CFFC: Farm Animals

Somehow I love goats – the way they walk and move, their beautifully shaped faces and slender legs. So for Cee this week – only these beauties!

Thursday Thoughts – We Must Make it Work!

My post from November 30, 2017, a year ago – I thought a reminder to us all would not hurt. What do you want to give your children and grand children for the future?

 

Every December I remember our month in New Zealand some years ago. Never have I been to a country where I found so much and so many to admire and love.

This is where our antipodes live, this is where I had one of my first penfriends, this is the country whose nature I believe to be the most diverse and beautiful in the world. And this is where Rainbow Warrior went down, sending many people around the world into an unbelievable state of shock.

We are constantly reminded of how much we contaminate our world, and the focus here in Swedish media, right now,  is the sea, the oceans.

Just like in Wellington, we can still bathe, swim and fish in Stockholm – but for how long?

I am a member of many organizations trying their best to help preserving our planet for generations to come. But right now, we receive news every day about all the plastic and micro plastic in the oceans – a terrible threat to all organisms-

So, I think again, with my heart wide open, about how much I respect and love NZ, its people and its genuine efforts to help the world stay healthy. Down to every detail… for example the artwork made for making us humans see and do the right things.

And these are only two, small,  brilliant examples out of many, many…we saw new examples every day.

Hopefully it is not too late for the world – but You and I, and all of us, have to do our bit, our part, every day – to save our enigmatic and fantastic planet. Start with the little things…don’t use plastic bags, bring your own when you go shopping. Don’t throw old medicine in the toilet, in Sweden we leave them at the pharmacy for destruction.

Can you say you try to do everything you can to help? I know I try – but I also know I can do so much more.

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Contact

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Contact

From Dutch Goes the Photo – an agility dog! Which made me remember how my two Lagottos, Mille and Totti, were experts on how to overcome obstacles. They still managed to keep up their close contact…

…despite certain difficulties…

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #19: Magical Light

Magical Light – thank you, Amy, for a magical challenge! Hear a photographer’s voice:

I am forever chasing light. Light turns the ordinary into the magical.
Trent Parke

 

Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher.

William Wordsworth

A gray day provides the best light

Leonardo da Vinci

Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light

Theodore Roethke

While we are alive we should sit among colored lights and taste good wines, and discuss our adventures in far places; when we are dead, the opportunity is past.

Jack Vance

Be a light unto yourself

Gautama Buddha

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle

Walt Whitman

There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.

Leonard Cohen

To love beauty is to see light

Victor Hugo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Comfort

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Comfort

We all need comfort…sometimes. All living creatures… Be it horses in the harsh Icelandic winter, or humans in difficult situations.

Seeking warmth in the company of friends and family.

 

 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #18: Blending In – or Standing Out?

As I walk in the forest every day, I notice that the tracks and paths are slowly disappearing with the falling leaves. In the thick carpet of autumn brown, yellow and red, I lose my dogs more easily because of their blending in, and today I could not find the main path ahead at all…

Blending in – essential when you are a child, and in Nature it might be of crucial importance. A matter of Life or Death. How important is it to us humans today?

Blending in is of less importance in this shot, though. A domesticated animal in the first frosty days in the forest. But here blending in brings harmony and beauty to the eye.

 

Somewhere in Spain, I came upon these cats – and as cats still are hunters, and often wild in these areas, I guess they take advantage of their good camouflage colours.

In the Galapagos Islands the animals don’t have many enemies, but here are two fine examples of perfect blending in:

The Galápagos Dove, like many other animals on the islands, is endemic, and has developed perfect colours and behaviour to blend in.

The Yellow-crowned Night-heron was standing perfectly still, and spotted only when the panga came very close to the rocks.

Standing out, then – is also of great importance. In the world of animals, the female often has to blend in to survive and to protect her young, while the males often must stand out in order to attract the best females.

When it comes to us humans, some hundred years ago I guess it was mostly women who strove to stand out – for the men to pick and choose. At least in the western world. (Read Ovid and his advice for women on how to get/please/keep a man…) Today, men too put make up on, and wear fancy and colourful clothes (- and powder and body painting exists since long in some societies.) Moreover, for our young it has become important to define themselves early in life.

Somehow, everybody must learn how to play the game…when to blend in and when to stand out. And be prepared for swift changes…

A people who do stand out beautifully, is the Sweden living Sámi people. Their colourful culture shows off mostly strong blue, red and yellow clothes for festivities – and here the men are most spectacular. The different colours are used to show heritage and kin.

 

So, what is most important to you – blending in or standing out? This week’s challenge is to show us your thoughts in a photo!

 

Last week we all had some very entertaining posts to enjoy, have you seen these from Patti’s challenge Just For Fun?

Scillagrace was a happy wedding photographer…

Pauline takes us to a strange hotel…

And at Journeys with Johnbo, something really cool popped up…

 

The next challenge (#19) will be hosted by Amy on Saturday, November 10 at noon.  Welcome to join in! For more information on the Lens-Artists Photo Challenges, click here. Most importantly, remember to TAG your post ” Lens-Artists ” so it appears in the Reader.

 

And finally, have an outstandingly(!) inspiring week!

 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #16: Big Can Be Beautiful Too!

When Tina asks us to think Big, my first thoughts go to the Galapagos islands, Lonesome George and the beautiful Iguanas. Because I think they are beautiful creatures, I really do. So here are some of my favorites!

Colourful and pensive – or not –

Lazy or not –

In the header, Scotland’s impressive, 30 m high Kelpies, and lastly the lovely little terrier of Bilbao – size XXXXXL.

 

 

Thank you, Tina, for the Big opportunity this week to think Big!

For more information about our challenges click here.

 

 

 

 

Thursday Thoughts – Following a Country Road

I knew this would be the last day of the Indian summer this year. So, I decided to drive through the colourful October landscape over to a neighbouring hiking area.

I did not take the fastest road, but followed the old country roads through the rural landscape in its late evening glory.

Piled trunks, waiting to be chipped, creates another kind of rural harmony in the landscape. Just like the animals, they are essential for the farmers to make a living.

Then the hard road surface softly turns into gravel…

…and just around the corner, new views are awaiting.

Cattle silently munching, not knowing that soon they will have to return to the stable – or…maybe not…

Number 1!

The evening is warm and hazy, colourful and still. I stand in the middle of the road, just to hear the silence and feel the sunshine. There is a certain sadness…coming over me.

Soon we will be there. Ready for the evening walk. Milo and me.