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Showing posts with label photo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photo. Show all posts
Sunday, May 24, 2026
BEAUTY: Photography--Linda Westin
Stockholm-based photographer Linda Westin took a detour into science and obtained a PhD in neuroscience, specializing in super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, a technique that allows scientists to illuminate the structures inside cells by making them glow under specific wavelengths. She now uses this same idea to photograph trees and plants in dense natural settings. Her work is startling and enigmatic, and her images play as though they are illustrations from fairytale stories about magical forests full of night time intrigue and possible dangers ... Where The Wild Things Might Be ...
https://www.instagram.com/_cometalktome_/
https://www.instagram.com/_cometalktome_/
Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Sunday, December 7, 2025
O, Tannenbaum 2025
I love winter and the tradition of the decorated and lighted tree. When I was a little boy, it always felt so connected to the time of the year, the elements, the snow and darkness. Even then, I sensed the pagan roots of this tradition and now that I am an adult, I love it even more.
Descended from the Roman festival of Saturnalia, and from Pagans and Druids from all over Europe, the tree is an expression of the season: deciduous trees, plants, flowers, and crops die off (or go dormant) while the pine remains magically alive, the only thing that stays green in the natural world (the Latin word sempervirent = evergreen) at this time of year. It only makes sense to honor the earth, the season, and the fir itself by bringing it inside to decorate and echo the look of the land.
This is the time of the Winter Solstice, short grey days and long dark nights, where twinkling stars are visible for so much longer. As an homage to the winter sky, lights are put on the tree, again echoing the natural world. It’s also reminiscent of the bonfires many different pagan cultures lit around the countryside to ward off the darkness and chill; lights on the tree bring some light and warmth to this lifeless time of year, and speak to a time when the days will eventually grow longer, the planet will again tilt, and summer will return.
I hope you get to enjoy a seasonal tree of your own this winter.
Happy Holidays!
JEF
Descended from the Roman festival of Saturnalia, and from Pagans and Druids from all over Europe, the tree is an expression of the season: deciduous trees, plants, flowers, and crops die off (or go dormant) while the pine remains magically alive, the only thing that stays green in the natural world (the Latin word sempervirent = evergreen) at this time of year. It only makes sense to honor the earth, the season, and the fir itself by bringing it inside to decorate and echo the look of the land.
This is the time of the Winter Solstice, short grey days and long dark nights, where twinkling stars are visible for so much longer. As an homage to the winter sky, lights are put on the tree, again echoing the natural world. It’s also reminiscent of the bonfires many different pagan cultures lit around the countryside to ward off the darkness and chill; lights on the tree bring some light and warmth to this lifeless time of year, and speak to a time when the days will eventually grow longer, the planet will again tilt, and summer will return.
I hope you get to enjoy a seasonal tree of your own this winter.
Happy Holidays!
JEF
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
The Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House 2025
Once again, the magical Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House in
London will be open for tours this holiday season!
In 1979, creative dreamer Dennis Severs, after moving from America to England a few years prior, bought a ruined house in the Spitalfields area of London and set about returning it to its former state. After several years, he ended up creating something very special that he called a "still-life drama," with vignettes spread across the ten rooms and four storeys of No. 18 Folgate Street. Each room is dressed like a stage or film set in a different historic style, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries. He invented a back story for this house: the fictional Jervis family (a name anglicised from Gervais), originally Huguenot (French Protestant immigrants) silk weavers who lived at the house from 1725 to 1919 are still present but just out of sight. Dennis opened this "time-machine" to the public and invited people to take a tour, not of an historic house, but to step into the Jervis' lives in a very immediate and visceral way. In what is more like an immersive theatrical experiences or performance art, he left half-eaten meals, half-full chamber pots, lit candles and blazing fireplaces scattered about while sound effects of the period softly emanated from hidden speakers as though the family just stepped out for a moment. Each room evokes incidental moments in the lives of these imaginary inhabitants. Writer Peter Ackroyd, author of LONDON: THE BIOGRAPHY, wrote, "The journey through the house becomes a journey through time; with its small rooms and hidden corridors, its whispered asides and sudden revelations, it resembles a pilgrimage through life itself." Artist David Hockney called the experience of touring the house one of the world's greatest works of opera.
After Severs died in 1999, the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust, an architectural preservation charity, took over the property and has kept it open to the public. But the best time to go is during the holiday season. The Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House sees the property decked out in its period holiday finery. Photos are normally not allowed (guests embark on a 45 minute tour of the house but are encouraged to do so silently, without taking any photos) but a few years ago, London-based photographer Skye O'Neill was permitted to tour and photograph the house for this year's Christmas Installation. She shared some of these lovely images.
And here is a great interview with Dennis Severs about his home and why and how he created it.
