in the Japanese
garden, just the soft whisper
of running water

-o0o-


-o0o-

The Flowers
by Robert Louis Stevenson

All the names I know from nurse:
Gardener's garters, shepherd's purse,
Bachelor's buttons, lady's smock,
And the lady hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,
Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,
Tiny trees for tiny dames -
These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs
Shady fairies weave a house;
Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,
Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grown-up people's trees,
But the fairest woods are these;
Where, if I were not so tall,
I should live for good and all.

-o0o-


-o0o-

The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind,
but the goodness of a person spreads in all directions.
(Chanakya)

-o0o-

This is a short slide show of Monet’s Garden at Giverny
uploaded by lynnvm



-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

NEXT POST HERE TUESDAY 4TH SEPT

-o0o-

We have to try to reveal that Light which is hidden in us as a bud. It must blossom like a flower. In all things everywhere, in all beings, the Light is hidden, and must be revealed.
(Mother Meera)

-o0o-


-o0o-

From “The Cloud” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.

-o0o-


-o0o-

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm,
but to add colour to my sunset sky.
(Rabindranath Tagore)

-o0o-

Just clouds and more clouds in this short film, uploaded by ckpenny.



-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Thanks to freeimagegallery4.blogspot.com

-o0o-

The Lotus flower shudders
When the Sun brings forth his light.
She droops her head in slumber
To dream in wait for the night

The moon is the Lotus' lover.
He wakes her with bright grace
Before him she will gladly uncover
Her flower's devoted face.

She shines and glows and blossoms
And mutely gazes above.
She sighs and weeps and trembles
With love and the woe of love.
(Heinrich Heine)

-o0o-


-o0o-

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky;
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
(William Wordsworth)

-o=0=o-


The Haywain
by John Constable

-o=0=o-

The Irish poet John O’Donohue in his book “Anam Cara” tells a fascinating story of a journalist friend who arranged to interview an old Native American chief.

When they met, the old man said he would like the two of them to have some time together before the interview proper. The journalist had assumed that they would have an informal chat, and so he was rather taken aback when the chief looked directly at him, and sat for a very long time in complete silence with his eyes holding the other’s eyes. The journalist said that at first he was terrified, but gradually he responded by gazing deeply into the old man’s eyes. And so they sat, without a word being spoken, for more than two hours!

He told O’Donhue that he soon felt that there was no need for an interview. It seemed to him that they had known each other all their lives.

-o=0=o-

The music in this video is “Poem” by Fibich and the pianist is Yuli Lavrenov.
Uploaded by Lebenslilie.



-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.
(William Henry Davies)

-o0o-


-o0o-

O happy Garden! loved for hours of sleep,
O quiet Garden! loved for waking hours.
For soft half-slumbers that did gently steep
Our spirits, carrying with them dreams of flowers.
(William Wordsworth)

-o0o-


-o0o-

I meant to do my work today -
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.

And the wind went sighing over the land
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand -
So what could I do but laugh and go?
(Richard Le Gallienne)

-o0o-

Thanks to FreeFoto.com

-o0o-

I can enjoy society in a room, but out-of-doors company is enough for me.
(William Hazlitt)

-o0o-



now on 80plus
one of the most unusual paintings ever created
The Dutch Proverbs by Pieter Brueghel the Elder
http://80plus.blogspot.com

Have you seen but a bright lily grow
Before rude hands have touched it?
Have you marked but the fall of snow
Before the soil hath smutched it?
Have you felt the wool of beaver,
Or swan's down ever?
Or have smelt o' the bud o' the brier,
Or the nard in the fire?
Or have tasted the bag of the bee?
O so white, O so soft, O so sweet is she!
(Ben Jonson)

-o0o-


-o0o-

Once upon a time a traveller was journeying across the desert when he met two strange men. As they were all going roughly in the same direction, they chatted as they walked.

The men told the traveller that their names were Fear and Plague and they were going to a big city where they intended to kill 20,000 of the inhabitants.

Shocked, the man asked Plague if he would do all the work.
Plague shook his head, “No, I’ll kill only a few hundred. My friend Fear will do the rest.”

-o0o-

This is a photo of the famous Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi, India, which has become known as the Lotus Temple. Built in 1986, it’s constructed in the shape of a nine-sided lotus flower with 27 marble "petals." It has nine doors leading in to a central hall capable of housing up to 2,500 people. The Temple has nine surrounding ponds and with the gardens covers 26 acres.

