Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Things Found on a Farm
Animals
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #64 – Countryside – That is Where I Belong
To me, Magical goes well with Countryside – I am a country girl. Even if I love to visit big cities, I know where I belong. This week, Amy is our host, and as I often post about my own countryside, you will get some pieces of Icelandic countryside instead. Iceland is a bit more harsh and rough, and we remember – once Iceland was only for the tough guys.
I consider it the best part of an education to have been born and brought up in the country. – Amos Bronson Alcott
The country is lyric, the town dramatic. When mingled, they make the perfect musical drama. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I long for the countryside. That’s where I get my calm and tranquility – from being able to come and find a spot of green. – Emilia Clarke
I really feel that my body craves to be in the mountains or by the ocean or in the countryside. – Miranda Kerr
I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind. – Albert Einstein
The country life is to be preferred, for there we see the works of God, but in cities little else but the works of men. And the one makes a better subject for contemplation than the other. – William Penn
Thank you for all your Magical posts last week – they made every day into pure Magic!
Lens-Artists Challenge #61 – Precious Pets
In the header, Mille (no longer with us) and Totti – dearly loved by my mother too. She still walks with me and the dogs every day. My last three dogs have all been of the breed Lagotto Romagnolo.
This week Tina is our host, and she has chosen a theme very accurate for many of us – Precious Pets. I have had many pets in my life, but I will post only my favorite choices. Otherwise I would fill your week!
If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are
better off than a lot of humans – James Herriot
In Homer’s Odyssey (c. 8th century BC), upon Odysseus’ return after 20 years, his beloved dog Argos is the only individual to recognize him.
Milo
Pets are humanizing. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life – James Cromwell
A lovely young man and his dog, Westmannaeyar, Iceland
”Man’s best friend” is a common phrase about domestic dogs, referring to their millennia-long history of close relations, loyalty, and companionship with humans. The first recorded use of a related phrase is by Frederick the Great of Prussia, 18th century.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read – Groucho Marx
Old Mr Marx might have a good point though…not everyone can have a dog…but there are alternatives!
Since I left home, more than 40 years ago, I have always had dogs, but when I grew up, we had cats. All of them were lost too soon, either run over by a car or just disappeared in the forest. The sorrow of losing them, and the fact that I wanted a companion on my walks, made me go for dogs instead. The two cats below both live in Heimaey, Vestmannaeyar. I believe their breed is Norwegian Forest cat.
Cats choose us; we don’t own them —Kristin Cast
Cats have it all – admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it – Rod McKuen
A horse is a thing of beauty… none will tire of looking at him as long as he displays himself in his splendor – Xenophon
As a teenager, I was a horse addict and spent much time at the stable. Nowadays I only ride horses when we visit Iceland.
The Icelandic is a ”five-gaited” breed, known for its sure-footedness and ability to cross rough terrain.
The first additional gait is a four-beat lateral ambling gait known as the tölt. The breed also performs a pace called a skeið, flugskeið or ”flying pace”. It is used in pacing races, and is fast and smooth, with some horses able to reach up to 30 miles per hour (48 km/h)
The Icelandic horse comes in a wide variety of colours as well, and the Icelandic language includes more than 100 names for various colours and colour patterns of their horses. I find them all very beautiful……but the combination in the last photo is My favorite.
Thank you for all your inspiring Frames last week! – and thank you, Amy, for all the fun with this challenge!
Wordless Wednesday
CFFC: Animals
For Cee this week – sturdy, but elegant Icelandic horses. Lovely meeting them this July.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #51 – Unique
Unique – ask a dictionary, and it says being the only existing one of its type or, more generally, unusual, or special in some way. The most unique place I have visited is the Galapagos Islands.
This Ecuadorian archipelago with 19 islands are all unique in their own way – both flora and fauna. They all have endemic species, and the animals let you come close without being startled or afraid. They do not consider humans their enemies. Unique.
Thank you, Charles Darwin!
Charles Darwins resa med HMS Beagle 1831-36, Galápagosdelen
Some of the strange and fascinating landscapes on the islands –
If you look closely, you might see the flamingo…-
We had a very unique opportunity to see the land iguanas eating from the giant cactii.
Not many visitors are that lucky – at least our guide told us so.
Unfortunately we came too late to meet Lonesome George. Every effort to help this last of his species failed, and he died 2012. But we met several other giant tortoises on the island Santa Cruz.
In the header, two marine iguanas – unique to these islands, but unfortunately on the road to getting even more unique. As the waters are warming due to climate change, their sea food is dying and their numbers are already decreasing.
Let us hope these islands will stay unique – in a positive way. Nature is good at mending – if we will just let it.
A special thanks to Amy for this week’s photo inspiration.
Thursday Thoughts – Garden News
So far this Spring and start of Summer has given the ideal weather for the garden: Raining during the nights and sunshine during the days. Such wonderful difference from last year’s extreme heat. Come along for a short walk!
These are only some of my flowers – but I am so glad they survived last summer’s heat! I adore the little rain gauge my son bought for mother’s day.
My wild roses were planted maybe 20 years ago – I got them from a friend who in his turn had got them from a little old lady in a forest cottage.
I love those little ones – a sea of pink! If you study the bumble bees below, you will understand how small these roses are.
This year, the Painted Lady, being a long-distance migrant, caused the most spectacular butterfly migration observed in Sweden.
Each year, it spreads northwards from the desert fringes of North Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia, recolonizing mainland Europe and reaching Sweden and even Svalbard. In some years it is an abundant butterfly, but never as early as this year. I usually see them in my Buddleijas in late summer.
This year they migrated in millions, and Gotland, our biggest island, received more than 6000 of them in some hours. In my garden now, I have hundreds of them. Some battered and torn – but who wouldn’t be after such a flight!
Friendly Friday – Shadows
Amanda has a prompt for us – Shadows – and you get Me at my best (;-D) in both pictures: In my forest and in the Sahara desert.
This photo challenge is alternately hosted each Friday by the bloggers:
Something to Ponder About and The Snow Melts Somewhere
CFFC: Smiles
Cee asks us to smile this week – Here’s one from me, last summer when I finally got away from the heat and drought in Skåne and reached the sweet, fresh air of Norrland and Lofoten. The best smile that year…
And the sweetie in the header, from Jokkmokk’s Market in Lappland, Sweden.
You can never get too many smiles in your life!
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #48 – Wild
“In wildness is the preservation of the world.” – Henry David Thoreau
Tina encourages us this week to go Wild! And, this time of the year I spend as much time as possible outdoors, in the wild, so my decision was easy – to go for my own neighborhood and use the most common meanings of the word Wild (according to Wikipedia) –
Wild animal – I met this lovely deer on my morning tour a couple of days ago. She noticed me of course, but waited patiently in the sunlit glade until I was gone.
Wilderness – a wild natural environment not significantly modified by human activity.
Wildlife traditionally refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Represented in the header by a wild rose.
One of the most fascinating things in the wild is the metamorphosis of butterflies. Here some caterpillars of the small tortoiseshell, feeding on stinging nettles…
…but later developing into these beauties – Wild Wonders!
Finally, Wildness – the quality of being wild or untamed……easily recognizable even in domesticated animals – such as my dogs running and chasing each other like maniacs.
Would you like to go wild for a moment? Welcome to join in! Tag your entry ”Lens-Artists” so we can find you in the reader. And stay tuned for next week’s host, Patti, for challenge #49!
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