We have had quite a bit of rain recently, and the mosquitoes are out in full force. Clouds of them followed me as I walked around observing nature -- (Walking was the only option - sitting still, being eaten alive was not!).
It was amazing weather to take photos, chilly but clear and sunny. I have a cold, so I made doubly sure that I was well wrapped up --- But smelling things is impossible, so is saying "n".
I must admit, I found this project really fun!! I'd planned on doing only sketches this time round, but I was so thrilled with how the photos came out, the colour and clear images ... I couldn't NOT use them. So I think I went a bit crazy with the photo over-kill.. but I couldnt get enough! I'd never realised all of the natural patterns all around me, living, moving patterns!
Things like this:-----
really excited me ... I'd never taken the time to appreciate the wonderful nature that surrounds us . To appreciate its colour, shape, line, perfection!!!
I hope you can understand what follows!!!....
Patterns: ---
Colour Patterns:
Blues:
Greeny/Yellow/White:
Purple:
Yellow:
Mauve/Violet/Pale Blue:
Browny Yellows:
Fractal Patterns (Branching):
Palm trees and weeds.
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Grass, budding branch and dry butia branch.*
Syringa, Pine family(?), Pine.
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Frilly lettuce, Four Season Lettuce, Butter Lettuce.
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Parasite plant on Ombú, Chicken foot.
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Grasses:
There are many grass like plants all over the "campo", all growing in between one another, there is no "patch" where any one plant grows independently of the others. Instead, they form a carpet of growth, interdependently.
Organisms Making their Mark / User Patterns:
Left: Ants eating a piece of Pepper --- Centre: An ant hill --- Right: Butia after being eaten away at by ants. Butia are a very sweet berry like fruit found on palm trees (certain ones anyway). When they are ripe, the fruit is pulpy and juicy - a bit like the meat of a mango. When they aren't ripe yet, they are harder, and sourish - a bit like an unripe peach. (I ate a bunch while walking around!).
Left: Trail made by horses to and from their water sources
Right: Trail made by ants to and from their food supplies
One could easily confuse them if they didn't look closely enough!
Scales:
Left: Inverted image of the trunk of a palm tree.
Right: Scales (http://pixdaus.com/?sort=tag&tag=scale)
Serpentine:
Left and Right: The intertwined stems of a Morning Glory plant.
Centre: Rainwater snaking down the drive way (look closely - it's hard to see, but its there!)
Shape:
Different Leaf Shapes
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Seed Case Shapes
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A 3 Sided Seed case-- To what purpose is it shaped like this?
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Dry Palm Frond Spine and Goat Horn
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Pompom shaped "flowers" --- I find the first one just like a sea anemone!
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Mushroom shapes!
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5-fingered Leaves..
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I'm sorry --- The "shapes" come without too much commentary - it's there to see!!!
Spiral:
The following "spiral shapes were all discovered whilst stomping around
The 3-sided plant above is carqueja - it is drunk in tea as a diuretic. It tastes really good as a tea, but raw, it tasted of nothing much at all. Even grass is sweeter. I loved seeing how the sides twist, it reminds me of the little shapes from inside glass marbles.
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Different pìne cones from around the farm.
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Left: Frilly lettuce --- Centre: Chirqa --- Right: Butter Lettuce (to die for!)
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This is Harley -- the Big Boy. He's 5 years old and has some of the most spectacular horns I've ever seen on a goat. He would like you to know that he knows what to do with them too.
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I'm not sure if these tree rings count as spirals --- I don't think so, but it seemed like they fitted in best here anyway. I love noticing their age differences, and how they have weathered over time. The stump on the eleft is eucalyptus (I think), the middle stump is where we cut off a syringa branch, and on the right, and Ombú branch has been sawn off.
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Star (5 Points):
While compiling the photos I had taken, I couldn't help but notice these star-like shapes in the morning glory and tomatin flowers... The tomatin on the left has opened, but the one on the right is still in the process.
Abiotic Patterns:
The other day, it was raining and I was trying to take a photo of the rain. Then I noticed how a flower pot had filled up with rain water - and I was enchanted but the waves and ripples and drips and drops!
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The wind blowing creates a rhythym a bit like what you'd expect if it was a car going up and down hills. It starts off as a gentle breeze and slowly works up to a good ol' blow, where my hair is in my face, being whipped round from behing the band I'm wearing. All of a sudden, the wind lessens up until not a leaf moves... a few minutes of peace and then, the leaves start to rustle softly again.
The wind out here is relentless, especially in winter. It comes blowing in from the south, comes down the hill gathering speed. By the time it hits the house, its howls are accompanied but devilish whistling through the trees, and looking out the window the trees seem to be bending over, as if looking for something. We have had winds where window glass has been blown through, garden chairs blown across the yard. The wind is not a force you want to reckon with.
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The sun in the afternoon plays with the shadows, making leaves look lighter and darker than they really are -- Autumn is definitely here - the shadows are longer than ever.
