The light was perfect today as it was yesterday.  The temperature has begun to dig down a bit and the air had really started to dry out.  This image was taken yesterday in the yellowish afternoon light.  The clear unobstructed light provided a great proving ground for my new Ricoh GRIV.  It has so far risen to the challenge and is exceeding my expectations in being able to capture the world that I am presently trodding through.

The angel’s trumpet flowers have returned.  They were in full bloom 2 months ago.  This one was so full of the tubular yellow bells that I just had to cross the street to photograph it.  Is it heralding the return of the messiah?  Only the Creator knows the answer to that.  In the meantime, I will continue to walk this beautiful earth and reacting to that world through the creative process.  I hope to be as strong as this tree that is thriving between a wall and a fence.  In that little bit of room it has made its home and is radiating beauty out into the community.

The other day I went out to visit my mate in Ebisu.  I love Ebisu.  It is a vibing area between the hustling trendy Shibuya and  Meguro and the exclusive Daikanyama.  Around the station the movement of people can be mind boggling.  It isn’t the bustle of the Shibuya crossing, but the station is busy enough that if you enjoy people watching it is a heights spot.

For me, I’m not to into the busy scene.  I prefer the quiet side of things.  Even though Ebisu sits in the heart of urban Tokyo, I prefer to get lost on the backstreets and and the residential rows of house and apartments.  Now when I get lost, I am never really that lost because, no matter how lost you might think that you are in Tokyo, you are never that far from a train station.  Just to wander those streets.  Looking for where the greeny green of Ebisu interacts with the asphalt and concrete of its human dwellers.

A year ago my lens would have been attracted to the concrete, steel, and wood of the living spaces but, since the March 11th earthquake my lens has been all about nature.  How does nature overcome adversity. How nature brings beauty even if it is confined to a tiny curbside garden.  The lovely green patches of Ebisu were a delight after a couple hours of reasoning with my friend.  There is, if one looks for it, a green heart to Tokyo.

The heat is still on in my neighborhood.  The temperature hit 33 degrees (92) yesterday as the steamy summer has been continuing into fall.  I really don’t mean to complain, because before we know it the weather will be reversed.  We will be bundling up and mumbling to ourselves how cold it is.  So, for know I will embrace the warm weather.

On my walk back to the station, I took a long cut through the suburbs.  I do love to wander the backroads and see where people live.  It is thrilling to my lens to see how they care for the patches of land that make up their gardens.  The bright flowers are still contrasting against bitumen of the streets.  The heat rising of the streets was a constant reminder that the summer has yet to finish baking.

I have come across the Angel’s Trumpet flowers in my walks recently.  These long elegant flowers that have a reputation for causing visions if ingested.  It seems like these days that everywhere I turn I see these drooping yellowish orange flowers.  I wonder if anyone in Japan eats them and sees angels or demons.  It visual imprints that nature can be bountiful or, in this case, can cause hallucinations.

I need to get out more and see what there is to see in nature.  Even if that nature is confined to plastic garden pots.  Beauty is out there, somewhere.  All we have to do is to keep and open heart to see it.