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Sunday 2 October 2011

Flying on a Heatwave, in October

This cornflower blue sky
these corn yellow wheat fields
this blushing pink skin
of cloud -

this is it.


 © Shaista Tayabali, 2011

I tried to photograph the sun today, the green and the red and the gold of it. I tried to capture the inexplicable flying elephantness of it - the unexpectedness of it, this heatwave in autumn. To you reading this in the heat, there is nothing surprising. To you in the cold, you are trying to recall summer gone by. To those of us in England, settling in for months of grey, hooray hooray, until next time, hooray!
first photo courtesy htc, second via Tess Kincaid for Magpie tales

27 comments:

  1. Your photo is brilliant - love it and your words! Especially the "inexplicable flying elephantness of it "

    ah the fleeting heat of summer- we never really had summer this year-wet and cool here in Oregon and in Scotland when we visited our friends near Inverness...makes for a green tomato summer.

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  2. We call this Indian Summer on this side of the pond.

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  3. I've heard about your unexpected wave of warmth! Fall has settled into Central Ohio and I am not complaining...

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  4. Thanks Kathy - although I didn't take it! It's one of those supercool free photos you get on htc mobile... the words are mine though ;)

    Christopher - if it's autumn and hot, is it still called an Indian Summer? Bit of an oxymoron 'Indian Summer'... there aren't any summers in India, just year round heat and the monsoon season!

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  5. What a glorious photo that first one is! Many thanks. Loving the weather but also missing the nippiness of the autumn mornings. :-)

    Greetings from London.

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  6. my mum's in egnland right now and i keep wondering if she packed for summer or autumn!!! a lovely poem and image shaista. you see right to the heart. steven

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  7. A perfect Magpie!

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  8. i love this post...heatwaves..color..unexpected flight

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  9. I so love the elephant with wings.........the weather, she is a-changing.....she is so strange....but you have to enjoy the heat, however you come by it, the gray skies will settle in soon enough - they already have over here.

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  10. That first pic is gorgeous... And the take for this prompt, wow!

    JJRod'z

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  11. an elephant may fly on wings of creativity!


    Warm Aloha from Waikiki;

    Comfort Spiral



    (*)>
    / )
    /"



    > < } } ( ° >

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  12. A beautiful response to the prompt. I love your photo of sky and water as well.

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  13. Dear Shiasta:

    Love how your imagination sweeps me into your poem! Imaginative sky!

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  14. ... the elephantness of it ~ I love reading it, saying it aloud.

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  15. ah it is nice and cool here today...the great flying elephant of the sun will hopefully return tomorrow...smiles. nice pic!

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  16. I think 'Indian summer' is in reference to the Indian family (of which I'm part of, Aztec) in this side of the pond. I believe it's in reference to agricultural conditions.

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  17. Beautiful images! I like colors but I love grays too.

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  18. Nene, I never realised the reference was to Native American Indians :) It makes sense now!

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  19. Lovely photo, plus a playful and loose connection to the Magpie photo. I may have just finished the last barbecue here in Toronto, so I am all too aware of that feeling of impending gloom. If you're curious. my Magpie 85 is Topsy.

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  20. What a wonderful blog you have!

    Nice take on the photographs Shaista....

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  21. great response to the prompt
    hope you are keeping well
    Isabel x

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  22. Here's a great quote from the character Leon Tallis in Ian McEwan's novel Atonement:

    'I love England in a heatwave. It's a different country. All the rules change'.

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  23. How beautiful (including that quote of McEwan's).

    So happy to post the children's illustrations, including your beloved Pooh Bear, on granny grampa day! And also to introduce you to George McDonald's At the Back of the North Wind. His novels have been hugely inspiring and mind-changing in my life.

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