Silent Sunday
Tankar
Thursday Thoughts – Colours Still Lingering Here
With Milo as good as new after his makeover, we drove homewards, but made a stop at the beautiful waters I always passed by when I was still working.
The old mill is still standing, but this time the light was wrong for a photo. Instead we walked along the river banks, listening to the silence.
Milo was completely happy, and so was I.
The Autumn air was crisp and cool – and I never tire of watching the colourful leaves falling, floating, making beautiful patterns.
A couple of Mallards came swimming, hoping for food, but disappeared quickly when they saw the dog.
On our way back again, the sun gracefully spread its golden rays, and my old love for Autumn was kindled once more. Thank you for walking with me and Milo!
Lens-Artists Challenge #…There’s a Crack in Everything
This week Ritva – inspired by Leonard Cohen’s lyrics and his characteristic blend of melancholy and optimism – offers a challenge based on these lines:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, in everything
That’s how the light gets in
This is a personal favourite quote, and I will try to show some feelings it arises within me. Light and thoughts of healing is the main focus. Your feelings might be very different.
Who lived in these rooms…and were they really happy?
Were children running and playing here or were they always restricted by strong rules and traditions, dressed up in impossible costumes?
Have you ever seen the ice breaking up? The special light and the sound it makes when you walk on it?
Never stop being a child within, because children help us see the light still shining in this world.
Nature is the helper and the answer to many of our human imperfections. When we cannot find beacons ourselves – nature can.
We struggle, like mankind always have done, to find a meaning – a light – in our lives. Some people find it in religion or from special and charismatic people. From Love.
People are like buildings, they can be dilapidated, but beauty still shines through those cracks, and we can try to accept them and find peace within through them.
The struggle for light is constant, but I always see the darkness first. I strive to share beauty and light in everything I do, because the walk of life will be easier, despite the cracked steps and roads we walk.
Ritva says it so well: ”By sharing these images, we not only showcase our individual stories, but also create an opportunity for dialogue and connection. Let each image tell a story, convey an emotion, or illustrate a moment of seeing light.” Thank you, Ritva, for a thoughtful and uplifting challenge. Don’t forget to link to Ritva’s original post and use the Lens-Artists tag.
A big thank you to Anne, for the artistic approach to photography with ICM, it was so much fun to do and fun to see what we were able to do with this style. Next week Egídio leads us to something new again, please visit his inspirational blog to see more.
Until then, stay curious and creative.
Silent Sunday
Thursday Thoughts – Autumn Colours
This morning I had an appointment for Milo – his annual big haircut, bath and spa (if I can call it that…). He has a love/hate thing with it. He rushes to his beloved Mia – and doesn’t want to have an ordinary walk before the ordeal. But after suffering a couple of hours at her hands, he then emerges as a RENEWED DOG.
While he is there, I take a long walk in my old surroundings, where I worked for about 20 years. This walk was always a pleasure, and now, with some colours still lingering – it’s a treat.
Please walk with me even if it is damp and foggy in the morning –
– it will get brighter when the sun has soaked up the mist.
And it’s on its way now…
I can feel it!
The forest is silent and the air crisp and clear. Autumn at its best.
Now when Milo was his loveliest self again, he happily jumped into the car to go home. But first another walk where I always used to stop after work – The Old Mill. See you there next time!
Lens-Artists Challenge #321 – Intentional Camera Movements (ICM)
Anne is urging us to try ICM – and I agree with her – it is great fun once you give it a go!
In 2016, Sue of Wordsvisual taught me how to do when she was here in Sweden. I immediately fell in love – the results are close to impressionistic. I have had some fun with it maybe once a year – but now, I really wanted to give it a fair try. (What wouldn’t I do for Anne?) Please visit her beautiful site to find some great inspiration!
As I am closing down my garden and glass house for the winter – I took my inspiration from there. The colours are still alive and here are my results from a couple of hours’ joy!
No laundry – but vines! I let them climb there because I love them flaming, and the two following pictures are also from those lines.
In the left one I drew the camera sideways and down, trying to catch the colours in the clothes pins while they went towards the ground. The right one was made by making u-formes with the camera to get the feeling of yarn hanging out to dry.
These two pictures are from the open place under the trellis. I still have some trees standing there, but tomorrow they are moving inside. The left one is a Plumbago and the camera was moved upwards. The right one is the Ginkgo tree and some different leaves on the ground, and camera was moved downwards.
These two are from the last of my Asters. You can guess how I moved the camera. The diagonal lines on the left side are from straws leaning over the flowerbed.
This last pair is from my fiery Yellow Ginger Lily – the last flower standing, and to the right is the soft Acacia buds waiting to bloom in January.
I was so inspired by Anne’s trellis ICM, that I had to try catching the last grapes out there. I thought the thrush had eaten them all, but here they are!
I took all photos in evening light and at low shutter speed. Mostly 8.
I had a lot of fun preparing for this post, and I hope you do too. My biggest smile and thank you to Anne, who made me take this up again! Please share your thoughts and images. I took hundreds of photos, and it doesn’t have to be flowers…so count on it that you will have to throw away 90% of what you produce.
We all had a great time last week as Sofia had us looking back. I enjoyed experiencing all your thoughts and memories. When you share your post for this challenge, please link back to Anne’s original post and use the Lens-Artist tag. In the meantime have fun learning and experimenting with ICM.
