Every single photograph tells a story.
It was a hot day and I was walking slowly on a country road.
Rich smells of sunflower, of grass and corn were everywhere.
It is so amazing how much beauty is around us and how many interesting beings.
But, in front of your screen, you will never able to feel the wind bringing the scent of sunflower. In best case, seeing this image you will recall a beautiful moment from the past.
Playing with colours.
Fortunately, we live in a place where fog isn’t very present all over the year.
I totally dislike fog because I love light and if there is not enough light I easily get depressed.
But if I have the chance to visit some places where fog is present even during summer, I do take photos of it.
Photo taken in 2013.
Definitely one of my all time favourite.
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far into the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”― Rainer Maria Rilke
Many times I watch honey bees. When I was just a kid I was afraid of them, and only their name terrified me. Back then, saying honey bee would mean danger.
When I grow up, I realized how gentle they are if you are gentle with the, too.
I don’t know how gentle are the honey bees from the place where you live, but the one in the picture above ( an Apis mellifera) is very gentle. If a bee is on a flower and you bring your finger very, but very close to the flower and you touch the bee, she will avoid your finger and will continue to collect pollen. Only if you use force and pressure, be sure she will sting you.
Bees do not visit all the flowers without discrimination, nor indeed do they seek to carry away entire those upon which they light, but rather, having taken so much as is adapted to their needs, they let the rest go.
St. Basil the Great
We are surrounded by so many beautiful things and we don’t even know it. Or, worse, we say there is enough time for all.
Maybe there is enough time, but what if there is no more enough time for me (or you)?
What if this is the last day when I am able to see?
You don’t want to think about such things but yet…there are chances, unfortunately.
I keep asking myself what I will do if one day I will be a blind man?
How others will know what I was enjoying? How I will be able to show them the world as I saw it and yet not seeing it anymore?
My answer is: through the photographs I have taken.
I try to document many things like my belongings, our garden, our street, our neighbours, my dogs, our neighbour’s plants, the fields around our village, the forests, clouds, trees, bugs, and many other things. I take photos of my family, of my friends and of strangers.
You might say these things will always be there, or at least for a long time starting now. But the real live has proven to me that …you never know when you see something for the last time.
And I will give you two examples:
First one: about two years ago I was off for a while. When I returned home, I took my bicycle and had a ride. I was shocked to notice that somewhere, about 3 kilometers away our house, a large area of forest has been cut down.
By chance, just a few weeks before I had taken a few shots of some trees, branches and leaves from that place. I was sure they will still be there for a couple of years and I will keep returning year after year. I was so wrong…
Second one: my grandmother was blind for way too many years before she died…Then I didn’t understand her and neither her special needs. Maybe one day …I will…
Enjoy this journey called life. Take photos of your wife, husband, children, grandparents, friends, neighbours, even of yourself, of your belongings, of your street, of your town, of everything you enjoy and of many things which you think will be there at least for many years. You never know when they will disappear…
European bee-eaters are very colourful, incredible beautiful birds.
At the beginning of May they return from Africa, where they winter. They eat insects (especially bees, wasps, butterflies and dragonflies).
Bee-eaters are 28 cm long, under 70 gr weight and have a wingspan of about 40 cm.
They live in large colonies. After they return from Africa, they dig tunnels in clay banks and make their nests inside. At the beginning of August, their chicks learn how to fly and how to catch insects.
After yellowhammers, bee-eaters are my favourites birds.
Since I was a kid I know their calls even if, at that time, I had no idea how they were looking like.
I think this is a juvenile bird because I noticed that adult birds have two elongated central tail feathers.
This photo shows one leg of a Honey bee (Apis mellifera), fully loaded with pollen.
The flower is a dandelion.
I don’t know if you have this little bird there where you live. Maybe it’s interesting for you to hear some of their calls.
It is a permanent resident of our garden.
In April 2015 I recorded some calls of Great tit.
Usual call:
I think this is a worried call:
And a even more worried call
Spring’s arrival has many signs, especially plants and birds. For me, the song of cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is one of those signs.
It was and it still is a joy to hear this mysterious bird singing on fields around our house.
I knew cuckoo it is a brood parasite but seemed to me like a fairytale, like something which might not be very true.
A few months ago I watched on YouTube some videos with chicks of cuckoo ejecting eggs of Reed Warbler out of the nest, I watched videos of small birds feeding huge cuckoo chicks and I could not believe it!
Until a few days ago when I was riding my bicycle and suddenly heard a noise, something like a chick begging for food.
I noticed a bird on a wire .
At the beginning, I didn’t recognized it but after a few moments I was sure it was a cuckoo chick.
And I waited to see who is feeding him.
I was amazed to see how such a little bird as a warbler was flying and catching insects and carrying them to its ‘chick’.
Cuckoo doesn’t kill small birds, but sometimes eats eggs and chicks.
I am back after a long break. 🙂 Hope all of you are in good health.
I can’t wait to read your posts and see your beautiful images.
Unfortunately, past months (if I am not wrong, past 8 months) I hadn’t enough free time for blogging.
I would like to read your latest posts. If you are one of those fabulous people I already know, be sure I will pay you a visit in the following days. If you are new here then write me a comment and I will more than glad to see your blog.
Thank you!
Nice to be here again!
Cornell's photos and words 