Thursday Thoughts – The Need for Light and Colour

I don’t think I am

alone – if I say

I am in great need of

that wonderful Light

and Colour

of Spring

Let us hope it will soon arrive. It is in the air. I feel it coming.

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #89 – A River Runs Through It

I’m really quite simple. I plant flowers and watch them grow… I stay at home and watch the river flow. – George Harrison

This is what we must do today – this is not the time for travel. So, from the archives – images from Iceland, New Zealand, Sweden, Scotland, Norway and Georgia. May the rivers keep flowing and the waters never go dry.

 

A winter message from the river: Never surrender! Life can try to stop you, but somehow find a way to flow!
Mehmet Murat ildan

The river teaches us many things, but its most important teaching is this: Whatever is happening around you, you keep flowing to your own destination following your own way!
Mehmet Murat ildan

If you have a river, then you should share it with everyone. – Chen Guangbiao

It is from small streams that big rivers rise.
Matshona Dhliwayo 

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man. – Heraclitus

Many a calm river begins as a turbulent waterfall, yet none hurtles and foams all the way to the sea. – Mikhail Lermontov

Learn from a river; obstacles may force it to change its course, but never its destination.
Matshona Dhliwayo 

 

Thanks to Amy for this week’s challenge. Click here to see and link to her original post, and remember to use the Lens-Artists tag.  Thank you also for all your creative, interesting and  heartfelt responses to last week’s CHAOS challenge. In these troubled times, please practice Social Distancing to protect yourselves and others from the continuing spread of COVID-19. Stay safe.

Next week, Tina (Travels and Trifles) will be your host.

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Spread

I had the opportunity to watch two majestic young ones, for the first time spreading  their wings and flying into freedom this autumn. For Frank – Eurasian Eagle-Owl.

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #87 – Reflections

We welcome another guest blogger this week, Miriam of The Showers of Blessings.  She suggests we find reflections to share.

Believe it or not, but I found myself in some of mine…even though I never do selfies.

Reflect upon your present blessings — of which every man has many — not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
Charles Dickens

Today, International Women’s Day, we might just change his quote a bit…and put in woman and women too.

Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?

― Charles Bukowski

Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real, and you’re just a reflection of him?

Bill Watterson 

Bewilderment increases in the presence of the mirrors.
Tarjei Vesaas,

When do I see a photograph, when a reflection?
Philip K. Dick,

A lake is a landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.
Henry David Thoreau,

 

These images were made in Iceland, Stettin, Copenhagen, Bilbao, Norway and Switzerland. As usual, click to enlarge.

For the rest of March, we will follow the usual schedule – and stay tuned for next Saturday when the host is me, Leya!

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #85 – Treasure Hunt

This week Tina wants us to go on a Treasure Hunt! Our challenge is to search for specific items – either from your archives or newly captured – from the list below. Extra credit items are a bit harder to find, as are multiple items in a single image. Focus on quality over quantity and hit us with your best shot(s)!

  • Challenge Items: Sunrise and/or sunset, Something cold and/or hot, a bird, a dog, a funny sign, a bicycle, a seascape and/or mountain landscape, a rainbow, a church, a musical instrument, a boat, a plane, a waterfall
  • Extra Credit Items:  An expressive portrait of one or more people, a very unusual place, knitting or sewing, a fish, an animal you don’t normally see, a bucket, a hammer, a street performer, a double rainbow, multiple challenge items in a single image.

Sunset is a moment where all emotions are experienced: Melancholy, amazement, intoxication, casuistry, admiration, love, sadness…
Mehmet Murat ildan

In the opener – sunset, seascape, birds and boats in The Netherlands. The other scenes were found in Bhutan, Tibet and Poland.

Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame! – William Butler Yeats

Dance is the most fundamental of all art forms. – Twyla Tharp

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.– Roger Caras

This Boxer-like sweetie gave me a real fright. When I was passing this shop, he suddenly jumped up at the desk – the shop owner looked a bit shocked as well…I had to be quick to catch the moment!

Knitting not only relaxes me, it also brings a feeling of being at home. – Magdalena Neuner

An old photo, but I still remember these lovely Tibetan ladies waiting for market customers – and making a useful time of it. They were very shy, but smiling when I asked about their knitting and told them I knitted too.

All my images are self-portraits, even when I’m not in them.
Nuno Roque

I met this beautiful lady on the pilgrim trail to Taktshang (Tiger’s Nest) in Paro. She stopped to offer some nuts and dried fruit (I was a bit poorly looking…), and then passed me with a vigorous step – reaching the temple at least half an hour before I did. She was 75, and no sign of panting in the thin air…

Each and every animal on earth has as much right to be here as you and me. – A.D. Williams

We were fortunate to see the national animal of Bhutan – the rare Takin. Folklore has it that the animal with a goat’s head and a cow’s body was created by The Divine Madman, a famous holy man from Tibet. The Takin lives in the alpine zones, at 1000-4500 meters height, and weighs about 300kg.

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination
and life to everything.
― Plato

I enjoyed these skilled street musicians for almost an hour, in Lodz, Poland. Not until after uploading the photos, I noticed the spooky thing behind the musician to the left…

Thank you, Amy, for the fun Narrow theme last week!

A Special Announcement:  All of us at Lens-Artists are delighted to announce that the March 7th challenge (#87) will be hosted by our special guest host, Miriam Hurdle at The Shower of Blessings   Please be sure to visit Miriam’s site on Saturday, March 7th to view her challenge.  For the rest of February and March, we’ll follow our usual weekly schedule:

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #84 – Narrow

Future? Now, let’s see what will happen this week! Amy has chosen Narrow as our theme. She says:

Travel has taught me that once we go through a narrow path, alley, and/or road with a little patience, at the end it always opens up to pleasant surprises.

Of course I agree – in urban areas: a narrow street where you have to look far up to see the sun; steep, dark stairs ending in a light blue door, and the very old streets of Tbilisi.

My own love for things narrow, is a winding path – and preferably one of which I don’t know the end…

But, to me they all are inviting. Though every narrow shell does not hold a pearl – at least not one like my daughter!

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.

– Henry David Thoreau

 

Finally, Thank you for all your creative answers to last week’s challenge, Future, fantastic reading and images, both hopeful and sad. Just the way Life is. ♥

Stay tuned for the last February challenges:

Remember to link to Amy’s original post, and tag it with “Lens-Artists.”  If you’re new to tagging, click here for an explanation of how and why.

As always, we are all looking forward to seeing your creative responses to the challenge –  and thank you for your support!