Invincible summer
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.
Albert Camus
This quotation sums up my year, inspires me when life gets tough and helps me look forward to the future with hope.
May you carry summer in your hearts all year round – and may the coming year be kind to you.
For more skies, please visit: Skywatch.
Eye candy
Christmas Eve is when Santa visits kids in Sweden, so Christmas Day was a chance to take it easy and enjoy the day.
To admire thoughtful gifts like these gorgeous silver earrings. Unique too.
(Sir Pe bought two necklaces and then had the shop make earrings out of them instead.)
It was also a day to play around with new toys: like my macro lens.
Sometimes eyes are shutters, or windows, to the inside –
And sometimes they reflect the world outside.
Like this photo: the family at the breakfast table, the mural on the wall,
The soft snow outside, me with my camera and my daughter’s beautiful eye.
(Sorry if you find the reflection of her eyelashes slightly freaky.)
“The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.” — Emerson
If I looked into your eyes, what would I see?
For more eye-catching photos, please visit: My World.
Blackbird
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly. — The Beatles
It’s been a tough year for many of us. Knocked down, heartbroken.
But we’re still standing, still choosing to stand up and fly.
Are you?
For more stories, please visit: Camera Critters.
The warming cold
- 25 C out. Swaddled like a penguin, I march out with the dog in defiance of the cold.
Glowing cheeks, icicles in nose, frosty eyelashes.
Mountains of snow to thrill and chill.
Feeling frozen. Living in this Viking freezer.
Suddenly, a warming sight greets me.
A golden sun painting the scene with warm yellow tones.
Beauty that takes my breath away and leaves me
Anticipating the next cold walk at sunset.
For more Christmas skies, please visit: Skywatch!
Festive
Christmas is a festive season – no matter how humble the decoration.
(Here are some creative ones I found at the Botanical Gardens in Stockholm recently.)
A pile of fir branches decorated with merry red apples that match cheeks rosy from the cold is a wonderful sight.
Imagination can weave peppercorns into a bauble for the tree…
… While spicy oranges spread fragrance and joy.
But perhaps the most festive decorations of all are the ones created by nature herself:
A lovely snowflake, the tinkling laugh of a child, an icy tree lit up by the sun so that it glitters
To remind us of the fleeting magic of the moment.
Christmas Eve is the big day for those of us living in Sweden. I wish you all much love and wonder.
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas;
Star and angels gave the sign.
~Christina Rossetti
For more stories, please visit: My World!
Frosted contemplation
Oscar’s advice if you’re feeling stressed in the run up to the holidays.
“Stay calm. Stop and remain still. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Be thankful for what you have. And remember that you have enough and you are enough.
Enjoy the moment. Enjoy the holidays!”
For more frosty greetings, please visit: Camera Critters.
Snowy branches
A glowing band of light
Snowy branches.
A December sunset.
The time? A quarter to three in the afternoon!
The days are short.
But it’s not their length that I focus on, but their depth.
For more stories, please visit: Skywatch.
The triumph of light
December 13 is the festival of St. Lucia (which I have described on this blog before).
Throughout Sweden, choirs of girls and boys dressed in white and bearing candles sing lovely songs about hope and comfort. And for a few moments, we stop and listen to the message they bring.
They sing about bringing light and hope to the darkness of winter;
About warmth and compassion in the heart of coldness.
Lucia is a time of lighting candles and remembering that we are like those candles -
A small thing, but one that can light the flame of another.
And as we give light to another, our own light increases -
Spreading the beauty, no matter how insignificant we are.
It’s about remembering that after the dark, the sun returns -
Just like we do.
(Oh – and it’s also about drinking spiced mulled wine and enjoying saffron buns!)
For more stories, please visit:. My World.
Harmony in textures
If I could see the world with the eye of an artist, then I’d see the pleasing curve of a stone or the texture of sand dunes in the moonlight.
As it is, I’m happy to make do with the beautiful wake a single duck can create
And the harmony of swirls, shapes and colours in a setting sun at the end of a glorious summer’s day.
What textures do you enjoy in your life?
For more stories, please visit: Camera Critters.
Sky, intimated
Somewhere between the first melting snow of autumn
And the snowstorms of winter, the sun shines so luminously -
Like a bright diamond – that you don’t have to see the sun to know it’s there
Creating frosty masterpieces of fragile glass against a blue blue sky
And illuminating the tiny details of the branches, of life
So that for one breathless moment, it’s like living in a house made of stained glass sky.
For more stories, please visit: Skywatch!
Weather metaphors
The weather is a good metaphor for life.
Even in extreme conditions, it’s your point of view that decides whether life is beautiful or not.
Sometimes it helps to explore the thrills of the small things in life: like snowflakes on the handle of a spade.
See how they cling together, giving each other warmth and beauty? How together they can transform the mundane into – dare I say it – something better than themselves.
And even there, when you are out on a limb, you can still dare to veer off your path, to create your own loveliness.
See how those flakes are hanging down, stuck together with nothing but moisture, perseverance, a little faith – and some love.
That’s the miracle of life: each one of us unique, and clinging together to create beauty where we can.
For more stories, please visit: My World.
On thin ice
The snows have come at last! Along with the extreme cold…
It’s deceptive really, because you might think that the ice on the lake is thick enough to walk on.
One minute, you’re a dog blending in with the gold of the reeds…
… the next, you’re playing on the ice.
It’s thin enough to scare the wits out of your owner. She calls you back.
You try. There’s an ominous crack and your back legs slide into the water.
Luckily, it’s shallow and you make it back to land. You show your owner your icy bottom.
There doesn’t seem to be any harm done.
Quite the opposite.
Playing on thin ice seems to be invigorating.
(But it wreaks havoc with your owner’s nerves.)
So, it’s play on firm ground from now on…
… until the ice sets, that is.
For more thrilling stories, please visit: Camera Critters.
Misty dog
Our world is now white and icy – covered in a blanket of silent snow.
But only a few weeks ago, November put on a display of misty rainbow magic.
The frosted jetty, a wet dog
And a glorious morning sky lost in mist and water.
For more magical moments, please visit: Skywatch.
Who says what?