Beautiful things I've seen

[Marmora Man]

I'm tired of political argument - let's try something new.

My beautiful things are:

Sunset & sunrise at sea - ideally alone

The view from the top of an unnamed mountain in Norway that I climbed with a friend in 1974

An iceberg

The Aurora Borealis

A pub, nestled in a dale beside an old church in Yorkshire, after a long and grueling walk in high summer

Kota Kinabalu

The Eiger & Mont Blanc (looking not climbing)

Mrs MM on wedding day - walking under an arch of swords held up by friends

Son no. 1 - playing violin at a wedding

Son no. 2 catching his first trout

The River Test in May with trout running

I may think of others later

[Keef]

Nice thread.

The first pint on a Friday evening! (seen this many times, but never loses it's appeal).

Mrs Keef with her eyes filling with tears on our wedding day.

Blue Mountains Australia.

Sun setting whilst sitting on a wall at the beach in St Ives, Cornwall.

[Ant]

Good call Marmora Man!

(Typing that made me feel that perhaps you ought to be wearing a mask, a cape and some tights with your pants on the outside. but I digress...)

Dawn over the alps in winter, no one about and the lights of Grenoble shining through the blanket of cloud in the valley below. I had a large sackful of warm baguettes on my back at the time, which added a certain je ne sais quoi.

Dusk in Hong Kong, looking out from the Peak over the South China Sea; islands floating in light and mist and all that.

A near-empty pub with a roaring log fire in the middle of a cold and rainy day. Everyone else was a work. Can't remember what I was doing or why I wasn't at work too. I do know that I was cold, tired and thirsty and very glad of a cosy sit down with a pint and the chance to drink it in peace and quiet. It was somewhere in West London; I forget where now. Shame, as it had a lovely, almost Platonic quality of pubness to it that I'd love to revisit.

The Venus de Milo. I was in the Louvre but didn't know it was there. Wasn't expecting to see it at all and so, when I stumbled upon it, was able to see it fresh and free of all the preconceptions I would probably otherwise have taken to it.

[Brendan]

Thunderstorms from a distance. You see them in the late afternoon on the Highveld in SA when you are driving out somewhere between nothing and nowhere. It is flat as far as the eye can see and you can see the storms forming on the horizon and making their way across the landscape. Scattering electricity across the sky as they go.

Until you end up underneath one yourself that is. Then you can?t? see bugger all.

A perfectly restored cherry red 1st generation ford mustang outside my office yesterday.

And how could I not recount the sight of a pint of Guinness settling.

[KalamityKel]

Awww gosh you guys are so romantic!

*goes off to get thinking* watch this space...

[SeanMacGabhann]

What I like most about the title of this thread is the "that I've seen" bit... I've always taken "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" to not mean "well you might think it's nice but I think it's pig-ugly" but to mean "it was beautiful because, in that single moment, i saw something that no-one else saw"

To take an example from a film - a lot of us have seen deer, but that scene in Stand By Me where he's alone and sees the deer, and sees not just the deer but life that has passed and what will come... that's where the beauty is. To my mind anyway

( I suppose I could have just said there is a difference between subjective beauty and objective beauty - but that isn't quite what I meant)

So I agree with the beauty in most of the examples so far but I'll have to think a bit longer for some of my examples

[LizzygotDizzy]

my newborn baby on having just emerged into the World, gazing lovingly into my eyes (yes I know they can't see properly so young but they can see blurred images), I felt like she was really gazing into my soul saying, so you're the one who's been making all that noise then! Big believer in singing to unborns.

An image from childhood growing up on farm in Scotland, section of woodland, so quiet and so green, shadowed by tall trees but with the sun glimpsing through and cascading down upon the biggest collection of forget me knots/bluebells I've ever seen, I can even remember the smell and thought it was my own magical secret place.

Being priviliged enough to see and witness the reunion of a mother who had been separated from her three young children for a whole year whilst she fled her war torn natural country to escape persecution, not a dry eye in the area.

