Gems of Nature in a child's eyes

Nature will bear the closest inspection.  She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Photo of our Native Fuschia Correa Dusky Bells  from Flickr

While walking to school my mere school starter lamented "Oh Mummy the "Christmas Bells" don't grow until winter.  I am going to have to wait until Winter till they ripen up and I can pick one for "Bee"!" (I particularly love the use of the term 'ripen' here don't you :)).  Yes my daughter is five going on 105.  How wonderful though that by walking all these days she has learnt to search for beauty in her surroundings, to desire to share that with her best friend, to remember which season these lovely native flowers bloom.  She was expecting to find beauty!  How often do we have such expectations?  How often is our expectation limited by our surroundings?  I will take the cue from my daughter and always expect to find beauty - whether on the tail (hopefully) of a scorching heatwave, outdoors in Autumn (soon) or in the shopping markets listening to a busker play their violin.  (After all it could be Joshua Bell or James Cuddeford!)

The flowers do look so like a fuschia don't they but let me tell you they don't require the same delicate care and specific conditions.  They are very drought tolerant.  We see both Correa Dusky Bells and Correa Reflexa on our journey to school.

Speaking of appreciating nature, do you remember that wonderful movie of 1996 that was the official selection at the Cannes Film Festival.  It was revolutionary at the time for it's technology and cinematography...

Our girls have thoroughly enjoyed watching this and when my Generous Gentleman and I sat down to watch it last evening we could not shake a curious little 5 year old, resisting being in bed yet again, saying "but it's so interesting"!  We replayed it at breakfast time where it was enjoyed by all - with a running commentary from Ess.  Here is a lovely review with some wonderful pictures from the movie, Microcosmos.

A little while ago we found that ABC was showing Miniscule.  The gorgeous little vignettes delight and enthrall all of us.  Each Saturday we race through the bathing routine to be able to catch our 5 minutes of Miniscule.  There is one on tonight - Nap Time at 6.24pm.  They are quite comical and not actual representations of nature.  Tune in if you can.  Otherwise I have found some on YouTube.