Thursday Thoughts – The last forest beauty

/ Leya / 64 kommentarer

An autumn walk in my own forest today. Milo is overjoyed as colder weather has arrived with near frost temperatures. I will have to be grateful for those colourful days and look back now and then on my images through the daily grey.

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.
― John Donne

There is a stillness in the air, and I hear only the water and some finches. A Robin’s ticking warning in the background.

I enjoy the spring more than the autumn now. One does, I think, as one gets older.
― Virginia Woolf

The path I always walk suddenly looks like spring in the morning sun. Wishful thinking… there are 6 more months to wait for its arrival.

I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.
― Nathaniel Hawthorne,

When I get closer to the meadows, I see the sun shining out there, spreading its generous rays into the darker forest.

And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees and changing leaves… -Virginia Woolf

Nowadays it has become more difficult for me to look up towards the canopy as I have a slipped disc in my neck. So, generally I wait until the path is favouring a look at the sky. And then it is amazing…

Autumn is the hush before winter. – French proverb

The last kilometer of the track passes a much-fotographed shed where the hunters used to have their gear and their breakfast. Last year the left window cover was broken, so a somewhat one-eyed old friend is now sleepily looking at me.

Autumn knows a mother’s heart. It gives and then lets go. – Anonymous

A homely stump, filled with little ones – just out of a fairy tale. John Bauer?

The final hundred meters of the track now, and you can see Milo and my husband as tiny dots near the end of the path.

Thank you again for walking with me. This might be the last really beautiful walk this year – unless we get early snow or hoarfrost.

Lens-Artists Challenge #173 – Interesting Architecture

/ Leya / 98 kommentarer

Tina’s challenge this week is all about interesting architecture. As I guessed you would all have fantastic examples of modern buildings, I decided to focus on the birds and the bees…and only a little about human buildings. The opener shows weavers’ nests in the Amazon, Ecuador.

I am always impressed by magnificent woodpiles – and my grandfather was an excellent builder of these. But, while they often are set behind houses or hidden in a barn in Sweden, I found this special display in Switzerland. Elegantly leaning against the house and beautifully framing the window. One of a kind.

To me, one of the most interesting Nordic building is Hállgrimskirkja in Reykjavik, Island. It looks almost like a spaceship icicle with smaller icicles attached to it. Everytime I visit Iceland – it is a must see again.

In Sweden we only have one skyscraper – Turning Torso by the famous architect Calatrava. I never liked it – despite it being beautifully built, it doesn’t fit in among the older buildings in Malmoe. I believe storks have better ideas about how and where to build a high rise building…Modern too – electrified!

Magpies often build high as well, and their nests are very intricate. They are durable, domed structures made of sticks and twigs and contain an interior mud cup and lining. Every nest has got two entrances – one close to the top and one from the side or under – and it can reach more than 1 meter in height. Not the nest to the far right though, that is a small but sturdy bird’s nest found during a winter walk.

The three middle pictures show the enormous European hornet’s nest we had in our summer house last summer. A fantastic and elaborate construction. Finally, my last image is from Bhutan and a monestary covered in bees’ ”pouches”. As the Buddhist monks care for everything living, they were happy to have the bees and their nests hanging there.

We thank you for your beautiful responses to last week’s “A Day in My Week” challenge – what a terrific variety of amazing days you shared with us!

We hope you’ll join us this week with some interesting architecture from around the corner or around the world. Be sure to use the Lens-Artists tag to appear in our reader, and to link to Tina’s original post.

Life in Colour

/ Leya / 35 kommentarer

I was so happy to finally have some colours around this autumn – but now, as usual in November, they are already gone with the wind. For Jude’s black and grey...I have chosen all my images from November blog posts or November months since 2011. Honestly, a month I could easily jump in the calendar…but thanks to Jude, it will be interesting to see what shows up in images. Smog in China is the most grey of all in my gallery, the others are OK for a November.

Thursday Thoughts

/ Leya / 45 kommentarer

I had two wonderful hikes last week – one of them was my usual morning walk turned into a dreamy, yet colourful walk in the fog – and the other one an afternoon walk in a sunny haze. The first one posted on Lens-Artists, the other one here today.

I have always wanted to follow paths and roads to see where they lead to…don’t you too? This day I did. The forest road looked very inviting – and I decided today was the day to find out where it led to.
I knew I had a couple of hours to myself before sunset, but already at 3 pm it would have been too dark to find my way in the forest.

No Milo on this walk – otherwise he would have loved the many interesting stops I made. But the road did not lead to where I had expected…

It finally led down to the lake, where we use to swim in the summer. Now I wished the sun would stay until I got there – it would have been a nice finish to the day.

And I was lucky – a beautiful day came to a beautiful end. Thank you for walking with me again!

Lens Artists Challenge #172 – A Day of My Week

/ Leya / 82 kommentarer

You can walk in a dream while you are awake: Just walk in the misty morning of a forest!
― Mehmet Murat ildan

A day of my week – Amy hit my lucky last week, that offered some lovely opportunities for photography. All these are from one of my morning walks with Milo.

I like the muted sounds, the shroud of grey, and the silence that comes with fog.– Om Malik

This was a soft, foggy morning – emitting a soothing quietness to the world. I could faintly hear the robins and some finches going about their morning business.

With the light slowly seeping through the trees, I felt a gratefulness filling me – that I was alive, that I was allowed to walk in here this morning.

In the quietness, even Milo could feel the joy of little things, the delicate wonders surrounding us. He doesn’t mind my stopping for photographing anymore – he’s a big boy now.

After a couple of hours, our stomachs told us we maybe should return for some breakfast…and by then the sun was breaking through. Maybe this meant ending some of the magic, but also, the beginning of a new kind of magic…

I am glad you found the time to walk with me this morning. Thank you. Needless to say, I have many more images in store…and you might see some more later on.

We hope you will join us with pieces of a day of your week, traveling or at home! Be sure to include a link to Amy’s original post and please use the Lens-Artists tag.

Finally, many warm and happy thanks for your Weird and Wonderful entries last week! I had so many laughs and smiles at your images and stories. Being a bit weird is sometimes just what we need…

Next week, Tina will be hosting the theme ”Interesting Architecture”. Be sure to visit her at Travels and Trifles. Until then – stay well and safe.