[Ted Max]

Something really soulful that shows the inherent generosity of my spirit, my potential qualities as a lover, as well as how well-travelled I am.

You can stick that on the poetry thread as well, by the way.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Following the birth of my daughter, I was having a cigarette on the 8th floor of Kings (those were the days) at night, looking over the lights of London. I'm sure post-birth euphoria had a lot to do with it, but the vista just encapsulated endless possibilities and life stretching ahead.

I had a dream ..

[Ant]

You old cynic Ted.

[bon3yard]

The Sussex town of Rye on a summers day.

Drunken skinny dipping in the Fal estuary as the sun rises.

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

A hunters moon.

The Snowy Owl.

Kerry Rickard, my unrequited schooldays crush.

[Ant]

There's a bit when you take the train down to Brighton with lovely views of a lush green valley, with rolling hills beyond... think it's somewhere around Hayward's Heath, and there's one white house in the middle distance set among trees an' that... very nice indeed.

[Marmora Man]

Ant has just reminded me - when I lived in Devon the view, driving westward on the A30 after Exeter when half of Devon seemed to open up below with Bodmin Moor in the distance, just after the Whiddon Down roundabout. In rain or shine it was beautiful.

I'll also add London at night - from One Tree Hill.

[Marmora Man]

bon3yard Wrote:

> Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I like the way you slipped this surreal / sci fi reference in. Your own words or Isaac Asimov?

[Michael Palaeologus]

A double rainbow over the Grand Canyon - made even better because up until that point rain and fog had hidden the Canyon.

A sheet lighting storm over the mountains of Albania viewed from Corfu.

The Old Royal Palace in Bangkok.

Concorde flying over SE22 at 7pm every evening.

The pre-Raphs in Tate Britain.

[Ted Max]

Ant, I will admit to a certain gruff admiration for the sight of a flock of swallows gathering over a dusky East Sussex valley, flitting anxiously in the last of the year's sunshine, uncertain of their future, unlikely, many of them, ever to return from their forced flights into the hostile south.

It's at times like that you really think .... "sic transit gloria mundi", and all that stuff.

(Also, "it's getting cold out here, can we go to the pub now?")

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I love watching ducks in flight over the Rye.

[SimonM]

The tree in Peckham Rye Park (close to the Forest Hill/Colton gate) which, because of a grafting in the long distant past, has two shades of blossom on it each spring, pink and white.

[bignumber5]

annaj on our wedding day

warm orange evening sun glinting off the Colloseum in Rome

blood red sky behind the houses of parliament, seen from the 10th floor of St.Thomas' Hospital

And many, many more.

Living in NZ I used to be frequently late to work as I stopped to watch the sunrise in the bay. Moments where you're struck by how beautiful something looks can be so personal - I've always wanted to get better at photography to try and share how I see things. For a while I thought that the magic was that it couldn't be done, and that you really did have to be there... then I discovered Peter Lik photography.

Blurry Good thread, MM.

[Asset]

looking at cloud formations below when at 45,000 ft

[Asset]

on acid

[dulwichmum]

Wow! LizzygotDizzy, that was perfectly put.

For me, the most beautiful things I have seen;

My new au Polish au pairs skin when she turned up at Gatwick airport back in January - it was fresh dewy perfect - she had to go...clearly!

My husbands gigantic bonus cheque just before Christmas (sigh).

Gary Barlow wearing rubber trousers at Wembley Arena in 1995 (I think) - OHMYGOD!

[????]

Dessie crossing that line at Cheltenham for his first Gold Cup at 16s....brings a tear to my wallet as I type

[bon3yard]

You got me, its a bladerunner quote so Philip K Dick actually @marmoraman.

[Marmora Man]

bon3yard Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> You got me, its a bladerunner quote so Philip K

> Dick actually @marmoraman.

Knew I recognised it - great book, better film.