Amy reminds us this is the season for celebrating – but in reality, we are of course free to celebrate anything worth celebrating! My choices are some of the celebrations I have always loved, and they will forever stay with me.
The opener is my celebration of winter and snow.
Throughout my working life as a teacher, I have been fortunate to follow many lovely students graduate every year in June. They celebrate their achievements as students, and the beginning of a new life.
Walking is a passion with me, and seeing the pilgrims’ arriving in Santiago de Compostela – after struggling on the roads and paths for months, weeks and days – I know their feat is worthy of a great celebration.
Another passion of mine is flowers. Celebrating spring flowers in Holland, Keukkenhof, is indeed a festival for all senses. We have visited three times so far – and hopefully we will get the chance to go again.
Christmas is coming – and even though it does not hold the same magic now as when I was a child, I can still remember that tingling feeling. And celebrating the children coming home, candles lit, parcels made, dogs cuddled and birds fed – is a complete joy. Even more so when there is snow!
Finally, the New Year…My grandmother never liked this celebration, and I share her thoughts… more and more each year. She was a hard working country woman who struggled through life to make ends meet, and she always feared the next year would never bring her much good. My own generation belongs to the lucky ones in many ways, but ahead of us lies tough tasks in order to save our planet – because we don’t want to leave those troubles to the next generation, do we? Let’s mend the world while we can.
Next week, Tina will host LAPC #178. Stay tuned and be sure to visit her site, Travels and Trifles.
Leya 
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Hi Ann-Christine
I really like the tag line of your blog ‘To see a world in a grain of sand…’ Time after time your own posts and nature photographs are true to that statement. Your photos for this challenge run the gamut of things to celebrate. The little bird perched on the snowy tree branch is so simple and yet so moving.
Here’s something from me for Lens Artist 177 Celebrating. I believe in celebrating the ordinary every day, regardless of what the Hallmark Card calendar decrees for any given season:
Best, Babsje
Thank you, I say the same!
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A wonderful collection ! Naturally, my favorite photo is the one from Santiago where I will hopefully arrive one day as a pilgrim. So far I have hiked from Munich to Fribourg in Switzerland.
This is my contributioin to your wonderful challenge:
https://wanderlustig2019.wordpress.com/2021/12/10/great-festival-in-juifen-taiwan/
Thank you!
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hi a. c., With this selection of photos I have 2 favorites the 1st and last picture, thank you for showing us.
best regards robert
Thank you, Robert!
Hi, AC. I agree 100% about the tasks ahead of us to make sure that the next generation can live safely and in good health. I feel like we’ve failed them…and now, we must correct that as soon as we can. I also love your beautiful images, as always, AC. What lovely reminders of happy moments. I also agree with you and your grandmother about the new year. Bah humbug!! 😀😀Take care and have a good week/weekend.
Thank you, Patti – and wishing you the same!
Hi Ann-Christine
What you write in this phrase should be required reading for all: “…ahead of us lies tough tasks in order to save our planet – because we don’t want to leave those troubles to the next generation, do we? Let’s mend the world while we can.” Amen.
Your celebration of your students as they begin their new lives is a moving thing to see. And the arrival of the pilgrims at Santiago de Compostela is inspiring. I have never undertaken that journey, but have been moved by reading first-person accounts. You’re fortunate that your passion for walking leads you to such beautiful lands.
Here’s my offering of a Great Blue Heron with cause for Celebrating – a hearty meal of the day’s catch:
Best, Babsje
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A beautiful tribute to celebrations, big and small. I find big celebrations more and more difficult/exhausting as I age. Little celebrations work best for me. Today, I can celebrate visiting your page. What a treat.
♥ I have always found big celebrations tiresome. Except those for my students.
I lost a good friend this week, but he told me to celebrate every day, for you never know when it will be your last
That is a good saying to live by. Sorry for your loss though.
That’s an interesting set of photos. I haven’t seen any graduation celebrations in Sweden, and that one looked like it was fun. That’s a beautiful shot of the robin in the snow. And that lovely photo from Keukkenhof reminds me that I never quite made the time to visit. Something for the future then.
Thank you, IJ – it is always good to have something left for the future.
I don’t have very many new photographs either, Leya. We don’t have big celebrations in our family, and usually, we are home for Christmas, so not many pictures. I like how you included other holidays and festivities. I hope you have a lovely week.
What beautiful examples of reasons to celebrate A-C. Your winter photo is so much like a Constable painting. I have to keep going back to look at it. Such wonderful light.
Thank you, Jude! I love that image too…it turned out very beautifully despite the late hour of the day and the fading light.
Lovely post Ann-Christine! I loved the colors in your photography, especially the flowers on the car and the fireworks. How wonderful that you have these memories of various celebrations captured through your lens.
Thank you, Anne. There is always room for a celebration – and if it is colourful – even better!
