Transformation
A couple of days ago, my daughter had a homework assignment: Who would you like to be for a day? Choose anyone (alive or dead) and explain why you would like to swap places with them.
She thought. Pondered. Scratched her head.
Finally, she said, “I don’t want to be someone else. I want to be myself!”
“Pure genius!” I told her proudly.
For isn’t this what we all wish for?
To go through the awkward caterpillar stage, to the secretive chrysalis bursting with promise and finally, to emerge – transformed – into the beautiful butterfly of ourselves?
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
Rabindranath Tagore
This lovely butterfly danced out of the mist as we walked into the Butterfly House in Stockholm last week.
For more luminous creatures, please visit: Camera Critters.
One view, two perspectives
The darling buds of May have exploded into leaves and grass and flowers.
The long light evenings mean that it is more difficult to stay awake to see the sun setting. In May, the sun is till high in the sky as it peeps shyly through the graceful curtains of leaves.
What a contrast to the same time a month ago! The April sunsets were marvellous viewed through the bare silhouettes of the trees.
What a difference a month makes!
For more heavenly views, please visit: Skywatch!
Nonsense? Yes please!
“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.” ~ Dr. Seuss
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if imagination and silliness were on school curricula every day?
I hope to be silly even in old age… and by the looks of things, I’m succeeding! How about you?
Butterfly house
Last week kicked off with a holiday – and what better way of spending it than visiting some sights we haven’t seen before?
Not content with the sweltering heat of an unexpectedly hot day, we decided to visit the Butterfly House …
… which was alarmingly hot and humid just like the tropics.
My camera immediately misted up, as did my glasses, so that the rows of chrysalises from which more butterflies would hatch, hung in the misty air like ghostly bats.
We saw a delightful variety of butterflies, but not as many as I had imagined, and I was feeling slightly disappointed when this luminous beauty landed on Sir Pe.
She flexed her long legs to show off the pollen collected there like golden nuggets and flapped her ruby wings shyly before flying off to land on my shoulder.
Oh, the changes a butterfly goes through to achieve such enchanting beauty!
For more enchantment, please visit: My World!
Enjoying the now
Last week I scared some of you with pictures of snow (taken back in February). This week, I want to delight you with some sunny weather so that you won’t think it is cold in Sweden all year round. (Well, OK – there is still snow up in the north, you know – where the polar bears roam the streets…)
We have gone straight from winter to summer – or so it seems – and we are enjoying the lush and warm countryside while the sun lasts.
Because next week – we might very well be back in winter again!
In the meantime, spend your days well – after all, you can’t take them with you.
For more sunny creatures, please visit: Camera Critters!
Knocking on heaven’s door
According to an old Zen saying,
You have to knock on the sky…
… And listen to the sound.
What music are your skies playing today?
For more great shots, please visit: Skywatch!
My new readers
I seem to have attracted some new readers.
They are faceless, of course,
But not shy about telling the world exactly what they think!
Like this…
Only one question remains: how did they know I was slightly mad?
Violin concerto for one
I met an acquaintance last week, who honoured me with a sad story from his childhood. I have weaved this tale from my imagination, so even though the details are fiction, the core of the story is true.
I can see him as he was back then, a bright seven-year-old holding the hand of his beloved father. Together they enter the concert hall, settle down amidst the plinging of instruments warming up. He likes it there in the darkness, hand in hand with the person he loves most.
The spotlight on stage picks out the young violinist as he becomes one with his instrument, his body an elongated note of music. The boy holding his father’s hand floats away on the music, carried on its shoulders to new heights of love and inspiration.
“I want to play like that for my father,” he says. For the next few years, he practises his love, playing it out with every stroke of the bow on string.
At last, after six years, he is ready for his own concert; his own spotlight.
I see him there – trembling on the stage – caressing the violin with his bow, creating beautiful notes that he leaves at this father’s proud feet as a gift.
The father’s love for his boy is reflected in his tears.
Soon after the boy gives his first concert, his father dies.
And the boy never picks up the violin again.
That young boy is now over 60 years old with children and grandchildren of his own. Yet he told me his story with love and tears in his eyes. Such is the power of love.
For more slices of life, please visit: My World!
Go for it!
As many of you know, my fuzzy buddy, Oscar, was badly bitten nearly three months ago.
60 stitches can take a toll on a dog, especially when he has to be on a lead and cut back on his daily exercise. (It takes a toll on the owner too!)
But now.. now.. his wonderful zest for life is back! Just like it was before the incident…
And although I’m not throwing any balls for him to catch because I don’t want to twist his leg, there’s always next winter. He can run around in the woods off the leash and he has even started swimming in the lake. Yes – his leg is as good as new!
