Thursday Thoughts – An Ordinary, Early Autumn Day

16 augusti, 201817 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 14 kommentarer

An early dog walk…in Autumn fogs, cool and soft.

There are occasional glimpses of sun – I brought my little point and shoot camera only…

It is difficult to walk two dogs and try to shoot with a heavy camera.

Resting after breakfast – Totti and Milo both love our summer house.

Mornings are the best time to enjoy the stillness – no summer guests anymore. Paths are empty, and the fields belong to geese and horses only. Milo found that dwarfed opening gate in the hedge…I always wonder who once lived there – given that Milo is about 30 cm high now…

Forest walk in the evening – some birds chirping low and softly muted. There is no wind so the flies are on the hunt.

This area, Lindö, is a nature reserve, so you have to be kind to those flies and mosquitoes as well…

Have you ever had a puppy? Sometimes my toes wish they hadn’t…

I know Milo is a good guy, and that Totti is slowly adjusting. But I can read Totti’s thoughts by the look of his eyes – just when is that ”thing” going home again...

Wordless Wednesday

15 augusti, 201815 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 14 kommentarer

CFFC: Mirror, Reflection, Frame in Frame

14 augusti, 201814 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 32 kommentarer

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Week 4 Photo – black and white, mirror, air plane, power lines, etc.

Some years ago I remember walking into a hotel – where I never got any longer than to the lobby…because of all the mirrors and chandeliers. Here it is again!

Sortland – the Blue City

13 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 26 kommentarer

We had one single rainy day in Norway, and decided to spend it in the Blue City – Sortland. The artist Bjørn Elvenes started a millenium project to paint the city blue…

Famous blue cities are Chefchauen in Morocco and Jodhpur in India.

…but how the story ended is still not clear. However, the overall impression is –

that he at least succeeded in large parts of Sortland. Many shades of blue greeted us now that the skies did not show any signs of this colour…

The city is small, but has today got about 10 400 inhabitants.

We enjoyed the one hour walk, even if we had to pop into some shops and the library to avoid the heaviest showers…

A rainy day well spent!

Silent Sunday

12 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 26 kommentarer

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Patterns

11 augusti, 201814 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 196 kommentarer

This spring, I visited Bhutan, and met so many fantastic people and a landscape so different from ours in Scandinavia. Harmony – this is the word describing it best.

I eagerly noticed all the patterns in people’s lives – in clothes, buildings, decorations, religious paintings and habits…as well as patterns in Nature herself. Like the pattern in the header – the mules and horses trotting in a row – while the lines of the landscape, the roads, paths and fences, create natural frames.

I often try to find and capture the less obvious patterns, noticing that colours are not that important to make you see the pattern or structure itself.

But in most cases colours make an obvious difference, natural colours as well as man made ones.

Either you can find patterns in a sweeping landscape or cityscape or you can look at the little details. Any way, you will find that almost everything consists of just – patterns. Moreover, in our human society, they often have a ritual or symbolic meaning.

Among the most interesting patterns must be languages. When a language is written in beautiful pictures or letters – their special patterns will give them yet another meaning. Magical, isn’t it?

Life is beautiful in so many ways – and patterns are a big part of it. So, for this week’s challenge, share your interpretation of patterns— open your eyes and find new ones! In you own home, outdoors, man made or natural… Use your curiosity and creativity!

In your post, include a link to this challenge.
Use the tag “Lens-Artists” in your post. If you use a different tag, other bloggers won’t find your post in the Reader! Also keep in mind that you should use fewer than 15 tags for your post to appear in the Reader. For more information on how to tag, click here.
Amy will post the next challenge on Saturday, August 18th.
Missed our initial Lens-Artists challenge announcement? Click here for details.

Have you seen these?

Great diversity, from Abrie Joubert of Abrie Dink Hardop

Henry Lee of Fotoeins Fotografie

Storm coming in from the sea, from Suzanne of Being in Nature

Thank you for joining the challenge and have an inspiring week!

Thursday Thoughts – On Beauty

9 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 42 kommentarer

According to Wikipedia, Beauty is ”a characteristic of an animal, idea, object, person or place that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure or satisfaction.”

The experience of ”beauty” is also connected to being in balance and harmony with nature, which may lead to feelings of attraction and emotional well-being.

Philosopher and novelist Umberto Eco wrote On Beauty: A history of a Western idea (2004) and On Ugliness (2007). A character in his novel The Name of the Rose declares: ”three things concur in creating beauty: first of all integrity or perfection, and for this reason we consider ugly all incomplete things; then proper proportion or consonance; and finally clarity and light”, before going on to say ”the sight of the beautiful implies peace”. (Wikipedia)

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express

Francis Bacon

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old

Franz Kafka

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Margaret Wolfe Hungerford

(The first person to use it in the form we know today.)

It is unknown exactly where or how this idiom originated but it has been used in different forms since 3rd century BC when it first appeared in Greek.

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it

Confucius

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not

Ralph Waldo Emerson

All photos from Reine, Lofoten – by many considered to be maybe the most beautiful spot in the world.

Wordless Wednesday

8 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 32 kommentarer

Lofoten – Å – Oh!

7 augusti, 20186 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 39 kommentarer

Road nr.10 ends in Å on the southernmost part of Lofoten. An old fishing village with rorbuer and – fish.

And charm…

Many galleries, and flowers in the small gardens.

We had a great view from our hostel Salteriet.

Down the road we felt almost Chinese… I half expected an artist standing there, painting.

When we left in the early morning, the whole landscape felt dreamy and unreal.

Almost supernatural.

But that is what Lofoten does to people…

Lofoten – Going South, to Å

6 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 17 kommentarer

It takes a whole day to drive down from Narvik to Å, 380 kilometres, and you have to stop several times just to walk out in all that beauty…

Not far from Svolvær, we reached Kabelvåg, and stopped to admire the grand Lofoten Cathedral (1898) – all in wood – that takes impressive 1200 visitors. Very beautifully built, but in need of restoration and painting now.

Lofotr Viking Museum in Borg is the place where the grandest house ever from the Viking Era was found, and a copy of it was built in natural size.

As the roads grew more narrow and winding, the sun went behind the clouds and was mostly veiled in the soft fog. This, of course, sometimes made the landscape even more interesting.