Wonderful firsts
It’s always exciting to experience the first stirrings of spring.
And even though they happen every year, it feels as if I were experiencing them
For the very first time.
It’s magical when the ice finally melts …
When the first patch of crocuses appear in the neighbours’ garden…
When we can finally get out into the woods again
And witness birds singing on trees.
Even the faded beauty of an old cottage in the woods
Takes on new beauty
And the old window
Reflects back a stately tree.
Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect. -Alan Cohen
For more fresh starts, please visit: Our World.
The many shades of cold
Since we’ve had fresh snow and sinking temperatures –
Down to minus 19 C this week –
I am inspired to show you the colours of cold.
Sometimes the cold is a golden fog,
Sometimes an intense orange framed by trees.
When the dawn is really cold,
The fingers of the sun paint the treetops
With frosted red.
My favourite winter colour
Has to be the diamond carpet of snow
Topped off by dazzling blue skies and sun –
It’s moments like these that lift my spirits.
For more winter/summer shots, please visit: Skywatch.
Spring Schpring!
People want to know if I’m tired of winter and longing for the spring.
The answer is no.
Late winter is a fabulous time of dazzling sun;
Of lacy art made out of ice and rainbows:
Of exhilarating days of trees made out of curtains of lace.
It’s still minus 14C when we wake up
Making it pleasant to walk on the iced over lake
To enjoy the sight of sunken boats and endless blue skies.
The secret to happiness is not to long for something you don’t have
But to enjoy fully what you do have.
For more bedazzled posts, please visit: Our World.
Frosted freedom
For nearly three weeks,
My world has been wrapped
In shades of silver and grey.
I can never get enough of
One of my favourite winter scenes –
Silver-haired trees
And hoar frost on birdhouse and bridge.
The scene has both thrills and beauty
When a sudden snow shower
Sprinkles Oscar, my dog, with diamonds of snow.
For more frosted shots, please visit: Our World Tuesday.
Feeling the joy
Oscar may be over ten years old now,
But he never loses his joy for life –
And teaches me so much
About just living in the moment.
The only sign of spring around here
Is the spring in our steps
As we rush out to play in the snow.
For more Zen, please visit: Camera Critters.
Pushing the limits
Yesterday the temperature dropped down to minus 25 C
In the frosted early morning.
I went out on the ice – but stayed out way too long -
One and a half hours… With no breakfast.
Came back with a frost damaged face
And spent the rest of the day in bed sick.
Just goes to show that you shouldn’t
Be bound by your limits –
But you should know what your limits are!
Thank you in advance for your kind comments – I won’t be replying to them today
As I need to recover.
For more unlimited posts, please visit: Camera Critters.
The silhouettes of summer
What is more beautiful
Than the setting of a glowing sun
On a fiery summer’s evening –
And the perfect ending
To a perfect day?
For more perfection, please visit: Skywatch.
Talking leaves
It starts as a whisper…
Urging me to go outside and discover the beauty of the day.
I think it’s the leaves talking, don’t you?
Sometimes the September sun is so bright
That you just can’t help posing in its gold;
Other times, the early morning mist
Creates a soft scarf of wisps,
And as you walk on,
You might discover a tiny universe of dew
Or the grand sight of a heron basking in the first rays of light
Before flying off into the distance –
Leaving you all the richer for having seen his graceful flight.
For more tiny slices of beauty, please visit: Our World.
A true gift
So many summer gifts –
Two best buddies hanging out by the lake
And a spectacular sunset to lift the soul.
The best gift you can give anyone
Is a part of yourself.
For more beauty, please visit: Skywatch.
And Camera Critters.
Postcard from July
July sent me a delicate gauze of web,
With golden sparkles instead of spiders;
A tiny fairy horse
Amid a meadow of flowers;
And the delight of a playful dog
With the summer sun in his coat.
For more postcards, please visit: Camera Critters.
Don’t forget you can still enter my give-away here.
Laughing in flowers
Spring sent me a bouquet of tulips
As a reminder that rays of beauty
Are also important in this modern world
Of practicality.
Or in the words of Basho:
The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.
Spring also sent me a wonderful reminder
To stop, to wonder
And to take the time to smell the flowers.
For more reminders, please visit: Our World.
The symphony
The tree looks on
As if it knows the truth:
That the best symphony
Is the music of a sunset
And the laughter of a child with her dog.
For more musical skies, please visit: Skywatch.
Winter rules
When winter comes around and the cold wind is blowing,
You have to learn how to enjoy it.
Rule 1: Revel in it (and maybe take an ice bath?)
Rule 2: Explore the beauty
Rule 3: Take a look around and smile – the world is beautiful and you’re alive!
For more rules, please visit: Camera Critters.
Of snow and love
At last – the snow fell as lightly as butterflies
Bringing out the child-like spirits in us all.
It turned the world
Into a snowy poem,
And leaves into fluffy pillows of white.