In 1979, creative dreamer Dennis Severs, after moving from America to England a few years prior, bought a ruined house in the Spitalfields area of London and set about returning it to its former state. After several years, he ended up creating something very special that he called a "still-life drama," with vignettes spread across the ten rooms and four storeys of No. 18 Folgate Street. Each room is dressed like a stage or film set in a different historic style, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries. He invented a back story for this house: the fictional Jervis family (a name anglicised from Gervais), originally Huguenot (French Protestant immigrants) silk weavers who lived at the house from 1725 to 1919 are still present but just out of sight. Dennis opened this "time-machine" to the public and invited people to take a tour, not of an historic house, but to step into the Jervis' lives in a very immediate and visceral way. In what is more like an immersive theatrical experiences or performance art, he left half-eaten meals, half-full chamber pots, lit candles and blazing fireplaces scattered about while sound effects of the period softly emanated from hidden speakers as though the family just stepped out for a moment. Each room evokes incidental moments in the lives of these imaginary inhabitants. Writer Peter Ackroyd, author of LONDON: THE BIOGRAPHY, wrote, "The journey through the house becomes a journey through time; with its small rooms and hidden corridors, its whispered asides and sudden revelations, it resembles a pilgrimage through life itself." Artist David Hockney called the experience of touring the house one of the world's greatest works of opera.
After Severs died in 1999, the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust, an architectural preservation charity, took over the property and has kept it open to the public. But the best time to go is during the holiday season. The Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House sees the property decked out in its period holiday finery. Photos are normally not allowed (guests embark on a 45 minute tour of the house but are encouraged to do so silently, without taking any photos) but a few years ago, London-based photographer Skye O'Neill was permitted to tour and photograph the house for this year's Christmas Installation. She shared some of these lovely images.
And here is a great interview with Dennis Severs about his home and why and how he created it.
If you live in London or will be there during the holidays, you have a chance
to see the Christmas Installation in person through the 11th of January 2026.
Admission times sell out quickly. Check the website for more
details.
Saturday, October 25, 2025
BEAUTY: Photography for Autumn--Xavier Portela
For autumn, here is a gorgeous set of the changing leaves in Japan captured by a fantastic photographer, Xavier Portela. He describes the inspiration on his site:
"Kōyō (紅葉) refers to the Japanese tradition of admiring autumn foliage, when trees, leaves, and entire forests turn glowing in red, orange, and gold. This new series explores that fleeting moment."
Gorgeous.
https://xavierportela.com/
"Kōyō (紅葉) refers to the Japanese tradition of admiring autumn foliage, when trees, leaves, and entire forests turn glowing in red, orange, and gold. This new series explores that fleeting moment."
Gorgeous.
https://xavierportela.com/
Monday, September 22, 2025
Happy Autumnal Equinox 2025!
Today is the official start of autumn, when our planet begins to tilt the other direction, tipping the northern hemisphere away from the sun. The days grow shorter and the nights grow longer as we move indoors and into ourselves for hibernation and introspection. Autumn is a time of harvest as the earth moves into hibernation as well. It is a beautiful time, a spiritual transition, a doorway between summer and winter.
HAPPY AUTUMNAL EQUINOX 2024!
(And for our friends Down Under, Happy Spring!)
Monday, August 18, 2025
The Waning Days of Summer
Photo of the coastline at Pigeon Point Bluffs, Northern California on 8/17/25 by JEF
Friday, July 18, 2025
The Underlying
 |
| Departure by Thomas Hager |
“Stillness is your essential nature. What is stillness? The inner space or awareness in which the words on this page are being perceived and become thoughts. Without that awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts, no world.
You are that awareness, disguised as a person.
You can become aware of awareness as the background to all your sense perceptions, all your thinking. Becoming aware of awareness is the arising of inner stillness.
Is stillness just the absence of noise and content? No, it is intelligence itself—the underlying consciousness out of which every form is born. And how could that be separate from who you are?
The form that you think you are came out of that and is being sustained by it.
It is the essence of all galaxies and blades of grass; of all flowers, trees, birds, and other forms.”
--Eckhart Tolle, from his book STILLNESS SPEAKS
“We have learned that beneath the surface of an ordinary everyday normal casual conscious existence there lies a vast dynamic world of impulse and dream, a hinterland of energy which has an independent existence of its own and laws of its own: laws which motivate all our thoughts and our actions.”
--Robert Edmond Jones
You are that awareness, disguised as a person.
You can become aware of awareness as the background to all your sense perceptions, all your thinking. Becoming aware of awareness is the arising of inner stillness.
Is stillness just the absence of noise and content? No, it is intelligence itself—the underlying consciousness out of which every form is born. And how could that be separate from who you are?
The form that you think you are came out of that and is being sustained by it.
It is the essence of all galaxies and blades of grass; of all flowers, trees, birds, and other forms.”
--Eckhart Tolle, from his book STILLNESS SPEAKS
 |
| Photo by Gabriel Wickbold |
“We have learned that beneath the surface of an ordinary everyday normal casual conscious existence there lies a vast dynamic world of impulse and dream, a hinterland of energy which has an independent existence of its own and laws of its own: laws which motivate all our thoughts and our actions.”
--Robert Edmond Jones
 |
| Shoegazers by Nicholas Bohac |
Sunday, March 2, 2025
Sunday, December 8, 2024
O, Tannenbaum 2024
I love winter and the tradition of the decorated and lighted tree. When I was a little boy, it always felt so connected to the time of the year, the elements, the snow and darkness. Even then, I sensed the pagan roots of this tradition and now that I am an adult, I love it even more.
