A beauty indeed – Merlin’s Laboratory!
Tuesday Photo Challenge – Transport
For Frank this week, in the header – favorite transport in Sweden, my own country.
Train – the Kingston Flyer, NZ
Limo, NZ
But my absolute favorite is – walking, using my own feet. These feet were hiking in Bhutan, and we were all heading for the Tiger’s Nest.
Tuesday Photo Challenge – Peace
Non-Violence is a bronze sculpture by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd of an oversized Colt Python.357 Magnum revolver with a knotted barrel and the muzzle pointing upwards. Carl R. made this sculpture after singer, songwriter and peace activist John Lennon was murdered.
There are currently 16 copies of the sculpture around the world. An original standing outside the United Nations headquarters in NY.
This photo is from Lund, where I studied at the University for several years.
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.
This Autumn my daily forest walk ended. Not the walk itself, but everything around me – was not anymore. So, while drying my tears, I decided to find some of all the lovely images from here over the years – and photograph from the same spots today. Not easily done, but I finally gave it a try. This forest and I have a long story together, more than 40 years. I am very grateful for all of these photos. Today I just wanted to give you a touch of how I feel about it. A piece of my life and soul is gone.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
Before
After
In loving Memory…
“We are dealing with something that has never occurred on this planet”
My husband and son just returned from Chernobyl last week – very taken with the 2 day tour and all the haunting sights. We all watched this series together this week. If you have not seen it yet – please do.
Among my friends, I have one of the first men who detected and reported the heightened radiation level in Sweden. He still remembers the chills along his spine in that moment. And I remember well when we all got the information from media. (The reindeer up north were forbidden food for many years after…) In February the same year, Olof Palme was murdered…Was this the beginning of the end of the world?
On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, Soviet Union suffered a massive explosion that released radioactive material across Belarus, Russia and Ukraine and as far as Scandinavia and western Europe. Chernobyl dramatizes the story of the 1986 accident, one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history, and the sacrifices made to save Europe from the unimaginable disaster.
The number of lives lost are estimated to somewhere between 4000 and 93000. The official number from Russia is 31.
It recieved a total of 10 Emmy Awards. Brilliant acting and as we all know – reality is more chilling than fiction. You cannot stop watching…despite the horrible scenes.
Craig Mazin and Johan Renck have created a masterpiece, in large part on the recollections of Pripyat locals, as told by Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich in her book Voices from Chernobyl. Material also from the scientist Valery Legasov (superbly played by Jared Harris), the deputy director of the Kuchatov Institute brought in to aid cleanup efforts.
Watch it.
Contemplate the future, and the cost of lies.
Dear Frank, so glad you came back despite the delay! – Here comes a ship instead of a plane. I doubt it could have brought you home though…
Iceland, Reykjavik – The Sun Voyager.
The artist is Jón Gunnar Árnason, Sun Voyager is described as a dreamboat, or an ode to the Sun. A dream of hope, progress and freedom.
There is real purity in New Zealand…It’s actually not an easy thing to find in our world anymore – Elijah Wood
Today is a very special day for us here at Lens-Artists – the one year anniversary of our Challenge. While we were all initially saddened by the discontinuation of the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge, for us it became an opportunity to expand our blogging horizons and to create some amazing new friendships.
I feel that New Zealand is my second home. – Luke Evans
On our end, we have transitioned from four independent photography bloggers to a tightly-knit team that supports, encourages and helps each other as we develop and create our weekly challenges. We’ve also been fortunate to have expanded our follower base thanks to bloggers like you who support and inspire us.
Toitū te whenua (Leave the land undisturbed).
As a result, our challenge has become near and dear to each of our hearts. We’ve gone well beyond being individual members of a team and have become four good friends. We are tremendously thankful to you for your appreciation of our efforts; and for making us smile or feel touched by your responses. As our thank you for your support and encouragement, we’re suggesting that you respond to today’s challenge with any subject that’s near and dear to YOUR hearts, as we’ve done with our images today. If you’d prefer some guidance, choose any of the four subjects we’ve selected this week (Friendship, A country that’s special to you, Imagination and Connected).
We are a proud nation of more than 200 ethnicities, 160 languages, and amongst that diversity we share common values. – Jacinda Ardern
Each of us has included several captures that are special to us in some way.
Mine are from a country and people that occupies a special place in my heart – New Zealand. Aotearoa is the Māori name – and the most popular meaning usually given is the ”land of the long white cloud”. A strikingly diverse Nature, warm-hearted People with strong Environmental care and – an insane sense of humour! It is also the country in which JRR Tolkien’s characters so naturally belong. New Zealand opened its arms to me – and I immediately felt at home there. I would never have guessed that our blogging community could feel like ”home” too – but it does. It is a privilege to host this challenge once a month.
I’ve learned that home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling.
―
Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts for making this such a terrific experience. If you have a subject that you feel might inspire us, please feel free to suggest it – we’d love to hear from you. Should you be new to our challenge and interested in joining us, please click here and be sure to include the Lens-Artists TAG so we can all find you. Happy Blogging to all of our loyal followers and friends, and Happy Anniversary to us!
Whatungarongaro te tangata toitū te whenua
(As man disappears from sight, the land remains) This demonstrates the holistic values of the Maori, and the utmost respect of Papatuanuku, Mother Earth.
Have you seen these
Each week on Lens-Artists, we highlight several responses from among our followers. This special week we’d like to thank ALL of our followers for their thoughtful, funny, often-feisty and always wonderful posts. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do, and will continue to join us as we move into year two of the Lens-Artists Challenge.
The most beautiful time in my country, Sweden, is now – around Midsummer. The flowers and colours are abundant and it is a busy time for everything growing and for the animals raising their young.
Tomorrow is Midsummer’s Eve – in olden days a magical night. But also the night after which the bright light will start fading and we are heading towards winter.
If you celebrate or not – I wish you all a wonderful weekend –
And may you have a good night…
…should you be in Sweden, you will stay up to watch the sunset – and the sunrise. There is no real darkness in between.
Leya 
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