Water Lilly - Summer's Ametrine

This summer Mr and I went back to our own personal paradise - the hotel where we got married six years ago. I can't describe how special that place is to us, and how blissful it is. The garden is beautiful, filled with exotic flowers, the food is delicious and it's calm in a way that is hard to find anywhere else. An ideal holiday spot if you lead a stressful life.

It's a long trip to Thailand, so we don't go there very often, and therefore I tried to savor every moment and convert all of the little details to memory - the sweetness of the humid air, the sound of the wind blowing and the ocean waves crashing in, the intense sunlight and the aromas from the restaurant. If only my mind could take "pictures" like my camera can.

Memory is a fleeting thing, I can remember all off the sensations of our paradise - if I close my eyes - the trouble is that it makes me want to inhale deeply, and as I do, I am stuck cold by the arid Swedish air and the scents of the upcoming autumn.

Speaking of autumn, W1K will do an autumn 30-day challenge in September, and I'm trying hard to think of a theme that is easy enough to fit my busy life, but in the same interesting enough to develop my skills. Any suggestions are welcome!

Oh, and since I've now caught up with August, you'll have to wait a few days for my August shot to compete before you get to see it here. Thus, the calender will now be updated monthly.

See you around, the 30-day challenge starts come September :)

/MrsHjort

Daisy - June's Morganite

I've had a terrific day today! I love my new job! I currently work as a high school teacher and I had this semester's first classes today. The student's were wonderfully well behaved, interested and happy. Students like these are every teacher's dream, and thanks to them, I walked home with a big smile on my face, even though it was raining pretty hard and I had forgotten my umbrella at home. I want every day to be like this, and it's why teaching is the best job in the world. Seriously, there are only daisies and sunshine in my world right now :).

Since, I now have a garden a lot of this year's calendar shots are of flowers in it, which makes my job a lot easier, now that life has grown rather busy again. I shot these in the morning, when the sun had just gone up and the air was nice and cool. This summer has been just wonderful, just like last year. It reminded me of the summers when I was a little girl - somehow I can't remember that it ever rained back then. Maybe it's just that way with happy memories - I always tend to romanticize the past, and thankfully I have a lot of happy memories. I'll add today to the lot of them, and maybe, in 50 years or so, I might look back and believe that this too was a sunny day - it certainly has had a sunny happy mood!

Cheers my friends

/MrsHjort

Globe Flower - May's Gold

Since we moved into our house last summer, a lot has changed in our garden. Trees have been cut down, others trees have been planted, we have broadened the terrace, moved around a lot of stone to frame the plantings and a lot of other things that I hardly even remember anymore, but the most noticeable change is the new leveled terraces just by our driveway.

Before, it was just a slope that was steep enough so that you wouldn't want to do anything with it. Weeding was uncomfortable (and frustrating!) and you couldn't cut the grass there without a trimmer. But after week of digging, and and other week of building up stone walls, we finally planted some flowers on the two levels.

All spring, we waited and waited for things to take root and grow, until finally, in May, the globe-flowers started blossoming. Ah, sigh... a lovely sight to be sure.

/MrsHjort

Dianthus - April's Pink Spinel

As usual I shot a lot of photos for the April contest. I hadn't planned to use this one - since there were others that I thought would do better, but sometimes the shots don't turn out the way they are supposed to and while my planned shot had too many contrasts in it, this one turned out even better than I thought it would. The mood suited the month perfectly!

April is usually kind of special here in Sweden, weather-wise. One day it's raining hard, the wind is blowing and the temperature is way down low, but the next day it's wonderful and it almost feels like summer. This shot embodies that in my eyes - the flowers are very sweet and make me think of warm spring days whilst the cool color spectra surrounding them turn my thought to those gray rainy days when you only want to stay inside.

/MrsHjort

Crocus - March's Amber

Have you ever had one of those days when you shoot hundreds and hundreds of photos until the point when you think that you don't have any energy left? You're tired of adjusting your tripod, bored from waiting (over and over again) for the wind to stop blowing, there seems to be distracting elements everywhere, and you just can't get that photo you were dreaming of, no matter what you do.

