Category: Five Photos Five Stories Challenge

Five Photos Five Days challenge Day 5

Five Photos Five Days Challenge – last day

Gulara at http://gulara vincent.com nominated me some days ago to take part in this challenge. Her recent posts in this challenge have shown her appreciation for Nature which reminds her of the beauty in the world.

To conclude my part in it, I’m showing buds.

Anais Nin: And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom –

My gardener Wayne is here today pruning the roses inter alia. I took this photo this morning of the last remaining bud. It’s in a vase now on my desk with the last of the white roses.

rosebud

My American friends were visiting some while back and gave us an air orchid which hangs on a branch of a tree up against the wall. When they visited several months after that, I was so pleased that it bloomed almost in anticipation of them arriving! I watch over it but it hasn’t bloomed in a while. But, it is showing two buds!
bud air orchid

Below is a picture of the air orchid

air orchid

 The orchid plant below was given many years ago – maybe 15 years ago – to my husband as a gift from a patient for whom he provides a pro deo service. It always bloomed prolifically and was truly a thing of beauty. We brought this large pot from our old home two years ago to the townhouse. Last year it didn’t flower, and I was concerned. Now I see 3 huge buds emerging and I am excited.

orchidSo, even though we’re in the depths of winter here in South Africa, and much looks tired and worn in my garden, there are signs of abundant life and a reminder to me that there are times that life must lie fallow and that the seeds will germinate and that this is how it is also in our own lives – cycles, wheels turning, ever changing, lying low for however long, yet ever seeking expression when the time is right –

I’ll be lying low for a while – I have a lot of work to do on the book that Susan Schwartz and I are collaborating on. Thank you for accompanying me on this 5 Day 5 photo challenge! I’ve enjoyed it very much!

I’m  nominating Samantha Mozart http://thescheherazadechronicles.org/in Delaware to continue (when she can). 

Rules for 5 photos, 5 days challenge:-

1) post a photo for each consecutive day

2) attach a story to the photo. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, a paragraph – all entirely up to you!

3) nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the nomination. This is fun, not a command performance!

5 Photos 5 Day Challenge: day 4

Day 4 of 5 Day 5 photo challenge

Gulara of http://gularavincent.com nominated me some days back to take part in the 5 day 5 photo challenge.  Her recent posts in this challenge have shown her appreciation for Nature which remind her of the beauty in the world.

Jüte, my younger son’s new fiancè, always brings us a gift when she comes up to Johannesburg with Davey, home baked cookies, dates balls covered in coconut, chocolate. When she and Davey were here in April, this orchid was delivered to my home the day after they left via courier.

Jute's orchidI’m amazed that it is still blooming; it’s shed a few petals but is still looking beautiful after several months. It’s kept indoors (although I put it outside for a moment to take the photo) and is always a reminder to me of her beauty and kindness.

outdoor orchidThis beautiful orchid above is in a pot outdoors on the patio. It is just starting to bud. I have several pots of beautiful orchids outside and it amazes me that they bloom so gloriously in winter. The purply ones below are starting to fade a little but in its place are these gorgeous white ones. There are a few pots with so many buds. I can’t wait.orchids June 2015These are the purply/pinky ones.

There is another beautiful orchid I have indoors but when I put the photo up it won’t go the right way up, no matter what I do. Somehow I’ve managed not only to publish an unfinished post, I’ve also lost my colour tag. What I HAVE managed to do, is to put the umlaut onto Jüte, and the ‘ onto fiancè … someone on FB said just hold the letter down! Thank you Ashen and Jacqui and Marian for your suggestions in my recent post!

I’m nominating Genevive of http://livealifeofgratitude.blogspot.in to continue the challenge and tomorrow I’ll be nominating Samantha Mozart on my last day.

Rules: for 5 photos, 5 days challenge

1) post a photo each day for 5 consecutive days

2) attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, a paragraph – all entirely up to you!

3) nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation! This is fun, not a command performance!

Day 3 of Five Photos Five Stories challenge

Day 3 of 5 Photos Five StoriesDavey and JuteDavid Scott & Jute Dorfling

This is the photo Davey sent me on what’s app last week when they were in Namibia with the caption ‘Jute & I are engaged!’ It must be a selfie! At first I thought Jute was drinking a cup of tea (because I’ve seen her in her pyjamas before) and was clueless as to what Davey was holding. But when I enlarged it I saw that Davey was holding a small bottle of local sparkling wine and that the tea cup was holding contents of the celebratory wine! And I can view the ring!

We are truly happy and so is Jute’s family. They’ve had a long relationship and met when they were both waitering at The Surf Cafe in Plettenberg Bay 3 1/2 years ago. They are a delight to observe in their interactions with each other. Kind, caring, loving, respectful, amusing –
davey jute

This one was taken in our garden in April this year. They were up from Cape Town to attend a wedding of a school friend of Davey’s (David wearing his father’s wedding jacket). Tomorrow I’ll post a photograph of an orchid Jute gave me in April which is still looking lovely. (Jute’s name has two dots above the ‘u’ but I’m clueless as to how to put them up/on).

Gulara of http://gularavincent.com (whose posts I always enjoy) nominated me for this challenge. She’s been posting beautiful photos of Nature just recently – for the next few days I’ll be doing the same.

Guilie at “Quiet Laughter’ in Curacao http://guilie-castillo-oriard.blogspot.com may I nominate you to pick up this 5 day 5 Photo 5 Story challenge?

