Thursday 8 November 2012

Purple city



I've missed a couple weeks of the Nurture Photography Challenge. My 'red' themed post was too late to submit and 'orange' just passed me by completely. I was feeling slightly worried then by this week's theme 'Halloween/purple'.I got too caught up in the fun to take any decent Halloween pictures and was perplexed as to where I might discover purple things at this time of the year, particularly as we were heading to London for five days.





Being a bit of a nature girl, I'm hard on London. I think of it unfairly as a barren metropolis, whose inhabitants are starved of the stuff I find so essential. I was very happy to be proved wrong however, and it turned out that London was 'the' place to find just what I was after. These berries on Newington Green were an incredible perfect purple, such an unusual berry - I snapped some shots quickly in case it was the only chance I got.






But no! There were lilac hebes against a sunny wall, and in Islington's Freightliners farm airy verbena bonariensis, surrounded by fennel against a purple bench backdrop, and even a few fragile flowers managing to hang on into mid autumn though looking increasingly doomed. I was surrounded, it seemed, by a colour I had assumed to be difficult to locate.








I thought my job was done. Then just as we were leaving - about to catch a bus to the train station - I saw those same berries I'd spotted on the first day of our visit, but lit up this time with the sun of the late year. My family was already at the bus stop but I had to try and catch some of that sun. So with seconds to spare I unpacked the camera...I didn't quite miss the bus, but it was close.





Thank you London, for reminding me that beauty truly is everywhere if only we know how to look.


7 comments:

sustainablemum said...

They are lovely pictures. I know what you mean about London I often think the same when I visit. There is always a surprising amount of flora and fauna if you open you eyes and see it.

Melanie said...

Beautiful photos - the sunlight and those amazing berries are such a tonic for the eyes.

When I was a child I used to hate going to London. I grew up in a village, and the city's assault on my senses - all the hemmed-in rush and noise - was too much. Inside, I used to curl up in a kind of ball. But even then, the familiar things kept everything okay. The sparrows that were everywhere in London at that time were such a friendly presence. The green and the wildlife of cities brings relief and magic even in the most unlikely places, doesn't it.

Selina Gough said...

Ah yes, I share some of your feelings about how overwhelming London can be. I enjoy it more as I get older but I'm always so grateful to come home to the woods and hills.

Selina Gough said...

Yes, I'm grateful for the photo challenge, because I don't know if I'd have been looking so intently without an 'assignment'. The parks in London are incredible, with such old old trees. I'm determined to try and see London differently in future.

Unknown said...

Beautiful photographs! I really like the idea of the colour theme.

Amanda Brueckner said...

So pretty <3

Selina Gough said...

Thank you x