Flowering now in Sweden, Skåne, are these beauties:
Magnolia tree
Marsh marigold or kingcup
Hackberry
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Flowers
Tankar
Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring
I think spring to me is a feeling…filling me from head to feet…when walking in my forest late in the evening. In the green flow of the fragrant beeches, listening to the clear melodies of the thrush in the canopy and the little strong voiced wren in the dark shrubbery below. Standing in the clearing the soft fragrance of hackberry fills the air, and I just breathe – Spring.
Everything is near and still far away…and I…am here, in the moment, in my self, in nature. Reborn.
Walpurgis Night – the way we celebrate it!
The name Walpurgis is taken from the eighth-century English missionary Saint Walburga, ”Valborg”, as it is called in Swedish, and has very little to do with religion and everything to do with the arrival of spring. The forms of celebration vary in different parts of the country. Walpurgis celebrations are mostly a public event, and local groups often take responsibility for organising them to encourage community spirit in the village or neighbourhood. Young people and students in the university cities usually celebrate by gathering in thousands, eating and drinking together on the campus lawns.
Valborgsmässoafton. Sankta Walburga, var ursprungligen ett medeltida helgon, och vi firar denna afton före vårens intåg på lite olika sätt i olika delar av landet. Men de stora eldarna har vi gemensamt. På 1700-talet var det brukligt att släppa ut djuren ur lagårdarna denna dag, och bålen tände man för att hålla angripande rovdjur borta.
Svenska ungdomar, i alla fall i universitets- och högskolestäderna, brukar samlas i tusental för att äta och dricka i parker eller på gräsmattorna till campus.
Chairs and food and people!
The ”fireworkers”
We prefer to walk up to the fire…
…while the younger people like the farmer’s way of transport.
Our host lights the first match…
I fell in love with a little black friend wearing a white necklace.
Warming up in the chilly air.
Waiting for a delicious meal…
…finally!
When the fire is fading.
Gathering the last hay and straw.
In the Middle Ages, the administrative year ended on 30 April. Accordingly, this was a day of festivity among the merchants and craftsmen of the town, with trick-or-treat, dancing and singing in preparation for the forthcoming celebration of spring.
Huge bonfires are lit on the eve of the festival for 1 May, and they are part of a Swedish tradition dating back to the early 18th century. At Walpurgis (Valborg), farm animals were let out to graze and bonfires (majbrasor, kasar) lit to scare away predators.
Ese’s Weekly Shoot & Quote Challenge: Pleasure
An inordinate passion for pleasure is the secret of remaining young
Oscar Wilde.
Visit Ese for more Pleasure!
Bonsai and Penjing
I wish I could visit!
A popular feature of the National Arboretum is the extensive collection of bonsai and penjing. If you are like us you will have some idea about bonsai, being miniature versions of trees, growing in small decorative Japanese dishes. Bonsai has been practised in Japan for at least 1,200 years.
Penjing is quite similar but involves more than one tree. Penjing is the art of growing a miniature landscape in a pot or tray, and has been practised in China for at least 1,400 years.
Penjing
The oldest known bonsai and penjing are over 600 years old. While trees can live for hundreds and sometimes thousands of years, bonsai and penjing can live indefinitely because of the constant regeneration of their roots.
Coastal tea tree, Leptospermum laevigatum
About 80 bonsai and penjing are usually on display in the Collection, including a variety of traditional and modern styles, and both exotic and…
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Weekly Travel theme: Glow
Ailsa’s Travel theme invites us to glow this week. These three beautiful bridges of Budapest surely knew they would be glowing here one day! I loved the green bridge – even at night.
Funny how the results of playing with the camera, entertaining my students, might come of use one day. Here we are exploring Budapest by night.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Letters
Letters – letters and words, combined they make language. One of the things separating us from animals – the written language. What would happen if we didn’t have it? Letters and words give you power. Not only for Love. They are the strongest weapon. Burning books is still done…, leaking written facts…, starting and ending wars. Letters.
The most beautiful letters I know of are the Tibetan letters. The skill of making them is pure art. This is not a full alphabet, but called an alphasyllabary. It is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is secondary. Read more about the alphabet here.
These pilgrim stones are placed on the path leading up to the Pothala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. Even if I don’t know the exact meaning of what’s written on them, I think I know something of their content.
I know that somewhere on these stones is carved the primary mantra of Tibetan Buddhism. It is commonly carved onto rocks or written on paper that’s inserted into prayer wheels. When the wheels are spinned the prayers will find their right way without someone constantly reciting them. Oṃ Maṇi Padme Hūṃ (Tibetan: ༀམཎིཔདྨེཧཱུྃ )
The mantra in Tibetan with the six syllables coloured. The exact meaning of the words is discussed, but below is the interpretation by the 14th Dalai Lama:
14th Dalai Lama
- ”It is very good to recite the mantra Om mani padme hum, but while you are doing it, you should be thinking on its meaning, for the meaning of the six syllables is great and vast… The first, Om […] symbolizes the practitioner’s impure body, speech, and mind; it also symbolizes the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha[…]”
- ”The path is indicated by the next four syllables. Mani, meaning jewel, symbolizes the factors of method: (the) altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion, and love.[…]”
- ”The two syllables, padme, meaning lotus, symbolize wisdom[…]”
- ”Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable hum, which indicates indivisibility[…]”
- ”Thus the six syllables, om mani padme hum, mean that in dependence on the practice of a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha[…]”
- Quotation from Wikipedia
To Read is to Fly
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Shadows
Ese’s Weekly Shoot & Quote Challenge: Celebrate
We’re all here at the same time and we should celebrate that.
George Weinberg
For more celebrating – click here.
Leya 
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