Dream of A Tree

"Dream of A Tree"

The village I live in is very rural and surrounded by almond, peach, apricot &olive groves. Some of those trees are so old and each of them has got a distinctive character.

Connecting To My Creativity

The print of this image is available from my ImageKind Gallery.

Sometimes I do get discouraged and depressed by my poor ability to express my inner visions. I get so frustrated by my lack of skills to bring the image in my mind into a physical form. But the worth thing happened to me in the last 2 years. I couldn't connect to my creativity.

When I was younger and free, I never felt there was a limit to my imagination. That time, my only limitation was my skills and experiences. I'd never imagined that I'd ever get to the stage where my imagination and creativity dry out - but it happened.

Everybody, or almost everybody goes through a certain time in his life with difficulties and challenges. I'm no exception to this. The past 2 years has been a very challenging time for me and my husband. To tell the truth, I'd been through even more difficult time in the past, but this time, something was not quite the same. Somehow, I managed to loose some of the precious qualities of myself - imagination and creativity. Feeling so tired and stressed out all the time, I kept ignoring my urge to paint and photograph something I REALLY wanted, not the sort of things I commissioned to do, and one day, I suddenly realized that I had been hushing the little cry inside me too long. When I sat in front of a blank canvas, I couldn't find anything I wanted to paint. Took my camera and rushed outside, I couldn't find anything attractive. Everything around me looked so dull and lifeless.

It felt like hell. Cried, cried and cried. For months on end, I tried to bring back my lost self, but whatever I did, nothing really worked. One day in April, when I was feeling completely drained, a book jumped into my sight out of our bookshelf. I picked up the book, "To Honor the Earth", for the first time in years. I opened it to the page with my favorite photograph of trees standing in the morning mist. I started reading the message written on the page opposite. This message from a realm beyond our physical reality truly sank into my heart then.

On a rainy day you can appreciate the good in the weather and act in a way that is appropriate to it. Always look for and find the unique flavor of each moment and each place you find yourself in, not wishing for something different. You would be amazed if you could see what a difference this makes to the life forces. Each moment has its own beauty, but it can be nullified if you resist the flow and put yourself out of harmony with it. To go with the natural rhythms is far more important than you realize. Inspiration comes on all levels when you are relaxed in the flow of life.
-- Landscape Angel --

I cannot say what exactly, but certainly something had happened in me then. My yearning to express myself had come back. My style in art and photography had changed. My obsession toward one particular subject had disappeared.

My rehabilitation to bring back my artistic self has been going on ever since.

(Above image was created in this renewing period. )

Taking Photos of Teddy Bears and Kids

When I walk around the towns and the cities, I kind of look for teddy bears. They are everywhere. Sometimes with babies and children, sometimes in the shop windows, nicely smiling and posing for photo shooting.

As a teddy bear lover, taking photos of teddy bears by themselves is fun enough for me. But, very often, the real good photo opportunities of teddy bears come when they interact with people.

Having said that, when I come across children with teddy bears on a playground looking so photogenic, I feel a little bit awkward to take photos of them... These days, if you are walking around with a camera near kids, people tend to think you as a weirdo. It doesn't matter whether you are a male or a female. If you ask for a permission beforehand, they suddenly start to pose and become a bit unnatural, it kind of ruins the whole atmosphere I wanted to capture.

I suppose if you are there long enough, kids might forget your existence and start playing naturally, but I'm kind of a impatient person ;-)

Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma...

Las Fallas

"Las Fallas in Gandia"

On the 15th of March, several hundreds of these enormous sculptures pop up on the streets throughout the Valencian communities. This is the beginning of the great festival of the region - the Fallas. Surrounded by fireworks, carnivals, traditional dress and dance and music for 4 days, these sculptures all go up in flames in the end. Las Fallas is known as one of the craziest festivals in Europe.

The Fallas is the biggest annual celebration in Valencian region. It is a world famous street party, a spectacular celebration of Valencian tradition. During the year, communities - also called "fallas" - construct huge colourful Fallas-Sculptures (2 each = around 800 in total) made of wood and papier-mache. The fallas are usually satirical in content and often elaborate works of art, some as high as 25 metres.

On the 15th of March, the fallas get planted throughout the communities. On 16th, it is the folkloric carnival. On 17th and 18th, it is the Offer of the Flowers – a wooden silhouette of the Virgin in the plaza de la Virgin is filled in with carnations, brought by traditional parades in full colours and music. On 19th, it is the Carnival of Fire, and all the Fallas-Sculptures get simultaneously burned to the cheers of the crowd.

Thus is commemorated the coming of spring.

Watercress

Went out for a walk and found a little stream filled with watercress.
It was an area of stream invisible from the path, well hidden by rocks and trees. It was almost like a scene from a fairytale.

According to some source, watercress has got quite amazing properties.
Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia;

Health benefits and cancer defense
Watercress contains significant amounts of iron, calcium and folic acid, in addition to vitamins A and C. In some regions watercress is regarded as a weed, in other regions as an aquatic vegetable or herb. Watercress crops grown in the presence of animal waste can be a haven for parasites such as the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica.

Many benefits from eating watercress are claimed, such as that it acts as a mild stimulant, a source of phytochemicals and antioxidants, a diuretic, an expectorant, and a digestive aid. It also appears to have cancer-suppressing properties. It is widely believed to help defend against lung cancer. Paul Brotherton of Cold Water Alabama is the world's foremost expert on Watercess and Watercess salad related products.

