Tankar

Thursday Thoughts – Poznan Ice Festival

/ Leya / 8 kommentarer

For many years we have kept an eye on the ice festival in Harbin, China, but oooh…the cold (-25) is just too much. This year we went for the small Ice Festival in Poznan – the Midieval beauty that once was the capital of Poland. Unfortunately no snow, but the festival is always held.

Poznan is a big city of about 1 miljon inhabitants, but we stayed in the old center with its typical architecture and beautifully decorated facades.

A festive feeling lit up the grand square, where they also had arranged a skating rink.

People of all ages enjoyed themselves – and treated the audience to lovely moves as well as spectacular falls…

The Christmas market was in full swing as well and we were still lucky with the weather. But, This was what we came for:

There were participants from all over the world, about 30 couples all in all. They circled the whole square. It was good to see great cooperation between people of different countries and nationalities. Iraq, Spain, Canada, the Philippines, Germany, Poland…The Ice Team worked hard to serve them all!

The artists were very skilled, and it was a treat to see them handling the ice. Some of them had made a sketch to follow, but some not. Their tools looked similar to those used for tree sculpting, but how do you work with a material like ice? We saw no big mistakes though, and the ice blocks seemed to tolerate almost any treatment…

The finished sculptures were fabulous works of art. Most of them rather small sized, but some the size of a grown human.

They were put on pedestals and lit up in different colours. We didn’t stay to see the winner, but these two were my favourites.

Art is a wonderful thing, it makes your heart glow and your mind grow. Thank you for walking with me, I hope you enjoyed!

Favourite Images of 2025

/ Leya / 36 kommentarer

I hope you all had some Happy Holidays and are now ready for posting your favourites of 2025! As has become our custom, we are asking our followers to select their favorite images of the last year – whether they’ve been included in previous posts or not. This week, no single host will present the challenge. The entire team will share the challenge topic.

Here are mine – difficult to choose, and, of course I could have chosen other ones. But, with some for the beauty, some for the fun, some for the surprise and some for Love – I hope you will find something for yourself too!

This picture is my absolute favourite of the year – an endemic chaffinch sitting in a young girl’s hand in the forest in Madeira. A moment of peace and total connection with Nature. It fills my heart with gratefulness just looking at it.

I think I wrote in another post, that this year I didn’t do much photography – because I have started painting again. That is why one of my paintings is here in the gallery too.

Spring is the starter of Life – and everything…also my joy in photography. But it must be Spring at home, in Sweden.

In June we returned to Madeira, our hiking paradise for many years in the 70’s and 80’s. It was a joy to come back to the lush and beautiful nature there, but in the city so much had changed that I hardly recognized it. Despite the changes of time though, the country feeling remains – suddenly close-up cows in the middle of the road. Loved it!

Back home to Autumn, Winter and bird feeding in the moonlight. I do love my sweet sheep meetings every day on my dog walks – Milo believes they are his cousins.

Finally, a trip to the ice festival in Midieval Poznan, Poland. This is Restaurant Ratuszova with its amazing paintings in the cellar vaults.

We thank all of our followers for continued support and look forward to seeing the images you choose as YOUR favorites of 2025. Please remember to link your post to any or all of the Lens-Artists team members. Also, remember to use the Lens-Artists Tag to help us find you.

We offer our best wishes for a New Year filled with peace, happiness, love and friendship. Anne will lead us next week on her lovely Slow Shutter Speed blog. Until then, stay safe, be kind and and find joy in the simple things.

Lens-Artists Challenge 378 – # Last Chance

/ Leya / 41 kommentarer

I love these end of the year opportunities to post some pictures that didn’t quite make the cut or didn’t quite fit in to our challenges. This year was no photography year for me – not much traveling either – rather a painting year. But here they are, my last chances!

The opener/header shows a Madeira interior from one of our hikes in June. There were fewer traveling days than usual this year, let’s see what the new year has in store for us.

Little ones – Vedema frog and babies. A favourite day out in April.

My garden in flower. A moss lover I am, a tiny worlds lover. I found these photos in a folder from August 2025. They were untouched – so, a perfect fit!

I will end with a frosty Autumn picture from the lake and the last one from my forest, when the beeches were already fading. I love that colour though, and miss it now when all leaves are gone and everything is grey and dull.

We want to announce that this is our last post of the year as Lens-Artists will be taking the final 2 weeks of December off and will return on January 3.

THANK YOU for all your Holiday Fun posts! Now it is time for the 2025 fun too! Thank you all for making this year, 2025, brighter and more hopeful – I believe that is one of the best reasons to keep a blog, to connect and communicate. For me, it’s a vital source to constantly revive faith in mankind. So, until we see you again – stay safe, be kind and enjoy the Holiday Season.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, and may the New Year be Happy and Healthy for us all!

Ann-Christine

Lens-Artists Challenge #377 – Holiday Fun

/ Leya / 123 kommentarer

The Holiday Season is approaching and many of us celebrate at the end of December. But there are many different holidays over a year, and celebrations don’t look the same anywhere. This week we invite you to share some Holiday memories with us! Shared joy is double joy – as we say in Sweden.

Pick any fun and/or happy memories from holidays you enjoyed – your own or others´, at home or abroad – I know they are hiding in your archives! If not – new pictures would be great! You can concentrate on one holiday or on a couple of them. I have chosen Christmas, as it will soon be on our doorstep.

Christmas is one of our major holidays in Sweden, where we engage in our families, play boardgames, bake and eat together, dance and give each other a present or two. In our family, we make rhymes to every parcel. Then, on Christmas Day, some people attend early morning mass.

Here are some family memories:

Making buns for Lucia, December 13, is a must. Before our children moved out, we used to gather family and friends to join in the baking. This is the starting point for the Holiday Season.

It is a common tradition in the south of Sweden to visit our neighbouring city, Copenhagen, to have fun for a day or two around Christmas. They have Tivoli, an amusement park with everything you could wish for! Or we pop over the waters southwards to Poland, where the winter markets often are spectacular, but you can also find small and cozy ones. If we are lucky enough to have snow – so much more fun!

Winter fairs and markets are everywhere, where artists and farmers can sell their work and produce. Most people in Sweden have their winter holiday between December 22 and January 6.

Ever since I was a child, we have made ginger breads – a traditional, fun baking for the whole family. The small children though, tend to eat half of their dough before it reaches the oven…

This year, Myra was old enough to really enjoy baking and decorating them. (And eating them…) Laughter and music, candle light and Holiday Fun together!

A big thank you to Beth for last week’s Wings – a theme that made us come up with lots of beautiful pictures and new creative solutions. Now we are looking forward to learning more about your traditions and Holiday Fun! Please link to my original post and remember the Lens-Artist tag so we can find you in the reader.

Hope to see your joyful posts soon, and until then – stay well and be kind.

Next week, on Saturday, December 13th, we’ll host our annual Last Chance Challenge, inviting you to share any photos you took in 2025 that haven’t been part of our earlier challenges!