Lens Artists Photo Challenge #118 – Communication

11 oktober, 202011 oktober, 2020 / Leya / 50 kommentarer

Thank you, Amy, for last week’s Photo Walk – a fun challenge with walks all over the world, that I unfortunately couldn’t follow as much as I wanted. But I will be back – soon.

Hosting this week is clever Biasini and Ma Leueen – so, I will take the opportunity to show you something of my world – a dog’s world. My name is Milo, and I live with Totti, Ann-Christine and her family in southern Sweden.

During the summers my Emma is home and goes playing and swimming with me – I love her SO much that I will do everything she asks me to do… Can you see how we even take the same pose before jumping in?

When in doubt…I search her eyes for advice – or maybe sometimes it is the other way around…

…but, I often let her go in first. In case it is a trap…

When we are back home again, with friends visiting – Totti and I have to check out if the guest (or intruder) is a good guy or not.

In my family we don’t do competitions anymore, but my pal, Totti, used to win many prizes in his youth. He is a Swedish and Danish Champion. In the header, he is the winner of such a competition. I can tell you that, in order to reach a top position, you have to communicate well with your handler (as they call the human running with you in the ring).

A great companion he is anyway, Totti. We both know exactly what the other one wants or wants not. Mostly we want the same thing though…and that could have meant big trouble, if we hadn’t been able to communicate wisely and read the signs. I can only urge all of you to work hard on it – Communication. If you don’t manage that well enough, your life will be much more complicated – sometimes hardly manageable.

Finally, our sincere thanks to Biasini and Ma Leueen, for guest hosting this week’s very interesting challenge. We all look forward to seeing your creative responses. Please remember to link them to their original post here, and to use the Lens-Artists tag to help us find you. We hope you’ll stay tuned next week as I, Ann-Christine/Leya will be the host for our next challenge.

Please be safe and well until next time!

Thursday Thoughts – Thank You

24 september, 202024 september, 2020 / Leya / 32 kommentarer

Since last Thursday, life has changed, the world has changed and will never be quite the same again.

Last Wednesday I walked by the sea, contemplating the beautiful sunset.

I stopped for some minutes at the boat house and found another soul, sitting alone in the still of the evening…

And the sun went down, for the last time in my quiet and ordinary life.

I want to thank you from the depth of my heart, from every vibrating fibre, for all your warm greetings, your sincere condolences and your concern. I will keep them in my heart – Thank You. This is a truly magical community… In the header is a magical bouquet of flowers sent to me all the way from Australia. I cannot thank you enough – no one mentioned no one forgotten. I Love You All.

Mother – Forever in My Heart

16 september, 202016 september, 2020 / Leya / 144 kommentarer

Early this morning, my mother unexpectedly passed away. This is the last photo, from August when we celebrated Emma turning 30. In the header, June this summer, Mother turned 85. Always a beauty, always shining, always funny, always – Always Mum.

Thank you for Everything. You chose such a beautiful day to leave us, warm and sunny, I believe the last day of summer. A day of no wind, of stillness and the yellow garden flowers glowing. But nothing can ever glow like You.

How frail is a life – yours went from laughing and joking on Monday, to gone forever Wednesday morning. Wherever you are now, I know your company is smiling.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #110 – Creativity in the Time of Covid

16 augusti, 202016 augusti, 2020 / Leya / 73 kommentarer

“One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.”

Paulo Coelho

And many of us tried, hard, this summer.

Last week we saw a tremendous amount of beautiful answers ”Under the Sun”, hosted by Amy. This week, ”We’d love you to share with us the ways you’ve fueled and satisfied your creative energies these past few months as the pandemic has restricted our ability to move freely.” And this time, Tina is our host.

When all this started, I had just visited my daughter in Umeå, and bought a fascinating jigsaw puzzle with many house plants – most of which I some time over the years had grown in my house. And, puzzling hade not been on my mind for some 20 years…This was february, and we knew nothing about what would happen only some weeks later.

Emma’s birthday is in September, so we decided to celebrate during her summer vacation instead. She wished to take a short course in ceramics and clay work, together with some friends. I joined in as well, and we all had a creative day at the small farm, where the artist, Caroline, had her studio.

During the whole summer, Emma kept working on the costume for her graduation. She also made a prototype for sewing her leather spats. Much work, but I am sure it will look really good in January for her Big Day. Posing for me? Well, some minutes only – it was 37 degrees C that day…so fast I had to be!

For her birthday, of course I made her favorite lamb pies with lots of vegetables and fruit. For me it is a joy to cook for her when she comes home – I want to make her feel relaxed and having nothing to worry about. Being a student for so many years is tiresome – not least doing all the cooking yourself.

We did many other things togehter of course, but these were some of those that made our summer worth remembering. I think we worked on 5 puzzles at least, and we had so much to talk about and debate – things that might never have come up an ordinary summer. Summing up, this Covid summer went from hopeless to meaningful in the end.

Emma has left now for her final term, so maybe this was her last stay ”at home”. And the last puzzle we started together, I have to finish on my own. It has a name: Universe Creator, by artist Lora. Autumn is coming, and I sit in the warm evening light, looking at Lora’s painting. It shows a little girl cycling, and a giant panda blowing soap bubbles that sails through the air, making new planets and galaxies. I like that idea.

Finally, are you interested in learning more about about the team behind the Lens-Artists Challenge? If so, we invite you to visit TCHistorygal.net where you’ll find our recent interview with Marsha Ingrao of Always Write. It was great working with Marsha and being a part of her Artists’ Interview series. We thank her sincerely for her efforts on our behalf.

We hope you’ll join us next week for Patti’s challenge #111. Until then, take care and stay safe.