We drove back to our summer house and as I was sitting by the fireplace it started raining and I went from window to window trying to capture it. These are the unedited photos 😊
Rain, rain and rainbow
Category: Photography
Lens Artists Challenge#256: Inspiration Found in the Kitchen
I am hosting this week’s Lens Artists Challenge with a theme of Inspiration found in the kitchen. That is often a place I find something to photograph in an hour of need. It can be a view from the kitchen window or an interior shot of the kitchen. As we know, kitchens may vary from an alley kitchen to an open plan or kitchen-diner. More importantly, the kitchen hides a huge number of small details. Here are some ideas: cultery, glasses, pots and pans. I have done my share of these shots. Food photography, recipe ingredients, as well as a cooked meal can also be found in your kitchen. The possibilities for all kinds of variations are an endless source of inspiration. Let your creativity flow.
I am lucky to have two kitchens. The following items have found their way to my summer house. As you can see from some dust and spiderwebs, these are not in use, but make for nice photos.
Now I have one request and hope you play along. Please share a photo of your favorite cup. No explanations are necessary but hoped for. My cup is old and used to belong to my husband’s grandmother. It is pretty and vintage. I like it. Most importantly, you can have a nice cup of coffee in it.
I cannot make a post about kitchen inspiration without a shot of food. Pizza, with air dried ham, mozzarella and rucola. So good.
I hope you found inspiration and share your kitchen discoveries with us.
Remember to link to this post and use the Lens-Artists tag in the reader section. Next week Philo of Philosophy Through Photography will be presenting a wonderful challenge so look for her post.
If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, click here for more info.
Nature- Cacti
Not the typical plant to Finland, so obviously these are not from here, the locations were i took these are Red Rock area in Nevada and Nice in France. The last set is from Crete with yellow flowers.
Cacti, the so important part of nature in the desert. I found these as I went through my archive for this challenge Cacti
I found these as I went through my archive for Denzil’s NPC #18 Cacti
Friends
My grandson made a new friend and is so proud that he can walk without adults back and forth between the two houses here at the country house.
Summer 2023-9
For Cee´s Flower of the Day.
watching the clouds go by
Would you like to come cloud watching with me?
We can while away the afternoon
Just to step out of time is all we need
Looking out for the other rule
Cos there’s no place
I’d rather be
There’s no one
I’d rather see
Would you like to come cloud watching with me?
We can watch the world roll on by
Dreaming up all the endless possibilities
Staring into the open sky
Song by Abigail Dobson
Happy bee , be Happy
Summer holiday and at the summer house, so I am a bit slow in replies as the days are filled with three active grandchildren screaming and playing around. I had forgotten how much food boys consume…. 🙂 But this is a post about bees 🐝 and butterflies 🦋
Midnight
Midnight at my house in the countryside, love the summer light and yesterday we had some rain so the mist created a lovely atmosphere
The trees framed the scene beautifully
summer 2023 – 8
June, summer is here even though the temperatures are not that high. Nature is giving us its best that’s for sure. Midsummer is here and we are enjoying the light.
Bees, the so important part of nature. I found these as I went through my archive for this challenge Bees
I found these as I went through my archive for Denzil’s NPC #17 Bees
Sequoia – 1
Huge mountains, rugged foothills. Gorgeous views in my opinion. Worth taking a photo in my mind.
I looked at my old photos and noticed many that I have not given too much thought to, these are two of them. In these photos from Sequoia- ( more to come)I am returning to my past style. Let the photos speak for themselves. As it what I am better at than writing 🙂
Stunning views
summer 2023 – 7
🌼 of the day! That’s it .
summer 2023 – 6
summer 2023 – 5
This morning when I saw the title of Leanne Cole’s blog post Losing a blogging friend and remembering Bren. Leanne wrote: When you look at Bren’s blog you can see a lot of flowers, she loved them too. I have put together some of my flowers in memory of her and hope you can do the same.
I got to know Bren for a short time, but she came across as caring, and encouraging person. Flowers for her memory.
I am also posting this For Cee´s Flower of the Day.
summer 2023 -4
June, summer is here even though the temperatures are not that high. Nature is giving us its best that’s for sure.
One of my favorite flowers. White lilac
The scent is so lovely
Posted for Cee’s Flower of the Day
summer 2023 – 3
June, summer is here even though the temperatures are not that high. Nature is giving us its best that’s for sure.
One of my favorite flowers. Peony.
For Cee´s Flower of the Day.
summer 2023 – 2
June, summer is here even though the temperatures are not that high. Nature is giving us its best that’s for sure.
Snails, those slimy little things that eat my plants.., . I found these as I went through my archive for this challenge Snail’s
I found these as I went through my archive NPC #16 Snails
summer 2023 – 1
June, summer is here even though the temperatures are not that high. Nature is giving us its best that’s for sure.
