“Time for you to go out to the places you will be from”

Growth and decay. Photo-montage; cherry blossom and leaf skeleton. Image: Su Leslie, 2016. Edited with Snapseed and Fused.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. — Seneca

Until recently, I only knew that quote as a line from the song Closing Time by the American band Semisonic.

Not that the provenance really matters in terms of the basic wisdom of the words — as any gardener who has just dug home-made compost into their vegetable patch will tell you.

As the Big T and I are moving (albeit at glacial speed) towards changing and simplifying our lives, it becomes clearer that the end of one era facilitates the start of another. Especially as the boy-child has flown the nest.

I shot the two photos in this montage last week on a road-trip through the central North Island. As I spend more time out of Auckland, I realise that small-town — or at least provincial — New Zealand is almost certainly part of my new beginning.

I’ve played with the colour editing a little bit, and am not sure which version I prefer. What do you think?

Growth and decay #2. Photo-montage; cherry blossom and leaf skeleton. Image: Su Leslie, 2016. Edited with Snapseed, Stackables and Fused.

This post was written for Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge at Lens and Pens by Sally. The title is also a line from “Closing Time.”