Seize the moment, jump high for joy and remember to give today a happy ending! (Sorry – I got all cheesy there for a moment …)
Please note that these photos were taken during the winter. The snow is ALL gone now!
For more happy animals, please visit: Camera Critters!
Flying the sky
Oh, to be a bird
Winging it up high,
Swimming in lilac clouds,
Diving in the silken net of the sky,
Freedom and flight.
Oh, to be a bird
Singing the skies,
Living in sunshine and hope,
Drinking the wild air
And rejoicing in every strand and filament
of light.
For more joyful heavens, please visit: Skywatch!
Signs of spring
It’s hard to believe that spring is here as I’m still huddled inside my winter jacket. Hat and gloves are also necessary to stave off a chill in the air that would not disgrace autumn itself. (That’s fall if you speak American.)
And yet… I can feel energy and beauty pulsing underneath the surface.
Poetry in motion…
… A jump shared is twice the joy!
Children’s happiness is surely the personification of spring.
For more slices of life, please visit: My World!
Water off a duck’s back
“If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.” — Douglas Adams
Talk about hogging the limelight! The duck remained modestly in the background while her mate was completely unafraid and stood posing as if to say, “Take a photo of me in my beautiful plumage!”
For more amusing creatures, please visit: Camera Critters!
Golden moments
Living in that childish wonder is a most beautiful feeling – I can so well remember it. There was always something more – behind and beyond everything – to me, the golden spectacles were very, very big.
Kate Greenaway
How are you going to live in childish wonder today?
For more golden moments, please visit: Skywatch!
The man with the silver cane
Last week, it was Valborg. There we were, entranced by the fire: faces toasty hot; backs chilly in the cold of the evening.
He was standing next to us: an old man with a face whose map showed each mountain range climbed, each river sailed upon and each new path explored. The wrinkles spoke of adventure and spirit as did his twinkling eyes.
His child-like spirit shone through, diminishing his age as gnarled hands rested on the silver-topped cane. The spellbound kids listened as he told us wild tales of how – back in the 1960s – he had stood on this same spot in a snowstorm, and with snow higher than the tops of his boots, as they lit the bonfire and sung songs about spring.
“It was a crazy year!” he declared laughing.
When I asked him if his cane was magic, he said that yes, it was. Inside the mundane exterior, he kept his magic wand. He didn’t use it every day, but took it out to spread magic around on special occasions.
I came to think of how this old man was just like his cane: an ordinary old man on the outside, with a heart of gold and wondrous tales to tell on the inside.
That is, after all, the magic and beauty of life, don’t you think?
Burn baby burn!
Imagine this: the cold grip of winter is finally letting go at the end of April. The days are longer and warmer and cattle finally come outside to graze. The dead wood of winter is piled high in enormous bonfires, which blaze in order to keep the evil spirits away. For as everyone knows, the curtain between the living and the dead is a thin one. Winter is being kicked out – and spring is being warmly embraced.
This description sums up an ancient pagan tradition in Scandinavia and Northern Europe that still goes on today. (It’s called Valborg in Sweden; otherwise known as Walpurgis Eve.)
Lighting the fire
Go forward a thousand years or so to the 8th century… a British nun called Walpurga goes to Germany, where she runs a convent that was very important at that time. The Germans also celebrate April 30 – known there as ‘the witches’ Sabbath’ – as it is the time when witches were supposed to celebrate with their gods and await the arrival of Spring.
Singing in the spring
Walpurga becomes a saint and her holy day just happens to fall on the same day as the old pagan ritual. Put them together: bonfires, singing songs to usher in the spring and St. Walpurga’s feast day – and you have Walpurgis Eve in Sweden, still celebrated in much the same way as it was thousands of years ago.
Amazing how much change the world has seen, and yet, how traditions stay so deeply rooted and unchanging.
Oh, and I met a wizard with a silver-topped cane by the fire… Come back tomorrow to find out what magic he weaved….
The bonfire
For more traditions, please visit: That’s My World!
Animals – on ice
A while ago, back in March, I seized the chance to see some exotic and unusual creatures in a cold climate…
First off were some joyful creatures from warm countries. They didn’t have any difficulty adapting to the icy conditions over here. Indeed, they seemed to thrive in the cold!
Gloria (the hippo) and Marty (the zebra)
Others were born on the ice – and graced us with their orange synchronized dancing..
And then, just when we thought we’d seen the best, magical winged creatures flittered and fluttered about, making proud parental hearts burst with pride.
If we can’t go to Madagascar, then the next best thing is to bring Madagascar to us!
For more exotic creatures, please visit: Camera Critters!
Who says what?