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 – Midsummer

The most beautiful time in my country, Sweden,  is now – around Midsummer. The flowers and colours are abundant and it is a busy time for everything growing and for the animals raising their young.

Tomorrow is Midsummer’s Eve – in olden days a magical night. But also the night after which the bright light will start fading and we are heading towards winter.

If you celebrate or not – I wish you all a wonderful weekend –

And may you have a good night…

…should you be in Sweden, you will stay up to watch the sunset – and the sunrise. There is no real darkness in between.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #50 – Trees

Most of you know how much I walk in the forest – all year around. So the theme this week comes natural (!) to me – Trees. I will stay in Sweden, except for the header – waiting for you to post trees from every corner of the world! Anything about trees is free for you to explore in this theme – leaves, forests, fruits, stumps or saplings…maybe tree houses? Looking forward to seeing you here!

In the header, a famous site – The Dark Hedges in Ireland. Famous because of the Game of Thrones. There are thousands of pictures from under those old giants…I guess it must be the most photographed tree avenue ever?

Mille posing

The tree I had in the garden as a child, my beech tree, I used to climb up there and spend hours. I took my homework up there, my books, I went up there if I was sad, and it just felt very good to be up there among the green leaves and the birds and the sky.  – Jane Goodall

This is Mille, my first Lagotto, posing nicely… As a child I too spent many hours every day in the forest and in the trees – climbing, jumping, playing and wishing I could swing in lianas, like Tarzan. Sigh…

The old Sallow

A tree grows. If you’re staying the same, something is wrong. You’re not alive. – Hamza Yusuf

This grand old Sallow stands in our summer garden, and someone lives in this flat every year. This spring a Eurasian blue tit – but, the family left last week for new adventures!

Trees exhale for us so that we can inhale them to stay alive. Can we ever forget that? Let us love trees with every breath we take until we perish. Munia Khan

If a tree dies, plant another in its place.  – Carolus Linnaeus

There is little in the architecture of a city that is more beautifully designed than a tree. – Jaime Lerner

I’m just delighted to be living, to be able to have a simple conversation, to feel a ray of sunlight on my skin and listen to the breeze move through the leaves of a tree. – Ryuichi Sakamoto

My sorrow, when she’s here with me, thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; she loves the bare, the withered tree; she walks the sodden pasture lane.  – Robert Frost

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.  – Albert Schweitzer

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.  – Martin Luther

I think the kind of landscape that you grew up in, it lives with you. I don’t think it’s true of people who’ve grown up in cities so much; you may love a building, but I don’t think that you can love it in the way that you love a tree or a river or the colour of the earth; it’s a different kind of love.  – Arundhati Roy

 

Hope I haven’t been ”too much” with many photos this week – but you who know me will understand – Trees have always been close to my heart and a big part of my life. Now I am really looking forward to seeing Your posts – hopefully you too will have a great time with this challenge! Thank you to Patti for last week’s  abundance of Favorite Things

Finally, wishing you all an inspiring week!

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

Thursday Thoughts – A Life’s Work

Söderto is a tiny place in the southern part of Skåne, Sweden, where Karl-Göran Persson built a fortress for himself, his family and friends – in case of an attack from Russia. Karl-Göran died in 1975, and he had spent his whole life building and reinforcing this fortress.

One day we decided to try and find it, all of us intrigued by the story. So this spring we went, the three of us. And it became a strange adventure, a day to remember. You can come along if you want to…

It is not a very big place, Söderto, and the remains of his own home nearby were gone.

Karl-Göran was a simple man, a single farmer, and well known in the neighborhood for his warm heart, for his building and for his transporting all material on his bicycle.

He even mastered setting rails and railroad ties into the fortress – all by himself. The thought was to build a balcony.

He used what he could find to reinforce his fortress, be it iron beds, chamber pots, baskets or bicycle parts. Look closely at the pictures, and maybe you will find them…

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After so many years of withering down, it is not advised to go inside anymore. But…

there is a friendly silence, a loving atmosphere when you walk here… you can feel his spirit still being there – in his life’s work.

A soft whisper in the fields, and the beauty of the landscape touches your soul.

Thinking of him, Karl-Göran, I believe he would have loved it that we came all that way to visit. And how much we enjoyed it too.

Just see how beautifully the villagers keep his memory.

 

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Ancient

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Ancient

Frank challenges us with things ancient – and Amber is fossilized tree resin, which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects, like these necklaces. Amber is used in jewelry since the Stone Age. It has also been used as a healing agent in folk medicine

In Poland you can easily find several shops in every city selling beautiful works of this art.