Silent Sunday
Thursday Thoughts – What to Do with a Leftover Firestation
Well, on our visit to Kent and Sussex we lived in the little town Tonbridge. Scouting one day, I came across the old fire station.
The fire station was no longer in use…or so I thought at first. But this is what they had made it into!
This grey day it still looked a bit abandoned – but soon arrived some chatting ladies. I talked to the girls at the bar, and they showed me the massive amount of dog photos on their wall. You should take a photo of your dog and hang it here – with the dog’s name on it. And there were many of them – I could swear there must be more dogs than people in this town. Never verified though.
A lovely place anyway, with excellent coffee.
Lens-Artists Challenge #320 – Looking Back
Sofia makes us look back. It can be both good and bad – but we always learn something in the end. I wish the world leaders would learn from looking back too.
Sofia has shared some very special experiences from her looks back in time – please visit her lovely site for more inspiration!
I did not know where to go with this challenge at first, but as I have been scanning old slides and right now Nepal and Peru, I have tried to find some of those overwhelming experiences I had as a young woman never been outside of Europe before.
In my home we had many grand picture books from travels near and far, and during winter time my nose was deeply buried in them. I read and savoured everything about interesting places, and two of my major dreams were to see the Himalayas and the Andes. All the treasures hidden, Machu Pichu, Annapurna, Mount Everest…Shang-ri-La from the old novel by James Hilton…
In 1986 we flew to Kathmandu in Nepal. Here are some important ”looking back moments” from that journey. Moments of beauty and moments of pain and sadness. I certainly grew up some and learned much from these experiences.
After some days in Katmandhu and biking in the Kathmandu Valley, we decided to go to Dakshinkali. D is an important Hindu temple in Nepal where they sacrifice animals to the fierce goddess Kali. Not a place for the weak hearted – like me. But I went. This was a place that truly made me understand the difference between reading facts and seeing them in real life.
There were endless queues with people holding flowers or leading goats to their last minutes. The stairs down to the temple was crowded with holy men and disabled people.
This woman suffered from leprosy and hade neither fingers nor toes. I could not bear to look at her closely. This day was a day of tears only.
Today I do not regret I went, but that very day, and for some weeks after, I really did. Leprosy was in my mind something fearsome from the Bible, and I automatically kept the distance to this poor woman.
Fishtail Mountain – or Machapuchare (6993 m) – is the majestic mountain close to Pokhara, where we stayed for some days at a Ghurka lodge. I knew about the British Brigade of Ghurkas, they were considered among the bravest and most feared soldiers in the world.
We had a lovely stay, and planned an Annapurna hike some day in the future. (But this never came true.) Our last day here, a big monitor lizard walked by our breakfast table, something I very clearly remember as I was home alone…
Back in Kathmandu again, we went to Nagarkot in the early morning to walk towards the best point for the sunrise over Mount Everest – Sagarmāthā (himmelens huvud). A sensation never forgotten. Was I really here?
We also wanted to go to Chitwan to see wildlife from a bit closer up. (It’s us two in the photo, taken by someone I no longer remember.) While we passed through the river in an oxcart, the owner asked us if we came from Sweden – we said we did. ”I’m sorry about Olof Palme”, the man said. That was both surprising and heartwarming – so overwhelming to sit in an oxcart in the middle of nowhere and people knew that our prime minister had been shot less than a week ago.
The next long journey was in 1987, and went to Peru and the Andes.
Machu Pichu needs no introduction. This photo was taken when we first arrived at the top and could see the old city. The moment I went through the opening in the stone wall, is one of my best moments ever. And certainly when it comes to travel. No picture in the world can show the feelings I had there and then.
I had read a great deal about the Nazca lines too. They cover an area of 500m2 in southern Peru. They were made 500BC -500 AC, and there is still no answer to why or what for. Only theories.
We soon realised that our plane was very small and only took 6 passengers. OK, smaller planes are said to be safer… but when I looked out of the window and saw them pumping up the tires by hand…I had my doubts.
We survived of course, and had a great flight seeing signs that Von Däniken had proposed coming from outer space.
This is one of the animals in the Nazca lines – The Condor
We went by train over the great plain to Cuzco. A wonderful tour with llamas, vicunjas and the majestic mountains. The trust and confidence these happy women showed! They threw up their handmade carpets to us in the train and expected them to either be bought or to come back again! And it never failed.
The Uros are an indigenous people of Bolivia and Peru. They live on floating islands in lake Titicaca near Puno. I guess they still are – and I had seen them in my books. They used Totora reeds to make reed boats and the islands they live on. On the islands they grew different vegetables and potatoes and they had pigs too. An island lasts for about 25 years.
I hope you could follow my thoughts, and maybe understand something of how much I learned during those two journeys. Travel is one of the best teachers.
Before finishing off with the volcano Misti at Arequipa, I want to thank you so much for Setting a Mood in every post last week! Incredible variety on how we can create moods and how we can feel differently about them too.
Next week Anne’s challenge will be on Intentional Camera Movement, ICM. You can learn all about it by checking out the various online tutorials or wait for instructions from Anne. She says it’s all about having fun and there’s no wrong way to do it! Hope to see you then – and before that, stay nice and curious.
Macro Monday
Leya 
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