Wordless Wednesday
Dogs
Lens Artists Photo Challenge #118 – Communication
Thank you, Amy, for last week’s Photo Walk – a fun challenge with walks all over the world, that I unfortunately couldn’t follow as much as I wanted. But I will be back – soon.
Hosting this week is clever Biasini and Ma Leueen – so, I will take the opportunity to show you something of my world – a dog’s world. My name is Milo, and I live with Totti, Ann-Christine and her family in southern Sweden.
In my family we don’t do competitions anymore, but my pal, Totti, used to win many prizes in his youth. He is a Swedish and Danish Champion. In the header, he is the winner of such a competition. I can tell you that, in order to reach a top position, you have to communicate well with your handler (as they call the human running with you in the ring).
A great companion he is anyway, Totti. We both know exactly what the other one wants or wants not. Mostly we want the same thing though…and that could have meant big trouble, if we hadn’t been able to communicate wisely and read the signs. I can only urge all of you to work hard on it – Communication. If you don’t manage that well enough, your life will be much more complicated – sometimes hardly manageable.
Finally, our sincere thanks to Biasini and Ma Leueen, for guest hosting this week’s very interesting challenge. We all look forward to seeing your creative responses. Please remember to link them to their original post here, and to use the Lens-Artists tag to help us find you. We hope you’ll stay tuned next week as I, Ann-Christine/Leya will be the host for our next challenge.
Please be safe and well until next time!
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #95 – All Wet
Tina’s challenge this week is a wet one. See her fantastic bear shots at Travels and Trifles!
My first thought for All Wet, was of Galapagos and its many water living animals. So, two of them are playing in the opener.
These are some of my favorite ”wets” – all from the archives.
A wet forest in Sweden
A hot hot day (42 degrees C) in Bilbao, Spain
A disappearing building in Barcelona
Autumn rain in my garden
I like girls who like the countryside, put on walking boots and can bend with the wind a bit. If you’re going to live with me, you need to be able to embrace the countryside and wet dogs.
And I will end this short, wet story with my favorite dog, my first lagotto romagnolo – the legendary Mille. Why ”legendary”? Well, for eleven summers in a row, he was standing, running or walking in the sea, at our summer house, from early morning until late evening. Chasing bubbles. This was his kingdom. (From the beginning these dogs were water dogs in Romagna, Italy, but the area was drained and the dogs were taught to dig for truffles instead.) Every man and woman in our little village knew him, every tourist, every child patted him and played with him.
We lost Mille in 2014, but people out there still (2019) remember him, and tell their own memories of him. My children planned to make a statue to sit on ”his” beach, so he would forever be watching the sea. But that dream was not realized. I have had many dogs and cats in my life – but nothing and no one compares to him. Also, he was always All Wet.
Thank you for last week’s peeks at Amy’s At home – a challenged I think more than I enjoyed very much. Hope to see you next week again, for Patti’s Challenge #96.
Tuesday Photo Challenge – Animals
Thursday Thoughts – Dogs I Met in Tbilisi
Dogs are a big part of my life – and cats too, when I grew up in Sweden. In Tbilisi there were so many cats and dogs – of which I have already featured some here. (Click the links) However, I have many more photos from lovely meetings with friendly dogs and cats. These galleries might give you a hint…of just how many dog citizens there are in Tbilisi.
This big guy was the first one I met, and he was relaxing just on the edge of some steps down to a tunnel under the road. I immediately noticed how well muscled he was and how impressive the thickness of his coat.
I had already learned that they are all vaccinated and friendly. The yellow ear button confirmed this fact.
And yes, the dogs were everywhere…sleeping in the middle of the road or path as well. This one was lying here.
Sleeping styles of different difficulty…
…and everywhere and anywhere. Preferences differed. For the heat, for the cooling down, for the view…I never asked – just guessed.
Some liked to play and some raised a bunch of puppies. Some were just thirsty !
I just loved the Georgian people and their concern for the animals. All dogs were not just vaccinated, but they also had their own lunch bar in Rike Park. At the end of Peace Bridge, you could leave your bottle in this bar and dog food would drizzle down.
A Happy Land for stray dogs – at least during the warmer seasons. We should all be that kind and caring. Clearly the citizens loved their animal friends. Harmony ruled.
And by the way…the dog in the header was the only one on a leash.
Friendly Friday – Funny Furry Friends
Look what I found in your garden!
For Friendly Friday Photo Challenge hosted by The Sandy Chronicles: Funny furry friends
Lens – Artists Photo Challenge #75 – Nostalgic
I prefer the mystic clouds of nostalgia to the real thing, to be honest. – Robert Wyatt
Tina is hosting this week, and she wants us to be Nostalgic. This is a feeling that easily comes to me, touches me, just like tears do. Nostalgia is such a unique phenomenon because it fuses both positive and negative experiences and emotions.
The word nostalgia is a Greek compound, meaning ”homecoming”, a Homeric word, and ”pain” or ”ache”, and was coined by a 17th-century medical student to describe the anxieties displayed by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home. Today its meaning is a bit different. So, my Nostalgic will be entirely about my own life.
