Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #105 – Spring

Spring invites us into a fairy land of imagination where flowers bloom with joy, butterflies fly with song, and love dances with love.
― Debasish Mridha

This week, Tina is our host on Spring. ”Noted by poets and lyricists as a season of hope and renewal, spring teaches us that despite (or perhaps because of) the hardships of winter, our world will once again blossom with new life.  As we continue to deal with the issues of the day, spring teaches us to remain hopeful despite our challenges.”

Yes, there will always be more written on Spring – the joy, the returning of the light and the renewal of life. In southern Sweden, where I live, the cranes are the first heralds of spring, gigantic V – ploughs in the skies, heading for their breeding places up north.

Magic birds were dancing in the mystic marsh. The grass swayed with them, and the shallow waters, and the earth fluttered under them. The earth was dancing with the cranes, and the low sun, and the wind and sky.

― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Every year, in March and the beginning of April, tens of thousands of cranes return from Africa to Sweden to rest at Hornborgasjön. This day, in 2014, there were more than 19000 of them. Their trumpeting calls were deafening, but their dancing joy was pure ballet.

I watch the trees all dressed up in the Spring,
While posing as they stand in line,
Placing their best foot forward, showing off their leaves and fighting for attention,
One tree at a time
― Charmaine J Forde 

Trees are at my heart, and this forest is my home every day – not the least in May.

Spring is not a season; it is a mysterious illusionist who sets off fireworks in the depths of our soul!
― Mehmet Murat ildan

When the rapeseed unleashes its yellow flames – I am there with camera, and eyes aglow.

It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.
― Rainer Maria Rilke 

This cherry tree was planted when my daughter Emma was born, 30 years ago.

In the winter you may want the summer; in the summer, you may want the autumn; in the autumn, you may want the winter; but only in the spring you dream and want no other season but the spring!
― Mehmet Murat ildan

I enjoy the spring more than the autumn now. One does, I think, as one gets older.
― Virginia Woolf

Tina writes that ”We have been given the gift of time – to learn more about ourselves and the world around us, and to develop a new or renewed appreciation for living every moment.” I am convinced this is a lesson for us all, and even more for some. Hopefully we will come out better humans, humans knowing that we should not return completely to the old ways of living. What we need is a sustainable world – and that is the gift we must hand over to our children.

Thank you for all your funny, creative and lovely summer memories and we hope to see you next week, when Patti is our host for Autumn. Until then, stay safe and well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday Thoughts – Searching for Orchids

I mentioned in my delicate colours post, that I originally went out to find the orchids –

– but they were not yet there. I guess it has been too cold a spring for them.

The yellow archangel is another favourite in May – lightening up the forest shadows. Just like angels should.

When I silently reached the wetlands the air was filled with nightingale song and…

…my heart was filled with bumble bees.

I was not alone on the hike, several elderly couples were out with backpacks of ”fika” – the best Swedish word ever…

This boardwalk leads over the orchid fields – but the only flower to be found yet, is another beauty –

– bogbean or buckbean. I find it almost as lovely as an orchid anyway. It will be my closing image before returning home again on the dirt road.  Getting hungry now!

And…it is not me who’s been running over the furrows…

Thursday Thoughts – And I do Love Cows!

Hiking in spring always means meetings with cattle.

And they are always very curious…especially when dogs are around.  In the opener a gang that followed us through their meadow and almost over the fence…

Old farmsteads with apple trees and cherry trees – what could be more beautiful?

Only the cows!

Wordless Wednesday

Thursday Thoughts – Hiking, but not 2020

For so many years we have hiked this beautiful national park during April…

…but not this year. We used to go the whole family, and all our dogs have made it to the top of the mountain at least a dozen times each. We follow the water for about an hour,

then the track turns around the bend and for a while we walk the footbridges.

I searched my archives to find some memories from years gone by,

and here is something of the early spring loveliness as we struggle up the tough slopes.

On the plateau, old trees have come to rest, and younger ones softly lean over the precipice. We stop to admire before the long walk down to the pond where we started.

I miss this hike, but this is 2020, the year of corona and covid-19.

I will be back though – I promise…maybe next spring.

 

 

 

Hope

For Frank. Feelings of Hope will touch our heart – all over the world.

Yellow is the colour of my…

Friendly Friday today, a subject well chosen –  Yellow

Ronneby Brunn – the famous Blekinge garden in Spring

Buttercup glory

Oh, those mild evenings in golden sun – so longed for

You may say I’m a dreamer…

For Debbie and Six Word Saturday

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #48 – Wild

“In wildness is the preservation of the world.”  – Henry David Thoreau

Tina encourages us this week to go Wild! And, this time of the year I spend as much time as possible outdoors, in the wild, so my decision was easy – to go for my own neighborhood and use the most common meanings of the word Wild (according to Wikipedia) –

 

Wild animal – I met this lovely deer on my morning tour a couple of days ago. She noticed me of course, but waited patiently in the sunlit glade until I was gone.

Wilderness – a wild natural environment not significantly modified by human activity.

Wildlife traditionally refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Represented in the header by a wild rose.

One of the most fascinating things in the wild is the metamorphosis of butterflies. Here some caterpillars of the small tortoiseshell, feeding on stinging nettles…

…but later developing into these beauties – Wild Wonders!

Finally, Wildness – the quality of being wild or untamed……easily recognizable even in domesticated animals – such as my dogs running and chasing each other like maniacs.

 

Would you like to go wild for a moment? Welcome to join in! Tag your entry ”Lens-Artists” so we can find you in the reader. And stay tuned for next week’s host, Patti, for challenge #49!

Thursday Thoughts – Early Mornings

Spring is my favorite season, and early Spring mornings are my favorite hours of the day.

Everything is calm, but – nature is so very alive, vibrating with life.

The meadows bloom, the waters flow merrily in the streams.

I rejoice in the birds’ song, and feel the joy in every living thing…

I wish we could all feel that joy and contentment. Harmony. At least some moments every week. I know I am lucky to live in the middle of nature, but I also know that nature is the best healer for most things troubling our human life.

Go seek it – Harmony. If you have an open mind, you will find it. In Nature.