Textures:
Fungus is fascinating. It grows in the strangest of places, under a range of conditions, and it looks like it belongs under the sea. The photos above and below are of various fungi that I discovered tramping around. Top right-hand-side is actually the mold that grows on homemade goat's cheese that is still aging. Gross? Not at all - in fact different molds can create different tastes and textures. In fact, bries and camemberts (two of many!) have fungus propagated on/in them to bring about their unique flavours.
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The tomato is an organic homegrown baby - very sweet, pulpy and juicy with a real "tomato" taste. (Sometimes store bought, chemically grown tomatoes lose their flavour). I love how the taught, shiny skin is so smooth! The spiky neighbour to the right of the tomato appeared alongside the tomato plants --- I don't know what it is, but I wouldn't want to mess with it either, those thorns are Sharp! On the right, another weed, also spiky, but the prickles are much softer, and the leaf itself is furryish.
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These three pics have Smokey as the leading lady. I can't get enough of how her soft, silky fur contrasts with the hard, dry, cracked earth; and the smooth, shiny lettuces.
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Kiwi on the left, sage - centre stage, and basil on the right.
The kiwi leaf is broad, quite thick, and fuzzy; the sage is bumpy rough like a cats tongue with a leathery texture; the basil is thin, smooth and waxy.
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I haven't got the courage to actually eat one of the many mushrooms I've come across on the farm - but I need to find out which are edible and which aren't. I love how the thin, delicate lines of the underside of the mushroom are similar to Pretty's long lashes. (Pretty the Goat). I didn't want to touch the "folds" of the mushtoom because they look so fragile.
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Left: Syringa - Centre: Eucalytpus - Right: Ombú
I took these photos for the comparison of the textures of different barks. The syring looks a bit like cured leather and is waxy/smooth to the tough. The eucalyptus is papery and dusty with crackly dry bark. The Ombú (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytolacca_dioica) has chunky, woodier bark - which is harder to break off with my fingers.
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The photo on the left illustrates the textural difference of the fine fur on a horses face compared to the long, soft fuzz inspired his ears (designed to keep bugs out) and the thick, coarse hairs of his forlock - the fly shaker! In the middle, we have a horse tummy where his salty, sticky sweat has dried - creating an unusual pattern of dry furry hairs, and others that have been slicked down. Ferdie, the percheron features on the right. He is a gentle giant - weighing in at over a tonne. I love his neck wrinkles.
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Left: Bamboo --- Centre: Ant-eaten Mushroom --- Right: Bina
The bamboo is smooth, shiny and very hard. Its leaves are soft and papery (easy to tear). The mushroom has been eaten away at, and so, has an unusual surface texture, as if an acid has been eating away at polystyrene. I wonder if that has to do with the chemical make up of ant salive? Do they even have salive? Or is it from them "cutting away" at the mushroom? Bina has tiny tiny little hairs that cover her whole face, spreading out like sun rays for the centre line between her eyes. Her nose and lips are also very rubbery and dextrous.
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This strange egg was found in one of the many places around the farm where our free range hens decide to lay. They have a beautiful hen house, but prefer to find nooks and crannies in the most awkward of places. This egg came out "wrinkled" with weird lumps and bumps - almost as though it wasnt properly formed when the chicken popped it out. It's surface is lightly bumpy (almost as if it had pores) and matte, but the shell is strong. The "tomatin" in the middle is like a tomato that grows inside the paperbag of a gooseberry. The paperbag is very fine and extremely delicate with minute veins acting like window frames, giving the bag its form and strength.
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Left: Strange twig --- Centre: Ant Hill ... Right: Pretty's Horns
The twig was interesting to me just because it was so smooth to the touch but had lumps and bumps and "cuts" in it - all naturally formed. The ant hill is at the base of the poplar tree, but with the rain has now become "mottled". Its once rounded, smooth (for sand) now appears pock marked. Pretty's horns are rough and ridgy with their points surprisingly sharp. The base of each horn has large ridges ringing round it, with the ridges becoming smaller and smaller as you go up the horn. They are extremely hard, but hollow sounding inside. They are actually chockablock with nerves and act as heat "releasers" for the goats.
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Left: Syringa --- Centre: Unknown --- Right: Pine
The syringa tree has strange "rifts" in it that have an uncanny resemblance to stretch marks. I wonder if this is due to it grwoing too fast? Too much water? The centre tree is hollow inside, but is still alive. The bark is peeling off it, and it seems to be dead at the base, but the leaves are green. There are all sorts of little bugs living inside. There is a tiny, intricate creeper growing up the pine tree. Its minute, smooth, shiny little green leaves contrast enormously with the grey, roughness of the bark of the tree.
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I really enjoyed this observation!!! It excited me to find so much "alignment" on the farm - something like nature that seems so "orderless" but actually is structured to its own excellence.
I'm sorry if I went overboard - but I'd already cut out so much !
I hope I've been able to convey some of the magical precision and faultlessness of the natural world that I have here at my feet!
I am in Awe!
So --- Until next week.. Jessie and Daphne.
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P.S. As a final note --- Please check out his video I took in the undergrowth of where the pines grow - I thought it was amazing! (The panting is Baloo the dog).
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