I was just about to give up when this little beauty caught my eye. Then came the question; do I have the energy for this? My answer was "no", I had been walking around with my gear all day long, and couldn't wait to get home and sit down with a nice cuppa. But in moments like that my inner "slave-driver" surfaces: "Nahahahaa! You know you'll regret it if you don't", "But I... Oh FINE!".

Strangely, it's often at this point, of almost giving up, that I get the pictures I like the most.

/MrsHjort

Snowdrops - February's White Jade

As you may have noticed, my calendar of macros is set outside and features seasonal flowers. This has worked well so far, but I'm a little nervous about autumn, and the upcoming winter - particularly about December, since practically nothing grows outside at that point. We'll see. I'll manage somehow. I really want to make it this year.

Last year I sort of didn't make it. I write "sort of" because I actually have a shot belonging to each month but because W1K was doomed at one point (and was closing down), and a deadline was moved up, I didn't have time or opportunity to shoot anything before the early deadline (sometimes life gets in the way of things). Ironically, I shot a gorgeous shot the day after, but, at that point it was too late to enter it into the monthly contest. So my 2013 calender was complete, but only unofficially - the September shot was shot in September even though it didn't make it to W1K.

Now however, W1K is under new management and we don't really know what is going to happen. Thankfully, the new owners are wise enough not to take any rash decisions, and they try to listen to what we (the users) think, but the uncertainty is a bit unsettling. I hope for the best though, like I always do :).

Anyway, enough with the "background" to the calendar. February has always been the month of the year when I desperately search for signs of spring. It's usually one of those boring months when the snow has melted away and everything is brown and wilted, which really depresses me. I waited and waited looking hard for something to shoot, growing more nervous each day, but finally, at the end of the month the snowdrops started popping up. Oh joy! Those little buds spread such anticipation and optimism. They carry the promise of spring, longer daylight and color in the otherwise naked brown nature. This spring I really took the time to enjoy the sweet air of change and watch all those little changes each day. Spring is my favorite time of the year. What's yours?

/MrsHjort

Heather - Winter's Pearl

So I just checked in here a moment ago, and, to my surprise, I found out that this place hasn't been completely dead, even though I haven't shown that I'm alive in ages! An thus I'm blowing life into this blog again by showcasing my 2014 calendar.

For those who do not know, W1K has been running calender challenges for a few years now, which basically means that you have to shot something during each month. All pictures have to have a common theme and all have to depict the month in question in some way.

If you have checked out my portfolio at W1K you might have noticed that I have a thing for floral macros, that's what I decided to go with this year. Therefore, every month will feature a floral shot, and I'll be using my fairly new macro lens for all of them.

This first shot, of course, was shot in January. The snow made it really cool and after messing around with the picture a bit in Photoshop I realized that it had a pearly glow to it that I really liked, and thus something hit me. Flowers and precious stones (and such) are both pretty, and to name my entries that way could be both fitting, and keep me on my toes - it is a great way to avoid using the same colors too much and to communicate a message at the same time. This is where my philosophical artsy side pushes away my logical alter ego, and things get sort of fuzzy and silly, but bear with me.

I really think that nature is precious. I don't mean in any political "saving the world" kind of way (even though that's obviously very important!) but in the "enjoying the little thing in life that we tend not to notice" kind of way. At least I'm that way, no, strike that, I was that way. Nowadays really I try to move away from that. Last autumn was crazy busy - and I mean crazy. I worked every day of the week and, basically, never had any time off, at all! I would literary burst into tears sometimes when my packed schedule would get disrupted due to some unforeseen circumstance. Thankfully, it only lasted til January - then came the relief of a lesser workload - but it's been really hard to let go of the stress. It goes a lot quicker to get used to extreme planning, structuring and organizing than the other way around. Anyway, to cut my ramblings short, this calender is symbolizing my path towards getting back to basics, and learning anew to stop and smell the roses. Nature is precious!

More to come.

/MrsHjort