Reflections

Thursday Thoughts – Midsummer

/ Leya / 29 kommentarer

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.

CFFC: Smiles

/ Leya / 24 kommentarer

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!

 

 

Thursday Thoughts – Early Mornings

/ Leya / 31 kommentarer

Spring is my favorite season, and early Spring mornings are my favorite hours of the day.

Everything is calm, but – nature is so very alive, vibrating with life.

The meadows bloom, the waters flow merrily in the streams.

I rejoice in the birds’ song, and feel the joy in every living thing…

I wish we could all feel that joy and contentment. Harmony. At least some moments every week. I know I am lucky to live in the middle of nature, but I also know that nature is the best healer for most things troubling our human life.

Go seek it – Harmony. If you have an open mind, you will find it. In Nature.

 

Lens-Artists Challenge # 44 – Harmony

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Tina challenges us this week to think Harmony – and in her splendid post, she encourages us to show our favorite harmonies. In short, Colour Harmonies are colors that look good together. If you have ever taken classes in painting, you should be familiar with the colour wheel. There are many different systems to create a color harmony. You will find a useful, free tool, for colour harmony here.

I guess colours are always a part of what makes up our inner concept of ”Harmony”, but there are also other types of harmonies. These are some of my favorites.

Art is a harmony parallel with nature – Paul Cezanne

Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece Sagrada Família.

Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world. The term ”organic architecture” was coined by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959), and Wright’s ”Fallingwater” is a very good example – but the concept can also be illustrated with an old Nordic cottage like this one.

 

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the Universe

– Marcus Aurelius

A life in harmony with nature, the love of truth and virtue, will purge the eyes to understanding her text –  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony – Mahatma Gandhi

Harmony is pure love, for love is a concerto ~ Lope de Vega

Even if some will always be playing out of tune…

…it still is a Concerto.

With love from the vast tulip fields in The Netherlands.

So, How do you reach colour harmony in your picture if it isn’t there from the start?

A simple and effective way to change its mood is to shift the white balance either towards the warmer or colder temperatures. This can often also push the image towards a colour harmony. One of the simplest yet also most effective ways to further tune your colour harmony is to use the Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity (HSL) panel in Lightroom.

Or, if you were a certain fashion icon: Women think of all colors except the absence of color. I have said that black has it all. White too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony.

― Coco Chanel

 

Thank you to Amy for last week’s lovely ”Less is More” and we’d love you to join in with Tina’s ”Harmony”!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Connections

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Frank goes for Connections this week, and I have a story. Last week I went to The Netherlands for the grand flower festival and the parade – but also to reconnect with a man I met almost exactly 30 years ago when hiking the King’s Trail from Abisko, Sweden.

We have not seen each other for all those years, but we have kept contact by writing letters. A great deal of ones life ”happens” somewhere between 30 and 60. But, we recognized each other immediately. He was still shy, and so tall and thin, though his big bush of hair had turned greyer and a bit less bushy. Like mine.

We spent some hours walking, talking, eating good food and remembering those happy, hiking days in the mountains. 1989. I walked with my dog and he walked alone. I was very impressed by him being a professor in theoretical mathematics and he was impressed by me hiking alone, heavily packed and only accompanied by a big dog.

Where did all those years go? We still connect…Wim and I, and it was not easy to say goodbye again. Life is a strange thing, but so are connections. Just how do they work? What makes us connect, never forget, and still ”know” one another after so many years? Wonderful.

Friendly Friday: Climate Change

/ Leya / 15 kommentarer

Climate Change

is here

now

Time to act – 10-15-20 years ago. Now is the last minute – World leaders, WAKE UP!

Lens-Artists Challenge #28 – Curves

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Curves –

”In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves.”

Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Thank you Tina, for this week’s opportunity to admire natural as well as man made curves. They are everywhere – if you just let your eyes find them… Sometimes you have to look up though – like in Trinity College, Dublin, and The Long Room.

Antoni Gaudí – a master of curves

Rila Monastery, Bulgaria –

– glorious curves

In my forest – colourful, natural curves

Lava, and life returning – in curves

But no curves are as beautiful and complete as those of the koru –

A short Wikipedia explanation: Koru (Māori for ”loop”) is a spiral shape based on the appearance of a new unfurling silver fern frond. It is an integral symbol in Māori art, carving and tattooing, where it symbolises new life, growth, strength and peace. Its shape ”conveys the idea of perpetual movement,” while the inner coil ”suggests returning to the point of origin”.

 

 

Thursday Thoughts – Christmas Market

/ Leya / 13 kommentarer

Christmas in Sweden also means many Christmas markets to visit, where local people can put their work on display, and there is a lot of chatting and big smiles. This year we only visited one market, and came home with some lovely presents of course…

This young woman was a talented painter with somewhat a style of her own.

And there were even younger participants… mother and daughter sold flowers and decorations. Everything works out well when you are smiling!

Thursday Thoughts – We Must Make it Work!

/ Leya / 29 kommentarer

My post from November 30, 2017, a year ago – I thought a reminder to us all would not hurt. What do you want to give your children and grand children for the future?

 

Every December I remember our month in New Zealand some years ago. Never have I been to a country where I found so much and so many to admire and love.

This is where our antipodes live, this is where I had one of my first penfriends, this is the country whose nature I believe to be the most diverse and beautiful in the world. And this is where Rainbow Warrior went down, sending many people around the world into an unbelievable state of shock.

We are constantly reminded of how much we contaminate our world, and the focus here in Swedish media, right now,  is the sea, the oceans.

Just like in Wellington, we can still bathe, swim and fish in Stockholm – but for how long?

I am a member of many organizations trying their best to help preserving our planet for generations to come. But right now, we receive news every day about all the plastic and micro plastic in the oceans – a terrible threat to all organisms-

So, I think again, with my heart wide open, about how much I respect and love NZ, its people and its genuine efforts to help the world stay healthy. Down to every detail… for example the artwork made for making us humans see and do the right things.

And these are only two, small,  brilliant examples out of many, many…we saw new examples every day.

Hopefully it is not too late for the world – but You and I, and all of us, have to do our bit, our part, every day – to save our enigmatic and fantastic planet. Start with the little things…don’t use plastic bags, bring your own when you go shopping. Don’t throw old medicine in the toilet, in Sweden we leave them at the pharmacy for destruction.

Can you say you try to do everything you can to help? I know I try – but I also know I can do so much more.

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Reflection

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Tuesday Photo Challenge – Reflection

Good morning! Reflections are hard to resist, so I was too tempted not to send an entry…from Łódź, Poland, and the Light Move Festival. Hope it is not too late to join in!

In the header picture, the Butterfly tree, standing in Piotrkowska Street, is reflected in the opposite window of an art and craft’s shop. People are reflected as well.

The second photo is a string art exhibition in the park at the end of the street (opposite Manufaktura), reflected in the little pond.