Tags
Beauty, Canada, hills, humour, images, mountains, nature, photography, prairies, reflections, sunrise, Sunset, Winnipeg
This is another in the periodic series ‘What the…” where you are invited to try to answer the question “what is this?”
So what do you think this recent photo is showing?
The False Dawn
I am a displaced hill person. I grew up 12 miles from the centre of London. It was a hilly location. I have one leg longer than the other as I was born on the side of a hill. I always loved hills.
When I was 21 I immigrated to Winnipeg, Canada; one of the flattest places on earth. Winnipeg is situated on the edge of the great prairies, where fields of wheat and Canola stretch to the horizon and the wind creates waves of movement like some colourful sea. It has its own beauty, the sky seems to go on forever, but not many hills. There are some lovely hilly spots like Riding Mountain and Turtle Mountain, but these are a good three hour drive from Winnipeg – so most of the time I am starved for glimpses of hills and mountains.
I notice this particularly after a visit to the Rockies. On the drive home as I look in the rearview mirror I feel a sadness as the mountains recede in the distance, eventually slipping down behind the horizon. But some days the clouds can give the impression of distant hills or mountain ranges, causing a pang of nostalgia.
So the other day, imagine my surprise when an image of a sunrise or sunset over distant hills appeared on the wall behind our settee. I took a photo of the image.
What was causing this image you ask? Great question. The image was caused by a combination of the shadow of the soft-cushioned back of one of the settees and a prism created by the low level of sunlight being refracted through the edge of the patio door double-glazing.
I have enhanced the image very slightly. But for me it looks very much like the dawn bursting over the foothills with the misty clouds rising behind.
Isn’t life wonderful when unexpected beauty appears in the most mundane places.
I hope you enjoyed this small example of nature’s surprising artwork. Did you guess correctly?
Reflections in Puddles 
This is a combination of the shadow of the soft-cushioned back of one of the settees and a prism created by the low level of sunlight being refracted through the edge of the patio door double-glazing? Oh, Rod, I was thinking it was the Heart Hills at sunset (in New Mexico, on the plains outside of Taos), and was so proud that I recognized it! But you know what they say about pride… 😉
It sounds like a beautiful place Marylin. Aren’t our imaginations a wonderful gift?
Absolutely.
And once my imagination “sees” something, it locks in for me. 🙂
It takes a skilled eye to see a whole from some parts.
Ha! Well nature put these parts together Bob, so I can only claim that I can see. I have been hoping for a repeat performance – but nothing so far. It may just have been that one day the sun was in thew perfect position to cast the shadow and rainbow effect on to the wall. Of course it may have done it many times when no one was watching – if there are no eyes to see it, does it show up?
Well-observed, Rod! And very well presented as a bit of mystery that most if not all of us would not likely guess on our own.
I know whereof you speak. I too love living on and near hills. At one point after college, I went to live on Nantucket. Very flat without a hill or mountain in sight. Hillocks maybe…and dunes. I was so happy when I left and returned to Western Massachusetts.OTOH, many people would envy your home on in the prairie.
I really enjoy prairie living. But it did take a couple of years to learn to appreciate the subtlety of horizontal line and muted colours
I didn’t have the faintest idea about you subject. But it surely is interesting and I’m fascinated but what you eye and the camera produced. I like hills too but in my area of Texas there are not many hills. There are of course “good” hills that begin about 20 miles or so west of here.
How odd. Yesterday I found and read an old copy of Dennis Potter’s ‘Blue Remembered Hills’ – a play from 1979. Then I switch on WordPress and find this. Funny how connections are made…
Serendipitous synchronicity