Ailsa’s travel theme this week is about noise. The strange and interesting thing is that we all are different here – some say noise and some say sound and some cannot stand it and some love it…
My concert pictures are from the hard rock band Kamelot – my favourites in the category.
Humanity is the WP challenge – what first comes to my mind is all human beings collectively – the human race. Then the human nature – what does it mean, being human?
The WordPress challenge this week is about adventure. The greatest adventure is Life, the life we have been given. We don’t know anything about what’s waiting just around the corner…we only know that we all are going to die one day. This is what we all have in common.
My greatest adventure then, is following my children grow up and helping them discover the world, themselves and their special gifts and possibilities.
My daughter, my eldest child, is now turning 24. Even if she has travelled with us to many places in the world, her greatest adventure was living and working with nature issues in New Zealand. She stayed for two months, learned many important things, and was a different person when she came back home.
My son has not yet been working abroad, but here he is hiking the Azoric island of Flores. A great adventure for us all.
So…following the two of them along their different paths…
…on their adventures – is my great adventure. And the thing is, that you never know what’s waiting around the corner. What is prepared just for you? Surely an adventure worth entering upon!
Scotland – a country of magical history and beauty of nature. But, what I was mostly looking forward to on my trip this summer was the chance to meet Seonaid of breathofgreenair. She is one of the bloggers on WordPress who I first followed. Amazing photography and a mindful poet in soul and words. Her posts speak directly to my heart.
Seonaid’s family consists of two other people, husband and son, and three ladies – bearded collies – and two distinguished cats. I will not reveal their names…as I would like you to visit her blog and find out yourselves…you will not regret it!
This was a magic evening. We met and talked, walked in her evening garden, and she and her husband had cooked a delicious dinner, which we enjoyed at their beautiful home.
Sitting under the parasol in the lovely garden, watching the ladies play and the Bengal sunning himself in the last rays…life was good. As good as it can be when you are happy.
I had to promise the ladies that I would only use photos showing them at their most advantageous angles…and I think I have kept my promise. They were not that easy to photograph – only Seonaid can master that…
Another promise is to come back to Scotland again – soon. I want to thank you again, Seonaid, and your lovely family, for taking the trouble of having us that evening! For me, this will be a precious memory, and my dream is still that we will have the opportunity of a walk together on the beach or in the forest where you usually walk with pleasure. I would love that.
My love to you all, and to the long haired ladies who all remind me of my Amanda – a beardie I once owned, and who will never be forgotten.
Ailsa’s Meeting Places is a real treat – now we can find places to meet in reality – and virtually – all over the world!
And then like my dreams, A memoir.
Margaret Rose Stringer
Freemantle Press, Western Australia, 2013
‘It was, it seems to me, a rather extraordinary love story…That we met at that moment, both in such dire need…’
Boken handlar om Margaret Rose och hennes älskade man, Charles ‘Chic’ Stringer – om deras liv tillsammans. Charles gick bort i lungcancer 2006, och mot slutet får vi följa hennes kamp för att försöka hjälpa Chic igenom den sista svåra tiden. Känslan av vanmakt och otillräcklighet. De fick 31 lyckliga år tillsammans.
Vi får följa med in i den australiensiska filmindustrins 70- och 80-tal, i livet med katter, husbygge, Europaresor och matlagningskonst. M.R. S beledsagar berättelserna med bilder ur det egna albumet, mest Chics foton, han var en av de mest respekterade filmfotograferna i Australien under denna period.
M.R.S berättar om sin besvärliga relation till sin mor och om kärleken till sin far, sin vilda ungdom och svårigheterna att hitta sin plats i livet. Ångest och depression. Den som ”räddar” henne är Charles, ’Chic’, Stringer. En man som älskar henne och förstår henne fullt ut. ” Chic really, really wanted and needed to look after me; and I really, really wanted and needed him to do it.” De två blir beroende av varandra, och när Chic är borta är M.R.S bara en halv människa. ”He was everything. He was life. He was knowledge. He was love.”
