BEAUTY AFTER THE RAIN

There is nothing more beautiful, to me, than what I see and feel around me, out in the garden. It sometimes takes my breath away when the sun breaks through on a grey and cloudy day, magnifying colours and textures for a few moments, just so we don't forget the wonder of the natural world. And the feel of a new yacon leaf is more exquisite than any expensive fabric.

Sometimes it is not until a vegetable is collected and cleaned up that I appreciate its beauty. I found a tiny, old, purple cabbage, squashed into the soil beneath an unruly part of the garden, its outside leaves badly eaten by something and looking sodden and rather unattractive. I worked away at tidying it up for a while then made a cut through it to see if it was OK inside....

This sunflower was blown over in the strong winds recently and looked a wet and dirty mess.... but I removed the stem, let the head dry out then brushed off the layers of dirt and found it to be almost perfectly intact.

There is not much art that I really like other than that all around us.

As the rain began to clear, patches of blue highlighted the layers of clouds and the birds took to the skies again.... these clouds are huge but were blowing across the sky in seconds....