Lens-Artists Challenge #356 -Quiet Hours

/ Leya / 45 kommentarer

SH is our new guest host this week. He has chosen Quiet hours – and how we can show them in pictures. For me, I agree with Christina:

When I get up early, I appreciate the quiet time to enjoy a coffee or water my plants.

– Christina Tosi

I have picked my quiet hours from Madeira, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Ecuador, England and Japan. But, with this topic, it is hard to stop delivering pictures. I guess we all have lots of fitting photos for this challenge!

Fog and mist – and snow – make for quiet hours. I often go out for a walk, long or short, in those weather conditions.

Sunrise and sunset – I try to catch both. A lonely boat and a quiet sea…both attract me.

Iceland easily provides quiet hours – as many as you need. And not only because there are few people…

Mornings and evenings glow in the clear and fresh air and the hot springs never forget to send their messages.

Over to Norway, Lofoten. Quiet beauty – I understand why painters want to live there. Our famous water colour artist Lars Lerin was one of them. He lived there for several years.

The blue hour seems even more blue in Lofoten…

Let’s go to the Southern Hemisphere for another kind of quiet. In Ecuador and the Amazon – the quiet hours are filled with the sounds of the jungle. I loved it. I have never slept like a baby since I was… a baby…but now I did.

I love to spend some quiet hours walking in cemeteries. This one in Yorkshire, England. The Brontë’s are buried here. I could feel their stories with every step.


Japan is a busy country and the cities are as busy as ever. But, after the rain the streets were empty and there was not a sound…

In the mountains of Southern Japan – I was caught by the quiet beauty of wisteria in the misty morning hours.

With that I’ll close this week’s post with thanks to SH for joining us as Guest Host this week, using this lovely topic to give us all moments of peace. Be sure to visit his original here and to use the Lens-Artists Tag to help us find you. I also want to thank all of you who responded to my looking back challenge on Creativity. So many creative (!) examples! And there will be more of looking back soon. From another Lens Artist.

Finally, we hope you’ll join us next week when Egidio leads us once again on his Through Brazilian Eyes site. Until then, as always please stay safe, be kind and enjoy your week.

Thursday Thoughts – More Madeira!

/ Leya / 26 kommentarer

Welcome back to Madeira, and something new to us – a rundown area had been neatly decorated by talented local artists. Rua de Santa Maria in downtown Funchal. We had walked here before, but this year we did with open eyes, savouring the varied door paintings.

They made the area shine! The street came alive with tourists visiting the galleries, the little restaurants and cafees. No tourists in my pictures though…

Colourful,

scary or fun – we found all sorts of painted doors. And sometimes we got a glimpse of the inside too –

– or what might be on the inside…

A walk to be recommended if you ever visit Funchal. There were many more doors than these, and I saw the whole menue vividly painted on one restaurant door!

Lovely Madeira to be continued next week!

Thursday Thoughts – Madeira Magic

/ Leya / 36 kommentarer

Mmm… Madeira once more! My husband bought us tickets for one more trip to Madeira – the hiking paradise of our youth. There are endless hiking possibilities along the levadas carrying water to the city. The scent, the sound, the solitude. Unforgettable.

This is only a short Thursday entry, because there will be more posts from this charming island.

The last time I was there was with my children and my mother. We walked several levadas, not the most difficult ones, because my mother was 75 – but even if she was agile, I wanted us to be safe. And she loved it. Our forest walks at home used to be frequent and long. But, in Madeira the added sound of water swirling in the levadas is very soothing.

As in Portugal in general, the Azulejos are beautiful history tellers.

A must was always the Botanical Garden – and other gardens of course. Madeira is a flower Paradise – so there are many reasons for loving this island. Every time we visited, there was a new pattern in this open space. This summer it was geometrical.

A visit to the museum of their greatest son, Cristiano Ronaldo, was of course a must for my husband. But I rather enjoyed it too. The statue of CR was much debated when it was set up. I must say I didn’t like it then, but the one we saw here couldn’t have been the same – it looked much more like him now. Maybe they had to make a new one because of all the criticism??

Finally, the promenade we have walked so many times. It was good to see it again. Walk it again. Even if the city had changed very much in later years, this part felt warm and familiar.

Thank you for walking with me, there will be more of levadas, gardens and city walks in a couple of Thursday posts. Looking back sometimes is good for the overall perspective of your life.

Happy July 4 to you who celebrate, and hope you all are having a beautiful week!