Descended from the Roman festival of Saturnalia, and from Pagans and Druids from all over Europe, the tree is an expression of the season: deciduous trees, plants, flowers, and crops die off (or go dormant) while the pine remains magically alive, the only thing that stays green in the natural world (the Latin word sempervirent = evergreen) at this time of year. It only makes sense to honor the earth, the season, and the fir itself by bringing it inside to decorate and echo the look of the land.
This is the time of the Winter Solstice, short grey days and long dark nights, where twinkling stars are visible for so much longer. As an homage to the winter sky, lights are put on the tree, again echoing the natural world. It’s also reminiscent of the bonfires many different pagan cultures lit around the countryside to ward off the darkness and chill; lights on the tree bring some light and warmth to this lifeless time of year, and speak to a time when the days will eventually grow longer, the planet will again tilt, and summer will return.
I hope you get to enjoy a seasonal tree of your own this winter.
Happy Holidays!
JEF
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
The Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House 2024
Once again, the magical Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House in
London will be open for tours this holiday season!
In 1979, creative dreamer Dennis Severs, after moving from America to England a few years prior, bought a ruined house in the Spitalfields area of London and set about returning it to its former state. After several years, he ended up creating something very special that he called a "still-life drama," with vignettes spread across the ten rooms and four storeys of No. 18 Folgate Street. Each room is dressed like a stage or film set in a different historic style, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries. He invented a back story for this house: the fictional Jervis family (a name anglicised from Gervais), originally Huguenot (French Protestant immigrants) silk weavers who lived at the house from 1725 to 1919 are still present but just out of sight. Dennis opened this "time-machine" to the public and invited people to take a tour, not of an historic house, but to step into the Jervis' lives in a very immediate and visceral way. In what is more like an immersive theatrical experiences or performance art, he left half-eaten meals, half-full chamber pots, lit candles and blazing fireplaces scattered about while sound effects of the period softly emanated from hidden speakers as though the family just stepped out for a moment. Each room evokes incidental moments in the lives of these imaginary inhabitants. Writer Peter Ackroyd, author of LONDON: THE BIOGRAPHY, wrote, "The journey through the house becomes a journey through time; with its small rooms and hidden corridors, its whispered asides and sudden revelations, it resembles a pilgrimage through life itself." Artist David Hockney called the experience of touring the house one of the world's greatest works of opera.
After Severs died in 1999, the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust, an architectural preservation charity, took over the property and has kept it open to the public. But the best time to go is during the holiday season. The Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House sees the property decked out in its period holiday finery. Photos are normally not allowed (guests embark on a 45 minute tour of the house but are encouraged to do so silently, without taking any photos) but a few years ago, London-based photographer Skye O'Neill was permitted to tour and photograph the house for this year's Christmas Installation. She shared some of these lovely images.
And here is a great interview with Dennis Severs about his home and why and how he created it.
In 1979, creative dreamer Dennis Severs, after moving from America to England a few years prior, bought a ruined house in the Spitalfields area of London and set about returning it to its former state. After several years, he ended up creating something very special that he called a "still-life drama," with vignettes spread across the ten rooms and four storeys of No. 18 Folgate Street. Each room is dressed like a stage or film set in a different historic style, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries. He invented a back story for this house: the fictional Jervis family (a name anglicised from Gervais), originally Huguenot (French Protestant immigrants) silk weavers who lived at the house from 1725 to 1919 are still present but just out of sight. Dennis opened this "time-machine" to the public and invited people to take a tour, not of an historic house, but to step into the Jervis' lives in a very immediate and visceral way. In what is more like an immersive theatrical experiences or performance art, he left half-eaten meals, half-full chamber pots, lit candles and blazing fireplaces scattered about while sound effects of the period softly emanated from hidden speakers as though the family just stepped out for a moment. Each room evokes incidental moments in the lives of these imaginary inhabitants. Writer Peter Ackroyd, author of LONDON: THE BIOGRAPHY, wrote, "The journey through the house becomes a journey through time; with its small rooms and hidden corridors, its whispered asides and sudden revelations, it resembles a pilgrimage through life itself." Artist David Hockney called the experience of touring the house one of the world's greatest works of opera.
After Severs died in 1999, the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust, an architectural preservation charity, took over the property and has kept it open to the public. But the best time to go is during the holiday season. The Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House sees the property decked out in its period holiday finery. Photos are normally not allowed (guests embark on a 45 minute tour of the house but are encouraged to do so silently, without taking any photos) but a few years ago, London-based photographer Skye O'Neill was permitted to tour and photograph the house for this year's Christmas Installation. She shared some of these lovely images.
And here is a great interview with Dennis Severs about his home and why and how he created it.
If you live in London or will be there during the holidays, you have a chance
to see the Christmas Installation in person through the 4th of January 2025.
Even though appointment tickets are nearly sold out, the house can be visited
on Sunday afternoons without booking in advance. Check the website for more
details.
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