onward tramp!
Will the journey never end?
Over yonder lies the camp;
Welcome waits us there, my friend.
Can we reach it ere the night?
Upward, upward, never fear!
Look, the summit must be near;
See the line of light!
Red, red, red the shine
Of the splendour in the west,
Glowing through the ranks of pine,
Clear along the mountain-crest!
Long, long, long the trail
Out of sorrow’s lonely vale;
But at last the traveller sees
Light between the trees!
Whispering Waves : A poem by – Edel T. Copeland
Whispering Waves
County Kerry, Ireland
Irish landscapes
Nigel Borrington 2020
Whispering Waves
Edel T. Copeland
Waves come crashing to grey sullen shores.
Powerful and strong, it breathes and roars.
Cascading and caressing each grain of sand,
A warm embrace between sea and land.
High above, a seagull soars high.
Wings of purity it spreads to fly.
Battling high against darkened cloud,
In a wind that blows fiercely, flying graceful and proud.
Beneath, the sand is soft and warm.
Sculpted by nature, it’s weathered the storm.
A passionate battle between calmness and rage,
A new chapter’s beginning; don’t turn the last page.
I listen again to the whispering waves,
Music of nature calming and brave.
Its power unknown, its stillness untamed,
Mysterious and magical, a treasure earth claims.
I’m Just a Farmer, Plain and Simple: By Bobby Collier
I’m Just a Farmer, Plain and Simple
By Bobby Collier
I’m just a farmer,
Plain and simple.
Not of a royal birth
But rather, a worker of the earth.
I know not of riches
But rather, of patches on my britches
I know of draught and rain,
Of pleasure and pain.
I know of the good and the bad,
The happy and the sad.
I am a man of emotions.
A man who loves this land,
And the beauty of its sand.
I know of a spring’s fresh flow
And autumn’s golden glow,
Of a newborn calf’s hesitation,
And the eagle’s destination.
I know of tall pines,
And long, waiting lines.
Of the warmth of campfires,
And the agony of flat tires.
But I am a man who loves his job
And the life I live.
I am a man who works with God,
I cannot succeed without his help,
For you see,
I’m just a farmer
Plain and simple.
October : Robert Frost – 1874-1963
Octobers trees
Lumix GX1
Black and white Landscpares
Nigel Borrington 2020
O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
To-morrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
To-morrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow,
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know;
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away;
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.
Dandelion seeds a poem by Whitney Albright
Dandelion Seeds
Woodland nature
Nikon D700
Nigel Borrington 2020
She stands out
Against the weeds
Oh, she spouts
Her dandelion seeds
The smiling song
Of spring she leads
May the sunshine on
Her dandelion seeds
From the damp land
Her roots feed
Causing silver strands
In her dandelion seeds
Wishes she carries
Wishes she bleeds
Wishes are scattered
In her dandelion seeds
The sun sets in county Kerry
The Sun sets
County Kerry
Rep of Ireland
Nikon D700
Nigel Borrington
A lot of my images have been black and white of late, I love black and white :), here is a great use of colour in a photo, A sunset that is to die for 🙂
Of all the locations in Ireland for a great sunset, County Kerry has to be the best 🙂
The Scribe in the Woods, Irish Poetry
Deep in the woodlands
Panasonic Lumix Gx1
Nigel Borrington 2020
The Scribe in the Woods, Irish Poetry
‘Over me green branches hang
A blackbird leads the loud song
Above my pen-lined booklet
I hear a fluting bird-throng
The cuckoo pipes a clear call
Its dun cloak hid in deep dell:
Praise to the Gods for their gifts
That in woodland I write well’
The Peace of Mindfulness is like a Boat at rest …..
The Peace of Mindfulness
Irish Landscapes
Canon G1x series
Nigel Borrington
The Peace of Mindfulness is like a boat at rest, just slowly reacting to the movement of the water that it is resting on !
Its our job to find a way of being more like this boat !
Black and White Images – In the mountains when your work is done ……
In the mountains
When your work is done
County Kerry
Ireland
Canon G1x series
Nigel Borrington
‘The Lake’, Glenmore Lake, county Kerry
Grass at Glenmore lake
County kerry
Nikon Coolpix A
nigel borrington 2020
Maidenly lake, fathomless lake,
Stay as you were once, overgrown with rushes,
Idling with a reflected cloud, for my sake
Whom your shore no longer touches.
The way the river Runs
The way the river runs
County kilkenny landscapes
Nikon Coolpix A
Nigel Borrington 2020
The way the river runs never changes,
It has a certain flow,
And once that flow is broken it isn’t ever quite the same,
It has a path that never changes,
It has one way for it to go,
But if that will ever change no one knows,
The way the river flows is a steady one,
Never wondering off into another,
Forming a waterfall at its peek,
It holds what everyone seeks,
The way the river runs shows the path in which we should all go,
Never straying away,
‘Cause what we do today influences our tomorrow,
So let’s not bring sorrow,
The way the river runs is the path to a better place,
With much grace,
So let’s take a moment and think…
Think back on our past and what we could have done.
