Thursday Thoughts

What is happening to our world? It is upside down, we know that. And literally, …it is.

Strange magic…

…or is it

”only”…us

LAPC# 231 – Favourites of 2022

Our first host this new year is John, challenging us to show our favourites of 2022. I don’t know how you choose your favourites, but my choices bring me smiles and warm feelings. So, they are for the greater part memories for my heart.

My absolute favourite 2022 is –

Myra! New in the family and always a sunshine. ♥

At the beginning of last year we went to Lundsbrunn and found some beautiful ruins on the way. Their colours and structures fascinated me. And the concept of pictures in pictures.

Every spring I go to the beech forest to find the first little blue anemonies (hepatica) – daringly facing the first rays of sun. Many times the snow has not yet left the ground.

Pasque flowers are among my absolute favourites, and they are beautiful in every stage of transition. The annual walk by the sea at Kivik and the west coast of Skåne is a treat every spring.

You who follow me know, that flowers are my passion, but also the little inhabitants that fly among them, insects and birds. Nothing beats an early morning walk in the forest or in the fields…or in my garden. At the beginning of the day when everything is served fresh and dewy, birds are singing in a seemingly flawless world .

For some years now, there has not been much traveling – for obvious reasons. When we finally could use our tickets to Porto, it was a strange, but familiar feeling to sit in a plane again. We are more often going by train now – to spare the environment.

Porto was the treat we had been told it would be. And it was very invigorating to meet another foreign city, its culture and people.

For the greater part of 2022 we stayed at home. There was much to do with the glass house, growing vegetables, fruits and flowers. I was also lucky to have a couple of Hummingbird Hawkmoths as rare guests in my garden! As they do not really belong here, I felt a bit sad for them – they would not make it through the winter months.

Mushrooms are delightful company on my walks, and I am appreciating them more every year. This soft little one was accompanied by an even tinier friend at its base. It made me smile.

I hope some smiles came your way as well, looking at my images – ♥

We are looking forward to seeing your favorite images from 2022! Be sure to link your post to John’s original post and use the Lens-Artists tag to help us find your response. Next week, Sofia hosts the challenge. For more information on joining the challenge each week, check here.

Thank you for staying with us through 2022, and hopefully this will be a Happy and Healthy New Year, 2023!

Thursday Thoughts – Lars Lerin, again!

One year ago, we went to visit one of my favourite artists, Lars Lerin’s, gallery. I posted on some of his work in February. But, I believe he is good enough for many posts. His Värmland shows the old countryside where he grew up and used to visit old farmers, portraying their daily chores.

Somehow I feel these cupboard fragments are reminding of his paintings of daily life moments. The colours, the mood.

Driving home in the late evening, this view through the car window seemed to share the same harmony and mood. And for the light, in the header, a piece of Lofoten.

Happy New Year!

We all wish for a happy, healthy, and better, New Year, 2023 – a peaceful year with more harmony in the world. Thank you for staying with me 2022, for our positive talks and engaging comments. It means much to me to see other perspectives and visit other countries and worlds, exchanging thoughts and dreams.

Hope to see you in 2023!

Ann-Christine

Thursday Thoughts – Christmas in Copenhagen

With the winter solstice, and these festive images, I want to thank you all for another year of sharing thoughts and musings! I am so happy and grateful that we have met and keep meeting here on WP. I hope to see you soon again…keep blogging!

Come join me on a Tivoli walk – and get some Christmas feeling!

They have everything here, theatre, music and dancing…

Play of water to Wiener music…

Nice people, good food and warm drinks…

And some Christmas trees!

I wish you all a Wonderful Holiday Season and a Happy, Healthy New Year!

LAPC #230 – Last Chance

Tina is our host this week, with the theme Last Chance. This means we’re given the opportunity to include images (on any and all subjects) created in 2022, but not previously published.

A brilliant idea – let them shine!

You could say that all of life is a series of last chances.

– Cynthia Voigt

Everybody wants to shine a little bit, even a wallflower.

– Phyllis Smith

Look, I want to love this world…

as though it’s the last chance I’m ever going to get
to be alive
and know it.

– Mary Oliver

There is one, and only one solution, and we have almost no time to try it. We must turn all our resources to repairing the natural world, and train all our young people to help. They want to; we need to give them this last chance to create forests, soils, clean waters, clean energies, secure communities, stable regions, and to know how to do it from hands-on experience.

– Bill Mollison

In vīnō vēritās, in aquā sānitās

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

– Douglas Adams

Ask me to show you poetry in motion and I will show you a horse.

– Unknown

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost.

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Thank you for your interesting and inspiring responses to my last week’s challenge, Perfect Patterns. I think we all opened our eyes just a little bit more to find a world filled with patterns! Now I’m looking forward to seeing your Last Chance photos, please link back to Tina’s original post and tag Lens-Artists. Tina’s challenge this week is a great opportunity to go back to this year’s photos and give some of them a new chance to shine.

We’ll be off for the Holidays and will be back 7th January with John at the wheel. We are immensely pleased to announce that Donna Holland from Wind Kisses will be joining us then as a new team member. Donna has been a loyal follower of our challenge, has previously Guest-Hosted, and consistently delivers thoughtful and beautifully illustrated posts. Be sure to follow her at her site, windkisses.com.

We wish you all a Happy, Healthy New Year!