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Early morning meadow at summer’s end

September 4, 2017 By Brittany Leave a Comment

Well, its the end of Labour day weekend already.

The summer did go by fast, but it was a very fulfilling one for me. I really took it all in, the beauty of the weather and the plants. Most people complained that we didn’t have a hot enough summer but I think the weather was perfectly comfortable.

I enjoyed the outdoors a lot and I took a lot of pictures. These ones I took exactly a week ago from today, but didn’t get around to sharing them sooner of course.

It was a beautiful morning at 6:30 am at my friend’s property north of the Kawarthas here in Ontario. I’m in love with how enchanted nature looks right as the sun rises.

This transitional time of year is so gorgeous with the contrast of the dehydrated plants among those that are still green. And a foretelling of fall in the crispness of the air.

Morning golden light on the grasses …

The red clovers are still around. I had meant to harvest some this year, but I didn’t get around to an area that was far enough from a road to pick.

What I wanted to do was make an infusion from dehydrated heads as I heard from herbalists that this is supposed to be very beneficial for women’s health.

And some beautiful red is starting to show …

Hope you enjoyed the Labour Day weekend.

I’m looking forward to apple season!

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Sunflower pics with my sis

August 28, 2017 By Brittany Leave a Comment

Sunflowers are a bittersweet thing to see. Their beauty is formidable and awesome, yet their appearance indicates that summer is soon coming to a close.

What a beautiful time of the year. And how better to capture the essence of August sunflowers than with some photos.

They are my sister Maddy’s favorite flowers. If we had of had access to a car this day, we would have driven to some wheat fields in the countryside to do this shoot. But we did not, so we settled for a conservation park nearby that happened to have some hay bales laying around.

I don’t mean to boast but – I love these pics of my sister and I’m so happy with how they turned out. I’ve been practicing taking portraits with my Sony A5100 and I’m glad with the results so far.

My sister is awesome. She always models for me on my creative projects.

Hope you’re enjoying this season as it is coming to a close!

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July Wild Inspiration

July 22, 2017 By Brittany Leave a Comment

July has been a lovely month and there are so many things to delight in this time of year. At the farmer’s market fresh seasonal fruits are available like cherries and strawberries, as well as home goodies like lavender.

There are some beautiful things in the wild to be inspired by as well. I imagine this time of year is really exciting for seasoned foragers with all the wild edibles nature has to offer.

It has become a passion of mine to begin to learn to identify plants and thus become more in tune with nature and seasonal changes. Photography is also a developing passion of mine and so I’m combining the two.

Opening your eyes to the natural world makes it feel like you’re living in a fairy tale. It’s no wonder fantastical myths and tales were evolved from the forest.

Some of my favorite things I’ve noticed this month are ;

wild raspberries …

wild roses …

sumacs … I’m obsessed with the color they turn at this time

chickory flower … again the color and the delicateness

Some people like beaches and tanning and drinking by a pool in the summer. While I like to do that sometimes too, one of my favorite things to also enjoy during this season is the shade in the woods.

It’s the perfect climate for observing everything full of life in the forest during the summer. Its also a reminder of the cycle of life and death as there are always green things popping up among the dead leaves from last fall.

Nature’s design of the ferns is definitely something to admire …

Dancing among the pines … I adore pine groves …

Hope you have been having an inspired and productive summer so far!

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Mid-June magic

June 17, 2017 By Brittany Leave a Comment

It is common advice that one should get outdoors and enjoy fresh air for good health. I think of all the countless times I’ve gone outside to get my mind off things or take a break, walking through a park or area with lots of wild plant growth, and not even noticed what was going on in the natural world right outside my door.

This is because we are not raised in our public education system to have a connection with nature or to learn about the wildlife in our environment. We are conditioned from a young age to learn to complete tasks indoors (to prepare us to be complacent for a corporate job) and then to indulge ourselves in our allocated free time to more indoor activity, such as nightclubs, movies or fashion, obsessed with being cool and terrified of missing out on trends.

I’m quite sure that as young girls, most were like me and couldn’t wait to be outside, along a creek, in a meadow, picking flowers and plants, pretending to make useful stuff out of them. Those were our original inclinations that we get trained out of.

When the curiosity of nature revives itself within you, you realize you do not need to go far to keep yourself preoccupied. I was going to use the word ‘entertained’ instead of ‘preoccupied’ but I don’t think that fascination with and learning about the world is the same as trivial entertainment. Actually, you stop feeling like you need to be entertained more than the enjoyment of the company of those that are close to you.

Most people this day and age want so badly to travel and go to different clubs, restaurants and shops. I myself used to think that was the epitome of the “good life” and it was what I strove for. I still of course would take any opportunity to travel, but the difference now is that I do not feel restless being in one place, in my home country that I grew up believing was boring. In fact, I now have a fascination with the Canadian natural landscape and how the awesome change of seasons impacts all that is around us, offering us different things to see and find at different times.

The past week, I have begun familiarizing myself with what grows at this stage of the year, early summer. There is so much diversity of plants in such a small amount of space.

I probably wouldn’t have given any attention at all to red clovers from the time I was a teenager until about a year ago. I used to eat them when I was a child though. They’re all starting to pop up now.

If you’re in meadow or along a road and you look closely, you might find wild strawberries. I have found a ton of them.

Wild roses are blooming now. I believe they can be used to make herbal tea and that the petals are edible. I tried to capture the pure white spider on this one, but he got camera shy …

I could get lost for hours in a meadow.

Hope you’re enjoying the magic around you.

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