As usual, I don’t know the name of this flower and despite the excellent signage at South Bay Botanic Garden, I didn’t see one for this flower. I’m sure one of you can tell me what it is, right? 🙂 Feel free to jump in with a name. But the light is as much the star of the show, making the two together more than the sum of their parts.
FOTD 9.23.22
Light and shadow, a symbiotic relationship that Patti’s asking us to explore this week. Without light there is no shadow and I do love both light and shadow.
“The brightest flame casts the darkest shadow.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
The Visitors Center at Saguaro National Park is full of wonderful shadows and you know there’s lots of sun in Arizona to do the light part of creating shadows!
“There is strong shadow where there is much light.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Götz von Berlichingen
You can find shadows inside the house as well.
Find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light and dark which that thing provides. ~Junichiro Tanizaki
Light and snow can create beautiful shadow images such as this one taken from a second story window in our home in Illinois.
“When you light a candle, you also cast a shadow.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin
And then there are more subtle shadows created by the combination of late spring light and vegetation.
But as attractive as shadows are in these instances, may your week be filled only with light and may the only shadows cast be those that are beautiful.
“Not all the wings are made up of feathers my dear. Some are made of glass too.”
― Akshay Vasu, The Abandoned Paradise: Unraveling the beauty of untouched thoughts and dreams
Let’s take one last look at the ultimate group of sculptures on our walk. Notice how the backlighting from the sun fires the beauty of the glass.
“I don’t wish to argue,
whether the glass is
half empty or half full,
as long as what it holds,
is pure and delightful.”
― Akash Mandal
A few grace notes.
“When you look at a piece of delicately spun glass you think of two things: how beautiful it is and how easily it can be broken.”
― Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
Moving to a different spot adds the interest of shadow.
That ends our tour of the 2022 Chihuly installation at the Desert Botanical Garden of Phoenix. I hope you’ve enjoyed the trip. It’s possible you’ll be treated to some of non-glass sightings in coming days or maybe even a few shots of glass that I didn’t use before. For now, thanks for walking with me and enjoy your Wednesday.
Sometimes the light is the star as it is here, making the ordinary extraordinary. Gotta pull out all the stops for the last few days of the Life in Colour challenge, one I’ve greatly enjoyed the past few years! Here the emphasis is on “bright” as opposed to all sorts of colors.
I think nature’s gold is the very best and I offer you two examples of why I think so. This will be my last post for September as I’m on the way to southern California for another visit with our older daughter, husband, and grandchild-in-the-making. I’ll even be attending my first gender-reveal party but no, there will be no fireworks to start forest fires or anything happening that might kill someone or destroy property! Just family and friends and a cake that when cut, will have frosting colored to reveal boy or girl. Whatever happened to the element of surprise that we looked for? 🙂
Ann-Christine is looking for examples of artificial light in this week’s challenge, which is quite a challenge for me as most of my light is in nature. I’ve trawled through some of my archives to find a few examples to share with you. I hope you enjoy them and have a marvelous weekend. We’re binge watching the Vancouver rugby 7’s tournament today and probably tomorrow as well. 🙂 What are you doing?
My favorite view of a large city, Los Angeles in this case, is at night when the artificial light reigns supreme. This is a view from the observatory.
Light in the chapel in Sedona’s lovely shopping area, Tlaquepaque, reminiscent of some of Europe’s small chapels. If you book early and pay an unknown amount, you can have your wedding here. 🙂
Indubitably artificial light.
Tina’s chosen to focus on light this week with a fascinating use of the slider feature of WordPress. Choosing for this challenge is almost impossible, but I’ll start with a favorite which many of you have seen before. People who believe in astrology talk about the stars aligning but here the animals aligned instead and I was so thankful they did.
Light at the end of the tunnel.
A light.
The “glory of God” morning light.
Night light.
Oceanside light.
Back light.
I could go on and on but I won’t, for which you’re probably grateful, however I hope you have lots of light in your day and in your heart today.
This, that and the other thing 
