The Mute Swan So Beautiful to Me
She is so beautiful but she is not wanted now. She was introduced here. She wants to belong to us but never will. We all need to belong on this earth.
Sunset Swan Sleeping
I stood on the dark rocks at sunset and watched her in the last rays of the sun as she prepared for the coming sleep. She could rest her head on her body like a soft pillow. What would that be like as you float on a water bed.
It is all in the way you look at it.
There is beauty everywhere.
He looks so hopeful, look at his eyes. And he is smiling at me. Pintail duck below is happy. Can ducks make you believe in happiness.
Hopeful
There is pattern, design and beauty everywhere in nature. The natural world gives this to us freely.
Tiny Humming Bird
Blue...is a color and a state of mind. Are you blue today.
Blue
The Forest
Sometimes I feel so small in the forest, I feel too small to have so much power to destroy all this and too small to save it all by myself.
My World Sideways
500 Years of Life Ends
The circle of life
I hope you enjoyed the little cards I made for my bloggers today. I am changing my blog, I am just creating something here but not sure what it is yet....always a little messy at the start...it will evolve and get better. These photos were all taken in the last few weeks of January. My husband had a new hip put in so my time on the computer is limited. I will try to visit your blogs.
I may not enter all these memes but this is the only way I can still join in.Thanks so much to the meme hosts who put on each of the following amazing memes for bloggers to join in and share their work.
I want to list all these memes for this part of the week so others can join them and I can pick a few to link up to.
This or That Thursday
Sky Watch Friday
Camera Critters
Weekend Reflections
Best Post of the Week
Weekly Top Shot
Simple As That
Show off Your Shot
Your Sunday Best
Mellow Yellow
Miscellaneous Monday
Blue Monday
edit note: I list all the memes for the week now as I can only spend a short time on the computer. To continue reading posts you must click older post below or see the index at the top or the side or pick a popular post or label from the sidebar.
Love the water bird shots and the sky looks like there was a cloud explosion! http://looseleafnotes.com
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for coming here Colleen. I really enjoyed visiting your blog, it is a pretty great blog.
DeleteAwesome, happy captures, Nora!! I do love all the birds and critters and they do seem to be enjoying their surroundings and themselves!! Hope all of you have a lovely, happy weekend!
ReplyDeleteCheers Sylvia. thanks for the visit and the joke on your site is a good one.
DeleteBeautiful post and fantastic photos. Take care and rest a bit while you look after your husband. x
ReplyDeleteHi Joyful, I hope your knee is better soon...I know a bit about knees, you can email me. cheers.
DeleteThose captures of the mute swan especially are exquisite! The others are gorgeous too - thanks for sharing your special part of the world with us. Hoping your husband's recuperation goes well
ReplyDeleteHi there Australia Valeria. Your blog has some great photos of Australia, makes me want to go there for some sun. cheers.
DeleteAmazing, beautiful shots of these gorgeous animals. I love the swan. You've captured her in such a vulnerable and delicate place. I wonder what she's contemplating. Stunning!
ReplyDeleteHi little Write Girl, you have some enchanting poems and photos from New York at your place. Keep writing, you have a gift. cheers.
DeleteYou are one amazing photographer! This entire series of shots is SPECTACULAR!
ReplyDeleteWow, Lori came to my blog. Lori of the Skoog Farm Journal!! By reading her blog you get to live through her writings, life on a small farm in western New York area. Her site is pleasant and comforting, she is like the Mom blogger. I really like it.
DeleteWow wow wow - so many spectacular and utterly gorgeous shots! The lighting in the swan shots is magical.
ReplyDeleteLadyfi is up early this morning in Sweden taking photos of all the sparkling snow they have there..her blog is like no other blog, it is just right up there on top of all the other blogs filled with masses of artistic photos to feast your eyes upon.
DeleteYour swan pictures are amazing ; I like also very much the words you've chosen to describe her... All of your pictures are nice, but I find your harbour's reflection very funny : in that sens of reading the image become a composition... Well done !
ReplyDeleteLovely images Nora. I guess they exist where they like. "Free as a bird"
ReplyDeletelovely close ups and a wonderful sequence - love those turned around masts and reflections...
ReplyDeleteDelightful post today!! Hope your hubby recuperates quickly!!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely ADORE this post! The photos, the writing all of it. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteWow...what beautiful creatures! Love your work. Sorry about your husband.
ReplyDeletebeautiful pics
ReplyDeleteFly on green leaf
Hello Nora..I hope that hubby is doing well as that is a big surgery. This is a beautiful cheery post...hugs..Michelle
ReplyDeleteMute swans are truly beautiful, I agree. Lovely photos!
ReplyDeleteWow! Your photos are just exquisite! I loved every one of them. I also LOVE the photo in your header. I want to live where these were taken. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThe swan shots are absolutely beautiful! Isn't Nature wonderful?
ReplyDeleteAnd I have to show my ignorance here, but what is a *meme*?
