Follow your bliss.
If you do follow your bliss,
you put yourself on a kind of track
that has been there all the while waiting for you,
and the life you ought to be living
is the one you are living.
― Joseph Campbell
Lindy is very welcome as our guest host this week! She has already taught me much about birds, and now a new expression – Follow Your Bliss. She explains that to follow your bliss is to pursue that which provides you happiness and joy. In my life, and I guess in yours as well, there are many such things to follow. I have chosen three of mine. They are all connected to the natural world, as you know is my Life.
When I was young, I would sit painting and drawing for hours after school, but today I am afraid these skills are almost forgotten. Being retired, I am having great fun though, trying to conjure them up again. After so many years hidden in some crevice far back in my head… I enjoy every minute I am filling an empty page with doodling or watercolours – This is indeed a revival of an old bliss.
Another great way to relax is by pressing flowers and plants, and making them adorn books, cards, and frames. Many years ago I even arranged my best friend’s wedding bouquet and framed it for her bedroom wall. It is still there after 35 years…
This year, my son decided to give me a real flower press for my birthday – I have always used books and papers and ”under the rug” pressing before… Now I collected my first leaves for the flower press from the hike in my opening image – and framed some of the really delicate ones for this post.
My last example is maybe too obvious a bliss… – photographing the world around me. The big world during my traveling days, and now mostly the little worlds that are essential to make our big world a whole. I have made it my mission to show how magical and fantastic our world is, down to its microscopic parts. We need everybody to understand, that if we lose these small worlds, we will lose our only home, Planet Earth.
Fauna – ( Fauna, Roman goddess of earth and fertility)
Humans (Homo sapiens) are the most abundant and widespread species of primate
Flora – (Flora, the goddess of plants, flowers, and fertility in Roman mythology)
Thank you for last week’s many shapes and designs – amazing! Now we hope you’ll join us in sharing how you follow YOUR bliss. Be sure to include a link to Lindy’s original post and to use the Lens-Artists tag so we can all find you in the Reader.
Next week, it is my turn to lead the challenge, so you are welcome to stop by at Leya’s on Saturday, November 27, and join us. Until then, stay safe and well.
Leya 
You are an artist, either with brushes, with flowers or with the camera.
Thank you kindly, Ana – aren’t we all!?
Wowww. Beautiful photos all. I love the horses! See you tomorrow.
Thank you, John – see you then !
Stunning photography, AC and a gorgeous post. Is the flower press in the photo above? What a wonderful present! I am not at all surprised that you have many talents! I hope you continue with your drawing/watercolors. Did you draw the ginko in the image? It’s beautiful! I love the image of the wild horses, too!
Thank you for the encouraging words, Patti! I do love my flower press, and it is even lovely crafted. I have a ginkgo tree and I drew those leaves. Thank you again.
😀😀
A lovely post – your ‘bliss’ definitely shines through 😀 Of course your photos are as beautiful as always, and I love your pressed leaves. I used to have a small flower press, a gift from my mother-in-law. Maybe I’ll see if it is still buried in a cupboard and have another go at that myself!
Thank you, Sarah – and how great you used to do it too – I bet you will find that press again!
This is a wonderful piece Leya. Everything that you´ve shared is an epitome` of who you are. Indeed if we follow our path of bliss it will only lead to happiness. Such pride, joy and creativity overflows even in your photography.
I am inspired by the leaves/flower presser. As a child I used to put leaves and flowers in between pages of books and let them dry…I found them so enchanting, like preserved beauty, done in the most natural way.
I am inspired to do this challenge myself, hopefully I could come up with something inspirational as well.
Well deserved compliments to you.
How great you are inspired to do the challenge! Of course you will come up with inspirational things! Welcome – so glad to have inspired you.
A beautiful way to follow your bliss Ann-Christine, so good you’re painting again and the flower pressed leaves look wonderful! 🧡🍂 xxx
Thank you, Xenia – alway celebrating nature!
The flower press is interesting, and the result is beautiful. Do you use a tripod for landscapes too?
Thank you. And no, I don’t carry around my tripod much. In fact only for macros. I prefer traveling light.
Wonderful use of the slider A-C. And how you maintained the camera in position only putting your great captures on the other side of the slider. , good job. Also we both have this long forgotten love for painting. Goodluck to us.
Thank you – I have bought myself a sketchbook, inspired by you. Aiming at sketching some minutes every day.
Good on you. It is a great feeling and it takes away the boredom as well as the stress in our daily lives. ❤️ have a great day my dear.
thank you, and you too!
Your watercolor painting and pressing flowers/leaves are incredibly beautiful. So very talented, AC! Yes, you have shown us through your lens of how magical and fantastic our world is. And, I love all of you have shown us. 🙂
You are too kind and generous, Amy , but I am happy you love them!
💖
So many things bring you joy! Marvellous!
Margaret – that is one of the problems I have…too many interests and too little time! You too I guess?
Indeed. Not a bad problem to have, eh?
🙂
You are a very creative person. Enjoy your painting and flower pressing.and we will continue to enjoy your beautiful photographs.
