Glittering Red & Gold

Some painters transform the sun 

into a yellow spot, others transform 

a yellow spot into the sun. 

~Pablo Picasso

Cold hearted orb that rules the night, removes the colors from our sight. Red is green and yellow white, but we decide which is right and which is an illusion. 

~The Moody Blues

The world is glittering with gold, and yellow streamers of sunlight wind through the tree boughs like God was throwing a party! 

~Christine Anderson

A red rose is not selfish because it 

wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly

selfish if it wanted all the other flowers

in the garden to be both red and roses.

~Oscar Wilde

A Sunflower Morning

Light-enchanted sunflower, thou

Who gazest ever true and tender

On the sun's revolving splendour.

~Pedro Calderon de la Barca

As for marigolds, poppies, hollyhocks,

and valorous sunflowers, we shall

never have a garden without them, 

both for their own sake, and for the sake of 

old-fashioned folks, who used to love them.

~Henry Ward Beecher

If I were a flower... I would be a sunflower.

To always follow the sun, turn my back to darkness, stand proud, tall and straight
even with my head full of seeds. ~Pam Stewart

Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men and animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock.

~Henry Ward Beecher

Golden Moments

A box without hinges, key, or lid,

yet golden treasure inside is hid.

~J.R.R. Tolkien

You must have been warned 

against letting the golden hours slip by; 

but some of them are golden only

because we let them slip by.

~James M. Barrie

The golden moments in the stream

of life rush past us, and we see

nothing but sand; the angels come

to visit us, and we only know

them when they are gone.

~George Eliot

Intelligence and courtesy

not always are combined;

Often in a wooden house

a golden room we find.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A Dragonfly Lunch

Everything has beauty 

but not everyone sees it. ~Confucius

It takes courage to grow up 

and become who you really are.

~E.E.Cummings

In all things of nature there 

is something marvelous. ~Aristotle

All things dance 

like dragonflies. ~C. Joy Bell C.

Golden Petals

This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, 
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
~William Shakespeare

Like a welcome summer rain, 

humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, 

the air and you. ~Langston Hughes  

How sociable the garden was.
We ate and talked in given light.
The children put their toys to grass
All the warm wakeful August night.
~Thomas Gunn

I know I am but summer to your heart, 

and not the full four seasons of the year.
~Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sunflower Bees

Ah, Sun-flower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller's journey is done:
Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go. 
~William Blake

Fairest of the months! 
Ripe summer's queen
The hey-day of the year
With robes that gleam with sunny sheen
Sweet August doth appear.
~R. Combe Miller

When summer gathers up her robes of glory,

and like a dream of beauty glides away.
~Sarah Helen Power Whitman

August creates as she slumbers, 

replete and satisfied.
~Joseph Wood Krutch  

August Morning

I celebrate myself, 

and what I assume you shall assume,  

For every atom belonging to me 

as good belongs to you.  

I loafe and invite my soul, 

I lean and loafe at my ease... 

observing a spear of summer grass. 

~Walt Whitman

All your renown is like the summer flower

that blooms and dies; because the sunny

glow which brings it forth,

soon slays with parching power. 

~Alighieri Dante

In August, the large masses of berries, 

which, when in flower,
had attracted many wild bees, 

gradually assumed their bright velvety crimson hue, 

and by their weight again bent down 

and broke their tender limbs. 

~Henry David Thoreau

Whilst August yet wears her golden crown,
    Ripening fields lush- bright with promise;
Summer waxes long, then wanes, quietly passing
    Her fading green glory on to riotous Autumn.
~Michelle L. Thieme

A Golden August

A month of gold, gold flowers, gold sun,

And gold stars falling, one by one.

Under moons of golden glow

The golden shocks stand row by row.

Gleaming like globes of golden glass

Ripe hang, tempting all who pass!

Upon the hills, in the meadows, nod

The waving plumes of goldenrod.

Swallowtail butterflies like winged fairies, 

And gold on the wings of wild canaries

That twitter in voices soft yet clear...

"August's the golden month of the year."

~Marion Doyle

Ode To A Golden Summer

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
~William Shakespeare

Fairest of the months! 
Ripe summer's queen
The hey-day of the year
With robes that gleam with sunny sheen
Sweet August doth appear.
~R. Combe Miller

Whilst August yet wears her golden crown,
    Ripening fields lush- bright with promise;
Summer waxes long, then wanes, quietly passing
    Her fading green glory on to riotous Autumn.
~Michelle L. Thieme

If you saw a heat wave, would you wave back? 
~Steven Wright 

Welcome to August. A 100+ degrees in the shade and very little rain makes for sweltering photography trips. It is mostly sweat and sunburn. There might be a couple of 2-hour windows where the temperature is bearable and there is still light outside. Did I hear someone say "bring on October"?...maybe November, here. Well, it is the golden month. So many golden, yellow, sunny and lemon-colored flowers to follow in the next few weeks. Promise to be more faithful in posting. Have a good weekend. Go out and make it a great day!