Winter

Today's Tuesday Theme is winter. What winter looks like where we live and what we do on a wintery day. I wish I could say that a typical winter's day is full of snow and that we are out playing, but it's not. We are happy if we get frost or the occasional halv inch of snowfall. So, this photo, which I took on an outing in December, is quite typical of a very wintery day here.

We were amazed by the ice on the pond, the weather was crisp, the sky was blue and we had a great walk in a park. On our way home, we stopped by Starbucks and had some lovely coffe/hot chocolate.

To view more wintery contributions, please click here.

Attention

This photo is taken, using two different shades in my garden. The sun was just rising so the whole sky was lit up, however this leaf was in the shadow. It was also growing by the garden wall, so the background was even shadier and by closing in on the leaf and making sure all the focus points in the lens covered just the leaf, the camera gave it just the right contrast thanks to the frost and the shadow.

In January this year, I bought myself a camera. This was truly the beginning of a different way to look at my life. I was in a lot of pain, unwell at the time and my husband was away during the weeks and life was pretty hard. Rather than spilling out all my pain and anger here, I used my camera to turn quite a rotten day into a beautiful moment. I remember days when I just walked around the flat trying to find a little detail that I could use to turn my day into something beautiful. I tried to take photos of my children laughing or just a beautiful detail of our house. During spring, my health improved immensely thanks to my low carb life, which I started in april, but I still have my "daily urge" to view my life through the lens.

The camera has tought me to pay attention to the little details around me. I get truly happy by catching a beautiful little moment of the world around me and if the light outside is just right, I just have to go out and just stand still and look around me if I can find something that makes my heart leap a little extra. It's therapeutic.

I hope that you are having a great Tuesday. The weather here is cold, crisp and there is another day of blue skies and sun shine, so I am going to take the camera and children outside this afternoon and just enjoy them.

To view more attention (uppmärksamhet) contributions, click here.

Close

366 challenge: 247 Tradition

Today the Tuesday theme is nära, which means near or close. Christmas is near and celebrating Christmas with my family is very close to my heart, so here is a close-up of my advent light holder, decorated with coffee beans, cinnamon sticks and dried mango (the last ingredient is new to me, but works very well).

Advent is celebrated on the 4 Sundays before Christmas, where one candle is lit every Sunday up to Christmas. It is a mix of the start of the church year, where advent means arrival (symbolising the arrival of Christ), but since it sounds so similar to the Swedish word vänta as in wait, it nowadays symbolizise the wait for Christmas, or the day that Christ was born.

In Sweden the advent candle holder with 4 candles was only introduced in the late 1900th century, even though advent is much older than that being a fasting period to prepare for Christmas, however as most Christian traditions, it has evolved from a pagan tradition when people celebrated the Mid Winter Solstice, Yule, by lighting candles. The Swedish word for Christmas is also Jul..

To see more nära contributions, click here.

Tuesday Theme - Golden

366 challenge: 261 Gold

Today's Tuesday Theme is golden. And what is more golden than autumn leaves? This is a beautiful autumn day in the park. The fact that this photo is taken on my birthday and I got to spend it with my family, makes it even more golden.

If you want to me more golden contributions, have a look here.