If only you knew how much this beautiful post talks to me ! Oh, I celebrate as often as I can, but perchance selfishly the days and happenings which move my heart ! Christmas, New Year and Easter may leave me ‘busy’ with ‘other matters’ but joyous life happenings amongst friends or unexpected ‘bonne chance’ for self can lead to wondrous days . . . Absolutely love your first photo – after a year from hell tens of thousands of our final year high school students have just completed their very difficult papers hoping to make the grade to university – truly a celebration of which to tell their grandchildren . . .
Thank you so much, Eha! Glad you enjoyed my thoughts and images!
Lovely celebration shots and narration, A-C. I still find Christmas magical for which I’m thankful. I’ll be even more thankful, as well as much busier, when the girls/son-in-law/sister-in-law can travel again to be with us for Christmas. But for now, I’m thankful for Zoom. 🙂
Zoom is great – less busy, yes! I am glad you still find magic in Christmas – when it is here, I will too.
Let’s mend our world indeed A-C 🙂
We have already started, haven’t we.
Some have 😁 – some are still not caring just thinking of lining their pockets 😠
Well, sooner or later they will have to…
Most certainly Ann-Christine
A lovely post. I hope we will start mending the earth.
I think we have both started!
🙂
The Keukenhof photo reminds me so much of a Polish wedding, though maybe not so extravagant with the flowers. I’d love to go! Wonderful warmth in those reds! Have a fabulous festive season, Ann-Christine.
Love this celebrating photos and stories. You remind us there are many wonderful things and ways to celebrate through our lives. These flower arrangement is fabulous. Somehow I didn’t get the pingback link on my post…
Thank you, Amy! I sent the link now – I wonder why WP sometimes just doesn’t do their job!
Agree, we have do deal with their inconsistency. 😦
Wonderful views of celebrations, all! I love the image of the flowers on the car. Excellent composition and color.
Those Christmas images certainly reflect the magic of the season. It is my favorite time of year, yet it will be, for us, the second time in two years, when we aren’t able to gather with our family. Our memories and photos will have to suffice.
Memories and photos will have to, yes. Maybe you can meet up later in the new year!
Indeed, plans are in the works. 😊
♥
I greatly appreciate your very personal take on celebrations. Broad yet poignant. You walk the Camino? Wow … Cheers to your determination. As always, loved the images … Especially the candles.
thank you, Frank! And I did not walk the Camino, I watched people doing it, talked with them and tried to understand why they did it. I wish to do it, or wished…but my knees are not what they once were, so we are aiming at a walk about 150 kilometers from the Santiago. No covid though. If I never get to do it, at least I have met so many people who did walk, and it was a fantastic feeling to see them reach their goal!
What a lovely miscellany of celebrations, at any and every time of year. Lovely!
Thank you, Margaret!
I confess to being of a mind with your grandmother – – usually I spend New Year’s Eve preparing my tax return, so I can get it filed/done, as soon as ‘submitting it’ opens up – and learn the bad news of how, once again, I didn’t pay in enough the past year and now owe more – just so I have 3 months to dive into changes or earn the $ if it’s a real shocker – – LOL. That said….there is a quiet peace to doing my taxes. It puts into graphs, charts, numbers that show, to me, what all I did this past year that was of use to others – – what I gave of what I had to others – – what I spent on business, home, Life – what Resources gained the past year, and which drains on resources I need to let go of – to do more meaningful work in the coming year…. :D. So, in the end? I guess I do celebrate New Year, just not in the way so many around me find as ‘useful’ – LOL
Interesting New Year celebration indeed…! Hard work! Hopefully it pays in the end, as you say. ;-D
Love the car with flower decoration.
Nothing like watching as a teacher when your students celebrating their graduation.
Why your granny was worrying so much about arrival of new year on a regular basis ?
Thank you for your lovely captures
Thank you, Philo! My grandmother was the family’s breadwinner. She depended on good/right weather, as all farmers do who are living off the land. She had quite some pieces of land, and no modern tools to keep it up. She used an ordinary spade to dig it all, and had to go on every day for the whole spring and autumn. Winter was her time to rest for a while, and I guess she saw every new year as a possible end of her own life, as she grew older and knew how much work was waiting.
Thank you AC.
Now I can understand the hardships she underwent
Yet a courageous lady.
And you might be knowing about my topic for this challenge was… about people who shy away from celebrations (though unfortunate)
♥
As always I loved your response this week Ann-Christine. Your series of images about Christmas, and the way you describe what you love about it, warmed my heart despite the cold, snowy scenes. I agree 100% with the things you love about it. May this holiday season bring you more than ever to be loved and added to your treasured memories.
Happy you could relate to my Christmas thoughts, Tina. My problem is I never photograph Christmases anymore – so only old photos!