Most beautiful thing

Because I’ve given up all hope that reason, goodness, sanity, and civility will prevail in the current political climate, I went down to the kitchen to console myself.

While down there, I was struck by just how beautiful an orange is – especially when it still has a leaf attached to it. Then I remembered being in Sorrento a few years back, and being awed by the sight of the lemon trees everywhere.

So I decided that, for me, citrus – especially when still on the tree, but pretty much in every form – is one of the most beautiful things in existence. The colours, the textures, the taste…

So, what do you reckon is most beautiful? What gives you pause for thought, or brings about a Zen-like contentment for a moment or two?

RULE: Must be an apprehensible ‘object’ of some sort (i.e. NOT one of those images of the galaxy or a huge landscape or something microscopic).

Go on! Make yourself, and the rest of us, happy.

Oranges on the tree:

Lemons on the tree:

Pork pie wedding cakes !!!!

Surprised binners hasn’t arrived after that ^^^^^^

It’s rolling hills for me. They can be green and lovely, or sand dunes, but I can just look for ages…

and don’t anyone pop up with blumming cheese layered wedding cakes!

Bumblebees, I think they’re brilliant.

I know i will be in the minority here. But i love wasps, watching and gearing them nibble at my fence on a hot day is great.

Basically though nature is beautiful.

Except ticks, they can get to ****.

We’ve got some nice roses (entirely through luck), the red ones are just beautiful and they smell really nice, too. 🙂

I like a nice tree, too. 🙂

My week last week was particularly shitty, it ended with a bang quite literally when my car caught fire.

Walking home after a crap day at work the sun was shining and there were two buzzards just circling high on the breeze, I stopped to watch them and it made me smile.

I guess my objects are birds of prey.

I like the answers so far, but people… post a nice pic too!

(It doesn’t have to be yours; just something to illustrate your worthy entry!)

Posting pics on here has always been a dark art and too much faf.

Wind turbines.

Flowing water in nature, the sea also but that is both beautiful and frightening

Dogs and beaches.
Just to sit there watching the waves while stroking a dog just chills me right out.

Just being in the countryside works for me. Having grown up in the middle of it and now having lived in a city for 12 years I was already planning to move back out of the urban jungle before all of the current crap kicked off. Now I’m desperate to get out.

I got stung by a wasp the other day, screw those guys.

I’m a fan of romanesca broccoli and it’s cool fractal-y-ness

Nothing gives me as much joy as just getting outdoors on a fine day and Esther give me a great reason to get out there.

Rescued her nearly 2 years ago – she was locked in a bare room on her own, bare floors – she was completely hyper and destructive. I took her running later that same day, she took to it instantly. Just got to keep an eye out for little furry things…

Having grown up by the sea it has to be breaking waves for me personally

Riding on pine needles, I like the bit on the xc trail at Inners where you climb up through the trees. Total silence.

Or dappled afternoon sunlight on an autumnal day, like my family and I had on our walk up Laggan Hill near Crieff on Sunday.

Not mine but something like this.

That’s one thing that I discovered from mountain biking, trully experiencing the seasons. Be it the colours, light, weather or smells.

I’ve been going out on my bike before dawn the last few weekends, it’s been lovely watching the sun rise and having the trails to myself.

Condensation running down a pint of cool (but not cold) ale on a table outside the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel after a walk round the Pikes on a sunny day.

I don’t have a picture to share but you can all see it can’t you?

Frosty mornings in the woods… be it on a bike, walking or running. Just the silence and the smell of the cold air is calmness itself

(At the risk of invoking Finbarr)

I thought almost exactly that, one day lying under a plum tree circa a 1996. I jotted the thought down somewhere in the hope of reminding me that I can often get lost in analysis/judgement/theorising etc etc. In fact I do, nearly all of the time. The note is long lost now, but to paraphrase: ‘As a scientist I might examine the plum, scrape the bloom, peel the skin, split the stone, measure the chemical compounds in the juice, synthesise the flavour. Take the plum apart until nothing remains. But as a layman, I might instead fully drink in this moment. The feel of the sun-warmed grass. The sound of the carwash next door sending rainbows over our fence against the blinding blue of a clear autumn sky. The sun glinting on the leaves of our solitary, awesome old plum tree. ‘Here are plums. Eat the **** plums’.

I have a thing about plums and damsons since a kid. My grandfather was a Pershore man and he would wax lyrical about ‘Pershore plums’. He would make faces at the notion of ‘supermarket plums’ and take me on trips in his Vauxhall Viva to show me orchards around Bredon, Fladbury, Lower Wick. We’d find the best, scrump a few and take them home. Apart from a damson being the most delicious fruit of all – he was right about local plums. This year I picked damsons from four different trees and all four varieties tasted notably different.

In recent years I began photographing and painting different plums I’d gathered from local footpaths. Weirdo.

Lapwings. Particularly on a sunny breezy spring day.

Really struggling with an object or thing, but great reading about others ideas.

I guess my objects are birds of prey.

Recently read the excellent H Is For Hawk and TH White’s The Goshawk, and totally agree – just don’t see enough of em. But I guess that’s what makes the rare glimpses more valuable.

Just being out in the hills, fields and woods – and throw in a winding river – is beautiful enough for me.

The sea also, but for all its magnificence I can’t help but feel it’s brooding menace too.

My commute runs through the new forest for about 4 miles and then a small rural suburb of Southampton before I cross the river Test and go into the city

Just before the river though, nestled in behind the industrial estate are 2 fairly ordinary little lakes. I mean, it’s a nature reserve an’ all but really it’s nothing.

… except on a crisp, misty late autumn morning when the sun’s just rising as I ride the spit of land between them. Maybe a waterbird or two, pratting about. Beautiful.

All of the above to be fair!

Edit. And baby lambs 🙂

and oranges are designed for sharing

Also, this:

I’ve never seen one as impressive as that but they are always incredible to see.

[strong]BillMC[/strong] wrote:

and oranges are designed for sharing

as is a leg of roast lamb 🙂

My 6 yr old always asks, is an orange called an orange because its orange in colour or is the colour orange called orange because its the same as an orange?

Makes you think….

Boobies.

Misty trees always get my vote

Walking back to the girlfriends house down a lane, one late Christmas night always sticks in our memory, something akin to this.
https://i.postimg.cc/TwTkDCBk/9c5546f0f1fbc8fa87b0d70112366797.jpg

My 6 yr old always asks, is an orange called an orange because its orange in colour or is the colour orange called orange because its the same as an orange?

Makes you think….

The colour is named after the fruit, apparently the colour was known as geoluhread in England before we first got oranges around the 14th C

And cos they came from Spain where they called them naranja we called them noranges at first, but the n got lost over time, just like in nuncle.

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Kylie in those gold hotpants.