Hi Rian, Long ago we called most of our blog get-togethers "Carnivals" and they were hosted by large sites and then we also had small Blog Hops or Blog Gatherings hosted at individual blogs each week some people called them memes. I always thought it meant a game. A meme is defined as something that spreads from blog to blog. However NOW they (non-bloggers) have started a new thing called a meme which is a funny picture with words on top and on the bottom and this is NOT related to blogging, just to the fact that they want it to spread all over the internet. Anyway our blogging memes are fun games that bloggers play each week. Gemma Wiseman of Greyscale has a great list of them on her site Meme-Aholics. Joining in the memes is the best way to get your blog read by other bloggers. The blogger hosting the meme usually checks out the links of the sites playing to see that they are not spammy etc. Some memes are long time games started by someone and carried on by the members, like in the case of Klaus of Sky Watch and Denise Nesbitt of ABC. Denise hosted ABC this week. Bloggers become very fond of their meme games and it helps to organize our week and to focus. It is a way of collecting up a group of bloggers into a lovely community instead of being alone. You put your link in at the host site and visit other blogs and leave a comment and soon they will all come and visit...a blog hop, a blog party.
DeleteThanks for the explanation, Nora. Can one visit these *meme sites* and check them out... see what type of games they play, etc.?
DeleteYes, Hi Rian, you just have to click on any of the links to the host or the meme game from here or from Gemma's listings of memes and then read the tabs at the top of the game where they explain how to play, they like you to link to their game or meme (some like a badge) OR if you just wish to look at it for a while and check out the others who are playing that is fine. I took a long time to start. Each meme has a theme, or a label to focus your photo or story on. Sky Watch is about the sky and ABC is the alphabet and so on as per the title of the meme. Some are general and you can just put your recent post in and link to them. I like it because it seems to weed out the commercial sites and you get to know who the bloggers are. Most of us have been addicted to these memes for a while now and we just keep playing.....
Delete.....all you have to do to belong is to put a post in, link to the meme and then put your URL in at the host and you are good to go.
Actually that is what this post is all about.....so I belong to these memes and they make me happy. It is where I fit in a world where I seemed not to fit in at all for most of my life.
Today my post is really about belonging, belonging to something anything that makes you happy. The swan is happy because she does not know she does not belong here and we feed her as well so she thinks she belongs to us and comes up to be fed and that is all that matters. She has found her home here. I guess I am like the swan. The bloggers at the memes feed me with encouragement and kindness and I am the swan that is changing.
You live in one of the most picturesque places on the planet - lucky you!
ReplyDeleteBeauty all around. That is truly what it is,yet too many people fail to see it. Thanks for sharing these lovely pictures. Hope Hubby is getting stronger day by day.
ReplyDeleteI really like your postcard photos and themes. The hummingbird feet were a special treat. Blogging is such fun, isn't it? In revisiting pleasureful moments, we get to live them twice. I am sad about the mute swans here in Stanley Park. As you probably know, they are pinioned. I suppose the same in Victoria. Everything about that seems wrong to me but I haven't figured out a way to convince the park boards to take steps to correct it. Yours is a truly interesting and artistic blog. I always love to visit!
ReplyDeleteLovely photos!
ReplyDeleteMagnificent and creative photography!
ReplyDeleteCarol of: A Creative Harbor
Hello, your swans shots are beautiful. And I love all the bird shots. Wonderful critter post!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos! I especially liked the photo of the tiny hummingbird feet!
ReplyDeleteVisiting via Camera Critters
A fabulous series of shots. The swans are gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteHi Nora, this is such a delightful post! I love all your wonderful photos and thought provoking excerpts! I hope your husband recoups quickly! My mom got a new hip 2 months ago and is so happy she did! I look forward to following your changes:)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for all your comments, I will slowly work my way around to your sites.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a lot of memes I listed have ended at the end of December, This or that has ended, Sunday Best, Mellow Yellow and Show of Your Shot look like they ended. I can't keep up with who is doing what meme and who has quit lately.
Incredible photos! Thanks for linking up with the simple things. :)
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely beautiful shots! Wish I could visit where you live!
ReplyDeleteHi, Nora! Wonderful selection of photos! Of course, I'm partial to the birds but your beachscapes are really special! Very dramatic.
ReplyDeleteHope you've had a bit of a rest and hope your husband recovers quickly.
-- Wally
Great series. The swan is gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that they slept that way... what an unusual capture... I'm so glad you came by to share on Weekly Top Shot #68!
ReplyDeleteWe have swans nearby, but my shots don't compare to this! Beautiful! I have so much to learn!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your beautiful blues.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading your comment on my blog.
Happy 1st Blue Monday, Nora.
I so love that gorgeous swan! All the beautiful captures you took the time to share! Thanks very much and enjoy your blue week! Hugs Anne
ReplyDeleteSo many great photos! Each one of this is beautiful! Birds!
ReplyDeleteThere is beauty everywhere, isn't there? I am so thankful for this : ).
ReplyDeleteLovely images!
Thanks to each of you who have commented to me with such happy thoughts for me.
ReplyDelete