Lens Artists Challenge #367 – Everyone Should See This

/ Leya / 37 kommentarer

We welcome Joanne Mason (Joanne Mason Photography) as our guest host this week! Her challenge is this – and I think it will give us all some ideas of what to go for or to relish stories and pictures from others.

Everyone should see this…can mean many different things. I have chosen places I have visited and realised their beauty, importance and significance to the world. If you are tired of seeing them again – I am sorry. But, Everyone should see this…

A glimpse of the Himalayas

and Tibet, the Pothala palace.

Bhutan – the only carbon dioxide negative country in the world. A role model all others have failed to follow.

The beauty of its Landscapes, temples, people and festivities.

Their rare wildlife and how they continue successfully to preserve it.

This is the Takin, Bhutan’s national animal. A massive 180 kilo animal, related to sheep.

The Galapagos Islands. As a child I thought of it as Paradise, because animals here are not afraid of people. And it Is a paradise for its animals, who do not need to fear us humans.

This bird was a true wonder for me to see live. And I struggled for hours to get a clear picture from the ship. Hundreds of pictures discarded to get two great shots of Elliot’s Storm Petrel. This bird can run on the water, and even stand still to pick a fish!

I was also lucky to catch a couple of Iguanas climbing up the giant cactuses to eat the most juicy bits of them.

Finally, I wish everyone could stay some days, weeks, months or years…in the rainforest. This is the Amazon. Just to get an idea of the biodiversity and life at its best. To learn from the indigenous people and their wisdom of nature. The sound of the jungle may be intense, but I have never slept better anywhere in the world.

Joanne wants us to share photographs of places/people/things that you find uniquely inspiring – or photographs themselves that you are proud of – Simply stated, photographs everyone should see.

Last week’s challenge was hosted by Tina who asked us to reflect on urban and rural scenes in City Mouse/Country Mouse. Next week, it will be John’s turn to challenge us. Watch for his post at his Journey’s With Johnbo.

Thursday Thoughts – A Fascinating Meeting

/ Leya / 38 kommentarer

Every year I am eagerly looking for a little creature that I first met in France, and then – in September 2022 it visited my own garden!

The Hummingbird Hawkmoth. When I first saw it in that European garden many years ago, I thought it was a hummingbird – but knew it couldn’t be… So fast, so energetic and so beautiful.

Then a couple of these fasciating creatures visited my garden, 2022 and 2023. Nothing last year…I even planted this particular salvia to make them come back to me.

Then suddenly, last week, when we had a spell of summer again – I saw one of them in my Buddleia! The salvias were almost gone, so I really had given up hope for this year too. It was too dark for photos though – you have to make do with the old ones.

Little things – they make me happy. And – we should never give up hope, should we?

Lens-Artists Challenge #…- Country Mouse/ City Mouse

/ Leya / 47 kommentarer

Tina asks us to post on the classic Aesop fable ”City Mouse/Country Mouse”. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, its moral is that no matter how appealing someone else’s life may seem, there really is no place like home. (That is what Dorothy, in The Wizard of Oz, famously said too)

I love visiting interesting big cities with all their possibilities for

culture

and architecture,

and thriving technology, like the Shinkansen in Japan.

But – as much as I love this, there are always crowds, all these busy people that never let you sit alone and contemplate. Each single person can make a wonderful meeting – but crowds…

So, after every trip to a big city, I am completely happy with coming home. Musing in my own little corner of the world. I guess this is what most of us feel. Balance is the word.

Crowds of flowers are OK with me – a morning in my garden makes my heart melt. The simple things are the best.

And a walk with Milo a silent Autumn evening, like today’s (exactly this minute when I am posting) Autumnal Equinox, has my heart as well.

Then, about the mouse… I could not find one, but maybe two very good mice catchers might do?

We hope you’ll join us this week, remembering to link to Tina’s post in addition to using the Lens-Artists Tag to help us find you. Many thanks to all who participated in last week’s Longing challenge, by Egidio. We enjoyed all of your creative and very varied responses. Now we are excited to announce next week’s guest-host: Joanne of Joanne Mason Photography, we hope you’ll join us again then. Until then, stay safe and be kind.