The magic of the snow is that it
Makes the world a softer place,
A kinder place where dreams can grow.
The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love. — Margaret Atwood
For more poems, please visit: Our World.
September daze
There is something glorious about the late September light.
It warms the heart
And lights up unexpected autumn cameos
In hidden pockets of the woods.
It unfurls ribbons of water
Inviting you to take a dip if you’re brave enough;
And, on the last day of September,
Its glorious golden rays turn the woods into a painting
That speaks of children climbing in the trees
All the way up to the sky
To touch that lovely light
And spread it to the world like laughter.
For more cameos, please visit: Our World.
Old Faithful
I couldn’t hope for a more loyal or sweet friend with four paws.
One who wags his tail more often than his tongue
And who is always happy to see me.
“You may have a dog that won’t sit up, roll over or even cook breakfast, not because she’s too stupid to learn how but because she’s too smart to bother.”
- Rick Horowitz, Chicago Tribune
For more non-breakfast-cooking animals, please visit: Camera Critters.
Hot dogs
It seems as if only a few short weeks ago, we still had snow on the ground.
Wait a minute, it was only a few weeks ago!
The heat came on suddenly, hardly giving spring a chance to do its thing.
Oscar feeling the heat...
When I say it’s hot, I mean it’s hot for here.
29 C for us is probably someone else’s winter – I do realize that.
However, it’s been much hotter indoors as our boiler went haywire and decided to pump out as much heat as possible — 24 hours a day.
Our house is designed to keep in the heat so it was like living and sleeping in a sauna.
A hot dog we met out on a walk...
Ah well, there is only one solution to the problem… if you’re a dog called Oscar.
(As for us humans, a nice man came and fixed the boiler.)
For more long-tongued creatures, please visit: Camera Critters.
The boy
Is there anything more pleasant than skimming knees and stones with your best buddy when you’re a young boy?
There’s a boy like this in every class: noisy, unafraid and full of life.
But somewhere along the line, he was too full of life –
Leading to problems at school, and visits to doctors
And then, a diagnosis with four letters.
Somehow, that label stuck with him, and although he’s only 11,
People whisper about his tantrums, violent outbursts and shake their heads.
I know this boy. He’s the one who walked up to school with me the other day,
The one bursting with love and wonder and tenderness
At the birth of his baby sister.
He spent 20 minutes describing how wonderful she is.
Yes – there’s a boy like this in every class.
Which leads me to wonder if the only labels kids really need are the four letters: L O V E.
For more stories, please visit: Camera Critters.
I’d like to give a special shout-out to Jillsy’s May Challenge, which is about childhood. Why not join in?
Deep purple
There might not have been any smoke on the water –
We had to make do with snow and ice and lively dog.
But there was certainly some fire in the sky
In lovely shades of purple and rose.
I spied a plane flying off into the delights of a vibrant silken cloud
Made up of pink and purple and magic.
The hooded clouds, like friars,
Tell their beads in drops of rain.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
For more skies, please visit: Skywatch.
Joyful
Sometimes when you’re enjoying the colours of the setting sun,
You just can’t help but feel the joy bubbling up inside you
Until it tickles and delights
And make you want to roll around in happiness.
All we have to do is open our arms (or paws) and welcome in the joy of the day!
For more happy pets, please visit: Camera Critters.
A real Viking winter
February is traditionally the coldest month in Sweden. And it hasn’t disappointed us yet…
The weekend dawned bright and very cold. And when I say cold, I mean colder than – 25 C.
So, what do Vikings do during the winter ?
Well, they (by which I mean Sir Pe) fetch the newspaper in dressing gown and bare feet…
They (by which I mean me) spend a long, long time getting dressed.
Thermals on, three layers on the legs and a further five layers on the torso underneath that warm winter jacket.
Don’t forget the balaclava – winter’s must-have fashion accessory.
It goes nicely with icy hair and glasses!
Vikings (by which I mean me again) take their dogs out for long walks in the cold
Pausing for a few seconds to enjoy the scenery.
Eventually they stumble home
Because there is so much ice on the inside and outside of their glasses that they can hardly see a thing.
They warm up inside, ready to do it all over again at lunch time!
You don’t have to be crazy to enjoy a Viking winter – but it helps.
For more crazy tales, please visit: My World.
N-ice!
The cold temperatures have coated my world with …
… delightful frosty beards,
delicious sugar-coated berries
and an amazing waterfall of ice.
For more stories, please visit: My World.
The boys of summer
Sometimes a glorious summer evening explodes with sunny delight.
Calling your name so that you have to get out there and enjoy that light.
You rush to get yourself a set of wheels and you’re off!
Small or big, gliding is the only way to meet the intense joy of a light night.
And no matter how tough you look, there is still an appreciative spirit inside…
You are never too tough to enjoy a lovely sunset.
It really is all too easy to judge people by the way they look, isn’t it?
For more great shots, 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!
Who says what?