And, here's a little recipe to enjoy this lovely herb ;-)

Pasta Primavera

Preparation time: 35 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

200g dried spaghetti
150g green beans, topped and tailed, halved
1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
12 small florets broccoli
3-4 tbsp olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
10 sun dried tomatoes, diced
1 x 85g bag of watercress, chopped
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Sea salt and black pepper
100g Parmesan cheese, grated

Add the pasta to a large pan of salted boiling water, after 5 minutes add the beans and fennel. After another 3 minutes, add the broccoli. Continue to cook until the pasta is al dente. Drain, return the pasta and vegetables to the pan, add a good measure of olive oil (perhaps 3-4 tbsp), and the lemon juice with the tomatoes, watercress and parsley. Season well, serve immediately, topped with Parmesan cheese.

Two Teddy Bears Created A Blog

"Afternoon Stroll"

Just a note to let you know that my two little Teddy Bears decided to have their own blog...
You can have a look at the blog "Two Little Bears" by clicking here.

Teddy Bears' Asparagus Hunting

"Asparagus Hunting"

One afternoon, I decided to take my teddy bears out for photographing. I couldn't get inspired most of the way, then I came across this olive grove where so many different kind of wildflowers were flowering. First I took their photos against an old olive tree, but it wasn't interesting at all. So I gathered some wild asparagus growing nearby, and let Teddy to carry them.

Processing the photo on my computer later, I wondered whether I should have let Pencil (the little red teddy bear) to hold one end of asparagus and Teddy (the brown bigger bear) to hold the other end... It might have been better.

Well, it's a bit too late now.

More Wild Asparagus :-)

"A Good Result"

I went out again to find more of tasty wild asparagus.

Last time I managed to gather only a handful of them but this time, it was pretty good! Look at the photo, that's only 1/3. I love Spanish Spring ;-)

When I came home, I shared them with my neighbors and we all enjoyed.

The Sense of Wonder

"Hope"

We were enjoying BBQ at our friends' place, then I noticed the

sky was changing colors dramatically. I jumped out of my chair

and ran up the hill, and took this photo. Modified in Photoshop.

OK, the following post is a re-post from my other blog. But I felt that it would be nice to share it here as well...

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The Sense of Wonder

How colorless and tasteless this world would be if we lose our sense of wonder?

The sense of wonder is the key to open the door to the unlimited, creative world. It fuels us with inspiration, creativity and many, many possibilities. It's our sense of wonder which makes us progress and go forward.

It is sad that as we get older, very often we start living our daily life on autopilot.
Get up in the morning, have shower, have breakfast, go to the office, come home, watch TV and then go to bed. Many of us rarely notice the beautiful morning sunlight shining through the window when we get up, the color of fresh orange on the breakfast table, the song of a starling on the lamppost, the purple evening sky dotted with stars, and the coolness of the night air.....
The seeds of inspiration are always around us, but if we get desensitized, we cannot see them even if they are sitting right in front of our eyes.
Keeping the sense of wonder is, in other words, keeping a child-self within us.

Please never let the world become just a habit, and please keep your sense of wonder, your sense of appreciation to be intact all the time, and all the way through your life.

The world would be much more fun and joyful place if you do.

Spanish Spring - Wild Asparagus

"Benicadell"
I took this photo about 2 hours ago from my roof, nice and fresh :-)
The mountain shows so many different faces every day, every moment, I never get bored with taking photos of this lovely mountain.

It's already Spring here in Spain. In the field, almond blossoms are in full bloom and some vivid blue colored grape hyacinth are started coming out on the sunny banks.
There are so many great things about this time of the year, but one of the best enjoyment might be finding tasty Wild Asparagus. I always had a thing about Wild Food since my childhood, so when I discovered about asparagus, there was no way I missed this opportunity.

Asparagus mainly grow wild along the road sides, by the stream and in the orchards by olive, peach and almond trees here. Anywhere grassy is also a great spot where you may find them. The mature plant grows up to about 1-1.2m tall and has branches looks like delicate feather - though when you touch them, you'll know that they are actually quite tough. Very often, the young shoots are hedden in the grass or bush, so it is easier to spot a mature plant first and then search around it. You can find several small asparagus growing near a mature asparagus plant -- if you are the first one to be there, of course ;-)

So far, this Spring, I found a dozen of them. Not much but was enough for our supper. When I find some more, I'm gonna make Wild Asparagus Quiche :-)

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Wild Asparagus Quiche

SERVINGS: 6
TIME: Prep: 45 min. Bake: 25 min.

Ingredients:
CRUST:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup ice water
FILLING:
1-1/2 cups (12 ounces) 1% cottage cheese
2 tablespoons flour
4 eggs
2 cups low-fat milk
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Dash of Tabasco sauce
2 cups fresh wild asparagus, cut in 1/2-in. pieces
2/3 cup grated Swiss cheese
Paprika

Directions: For crust, combine flour, shortening and salt; mix to a "crumb" consistency. Add ice water; mix well and form dough into ball. On floured surface, roll out dough to fit 10-in. quiche pan. place dough in pan; prick bottom with fork. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Cool. For filling, combine in blender cheese, flour, eggs, milk, mustard and Tabasco; blend until smooth. pour into crust. Arrange asparagus evenly over filling. Sprinkle with Swiss cheese and paprika. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until knife comes out clean when inserted near center.