Thursday Thoughts – A Double Farewell

These foggy mornings – forebodings of November grey – still have their own beauty.

My father just turned 85, and our daughter flew home for the celebration last weekend – despite having a big exam three days later. Love ♥

Driving her to the airport – she wanted a walk in our forest once more. So brother and sister walked ahead of us, chatting and laughing, but also talking about serious things.

Forests are good listeners. Up north, where she is heading, there are no autumn colours, only firs and pine trees.

So, when she left, this autumn’s last colours were mirrored in the little lake in the early morning light. I hope Emma will picture them in her mind during the long winter darkness in Umeå.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #9: Action

This week Patti wants some Action – and my contribution is a mix of kites, children, students and animals… And action is taken for different reasons, as always.

The kites and their owners were in constant action in Fanö this June – creativity just for fun. For the sake of Art. For the sake of feeling the air lifting your device – and your soul.

There are many memories with this photo – taken at the skate park in Malmoe several years ago. My son is a skater since his early teens, and still skating at 26. Young people act out of necessity and have to be on the move. They are growing and want to test their limits, strengthening their bodies for future challenges.

I also love to follow one of my students jousting – in fact he is the number one champion in Sweden. Here is the wonder of  cooperation between man and animal – which has been a necessity for thousands of years. Where would mankind have been today without this co-work?

Action is also necessary to protect your domains, to get the partner you want or the food you need. These Swallow Tailed Gulls of Galapagos are doing just that.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of hosting Milo’s little sister at our summer place in Blekinge. Not a dull moment in those two days…Action for them means just the same as for us humans – testing body and mind for later, grown-up challenges.

But of course much of the action is just for fun…Some rain and some water wrestling to cool down afterwards is a treat for everyone involved.

Being a grown-up, and a (more than) middle aged woman, I sometimes wish I still had some of all that explosive energy…

 

So, what does Action mean to you?

Thursday Thoughts – Autumn Hints

Some cool autumn days at our summerhouse – Much is in progress…and nature is slowing down. Totti is adjusting to having Milo around, but as you can see he has also found out how to effectively get away from him…one of his favorite solutions is to jump into the car cage again. Milo cannot reach him there – yet.

 

Autumn is coming – the crispness of the air, the clear skies and the colours of the trees.

Our little fishing village is preparing for the next season – boats on shore and summer guests gone. Silent mornings, only the swallows’ swift wings dipping in the water.

He is growing so fast…too fast, just like little children do.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Time to Relax

This week’s host for the photo challenge is Amy : ”Show us your favorite ‘time to relax’ activity, place, or moment.  It can be in any season, month, week, or day. :)”

 

Relax is  something we all try to do – and need to do. Sometimes they are hard to get by, those moments…but sooner or later you will learn what works for just you.

I find it very relaxing to walk along the paths of graveyards – especially really old ones. Père Lachaise in Paris, Highgate cemetery in London and the old Jewish burial places in Poland are my favorites.

At home, this place is an unmistakable relaxing spot – with or without Totti!

Summertime, I love to walk out here in the evenings to enjoy the sunset.

My flowers, pot plants, orchids – all of them need their daily attendance. They give me a very relaxing hour every morning.

No shop can compete with bookshops for my attention as well as relaxation. Libraries also offer instant harmony.

But lastly – my infallible remedy against stress and pro relaxation of mind and body – is a walk in the lush green of the forest.

If you missed Amy’s challenge for this week, click here.  For more information on how to participate in the Lens-Artists photo challenge, click here. And last but not least, remember to tune in to Tina of Travelsandtrifles next week for our next photo challenge!

 

 

Milo – Moving In

Hi, Milo here…just wanted to tell you – I moved in today! Mum tells me, if I am only half as good as my looks – I can have my own page here! Like Mille♥ and Totti♥. That would be just great. See you!

CFFC: Piles or Stacks

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Piles or Stack

For Cee this week – one of my favorite stack photos is this one,  with my mother walking between what once was my forest. In the header: boxes of butter!

WPC: All-Time Favorites

I want to thank you again, for inspiring us all to keep blogging – share our experiences and learn from each other. It has been good, so good. And tonight I truly feel sorry about losing this opportunity.

Many of us got to know each other through WPC, now some of us maybe will not have the strength, discipline or imagination to blog that frequently again. But, even in the desert there is beauty…So, I hope we will! – You have been a great help to make blogging fun and addictive in a positive way.

It will not be easy to choose an all-time favorite…I don’t believe it is easier to choose  three or four either. I will think about it for an hour or two…meanwhile, I send my love to you all, and especially to: Krista, Jeff, Michelle, Erica, Ben, Sheri, Donncha, Jen, Sara and Cheri.

I cannot choose a favorite of mine among you either…and why should I? I just felt that Cheri, your words added to your picture – those words touched the heart of my blogging.

