Beauty = joy
BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
So I went for a walk on Sunday and today and on both occasions was, as usual, uplifted by the beautiful things I saw along the way. And I know that I have said a lot of the things that I am about to say before, but I think they are things worth saying.
I also mused that although I thought these things were beautiful, others might not.
Take the picture at left. I think this spot along my Eltham walk is rather lovely. Don't those flowers look so English and springlike? But just about everything in that picture is a weed. The snowdrop looking things are the flowers of onion grass, and although the look lovely they do smell a bit unpleasantly of onions and they do take over. The lovely weeping willow is actually considered by the Australians to be a weed, and just beyond the onion grass you can possibly just see clumps of lillies - also considered weeds. There are also a lot of other weeds amongst the grass I think.
And there's lots of other beautiful things to say about these weeds. First and foremost, they are not all considered weeds in their natural habitat. I remember that weeping willows are a common decorative thing along rivers in England - such as in Cambridge. The lillies are grown in gardens and used at funerals - these have just escaped into the semi wild and taken over a bit. And the onion grass - yes you can eat it - just like spring onions. Don't mistake it for another plant that is poisonous though - if it smells of onions it's the real deal. I even saw one site suggesting you can grow it in your own garden. You just have to make sure it doesn't take over - like mint. And really, as you know, I am a great believer in weeds. I admire their tenacity and even in the grimmest of urban environments they provide a tiny glimpse of beauty - for they are mostly beautiful. Think daisies, thistles and dandelions, even the dreadful bridal creeper, that does indeed take over. Indeed it was initially imported to Australia for its beauty in bridal bouquets. Such green leaves, such delicate little white flowers.
The other obviously beautiful things are flowers - allowed flowers that is - and spring is a good time to see them. On the right are gumtree blossoms - the ones that were the inspiration for the character of Little Ragged Blossom in the Snugglepot and Cuddlepie children's books. My father brought back a copy from one of his voyages to Australia, and seeing these flowers just a day or so ago brought back memories of childhood, my father, and books. And ballerinas' tutus. So beautiful memories from beautiful flowers. Joy.
Then there were the grevilleas, perfect in themselves but buzzing busily with bees. I don't think I got the bees in this photograph I'm afraid. And this made me think of honey of course, and Winnie-the-Pooh. Always a source of joy.
I sometimes feel pleased with my photographs, particularly after I have cropped them and tarted them up in Photos, but I find that all those most majestic scenes of beautiful landscape are beyond my power to truly capture somehow. And so I tend to concentrate on the detail, the overlooked. This patch of wall is somewhere in Italy - on the day it just pleased me - the colours and the pattern of it all. But I doubt that anybody else thought the same, and maybe viewed in its larger context it might not have been beautiful at all. I simply cannot remember. Maybe it was right next door to some ugly dustbins for example. Anyway it made me happy for a moment when I took the photo and maybe even happier still when I finally produced this photograph - satisfaction from the process together with the memory it provoked. Nobody else took its photo though. But then they saw things that I didn't.
Beauty is often in the detail don't you think? Your loved one's eyes, or hands, your baby's tiny fingers, the bark on a tree, a pebble or shell on the beach. As I have become more interested in art I often find that some of the most beautiful things in a painting are details. Although I confess that I am not very good at picking those details out.
But when I started to think of this post I remembered a detail from a rather grandiose fresco by Andrea Mantegna, that UNESCO had picked out for one of its desk diaries. When I look at the entire painting I am not sure whether the hand the child is reaching for is his mother's or his sister's - the female figure is so much smaller than the male figure whose hand she is holding. Maybe he is the father of them both, or the father of the child and husband to the woman. Whatever the relationship it is obviously a loving one. Below is the entire fresco. The little group is not really insignificant, but they are tucked away in the corner a bit. Also the entire fresco is busy and full of things going on here and there, but extract this detail and you have a much simpler and still scene - muted in colour and design as well - unlike the whole thing, which is shown below.
But what has any of this got to do with food and cooking? Well food is beautiful, both incidentally and haphazardly and also as food styled and polished to look like a work of art.
And it's not just the food either. It's also the things you use whilst you're preparing that food - the bench on which you work - I love the colours of my granite bench top - the knives and pots and pans, the wooden spoons, bowls and boards. I don't take pictures of these, but the professionals do in such a way that the humble spoon becomes a thing of beauty. Which in turn prods you to look at the everyday things around you in a different way. To see beauty in almost everything.
And yes, the foodie photographs are all from Donna Hay's magazine. I'm putting it away now and promise not to say any more about her for a while. For I know that everyone is not a fan. My younger son is rather scornful - I think he would probably mock all of these beautifully styled pictures. He would get no joy from them and would probably see them as vacuous and indulgent playthings of those with nothing better to do. Maybe they are - but the aesthetics give me pleasure. The dishes themselves? Maybe not. The cucumber salad after all is just some pretty green things on a white something, drizzled with a greenish oil. Gorgeous to look at - 'delicate'. to put it politely, to eat.
It is true however, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And some beholders do not use their eyes at all. But beauty is to be found everywhere and not just in itself but also in the memories they evoke - like daisies.