Birds, not my expertise at all, sometimes I get a nice shot, but sometimes is the thing as I do not have the equipment to get the spot on shots. I found these as I went through my archive for this challenge Birds feeding and drinking
I found these as I went through my archive NPC #15: Birds feeding and drinking
Floral joy~ 9
Flowers from my archive’s and camera roll.
Something different, shaken and stirred .
Lilac time
Posted for Cee’s Flower of the Day
Spring 2023 – 8
I have had the flu now for two weeks and no end in sight. I’m so tired of coughing and sneezing 🤧. I have been doing nothing, but today I am going to post few photos. Well of flowers.
Looks promising, we will get some strawberries this summer
For Cee´s Flower of the Day.
Spring 2023 – 7
I’m at my happy place, I can hear the birdsong, sound of the wind, bee’s buzzing in this so called place of silence. and smell scent of the Lily of the valley.
Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) is well known for its delicate bells and beautiful sweet scent. You’ll find lily of the valley throughout the northern hemisphere. Signifying the return of happiness, the plant is synonymous with the month of May, and it is indeed the birth flower for May.
Lily of the valley meaning
A symbol of purity, joy, love, sincerity, happiness and luck, lily of the valley . It’s actually the national flower of Finland, and in France, on 1st May for La Fête du Muguet, lily of the valleys are gifted to loved ones. This French custom dates back to the 16th century ) – symbolizing luck and happiness.
Throwback Thursday
We all have these photos … throwback photos! Don’t we just… so many. It’s described as ‘nostalgia-inducing pictures … from a different era of your life”.
This week (#TB Thursday). We visited Karhulinna ( bear castle) in Korkeasaari Zoo in 2015. I got some nice shots of the bears enjoying a smim and playing together.
Korkeasaari got its first bears already in 1888, i.e. a year before the zoo was officially founded.
Today’s Karhulinna is home to two bears, Sofia born in 2001 in Ähtäri Zoo and her female cub Yulia born in 2006 in Korkeasaari. They look very similar, but there are some differences in behavior – for example, the younger one of the bears likes to swim, but its mother is content to wade. Bears hibernate indoors in their own dens, usually from November to the beginning of March.
The bear is Finland’s largest predator, but it mostly eats plant food. It tastes soft shoots, leaves, roots, berries and grain, but also all kinds of animal food such as small mammals and fish. Despite its large size, the bear moves nimbly, climbs and swims well.
In Northern Europe, bears hibernate, when their body temperature drops a few degrees and their vital functions slow down. Hibernation is the bears’ way of surviving the long winter, when there is little food available. Before going to sleep, the bear gets fat, eating a lot of sugary berries in particular. Bear cubs are born during the mother’s hibernation in January-March. Their birth weight is only 350-500 grams. The cubs emerge from the nest in May-June, and stay with their mother for a couple of years. When the female has her young cubs with her, she avoids the males when moving, as they can kill the foreign cubs. The female does not have offspring every year.
Pages
Photo of an old ledger and a book I am now reading, maybe this tells that I don’t have all that many grand ideas to take photos off 🙂
Garlic
Practicing my food photography.
Garlic was my choice this time. I add garlic to so many foods, and lots of it. Even now my hands smell of garlic as I just put a pan on stove to simmer, making pasta sauce.
Onions I’ve done several times so, this is a slight change.
“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”
Those are famous words from the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, often called the father of Western medicine.
He prescribed garlic to treat a variety of medical conditions — and modern science has confirmed many of these beneficial health effects.
Fast facts on garlic
In many countries, garlic has been used medicinally for centuries.
Garlic may have a range of health benefits, both raw and cooked.
It may have significant antibiotic properties.
Floral joy~ 8
Flowers from my archive’s and camera roll.
Something different, shaken and stirred .
Photographs were taken at the Botanical Garden in Helsinki, and I do not remember the name of the flower. It is pretty, it is orange and that’s all good.
Posted for Brens Floral Friday – For Cee’s Flower of the Day.
Warm
Warm in and outside, the joy of cottage life
Throwback Thursday
We all have these photos … throwback photos! Don’t we just… so many. It’s described as ‘nostalgia-inducing pictures … from a different era of your life”.
This week (#TB Thursday). Thursday is filled with memories the past, in honor of my mother who passed away too soon, 35 year ago. Obviously these are from a different era and I did not take them.
My mom and her twin and in couple her older sister. I also added one with her and my dad, both passed away too soon. It was more of a custom to have your photo taken in a studio, now we take selfies.
Well on photo from me a throwback rose from my visit to see my sister in Vancouver in 2013. My sister a mom of four unfortunately has also moved to the greener pastures as the saying goes. Memories often hold lots of lost in them.
The last photo is of my mom’s parents and older siblings in 1930’s
Ritva Sillanmäki Photography 