Thursday Thoughts – Along the Roads of Funchal, Madeira

/ Leya / 25 kommentarer

I am dreaming myself back to Madeira again… We’ve had a wonderful summer here in Sweden, but now Autumn is in full swing with wind, rain, and much cooler temperatures.

So, I allow myself to contemplate for a while, just like this lady among flowers and lush greenery.

But, I love wandering in cactus and succulent gardens too. These are from the cacti collection in the Botanical Garden of Madeira.

I have some cacti in my home, but mostly epiphyllums – no spikes! My biggest cactus (with huge spikes…)has fallen and hit me hard a couple of times – it is taller than me.

Begonias in splendid show at Monte Gardens.

I just had to have one of these, so, I brought one home, now sitting in my window waiting to come outside next summer.

I love Madeira for many reasons – one of them is their exquisite stone layered streets. Here together with exquisite Bougainvillea too. Grey colours and the vibrance of this flower/tree go so well together.

There are some forgotten gardens as well…and houses. But even those ones are lush and quite beautiful. This one was carefully guarded by fiercely barking dogs.

Ferns have a special place in my heart. Big or small – any size.

And one of my favourite ferns grow abundantly in Madeira. Back home in June, I promptly bought two Dicksonia Antarctica. A friend of mine has successfully brought up one of this species, but they have to stay in an orangerie to manage our winters. I will give it a try too. At least the summer went well for both of them!

Lens-Artists Challenge #365 – Longing

/ Leya / 53 kommentarer

Egidio and Sofia both has introduced to me a wonderful and sensitive word: saudade.

Wikipedia defines saudade as

an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent someone or something. It is a recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events, often elusive, that cause a sense of separation from the exciting, pleasant, or joyous sensations they once caused.

The word Saudade might translate ”longing”, but it holds so much more… and that is what I feel for the place where I grew up. Everything was sold and lost to us when my grandmother died in 1988. The piece of land where my grandparents worked so hard, the fruit trees, the raspberry field, the strawberry fields and all the vegetables. The gravel road leading up to the house – how many times have I walked it? I used to go there every day, before school and after school. Helping them with the picking, and packing the harvest to be sold.

Looking through some old photo albums for this challenge, I found these precious photos that I want to share with you. They are marked with time and were sitting in pressed plastic folders, so the quality is not that good. But they hold so much of my life, my gratefulness and saudade…

This is the house, and grandmother and grandfather picking black currants. They had hundreds of those bushes. I remember every piece of that path around the orchards, and the joy ( and sometimes tough work) of helping my grandparents. My mother and her brothers all helped out during harvest times. After we had finished for the day, we were rewarded with coffee and cake in the garden – and strawberries with creme of course.

Those where times when the sun seemed to shine every day and life was easy being surrounded by loving people. I only wish I had some more photos from when I was a child.

There is also another kind of longing – where we can return to the place we long for, even if we cannot go back to what it was the first time. Because everything changes, and so do we. Sometimes maybe the change is bigger within than in the particular place we are longing for.

The Azores is a place for much saudade. Faial, Flores and Corvo occupy many rooms in my heart.

When we hiked the island of Flores, in 2007, we were looking for the valley with eleven water falls. We could see it from afar, immersed in the lush greenery.

And when we finally reached it, we were all alone and could totally immerse ourselves too. Body and soul.

It was really an otherworldly place. Still today, I think of it as a Paradise.

The island of Faial is renowned, among other things, for its Hydrangea hedges. Instead of fences for the cattle, they have 3-5 meter high hedges.

Finally, the island floating in the sky and sea – Corvo. My heart aches for it.

Now, we are curious about what You are longing for! When you join the challenge and share your saudade, don’t forget to use the “lens-artists” hashtag so we can find your post in the Reader.

Your responses to Ritva’s challenge were wonderful last week. It was what we all needed – Next week, Tina returns with a new challenge. It will go live at noon EST in the USA. Tune in to find out more about the challenge then. Until then, take care and be kind.