"There is joy in repetition." - Prince
As you might already know I am a sucker for repetition in form. So you can imagine my joy when I was walking the other day and discovered this fungus growing in the middle of my neighbors yard on an old stump. I walk that street almost daily and never noticed it. In my defense, it was growing on the far side of the stump but when I walked around and saw what was growing my jaw dropped. I literally oogled this stump for about half an hour...climbing all around taking photos from every which way. I'm sure if you had been watching you might have thought I was a total weirdo.
But if being excited about rotting wood and their dazzling decomposers makes me a weirdo than I am happy to wear that badge because LOOK AT THESE GUYS!!! The burnt orange and grey-blue are such a lovely complimentary pair along with the neutral cream edging. And the ruffled repetition is stunning.
The photo below was one of my favorites. I like the color in the foreground and the contrast of textures between the bark and the fungus in the background.
I wasn't sure if the fungus in the photo below was a different kind or not, but the color was certainly a bit more green. This fungus was growing on the top of the stump so the color may have been different because it receives more sunlight.
When I was looking at this photo it reminded me of photographing barnacle and mussels down by the beach in New Jersey... so much repetition.
It is a lovely thing to witness such beauty. As I walked away from the stump and continued my walk I couldn't help but smile. I love that even though I've walked that path a thousand times...every time is different and a subtle turn of my head can lead to something spectacular that was right before my eyes the whole time.
After I finished writing this post I re-read it and had the thought that all my posts sound the same. I had the urge to delete all the text and just let the images speak for themselves. But then I decided to listen to what the post was trying to tell me and thought..."repetition, repetition, repetition."
“Beauty is seen in repetition; keep repeating your beauty even if your beauty is not all that beautiful, you shall still leave a mark and there shall come a moment when the beauty will be seen.”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah