A year ago we zig-zagged for six days along the Salkantay Trail to Machu Picchu…
…exploring this archeological wonder on the seventh day…
…climbing to the peak of Huayna picchu in the morning…
…and the Sun Gate in the afternoon, with this spectacular view looking back.
An adventure to remember, worth every zig and every zag…
Over the last few days the events around the world have seemed so apocalyptic that I felt a need to express the emotion that I know we all must feel as we look at images of agony, despair, sadness and grief every day.
My initial response to this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Containers was meant to be amusing and light-hearted. A shredded piece of paper “O help” is prominent amongst thousands of similarly shredded pieces lying within the shredder; a simple straight forward technically successful photographic image.
However it was only when I re-posted it as a monochrome image for Leanne Cole’s weekly gallery Monochrome Madness that I started to see it in a completely different light, as something much more than just an amusing photo. It became a photographic metaphor for a sense helplessness, a real cry for help to stop the madness.
The second photograph I posted for the Photo Challenge was a peaceful-looking view of container ships in English Bay Vancouver viewed from a trouble-free beach. What could be more peaceful? But with today’s re-edited photograph of those ships waiting in the Bay the view is much more foreboding.
I know this post is unusually dark for me, but sometimes there is a need to make an honest statement expressing how we really feel. Today, as I reflected on all the the sadness in the Netherlands, Malaysia, the Ukraine, the Middle East, Nigeria, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, Britain, Canada, the United States and all the other places in our world where there is so much grief and loss, it seemed this was a day for honesty.
But I will end on a note of hope, a musical note, the prelude from Bach’s first cello suite play by the great humanitarian Pablo Casals. It is always darkest before the light, and tomorrow it will be lighter I promise, but today for me is a day for reflection and sorrow as I send my deepest sympathy to all those who have lost their loved ones wherever you may be.
Enjoying Canada’s 147th Birthday on Spanish Banks, Vancouver on a perfect Canada Day.
Happy Birthday Canada!…
Can there be a more iconic room than Vincent Van Gogh’s bedroom at the Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Remy, France where Van Gogh entered voluntarily as a patient on May 8, 1889 and remained until May the following year. During this time he painted the gardens, with their wheat fields, olives groves, irises and sunflowers, all of which he could see from his bedroom window.
Continue reading
I’m forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air,
They fly so high,
Nearly reach the sky, Continue reading
Dear friends, as you see we did “find our way to Santa Fe.”
New Mexico is indeed the Land of Enchantment where the horizon seemed to stretch for a thousand miles beneath the bluest of skies.
So many images to share in the coming days and what better way to start than by combining this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring with Ailsa’s Travel theme: Close-up, and taking you on our hike to Chimney Rock at The Ghost Ranch in Northern New Mexico. On this perfect Spring morning the trail gave us views to the south of the flat-toped mountain Pedernal, so beloved by Georgia O’Keeffe…
…and to the north across the canyon the sandstone cliffs of the Entrada Formation over 150 million years old.
What made the morning seem even more “enchanted” was the absolute silence, with only the occasional sound and sense of a welcome cool breeze to brake the spell.
To meet the Close-up theme so many beautiful flowers are seen amongst the rocks and beside the trail.
Whilst the distant vistas were truly breathtaking these flowers were equally so.
One of my favourite quotations seems so fitting with which to close. It is by the great humanitarian Dr. Albert Schweitzer who observed so profoundly that,
“In the hope of reaching the moon we fail to see the flowers that blossom at our feet.”
Well, not on this day I’m pleased to say. The flowers, the blossoms, the sky, the rocks, the mountains, the wind, all were enjoyed and appreciated every moment that we spent in this most magical of places.
I look forward to sharing much more of our visit to the Land of Enchantment with you, so please come back again and visit soon. With warmest good wishes as always…Andrew
…As promised, more of the colorful street life in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, from Sarah McLachlan carrying the Olympic Torch, to street hockey, to drumming on the newspaper boxes, to waiting for the lights to change, and always thousands in the streets celebrating day and night. Enjoy the ride!
thechangingpalette 