LAPC #214 Favourite Finds

27 augusti, 202227 augusti, 2022 / Leya / 159 kommentarer

Do you love walking in bazaars or flee markets, or just window shopping? Something found in your grandmother’s closet? Second hand is very popular in the Nordic countries right now. Do you find museums intriguing? Or, maybe like me, you love special, surprising finds in nature? I am sure you have something hidden in your archives that once surprised you or filled you with awe…

We will be happy to enjoy your finds this week! And, maybe there is a story too…?

In the header my image shows some lovely hats found at Tjolöholm Castle. I love hats…unfortunately I don’t look that good in them – but I still buy one now and then.

*The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.*
– Hubert H. Humphrey

A shopping window in Gdansk. Too many things…but one of my best friends had pugs. Many pugs. I’d like to think she would have loved this one. Had she still been here, I might have bought it for her.

*Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.*
– Herodotus

A mobile made of 9 porcelain birds…not easily washed or handled, but it is still in one piece – or many pieces in one piece. It was given to me from my friend with the pugs – so you understand she is still with me, even if she has been gone for almost 8 years.

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.
– Rachel Carson

This is a remarkable find. A moth that is disguised as a twig. Look at the little feet and you will find him – the other one is…a twig.

There is also a possibility that someone finds Me…

This beauty was a find in our summerhouse, last year I believe, or the year before. Look at the size and the intricate patterns woven. Nature’s masterpiece made by industrious wasps.

A window on a backstreet in Rome made me stop and look, then the bird made me take out the camera! I still love this window…and I wonder who once lived there. Old Rome always fascinates.

A precious find was the statue of Gaudí, because I finally got the chance to ask him about his art and why he stepped out in the road and was hit by a tram. Why? We would have loved him to stay and finish so many other architectural pieces…

Special thanks to Amy for last week’s happy sunshine! A bright and positive theme with many beautiful images.

Now we are looking forward to your favourite finds! Be sure to link your post here and don’t forget the tag, so we can find you in the reader.

For next week, September 3, John will be our host, and his theme will be: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles…and the places they take us to visit.

Until then – stay calm, kind and loving.

Thursday Thoughts – Friends

2 juli, 2020 / Leya / 24 kommentarer

We had our yearly outing at Wanås castle, Viveka and I. Finally. This is something we look forward to every year – and even this ”lost” year, 2020, we made it happen.

Much of the art work and installations are the same, but each year there are new interesting artists and art on display. The forest linen and the mirror barn 2020.

These days the importance of friends is even more highlighted. What would our distanced lives be without them? And we can still visit exhibitions that are mostly outdoors.

Viveka (of Myguiltypleasures) is an inspirational and avid photographer, and her Oscar is always going warm when we are out. So, what is she photographing now?

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Laetiporus sulphureus – or sulphur shelf. A very beautiful species of fungus growing on tree trunks and branches.

You can easily lose sight of Viveka as she often gets lost in her photography – but there is one unmistakable sign that helps me finding her again…her bag. Her striped bag. Whose bowels contain anything needed for a day out…including Oscar.

https://www.wanaskonst.se/sv-se/ Artist: Kimsooja, South Korea

A friend to go on adventures with, a friend to chat with, and to share your thoughts with, a friend to hold your hand when you need it. Even virtually.

Thank you, Viveka, for being my friend – and Cheers – for future adventures together!

Thursday Thoughts

22 januari, 201622 januari, 2016 / Leya / 48 kommentarer

I have been helping an old friend moving to a home for elderly and disabled people. Yesterday I helped her packing up the last things and putting everything into place. We went through all her paintings as well, to see how many she could use on the new walls and where to put them up. And the rest…I do not know…

She has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. Once she was so smart, sharp tounge and vivid mind and memory. She was even a candidate for a TV prize contest. These last three years…she has been losing everything…and now she can no longer manage on her own. She was also a famous dog breeder for 30 years and won international as well as national fame. Her last dog she could no longer take enough care of, so two weeks ago we went together to the veterinary to put him to sleep. Tough on her and tough on me.

This is so sad, the whole situation. So many people suffer from this disastrous disease. And my old friend has no family, no children – only a half brother. And they have not got along the last 20 years.

She has nobody – but me. Luckily, the last two years she has found a good friend in a new neighbour coming over with some food and cookies – and sometimes some company. I am so glad she is there, as I live 60 kilometres away and cannot visit every day.

When I came up the stairs, she met me with a weak smile – ”I don’t like it here, they are all numb and dumb…cannot speak or understand what I’m saying”. She moved in two weeks ago, after we had been working hard to get her this apartment as she was so alone and needed company in order to eat properly and function socially. She had help four times a day and got food and cleaning as well.

”They are not kind to me here”, she says. ”I want to move.”

We have known each other for 40 years. Now I am searching for my old friend behind those gentle eyes…but I’m afraid she might no longer be there.

New life and new lives

17 februari, 201417 februari, 2014 / Leya / 48 kommentarer

Omplantering som alltid vecka 8. I år blev jag tvungen att ta ner den ena av de stora monsterorna – den hade blivit alltför hög och ohanterlig. En gång tidigare har jag tagit ner båda två. Båda togs som sticklingar för ca 38 år sedan. Då stod de på min gamla arbetsplats i en stor samplantering.Nu finns inte min gamla arbetsplats längre. Eftersom jag träffade några av mina gamla arbetskamrater i helgen tog jag med stambitar med vidhängande blad till dem alla – ett levande minne av svunna tider.

I övrigt några av de orkideer som blommar just nu – och förstås min ryska begonia…

As usual my pot plants get some new soil and some grooming this week in February. But, this year I had to take down one of the big Monstera Deliciosas – it had grown to the ceiling. This weekend I happened to have dinner with some of my old friends who worked together a long time ago in the same building (it does not exist any more) where I got those Monsteras as cuttings, some 38 years ago…So, now I decided to divide my Monstera into big enough pieces to plant, and then hand them out to my friends. A living memory from days gone by.

Of course I have to show some of the orchids starting now – mostly phalaenopsis. In some weeks there will hopefully be more of them – two cattleyas are budding and more phalaenopsis.