Friday, October 15, 2004

Some Days Beauty Just Gets in your Face

What a day. Not just because it's Friday. Mostly because of unexpected beauty. Today at lunch I went for a neighbourhood walk with my friend Louise. She spotted some beautiful spider webs on a gate. Then we noticed them on a hedge, a tree and everywhere. There were hundreds of them - seemingly all the same size, shape and design, and all covered with jewels of rain. They were so evenly distributed and obviously placed it was almost like someone had put them there for set decoration in a movie. Scientifically thinking, the spiders are probably genetically programmed to build webs a certain distance from each other to maximize their feeding and avoid damaging each other's work - but from an aesthetic and emotional point of view, it was magic.

Walking the dog through the green belt behind our house I saw about 8 different kinds of wild mushrooms. The variety and abundance is like nothing I've ever seen around here. They looked like pictures of mushrooms in a fairy tale book - or maybe marzipan mushrooms at a European bakery. I guess the hot dry summer and this gentle, misty rain make for ideal conditions. Wish I knew which are edible and which are deadly, but then again, I love just seeing them where they are. So far no fairy sightings, but I'll keep my eyes open.

And finally, a carpet of red. The broad leaf maple dropped her entire walloping glory on the hillside tucked up between two rows of our houses. Chestnut and scarlet wherever I looked. Magnificent.

Sometimes beauty is visible only out of the corner of your eye. Sometimes it comes upon you slowly, as perception develops and matures. Sometimes, like today, it pokes you in the belly and says "Boing!" You have to love when it does that.

Question - Got beauty?

mompoet - dazzled

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