The Delphic Sibyl

My version of the Delphic Sibyl from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Ceiling.

The 'Amazon' coming soon!

Vanessa atalanta - (Red Admiral)

I am sorry these pictures are such poor quality, but I couldn't get very clear ones, as the butterfly moves very fast and never seems to stay still. He really is very pretty though, and when you seem for real he is a very bright red. I have been trying to photograph him ever since I saw him two months ago. (And I never did catch him, my friend did.) He seems to be a very intellegent butterfly and he has slipped out of my hands more times than I would like to recall! But I have got a picture at last, and even though it is a very poor one I thought the butterfly was just too beautiful to be passed up.

Found in Northern Turkey.

These pictures hardly do the creature justice, so I am giving you another one so that you can see what it really does look like.

(taken from eurobutterflies.com)

If you are interested, than I encourage you to go to Mr. Matt Rowling's butterfly site dedicated to European butterflies. He has done a great job, and created a very resourceful site with dozens of pictures of BEAUTIFUL butterflies from all over Europe.

Wise Words From Albert Camus

"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than to live my life as if there isn't, and die to find out there is."

Our Daily Bread

From Spirits in Bondage

Written by C.S. Lewis

XXXII. "Our Daily Bread"

We need no barbarous words nor solemn spell
To raise the unknown. It lies before our feet;
There have been men who sank down into Hell
In some suburban street,

And some there are that in their daily walks
Have met archangels fresh from sight of God,
Or watched how in their beans and cabbage-stalks
Long files of faerie trod.

Often me too the Living voices call
In many a vulgar and habitual place,
I catch a sight of lands beyond the wall,
I see a strange god's face.

And some day this work will work upon me so
I shall arise and leave both friends and home
And over many lands a pilgrim go
Through alien woods and foam,

Seeking the last steep edges of the earth
Whence I may leap into that gulf of light
Wherein, before my narrowing Self had birth,
Part of me lived aright.

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I think that in this poem, Lewis was trying to say that the spiritual world is not so distant as we often assume. That it is here, with us, even though we cannot normally see it. 'We need no barbarous words nor solemn spell, to raise the unknown. It lies before our feet; '

The last two verses of the poem speak of how one day we will return to that place, most often referred to as heaven or paradise, a place where we will meet with God when our life ends. It is wonderful to think that one day, whether we see it on earth or not, we will really witness those spiritual events that we have heard tell of, especially in the prophetic books of the Bible. I like this poem because it reminds me of the spiritual perspective on life, something we tend to forget because we cannot see it all the time.

Jadis - Queen of Charn

This is Jadis, Queen of Charn, from the Chronicles of Narnia written by C.S. Lewis. For those of you who have not read the books, she appears first as the villain in the Magicians Nephew, where she is wakened by Digory Kirke and together they flee the dying city of Charn. She follows Digory and Polly to London with intent of conquering the city and they must find a way to send her back to her own world. But Charn is no more, and they are all carried away together to the newly-made world of Narnia, where Jadis gets hold of the apple of life and, gains everlasting life, and flees to the north, establishing a stronghold. In the second book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe she musters an army to attempting to overthrow Aslan, the son of the Emperor across the Sea and become Queen of Narnian once and for all. Victory looks very close. She has killed her great enemy and has nearly prevented the prophecy of her doom from coming to pass - and then, quite unexpectedly, she suddenly finds she has attempted more than she can handle.

Shahrazad, Daughter of the Ottoman - Farewell to the Stars

and after.

A New Day...

Tonight is a night of Darkness
Tonight will be our last,
Tonight we will sing to the silver moon
The world is short and it ends so soon
Tonight we will lay the earth in ruin
Tomorrow we fall in the dust.

Tonight is a night of Freedom
Tonight we will finish our task
Tonight let us make one glorious charge,
Empty and hopeless but triumph is ours
For tonight we will look on the Death-star
And tomorrow the pain will pass.

Tonight is the night of Judgment
Tonight the story ends
Tonight is a night of blood and war
And many will fall beneath our swords
For tonight we ride for a dying world –
But tomorrow the world begins.