Rules below:

1) post a photo each day for 5 consecutive days

2) attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non fiction, poetry, a paragraph – all entirely up to you!

3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation! This is fun, not a command performance!

Five Photos, Five Stories Day Two

2nd day of Five Photos, Five Storiestina's painting

I attend an art group meeting once a month on a Saturday morning. The people are so lovely and warm and real and I always come away from those meetings feeling alive and energised. It’s pretty unstructured – we discuss all sorts of things, from exhibitions seen or upcoming at various venues to critiquing art works that anyone may have done or are in process and which are put up for us to view.

Tina is a dear soul – she recently returned to the group after a very long absence. She left her high pressure job a few months ago and is doing other things, I’m not sure what. But her painting, her first time using oils, that she showed us yesterday morning was so alive – and still wet.  I was in such awe, it was truly vibrant and pulsing. She said how anxious she’d been about trying out oils but somehow she got herself out of her way and with abandon she painted, using different brushes for different strokes. Honestly, my photo does NOT do it justice. It looks brighter on my phone –

The first time I’d seen Tina in a long long while was when she came to the art meeting this past April and brought a fresh radish, the fruits of her gardening – I said to her that one day I would like to use a photo of this beautiful radish in a blog post and now I am!

radish 1

When I left the art meet and attended to my 67 minutes and got home later in the afternoon I attended to emails inter alia. Gulara http://gularavincent.com who nominated me for this 5 day challenge had put up her post yesterday, which was on art! And the necessity for getting out of one’s own way. And late last night I went through belatedly to Samantha’s post (the 3 day quote challenge:http://thescheherazadechronicles.org/) and while it wasn’t on art and painting as such, it was in a way as music is seen as the universal language of the arts. She provided a clip of Leo Ferre singing his composition Avec le temps. The previous evening my husband and I had listened to a CD he had bought that evening which was French music, soulful songs with very little accompaniment (accordion and piano) which added somehow to it’s depth. As Samantha was putting up her post we were listening to French music. A friend was here for supper last evening. We’ve done many hikes in the past, along the coastline of South Africa, Macchu Pichu, Kilimanjaro and we were talking about another hike in the future, somewhere. After she left I attended to more emails and responded to Beth Lapin’s post – which was about hiking. For me, small instances of synchronicity but meaningful.

Danie is part of our art group. He’d recently returned from Rwanda and showed us some beautiful photographs of this archaic land. One of the photographs was of a large sign; underneath and on the ground were instruments of weapons used in the Hutu Tutsi genocide 21 years ago. The sign translated read ‘If you knew me and I knew you, you would not kill me’.

He also told us that the cities are clean, roads are good, no litter and no beggars. He asked a taxi driver about life among the Christians and Muslims in present day Rwanda. The taxi driver replied that the Muslims fear their God, the Christians fear their God, but everyone fears the President. Who, incidentally, I heard recently, actually walks alongside his people in picking up trash.

Now, to nominate another: Marian, please will you pick up the challenge? Your photographs are lovely and your posts always beautifully written and insightful. And it’s ok to decline. http://plainandfancygirl.com (Mine are going to be very short these next 3 days; I’m totally blogged out!).

Rules for 5 photos, 5 days 5 stories challenge

1) post a photo each day for 5 consecutive days

2) attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non fiction, poetry, a paragraph – all entirely up to you!

3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation! This is fun, not a command performance!

Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge – Day One

Dr. Gulara Vincent at http://gularavincent.com nominated me for this challenge the other day, 5 photos on 5 consecutive days with or without a story accompanying it. I love Gulara’s posts so much – always understated in their simplicity of compassion to self and others – her posts speak directly to me. And her one put up today as part of the challenge is so synchronistic I’m almost speechless, reading it as I did when I got back from being out the whole morning – actually not on compassion.

Today is International Mandela Day here in South Africa, declared in 2009 by UN Secretary-General Banki Moon to be celebrated on Mr. Mandela’s birthday every year on the 18th July. Mr. Nelson Mandela Mr. Mandela gave 67 years of his life in the struggle for freedom, human rights and social justice. We are asked world wide to give 67 minutes of our time today in whatever way we can to ‘make the world a better place’.

I could write a thousand quotes from this great man but I’ll do one:-

‘I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear’.

And here’s one other, because it’s Eid Mubarak today – and this is for my Muslim friends, especially Zainab:

‘South Africa’s vibrant Islamic heritage is a valued and respected part of our nation’.

I’ve done my bit already and I’m not sure if this is part of the reason I feel happy today. Yes, the day is gorgeous, bright and sunny though with a distinct winter chill in the air. In part also because of the once a month Saturday art group meeting this morning which was enlivening and animating and had me almost bursting out my skin (I’ll post a photo tomorrow of Tina’s art work she showed this morning – her first time in oils).

I’m happy also because my younger son David announced his engagement the other day to Jute his girlfriend of 3 1/2 years. I’ll probably put up of a photo of these two beautiful individuals the following day, Monday. We are so so happy!

Now, to nominate someone to take up the challenge:

‘Rules’ for Five Photos, Five Days, Five Stories Challenge:

1) post a photo each day for 5 consecutive days

2) attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or a short paragraph. It’s entirely up to you!

3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation. This is fun, not a command performance!

My nomination for picking up the challenge is Silvia Villalobos at http://www.silviatomasvillalobos.wordpress.com. And Silvia, you truly do not have to accept! (but I hope you do!)