I don’t have any digital photos of my grandmother, but my childhood was so much about her. My nostalgic memories always take me to her garden and the flowering apple trees, pear trees, cherry trees, plum trees and …her sweet voice and contagious laughter.
I always make a distinction between nostalgia and sentimentality. Nostalgia is genuine – you mourn things that actually happened. – Pete Hamill
After my grandmother, my first Lagotto, Mille, evokes my nostalgic memories. He was such an impressive dog who hit all your senses already in the first blow. You did not stand a chance. He will be forever remembered by everyone who met him.
Tropical Pointer
Can you feel nostalgic about one single flower? I can! Many years ago I had a fantastic favorite orchid – a Cattleya hybrid, ”Tropical Pointer”. I had it for several years and it came back again and again with a multitude of flowers. I think of it as a He – don’t know why. He just flowered himself to death (if you can say it that way…). And like everything else in this world, you can never get the same thing twice. I kept searching for a new Tropical Pointer, in every garden center, in every country I visited, but new hybrids come every year – and the old ones are forgotten…
Nostalgia is a very human trait. – Stephanie Coontz
My beloved apple tree – a bit of a warden tree for this house (about 100 years old). Nostalgia hits me when looking at it in its former glory. You who follow my blog know it is the same tree (but lying down, 2019) in the Creepy post.
Finally, we had some foreign guests in town when the children played in different orchestras, some 15 years ago. A big meeting with other European countries brought a couple of young guys our way. They stayed at our house for some nights while the festivities lasted. This young man was an avid accordion player – every time I look at the photo, I can feel his love for music and for his instrument warming my heart.
In the header, one of the very few photos of my whole family together. Nostalgia over all those years we still traveled together, and how excited we were over reaching our dream – Tibet.
Thank you, Tina, for hosting this week instead of me! And, as always, Amy, Tina, Patti and I thank you for your continued support of our photo challenge.
Lens-Artists Challenge #69 – Seeing Double
Tina’s challenge for the week sounds like this: ”Double trouble, double-time, two’s company, take two …. the world is filled with references to twosomes. This week, let’s double our pleasure and focus on things that come in twos.”
In fact…my first thought was of shoes – they always come it twos! These art clogs stand in a street in Malmö as a memory of one of Sweden’s most beloved actors at the beginning of the 20th century. He was from my part of Sweden, Skåne, where clogs were the only footwear needed in the old days.
In Tbilisi, Georgia, one of the most common things to see in twos are…dogs! But in the header, two lovely young women as well, peeping out from an art studio.
As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others. – Audrey Hepburn
And people talked to the stray dogs, took time to feed them or to just give them a warmhearted pat. I loved how this young man kept his hand resting on the sun warmed, relaxing dog, and with his other hand using his modern, electronic device. Overall the people in Tbilisi did not use cell phones that much. ( If someone did, you almost knew it was a tourist…) They seemed to care more about the living beings around them.
Some years ago we had a pair of swans often landing at our summer house, and we were kindly allowed to admire their young – if we kept the distance of course.
Parent and child – a loving and comforting twosomeness.
The most desired gift of love is not diamonds or roses or chocolate. It is focused attention. – Unknown
Lastly – young lovers strolling this magnificent Spanish beach towards the setting sun.
Thank you for all the lovely variety of Layers sent for Amy last week! Now – Tina, Patti, Amy and I look forward to seeing Your twosomes.
Friendly Friday Photo Challenge – Moving
Amanda is moving, and she wants us to move too…my examples are all from my memories. Moving can be a tough thing to do…
…but Totti of course loves it!
The cranes are moving south in October, but here they had just arrived in early Spring.
Moving big chunks of a house – not easily done. Use another crane!
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #67 – Candid
What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.
– Karl Lagerfeld
Taking photos of people or animals when they have no idea that you’re doing it is called candid photography. One of the beautiful things with photography is being able to catch someone in the act. It adds natural life to your pictures. Even if my choices here are mostly in B&W, of course feel free to use what you find most suitable for your shots!
So, this week I thought we would go for candid photos of people or animals – Have fun with the challenge, and we are looking forward to seeing your candid finds!
It is always about keeping your eyes open and be prepared when an opportunity comes up – have your camera ready and just shoot.
Remember to take many photos…the digital cameras give us unique chances to choose which photos to keep or not:
Your first 1,000 photographs are your worst. – Henri Cartier-Bresson
Sometimes it might feel a bit difficult to photograph people – at least if you are a shy person, like me. A great help can be if you have a longer lens that gives you the possibility to ”hide” behind it and still get close. With a little luck, and practice, you sometimes get one of those lovely smiles – or two.
If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.
– Robert Capa
But, sometimes maybe you should not get too close – catching the moment is also catching your own feeling of what is in front of you…
Photography is a love affair with life. – Burk Uzzle
My photos were made in Bhutan, Morocco, Denmark and Georgia (Tbilisi).
Thank you for all the wonderful frames filled for Patti last week! If you haven’t seen her beautiful post yet – please pay her a visit!
Leya 