Even when it’s raining and the days are cloudy, the sun is still blazing in the sky. Its presence is vital to our survival and that of every other living thing on the planet. It’s no surprise that so many cultures throughout the ages have worshipped this ball of flames. Though we shouldn’t look into the sun (see here for some good reasons why), we can look into the flames of a fire.
Like us, fire requires oxygen. It can provide warmth and cook food or be a destructive force like no other. Visually, it can be mesmerizing. Back in the 1800s, Henry David Thoreau was already lamenting the growing absence of open flames in hearths due to the introduction of wood stoves. He believed that you could always see a face in the flames, and that gazing into a fire at the end of a long day of hard work was both warming and relaxing.
What is fire? It’s a mystery. Scientists give us gobbledegook about friction and molecules, but they don’t really know.
~ Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Who would have thought that fiery reds and oranges could be found so easily in the summer landscape? A Pileated Woodpecker, berries, seaweed, flowers and leaves are all examples of the fire element in nature at this time of year. It’s no wonder that the fire element is often associated with the summer sun.
Images in the montage were taken from submissions to a Midsummer’s Scavenger Hunt.