By: Kathryn Miller
August mornings – Black and white landscape images
August Mornings
Kilkenny, Ireland
Nikon D700
Nigel Borrington
Black and white Landscape
Nikon coolpix A
Black and white image from this morning walk, the weather here is settling down a bit, following a very stormy week.
I am studying and reading a lot at the moment about black and white photography and made it the main subject of this morning photo walk about 🙂
A weekends drawing – Still life Study – Three Pears
Still life – Three Pears
Graphite pencils
A2 cartridge paper
The waves below the Metal Men , Tramore, County Waterford
Waves below the Metal Men
Tramore
county Waterford
January 2020
I am so desperate to go for an evening walk along Tramore beach again I could pop !!
for the moment this image taken before the lock down will have to do !!
I can still here the wave and the gulls above !
For me this is essential travel !!!!
Anyway one day soon and when it does happen it will feel like heaven !!!!
New Charcoal drawing : There are places I remember all my life ……..
There are places I remember
Charcoal drawing
Nigel Borrington
2020
In My Life
Song by The Beatles
There are places I’ll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone, and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends, I still can recall
Some are dead, and some are living
In my life, I’ve loved them all
But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life, I’ll love you more
Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I’ll love you more
In my life I’ll love you more
Digital art work with a poem ( This Landscape Before Me By Sarah Holland-Batt)
The Landscape before me
A digital drawing
Using Krita and a Wacom Tablet
Nigel Borrington 2020
This Landscape Before Me
By : Sarah Holland-Batt
First the factory stood, quiet as an asylum.
Then the annihilating mallee with its red fists of blossoms
and the mountain ash creeping over it like a stain.
I have no proof, but I tell you
there were leadlight windows here once, barred.
They cast a little striped light on the women.
Now in scrub and yellow broom I stand on a history
braided and unbraided by stiff Irish wrists.
The rope and span and carded wool are unpicked
as are their faces and names.
Londonderry, Cork, Galway, Kildare—
as I say the words they are sucked away
to a hemisphere in darkness.
I will not presume to say
what suffering is or how it was meted out in this place.
At what point it breaks a body I cannot tell.
But this morning I saw a young rabbit
hunched in brush and shadow.
I saw its lesioned face, its legs too thin to scramble,
the blood-berry red and pink scab of its eye.
It had caught the disease
we brought here for it
and wanted a quiet place to die.
And it was lucky, or as lucky as it would get—
there was time and light, the hawks and dogs
had not been written yet, and were still out of sigh
Isolation in landscape a Charcoal drawing …..
isolation in landscape
Charcoal on paper
Nigel Borrington
March 2020
Fresh from my drawing board 🙂
To be honest it taken me a few days, just like us all! to come to terms with world wide events!
I hope everyone in the wordpress community is well and keeping safe and health !
This afternoon I setup by drawing board i did my first charcoal drawing for a week “isolation in landscape” is what I am going to call it 🙂
Can I pass on some wishes for you all!
Eat well !
Sleep lots – go to bed way to early and listen to Music not the news !!
Take Vitamin D – it helps you fight off infections !!!
Do not stress – its the Number one biggest enemy of the Immune system !!!!
I am going to add don’t drink alcohol of any kind its also a killer of the Immune system !!!
Read lots of positive things, watch Positive TV !! Talk , have family fun or fun with your friends, get outside 🙂 🙂
Please look after yourselves the world needs you as Do I xxx
New Art work 2020, A still life drawing of two Pears using ICON – Chalk Pastels
Still life study ,
Two pears,
Icon Chalk Pastels on Paper
Nigel Borrington 2020
Created as one of my first still life studies while attending an evening class at our local art school KCAT, located here in Callan, County Kilkenny this drawing is made using Chalk Pastels on cartridge paper. I love this type of still life study very much , it gave me a great chance to use ICON Chalk pastels for the first time and I loved the experience of using them and the results they created. The strong marks used to build up shades and form I truly feel creates a very strong result. 🙂
Life is about being Happy, finding a way to stay happy …
Derreen Gardens
Lauragh
Country Kerry
Canon G1x series camera
Nigel Borrington 2020
There are so many great quotes from John Lennon, but this one has to be one of his best 🙂
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
John Lennon
In current times finding happiness has become very important for our mental health, we all need to fight as hard as possible to achieve personal happiness, never let anyone for what ever reason put you in any other mood than a generally happy one !
One tool I have developed over the last weeks to active this aim is to stop reading/watching or listening to the daily news, I could write an essay on the why’s but life is to short!
Just stop listening, get outside as often as you can (walk, say hello to people, look at the landscape around you), it is not selfish to make sure your in a good mental place, you can give more to others if you are!
Happiness needs working at, working to find the things that make you happy and at the same time dismissing the things that don’t – it takes work !!!!
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September 17, 2020 | Categories: Comment, Gallery, Images of Summer, Irish Landscapes, Nigel Borrington, Solo images | Tags: Canon G1x, county kerry, Derreen Gardens, Good mental health, Happiness, Irish Landscapes, John Lennon, Lauragh, Nigel Borrington | 4 Comments