Thank you, Karina. Yes, I enjoy many things…that is a gift I think.
This is a post to come back to again and again, Ann-Christine. The red of that earth took my breath away! I was hoping someone would ask you where it was. My best guess is Madeira but I’m sure I’m wrong. I think my favourite photo is those delicate leaves. You make all of life beautiful.
Thank you, Jo – a good guess, but it is Vestmannaeyar in Iceland. So glad you liked the delicate leaves. Life IS beautiful!
As others have already said, your blisses give us bliss. You are a very talented lady and I love your views of the natural world. The drawing of the ginkgo leaves is so lovely and I envy your drawing and painting skills.
Jude, you are too kind – I am only trying to find my old skills again…but if I ever do, it will take some time. My hands are not as good as in younger days, not to talk about my eyes… I cannot paint at all if there is no daylight/natural light.
Thank you for being so encouraging – much appreciated. ♥
hi a. c., a wonderful selection of photos I like them very much, especially the 2nd one.
best regards robert
Thank you, Robert!
Hi Leya
It is marvelous that you have rekindled your former bliss of painting and drawing, along with pressing flowers and plants! I always love seeing Nature through your eyes in your posts, and this statement of yours is very true: “We need everybody to understand, that if we lose these small worlds, we will lose our only home, Planet Earth.”
Here’s my offering for Follow Your Bliss:
Beat, Babsje
♥
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Beautiful images and personal reflection. Seems you have always been an artist – simply with different tools. Thanks for sharing!
Well, Frank, I am glad I decided to find my ”roots” again – it gives me a peaceful mind. And we are all artists, aren’t we? In our own way!
Agree … ”artist” is much broader term than many people realize.
Ahh, such a beautiful post! I didn’t know that you paint and press plants. Are these your paintings in the first photo? 😮 In any case, they are glorious! As are the tender leaves. ❤ The first quote says it well. It's on us to find the bliss that has been waiting for us.
Thank you so much, Manja! Encouraging indeed – yes, the watercolours and doodling are all my trials and errors! And I too, liked that quote, so true.
So wonderful…..loved the leaves. We celebrate a lot of the same things 🙂
♥ We do.
I wonder if you realise that your bliss, gives us bliss. Your art opens doorways we can peep through and therefore explore outside our comfort zone
Thank you for a lovely comment, Eha – ♥
The talent of drawing is definitely still there! You should keep doing it.
Thank you for encouraging words! I will keep trying!
Your ‘blisses’ are bliss. Love the flower press.
♥
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Love the shot of the horses and the leaves in the glass frame…very nice 🙂
Thank you, much appreciated!
Although I always enjoy your wonderful photos, I love the leaf skeletons. What a joy to be able to revisit a passion as well as indulging in your photography and being in nature!
Thank you, Janet! It is a great joy, even if neither my eyes nor my fingers are in the same shape as 50 years ago.
I am very impressed by your beautiful watercolors and drawing of the ginkgo leaves! What a gift!
Haha, well, I am trying to get back the feeling and the skills I once had. Takes time I believe, but for a month or two, these examples are OK. Thank you for encouraging words!
An amazing post Ann-Christine, one of my favorites of your many beautiful posts throughout the years. I absolutely love that you linked your opening image of the beautiful landscape to the delicate pressed leaves in the frame. And how perfect is your thoughtful son to gift you with a ”real” flower press. I never actually knew there was such a thing! And your friend who has her bouquet still on the wall – how special is that? Your lens has shown us so much beauty… You are quite something Ann-Christine, and your post warmed my heart. Thank you so much for that.
I want to thank you for all your warming words, you are so good with words too, Tina! I enjoyed this challenge very much as I had just begun taking up my old ”blisses”. An opportunity indeed.
I also think it is incredible that her wedding flowers are still there and not totally withered. The colours are still there too, even if they are faded. Amazing.
I am happy to have warmed your heart, Tina. ♥
Beautiful responses to the Bliss challenge. I love the photo of the horses running. Are they wild horses? Or are they a herd that is on a farm?
Glad you liked my entry, Anne, and those lovely horses were running on a farm in Iceland. We were lucky to see them coming, and they all ran back on the country road to the farm when the farmer whistled!
Ah! That is marvelous!
♥ The best thing that day!
These are such beautiful images and words. Thanks Anita
Thank you for a positive comment, Anita!
It’s wonderful to be able to rekindle a passion you had years ago. Your sketches and watercolors are beautiful. And, of course, we would all agree that photography is a great way to find your bliss. Your macros are exceptional.
Thank you for a lovely comment, Anne. I am trying to find my way again – slowly.
Love your words and your photos.
Thank you, Kelly – appreciate your commenting.
Good for you to rekindle your love of drawing and watercolor! Much like riding a bicycle (or a horse!) the skill returns when we use it again! I love your photo of the horses – beautiful and free. Thank you for this and for the opportunity to host this week.
Thank you, Lindy. and well, so far I have fallen off the bicycle quite often, but I am learning… I hope you will enjoy the whole week!