Författaren väver skickligt samman parets livshändelser och tar oss med på både inre och yttre resor, där vi bland annat får ta del av den gemensamma passionen för Placido Domingo. Allt med M.R’s drastiska, humoristiska, klara och direkta röst. Denna ’memoir’ är nog den mest genuina och äkta jag läst i genren. Och hon håller stilen hela vägen igenom. Hennes bakgrund inom filmindustrin är tydlig och hon använder sina kunskaper med finess.
Boken är öppet och självutlämnande/självkritiskt skriven i jagform, kryddad med manuskriptlika scener i tredje person. Genom dessa korta, filmiska sekvenser får läsaren en bild av parets jargong i varandras sällskap samtidigt som författaren målar upp mer levande personer – får oss att känna vibrationerna dem emellan. Chic och M.R. Till formen i stort består den av korta, drivna kapitel, vilket tillsammans med övriga ingredienser bidrar till att man har svårt att lägga den ifrån sig.
Boken är en unik och ärlig ’memoir’ om kärlekens himmelska glädje och avgrundsdjupa förtvivlan och sorg. Om våra innersta tankar och drömmar, om vilsenhet i livet och människans tillkortakommanden.
Länkar till parets resor finns på sidan European Travels With a Spouse och M.R. fortsätter skriva med ärlig, brutal humor i sin blogg Margaret-Rose Stringer, staying visible
Boken finns att köpa på adLibris och Bokus bland annat.
After being totally enchanted by Scotland and the Scots – I hardly know where to begin…so much to catch up on of reading and so much to tell!
First of all, I want to thank my blogging friend Seonaid at breathofgreenair, for having us a whole delightful evening in her lovely home. Unforgettable hospitality and my admiration is neverending. More time – I think both of us wished for that…. Hopefully we will meet again – I still have not experienced the Tattoo either…
If it hadn’t been for Seonaid’s advice – we’d never had seen her beautiful Plockton near the Isle of Skye. A drizzle early in the morning, but the views truly calm and serene. Not a wind.
For some seconds – a little less rain. Light unbelievably…light and soothing.
Not many people were out this early morning. No hurry. A lifetime of Time it seemed…
Suddenly there were more colours, more life. Flowers everywhere. The rain had stopped.
I saw it when I posted Wedding – this post will be my number 1000 on WordPress. I have enjoyed it immensely – the blogging and the photographing. The reading and the friends I have ”met” and – actually – Met. In reality.
Thank you all of you out there who read me, follow me or just drop in to – Leya. I’m so grateful that you enjoy the little things in my world. It’s you who made it all possible and who still are making it possible for me to go on blogging.
What will be suitable for a post number 1000? Maybe some of my favourite photos? Maybe a combination …?
I lost my faithful companion, Mille, this spring. His name, Mille, he got because he was so special, one in a thousand. Mille. Mille Grazie to him for having him in my life for twelve years, and Mille Grazie to all of you for being part of my life. May we stay together and exchange pictures, thoughts, advice, recipes, book and film tips – and so on – for at least another 1000 posts and many more!
I wish you all a great summer – or winter! See you again in a couple of weeks – I’m off to Scotland to enjoy this beautiful and enigmatic country once more. Hopefully it will not rain all the time…as it did for three weeks in 1978 when we visited last. Never mind the weather…I’m so looking forward to meeting one of my blogging friends there!
Contrasts – impossible…couldn’t stop myself here…There are so many possibilities so it had to be a gallery. Some of them I have used before, but they work together as well! For more contrasts, click here.
This picture was entered once before, but it still is one of my greatest surprises…totally unexpected. I was shooting the tree and the long cloud, when suddenly, out of nowhere, the plane turned up. Almost touching the snow, and without a sound to reveal it was coming. Quite suitable for Ailsa’a travel theme as well!
Leya 
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