Bee Content

Bee Content, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken a lifetime to learn. It seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox."
— Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)

* Pentax K20D and Samsung D-Xenon 50-200mm Lens

Petals of Sweet Excess

Petals of Sweet Excess, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"Poppies bleed petals of sheer excess. You and I, this sweet battle ground."

— From White Oleander by Janet Finch

* Pentax K20D and Samsung D-Xenon 50-200mm Lens

Pretty Drugs

Pretty Drugs, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."
— Karl Marx

Pretty powerful drugs to... the Opium Poppy and the Foxglove, otherwise known as Digitalis, not only look beautiful but are also the source of some of the planets most powerful and used drugs... Morphine, Codeine, Heroin, Opium, Digitalin

Hey, I'm growing drugs in my garden!!! :-)

* Pentax K20D and Samsung D-Xenon 50-200mm Lens

The Sunlight Becomes You

The Sunlight Becomes You, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"Stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight."
— Gordon B. Hinckley

* Pentax K20D and Samsung D-Xenon 50-200mm Lens

Bokehlicious Blossoms Series #3

Feeling Peachy

Feeling Peachy, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"I'm as peachy as a peachy peach!"
— Koge-Donbo

* Pentax K20D and Samsung D-Xenon 50-200mm Lens

Bokehlicious Blossoms Series #2

Delight of the Dancing Bee

Delight of the Dancing Bee, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

The days aren't discarded or collected, they are bees
that burned with sweetness or maddened
the sting: the struggle continues,
the journeys go and come between honey and pain.
No, the net of years doesn't unweave: there is no net.
They don't fall drop by drop from a river: there is no river.
Sleep doesn't divide life into halves,
or action, or silence, or honor:
life is like a stone, a single motion,
a lonesome bonfire reflected on the leaves,
an arrow, only one, slow or swift, a metal
that climbs or descends burning in your bones."
— Pablo Neruda (Still Another Day (Kage-an Books))

* Pentax K20D and Samsung D-Xenon 50-200mm Lens

An Unknown Prospect

An Unknown Prospect, originally uploaded by TomRaven.

Busy old fool, unruly Sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows and through curtains call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
Late schoolboys and sour 'prentices,
Go tell court huntsmen that the King will ride,
Call country ants to harvest offices;
Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.

From The Sunne Rising by John Donne (1572 - 1631)

Prospect Cottage, former home of filmmaker Derek Jarman sits proudly in the surreal landscape of Dungeness. On one wall ( image below) part of the John Donne poem 'The Sunne Rising' is emblazoned and the whole cottage and open gardens are immaculate. Dungeness B nuclear power station sits behind it, a long term question mark on the landscape.

Dungeness Dreaming Series #3

*Samsung EX1 - 3 shot HDR