Spring Wonders

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I have never seen such an abundance of snowdrops with my own eyes. To me, that’s the stuff of fairy tales, the way I imagined the woods to be, before I could see any of them in real life, when my grandfather read to me about princesses and their strange adventures. And what are these early days of spring, if not magical? You turn your head and everything blossoms in that instant you weren’t paying attention. In the blink of an eye, nature comes back to life, wild, unpredictable and astonishing. And if we’re really lucky, it can bring us back to life too, pulling us out of our jaded ways.

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Continue reading “Spring Wonders”

Autumn Roses

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Somehow, I almost missed photographing this year’s roses. Sure, I took a few photos with my phone over the summer when enjoying some relaxing walks in the park. But nothing with my camera… Whenever I had it with me, I was either set on shooting something else and didn’t have enough time or it was just too windy to bother with the roses.

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Not this autumn, though… I caught the year’s last roses during two separate photo walks. The season has left some interesting marks on their leaves and petals, but I still think they look amazing. Well, I do love roses in general, so I might be biased…

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I know it’s the season of colourful leaves, but since the most spectacular colours are still a week or two away in my area, I thought I’d offer you some autumn roses. And as these autumn days are getting shorter and gloomier for a myriad or reason, as the future seems bleak to many of us and we might feel tempted to give in to depression, I hope they bring you a bit joy.

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Autumn Beaches #15

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Well, this is it for my September beaches. I hope you enjoyed the photos and that they managed to impart some of the tranquillity and relaxation I’ve experienced during these walks.

Have a nice autumn, everyone! Don’t forget to be understanding. Stay safe!

Autumn Beaches

It’s finally here… autumn! Balmy September days, empty beaches just right for a delightful walk… we, locals, have taken back the seaside. In fact, if I didn’t live here, this would most likely be the time I’d take a few days to relax by the sea. In most cases, September weather is still great beach weather, I was reminded the other day. Sure, there still are some tourists who clearly share my opinion, but somehow, they always seem less disturbing than the summer crowd – less intrusive, less demanding, less entitled…. And generally less, as in not so many of them.

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Right… my point is, September beaches are wonderful. Perhaps not always spectacular, not always as life imbued as they are in the summer, but endlessly relaxing and accommodating. So I’d like to share some images of these September beaches with you over the following days. Many of them are taken with my phone during the one impromptu walk when I didn’t have my camera. Spectacular or not, I want to share these soothing moments with you, hoping to bring you a moment of peace. Enjoy!

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Spring Joy

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Spring 2020, a time of fear, death and lockdown, was also a time of understanding the value of something as simple as freedom of movement. Perched on my windowsill, I photographed birds, trees and flowers, wishing I could be out there, walk in a park or on a beach, go for a hike, the way I had done countless times before. Once I learned what it felt like to no longer have it, I promised myself to no longer take that sort of pleasure for granted in the future.

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Spring 2022 is also a time of fear, death and freedom appreciation, albeit of a different kind. It’s shaking us to the core, yet again making us question our values and actions. Or at least so it should… although we, humans, seem to have repeatedly failed to learn our lesson.

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Once again, it’s time for coping mechanisms to kick in. I don’t know about you, but I refuse to ignore or deny the harsh reality; at the same time, I’m also trying to keep that small promise I made myself back in 2020, because I do need to find something uplifting to just keep me going, and not going crazy.

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In an attempt to put a smile on your faces and mine, hoping to bring you some joy, I’m going to share some images I’ve captured while trying to escape my own thoughts this spring. Nature’s beauty and innocence can still provide such a soothing refuge… I hope you enjoy them.

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Stay safe, everyone! And instead to endeavouring to return to a kind of “normal” which is exactly the root of our problems, maybe we could learn from our past mistakes.