‘ Morning Magic’
In the morning, when you carry out the mild drudgery of hanging the laundry on the line, and you spy a dew sprinkled flower above the fence catching the sun – there is magic amongst the mundane.
For there always is…
Tag: Magic
In Dingle Dell
Yeah, I know it rhymes with jingle bells and sounds sorta made up, like something from ‘The Hobbit’, but Dingle Dell is an actual place.
What it is, is a bushland oasis, a sanctuary if you will, right in the midst of suburban Auckland ,and only five minutes from my home.
Decades ago a group of forward minded individuals planted out the difficult terrain in native tree species. Matured now, it is the thriving habitat of numerous endemic species.
I was there yesterday, on the last day of school holidays, with my daughter.
She couldn’t recall the place. Surely I had taken her there…hadn’t I ? Well, not for years , if so. Remiss of me. I mean, I could remember being taken there by my parents but….
Together we stood quietly as tui and fantails fed and preened in the bush canopy. No one else around. Special.
My learnings from the time amongst the trees, navigating the shaded, serpentine tracks were:
That we often take for granted what is very familiar to us; we need to spend a little more time in the quiet wonder of nature – it is humbling actually – and , god, time really does fly – the child becomes the parent and is the guide, not the guided, in a flash.
Oh, and magic is everywhere, not just in fantasy fiction…
Jesus Might, But The Sea Will
Heal you that is…
Graffiti on a stone wall by the sea in Fife’s East Neuk proclaims the possible healing powers of Christ.
As I have stated here before, I am no theologian, so cannot affirm the truth of the painted statement, or otherwise.
But I do know that the sea has magical healing effects.
Not just in the salt and minerals in the sea that assist with wounds (I once had cause to wash out a bleeding wound after been nastily bitten on the leg by a dog on a beach).
It is in the constant nature and rhythm of the ocean tides , the freshness of the salt air’s tang and the might and power of the waves.
For it has been my comforter as long as I can remember, the magnetic thing that draws me to itself without effort.
No day is worse for gazing upon a marine expanse, no mood so forlorn that it is not uplifted.
There is no logical explanation, so in that I sense am in the same proverbial boat as the Christians!
Just An Obervation…
Carter Observatory, Botanic Gardens, Wellington NZ
Astronomical observatories are fascinating vantage points to far flung stars, planets and space matter.
Where the unknown is made known, the distant made near.
There is an element of magic in that, albeit with a telescope instead of a wand.
Well, that’s my observation anyway…
But I will leave the last word to someone who really understood how to make the magic occur, Galileo Galilei :
” I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night “.
Seahorse In The Sky
Have you passed by a place a thousand times and never noticed something, and then suddenly you do?
I had one of those moments during the week ,when I had a few minutes up my sleeve and stopped on the way to my work shift up at the marae.
Okaku Bay is a lovely flat beach on the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland and the seahorse statue atop a column adorns the art deco changing sheds there. How I had never spotted it before I don’t know.
In my recent travel overseas I filled my photographic boots with all sorts of animalistic symbols – lion, wolves, and unicorns, to name a few, so perhaps had become attuned to seeing such things. Travel in new places causes us to look at home with fresh eyes, too.
It’s all about the magic in the mundane, where ordinary buildings and spaces come alive with images of fantastic creatures. The seahorse discovery transformed my routine day!
Winged Taurus
lf bulls can fly…
Well, they are bigger than pigs – “and pigs can fly” as the saying goes – and that is not a likelihood either.
But myths (and mythical creatures) do not need likelihood, let alone certainty, to hold sway or have power.
For mythology is magic, and magic transcends reality.
So, if bulls can fly, clouds are pierced by horns and hooves will trample stars.
And mankind will continue to be shat upon massively from great heights…
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On The Promenade
Dusk at London’s South Bank and those who stroll on the promenade do so with the expectation that everything is possible and nothing improbable….magic will occur tonight.
Sunset On Suburbia (Muse Dream)
A quiet midweek evening in the ‘burbs where I live, the terribly ordinary framed by the fantastical colours of sunset , with rain about to fall, and fall heavily.
I tend to think magic is often found in the most mundane things and places.
Or at the very least there is magic trying to break through.
As Irish pop band The Thrills had it:
“The suburbs dream tonight of finding their muse”
(from ‘ The Curse of Comfort ‘)
Magical Water Circles
Water lilies, a flora favourite of mine – this from the amazing Spice Gardens in Penang, Malaysia on a trip up there in 2016.
Not too many flowers on offer, so the focus is on the lily pads.
Great view of the structural mechanics of the plants,with the stems connecting the circular pads clearly visible though the water.
Even though you can see how the floating trick is performed, the sight is no less magical!
For more transcendental aqua flotation miracles see: Water Lilies I, Water Lilies II , Water Lilies III .
Magic Bus
” Every day you’ll see the dust
as I drive my baby in my Magic Bus
( too much, Magic Bus ).”
– ‘Magic Bus’, The Who (1968)
…these days the dust might be more over this derelict carrier, than from it, but still magic..
The Boat House
A shot of a boat house sitting serenely over water near my Auckland home.
I am not a boatie or sailor by any stretch of the imagination ,but I admire those who cast off from shore,voyaging ,for adventure on the sea.
So this place appeals to me.
It is by appearance a simple,linear design,with utilitarian function.Boats are stored inside and launched from it.
But it is also the departing place for courage and dreams and happiness, and that makes it magical.
Ebb Then Flood 