Delicate

/ Su Leslie
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Hydrangea. Image: Su Leslie 2019

The Oxford Dictionary offers several definitions of delicate, including “Very fine in texture or structure; of intricate workmanship or quality”, “Easily broken or damaged; fragile” and “Requiring sensitive or careful handling.”

There is much in nature that is fine and intricate. And as we humans are discovering, such things are also easily damaged, and require much more careful handling than many of the systems and institutions we have developed seem to permit.

Newly emerged Monarch butterfly dries its wings before taking off. Image: Su Leslie 2017

Posted to the Lens Artists Photo Challenge |delicate

 

 

 

37 thoughts on “Delicate”

  2. Very fragile is nature in the destructive rough hands of humans. Yet these hands have also turned the soil, created delicate gardens and splendid works of art that rivals mother nature’s own creation.

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  4. Gorgeous photos and words, Su. We go through this every year with the sea turtles that nest on the beach. Finally, a law was past mandating people to change out their lights so as not to confuse the tiny turtles.

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  13. I love all things delicate – the tiny petals of daisies, the wings of a butterfly, wisps of clouds, the swirls of seashells – and all your photos depict them just perfectly! Just look at a tiny bird’s tiny feet – they are incredibly delicate and yet so strong and keep the bird safe in even the strongest winds. The wonders of nature!

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      • Then there’s another thing we have in common – I’m totally clumsy myself! Not a day goes by where I don’t bump my toes or knees against a table or whatnot! 😂 When I was a teenager my mum actually hid her good china from me because I was prone to break it when washing the dishes. 😉 Not on purpose of course, but that didn’t make me any less dangerous. 😀

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        • 😀 are you left-handed too by any chance? I am, and my dad used to hide sharp knives from me because he thought I looked so awkward using them. I suspect half the time I cut myself it was because he was watching and commenting!!

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          • Hehe! Although I’m sorry of course that you did cut yourself because of his watching! 😉 I suspect that I’m actually both-handed, but I was trained to use my right hand over my left during elementary school. When I eat I hold my knife still with my left though. 😀

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          • That’s interesting. My grandmother was left-handed and had to use her right at school, and my father-in-law suffered humiliation for being last-handed. By the time I went to school they had stopped trying to force right-handedness on kids, but I still remember writing lessons in primary school being excruciatingly embarrassing because the teacher kept criticising my efforts to hold a pen “properly.”

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          • My grandmother had to go through the same thing and always felt like she was clumsy because of it. It’s cruel what they did to children back then. I wasn’t really forced but also humiliated in front of the class which amounts to the same thing, so I tried my best to become right handed. My mum was furious when I told her about it years later.

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