Playing Catch Up - Scenary (S-C-E-N-E-R-Y)

I'll catch up on the last few weeks with focuses on scenary, church, and Outdoor Pursuits. Have a little scenary thrown at you!

Everywhere I've been in Wales, everything is shades of gray and green - the sky and mountains are always gray, the grass is always green. There will be days with blue skies, there will be mountains covered in purple heather, and there will always be small splashes of warm color in the fields, but in general, Wales is gray and green.

That is not to say that it's not lovely here. The above picture shows a walkway through the middle of town, where one could almost forget that he is in a city, thanks to the green. I don't know what this area is called, or if it even has a name, but it's my Dear Green Place. This place has many greens, deciduous greens, coniferous greens, and grass greens. This is one of my favorite paths through the city, in fact, this is the path I take to avoid using B*tch Hill (Yes, it's actually called that. I'll take a picture sometime).

Even when everything is gray, though, there's a kind of stark beauty about it. I believe this tree to be dead, simply because I've never seen it green, but it's beautiful. Most of the grays here are misty, drizzly, windy grays. There are also the rock-hard grays of the walls, the dark-wet grays of the pebble beach, and the just-beyond-reality grays of the mountains. The just-beyond grays are my favorites. When we went to the Aran Islands, they were just-beyond until we were nearly there. All the just-beyonds are great places to stretch the imagination, call up the Red Dragon, and see what it might have been like in another time.

The Menai Straight (of which the above is a part) changes color with the tide and mood of the day. Often, the water will reflect the sky, but sometimes it is darker, angrier. The wind will sometimes whip it up until there are white caps on the little waves, and sometimes it is smooth as glass. I once saw it brown and muddy, and the next day it was a dark-wet gray, the same color as the beach past which it ran. I love my beach, and I call it mine because it is one of my Sanctuaries, where I can go, sit, think, and not be bothered. It is a safe place for me.

I cannot give you a picture of the wind, sadly, but I love the wind. There is never a day without it here, whether it's a gentle, playful breeze or a wild gust. Through all its moods, though, it never stops being a friendly wind. I suppose that will change, the closer we get to winter, but for now, it's a friend.

There you have it, the ups, downs, lefts, and rights of the scenary. I went through the entire post not knowing if I've been spelling "scenary" right. I haven't been. S-C-E-N-E-R-Y. Scenery. It looks funny both ways.