-o0o-

Thanks to ernestocortazarfan for this video



-o0o-

BLOG NEWS
After an interval of four months, 80 plus is returning.
A new series begins on Friday 17th August.
http://80plus.blogspot.com

Nympheas by Claude Monet

-o0o-

Bird of the wilderness,
Blithesome and cumberless,
Sweet be thy matin o’er moorland and lea!
Emblem of happiness,
Blest is thy dwelling-place -
O, to abide in the desert with thee!

Wild is thy lay and loud,
Far in the downy cloud,
Love gives it energy, love gave it birth.
Where, on thy dewy wing,
Where art thou journeying?
Thy lay is in heaven, thy love is on earth.
(James Hogg)

-o0o-


-o0o-

The lake lay blue below the hill,
O'er it, as I looked, there flew
Across the waters, cold and still,
A bird whose wings were palest blue.

The sky above was blue at last,
The sky beneath me blue in blue,
A moment, ere the bird had passed,
It caught his image as he flew.
(Mary Coleridge)

-o0o-


-o0o-

The sun has long been set,
The stars are out by twos and threes,
The little birds are piping yet
Among the bushes and the trees;
There’s a cuckoo, and one or two thrushes,
And a far-off wind that rushes,
And a sound of water that gushes,
And the cuckoo’s sovereign cry
Fills all the hollow of the sky.

Who would go “parading”
In London, and “masquerading,”
On such a night of June
With that beautiful soft half-moon,
And all these innocent blisses?
0n such a night as this is!
(William Wordsworth)

-o0o-

Every night the farmer had lain in bed listening to the nightingale’s beautiful song and thinking how he would love to possess the bird for himself.

He laid a trap and the nightingale was caught and caged. “Now you shall always sing for me,” he told the bird.

“But nightingales never sing in cages,” the bird replied, “However, if you let me go free, I promise that I’ll tell you three things that are very much better than my singing.”

The farmer opened the door of the cage and the nightingale flew out and alighted on a nearby tree.

The bird told him, “Never believe a captive's promise, keep what you have and don’t sorrow what is lost forever," and flew away, never to return.

-o0o-

Thanks to IsisVisuals for uploading this video.



-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

-o0o-

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
(John Keats)

-o0o-


-o0o-

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see nature at all.
But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. (William Blake)

-o0o-

The Orchard
by Thomas Cooper Gotch

-o0o-

The tall tree looked down at the little reed growing below and said, “Why don’t you plant your feet deeply in the ground, and lift up your head in the air as I do?"

"No. no,“said the reed, "I’m quite happy as I am, and I think I’m safer down here."

"Safe!" sneered the Tree, "I’m sure I’m much safer - I’m big and strong.“

The next day however there was a tremendous storm, the tree was torn up by its roots, and flung down - a useless log. The little reed was able to bend in the wind and, when the storm had passed, was standing up straight, completely unharmed.

And the moral is - Obscurity often brings safety.

-o0o-

This "New Age Music Forest Piano" video was uploaded by quiescencemusic



-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

-o0o-

"Nature" is what we see -
The Hill - the Afternoon -
Squirrel - Eclipse - the Bumblebee -
Nay - Nature is Heaven -
Nature is what we hear -
The Bobolink - the Sea -
Thunder - the Cricket -
Nay - Nature is Harmony -
Nature is what we know -
Yet have no art to say -
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To her Simplicity.
(Emily Dickenson)

-o0o-

Countryside at Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. Photo by Michael Maggs
Thanks to Wikimedia Commons

-o0o-

Nature Walk

Out back, behind the yard
in the brush and scrub at the edge
a world unfolds for those willing
to stop and look, crunch and tread
where squirrel and ant, snake and fox
hunt and work, amongst the deadfall
Wonder of nature in the back, beyond
the cut lawn and past the leaf litter
a bend of a branch held by ivy
a curl of birch bark
a spider’s leg showing below the
lip of a fungus on an old trunk
patterns in the ground, beneath the
newness of spring in the woods
before the full greening of the
new shoots and leaves
in between time in early April
in New Hampshire
(Raymond A. Foss)

-o0o-

Stratford Mill
by John Constable

-o0o-

The Amen of nature is always a flower.
(Oliver Wendell Holmes)

-o0o-

This video was uploaded by LoungeVstudio



-o0o-

MUSIC HAS CHARMS
http://musichascharms.blogspot.com