My choices… there is much feeling connected to the pictures chosen, memories and heart…While some of them were favorites of yours, some of them maybe are only favorites of mine. But they all are some years old – otherwise they could not be All-Time Favorites, could they? (More of my criteria at the end of the post. )

In the header, a lonely beach on the east coast of New Zealand. My family traveled together for a whole month, and we walked alone on this beach, each one of us…contemplating the beauty of Earth, and the end of our journey. Here is my son listening to the ocean.

Then – a hot night in Barcelona, my family and I was out walking and ended up in the middle of a gigantic motor bike gathering. Foreign feeling – but magical.

This is also a family hiking memory – very dear to me. My daughter resting on a giant pine branch in the Spanish mountains, somewhere between Spain and France.

Spain again – Segovia and its famous aqueduct. I had never seen anything like it – it goes through the city center and is still standing after centuries and centuries. No concrete, no nails – only the stones themselves. I walked, sat, stood in the steps contemplating – for hours. Enigmatic shadows as well.

This photo was taken at our summer house, when I still had both dogs, Mille and Totti. No other photo of them shows so on the spot their special temperaments. Now, who is the wild boy and who is the law abiding one? Fond memories.

My dear blogging friend Maria (Mariayarri), in Jämtland, took me to the Tännforsen waterfall in winter. I had never seen a gigantic waterfall frozen before. It took my breath away – and I remember, many of yours’ as well.

An early spring day some years ago, it started snowing on my way back home from the forest walk. This deer shed was still standing. (Now gone) The photo became a favorite with both my readers and me.

My Princess of the Night in flower for the first time. We waited for hours – and then everything was over within 20-30 minutes. A Wonder. This flower is about 20 centimeters and the scent fills the whole room. A photo is not enough to grasp the event…you need all your senses!

Meeting another dear blogging friend, Seonaid (Greenmackenzie) – from Scotland. She does not blog anymore, but I got the opportunity to visit her two times when she lived just outside Edinburgh. She and her lovely family had three Bearded Collies, and two of them looked just like my Amanda ( – before Mille and Totti). Those few, magical days with them will never leave me. Also a photo with feeling, showing well the character of the dog.

This photo was taken on a rainy trip to China. It rained every day – and the wedding couple here had a speedy walk on the Bond in Shanghai, waiting for their photographer. In Sweden there is a saying that rain in your crown on your wedding day – will give you a happy marriage. I hope this one was/is! This shot was a favorite with Sylvain Landry when he had his weekly prompts.

 

Catedrales beach, Spain. We just happened to find it – a World Heritage – it was not in the guide book…Kilometers of rock formations of enigmatic size and shapes. We spent several hours walking in the sunset. Incredible feeling that such a marvelous place was not marked out in any book. It made the experience even more magical.

The last photo, of Lhasa and the Pothala Palace, also marks what I see as my criteria for All-Time Favorites: Deep feeling, being in awe, magical surroundings, beauty, dream fulfilled or come true.

Turned Ten Yesterday…

Who would have believed it?

A neat bath…,  and lunch on the beach.

Some digging and a roll in the grass…

Towards sunset, the usual walk by the sea…

me and the mosquitos…

Well – all in all a totally lovely day. And I felt it was Mine!

 

Love,

Totti

Thursday Thoughts – Taktshang Goemba or Tiger’s Nest

Guru Padmasambhava, popularly known as Guru Rinpoche, visited and sanctified Bhutan in the 8th century when evil spirits abounded and harmed people.

Legend has it that Guru Rinpoche flew to this site on a tigress’ back to subdue a local demon. Thereafter, he meditated here for more than three months. Taktshang Goemba or Tiger’s Nest Monastery is one of Bhutan’s most sacred religious sites. It hangs on a cliff 3120 meters above the Paro Valley. Every Bhutanese should visit once during their lifetime.

 

This was our last day in Bhutan, and maybe the one I will keep as the greatest gem

Let there be no sound, no words too many…

 

Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have

Buddha 

Family is of greatest importance to the Bhutanese people

Magical forests too…

…Pristine in the fresh air of the Himalayas

Meeting so many lovely friends on my three hours’ journey

Taktshang Goemba

Turning back again, walking alone – but then again, not

“There is no path to Happiness. Happiness is the path.”

Buddha

 

WPC: Place in the World

My Place

”All cities — especially the big ones — have a way of reminding you of your place in the world.” I like that – but I go to Nature for that feeling. The difference is – Nature is not man made, at least it is less man made…

 

 

My place in the world is wherever my family is…and My place is in the great outdoors……where I can feel my own true size – which is that of an ant…

…my total insignificance – and yet, the importance

 

of acting to preserve our Nature, our National Parks,

the animals’ habitats – our heritage…

 

in order to return it with love and pride to our children –

I hope we will not have destroyed all of its magic,

 

its inspiration or its serenity.

I intend to keep loving Nature, my place in the world; trying my best not to leave anything but footprints, and take nothing but photos.

My hope is for the world to realize that we need each other – Man and Nature, Nature and Man. And that in fact, the end of Nature is the end of Man.