Self Portrait Tuesday

Portrait of myself as...

...a shadow of myself.
...a road runner.
...being on a journey - on foot, experiencing every step at my own pace.


This photo was taken while I was hiking with my family, north of Gelnhausen.
There's a wonderful path, like an avenue with very, very old oaks and horse chestnuts.
I love the contrasts of light and shadow, creating a kind of zebra crossing.
It's like life: There are stretches filled with light and also dark places...

The way

I did it again... I trod that path again, because I found that I wanted to know how the scenery changes throughout the seasons.

Midsummer. It' hot, about 30 °C in the daytime, but fortunately it cools down to approx. 15 °C at night (with one gorgeous starry sky...).

When hubby and son decided to go motorbike riding again on Saturday, at first I sat on the terrace. Noone there but me. Aaaaah (sigh)...
I looked above at the grape vines. I like the way the sun shines through the fresh leaves.


There's a blue hollyhock in our garden which just started to grow flowers. I love the colour.
I recognized a big bumblebee all covered with pollen (she must have been bathing in that stuff)!

Then I went off for my walk.
Do you touch the bark of trees? I do...
I touch a lot of things, I simply have to. Gotta feel, sense, the structure of the surface - and make contact with the being.

The fields are not as green anymore. The grain is mellow.

I wanted to take another photo from a view where I had stood the last time, but the corn was too high (more than 2 metres!).

I had wondered about the lack of butterflies this year. Here they were (at least, some of them)!

A red admiral butterfly (vanessa atalanta).

At the edge of a corn field: poppies, camomille and nettles.

Elder (sambuccus nigra):

Oh yes, the grain is mellow,

... it should be gathered soon.

On my way home, I found a little precious thingy on the wayside.
Those are the seeds of a thistle, shortly before they fly with the wind. It was all glistening and glowing, as if the seeds were in a flurry before take-off...

Show and tell...

Yeah, I know that there might be an official "Show and tell Friday" theme, but I don't know what it is...

So, as a supplement to my last post, I'll open to you the drawer of the desk in my office...

...which somehow represents the chaos in my mind, the carelessness with which I collect stuff and store it, just to have it near when I think I might need it (I'm not good in throwing things away)...

...a box with herb tea bags, staples/paperclips, different brands of chewing gum, calender sheets with beautiful photos of places in Iceland, a candle in a glass (which someone brought around in an Advent season some years ago) and some matches, a recipe from somewhere on the Net, some bubble wrap and a Red Nose Day nose.



What does that say about me?
Go figure.

Do you know that?

Do you know that feeling?

When you think you’re caught in a hurricane and just want to step out of the wind.
When thoughts condense at the back of your mind.
When things seem to move around you;
when cognitions tumble and settle slowly like the sand in a snowstorm globe.
When things seem to fall into place like the small glass pieces in a caleidoscope.
When everything is on the move,
when there’s nothing to do for you, except sitting and watching and trying to understand what’s happening.

Do you know that feeling?





I don’t know where life will lead me from here.
It’s just not the way I planned it (which wouldn’t be too bad, if it weren’t going in a direction I never intended it to be)...
Can’t go back – and wouldn’t want to.