Thursday 22 September 2016

Lost and found

It can be difficult to find the words sometimes, you feel "the jacket is empty" like we say in Finland.


 
And the same happens often in every area of life at the same time. You go to many different spots, hoping you will find and see something interesting to capture and guide your mind to a different track, distract that mood. In those days your capacity to see the photo potential or just take the action with your camera is somehow behind the fog of the mind. Sometimes we can't make any documents of the moment we experienced and we do not have to. It is meant to be like that: no pictures or words needed. A hidden memory and a moment with a personal meaning can help to go on. In these sort of important foggy days when we are stucked and looking for the answers, it is even more important to walk your nose to the Nature and in the end you will forget why things seemed to be so difficult. 


The green power, the changing colors and landscapes are softly, 
touching our body when we move inside the canal, the canal that we create by going further. It is invisible and unique every time we do that with our presence and silent communication with the visual,audible in every way sensible living circle of 360 degrees, without stopping walls of the architectural cubes.





One day I left the other issues aside for a few hours, took my bike and drove to Amsterdamse Bos, the Forest of Amsterdam, to find the base and the peace for the rest of the week. From my home I can easily drive there by bike in 20 minutes and enjoy the big area of interesting small cycling routes and attractions. There is many things to do and see as you can find from the link in this chapter.



At one point of my drive I saw these beautiful old trees and a path under them. I left the asphalt road and drove with my bike under this majestic scenery. I felt and heard the dry leaves and the acorns and other sort of peanuts making sounds under the wheels. I felt I was going somewhere in other time than the presence, it was like a deja vu feeling from the past. This sort of memories come sometimes from the childhood, reminding how capable we are to sense all small details of life when we give it a chance.


Shadows painted by the Sun and the trees.


Green surface



Human made Art at the Forest


At the Goat Farm of Amsterdamse Bos



We have to wait still a bit for the bigger change. We are waiting for the autumn to come. The first leaves to fall are the dry ones, burned by the Indian summer we had during the last weeks. The dark hours are taking more space from our days, but this can be positive. Our physical and mental clock will be catching the next period, first maybe hesitating, but eventually adapting and seeing the beauty of this metamorphose. And like the nature, we are changing and developing all the time. The foggy days, rainy and sunny days - feeling alive with this waving presence. We all, one moment feeling lost and the next minute to be found and seen again. 





Saturday 10 September 2016

The Harvest Time!


It is the Harvest time and my son is bringing me every week some fresh vegetables to cook from the school gardens. Every child from his class has their own spot where they can grow flowers and vegetables. This week This secret farm had an open day and I could see with my own eyes what was growing there..to be used in my autumn menu's this year. I love the idea how the kids are learning how to grow things and see the results now in the end of the Summer. A very educational and a fun way to learn. We are living in a City and this is such a good project for Urban children and their families.





Making huge soap bubbles at the open day happening in school gardens !!





I had a few nice walks last week and one of them was in Amstelpark, near the Amstel river in the South of Amsterdam. I was wondering there in the early morning time, just before it got too hot. This park is full of trees and between the wider walking and cycling paths are smaller routes, where you can feel being in the green Castle of Summer.I was admiring how the light was reaching down and almost catched me, a lady under the big leaves with her Camera, a paparazzi of Green world.









And today I just did something I have not experienced for a while. I did something that I used to do as a child. I went outside and saw the fresh cut grass in the garden and the texture looked so vital and still so green, inviting. The owner of the house I am visiting takes a very good care of this flat, minimal looking area of growth. It is so surreal good looking, that it almost looks like fake. I went to lie down on my back and spread my fingers on the spiky texture of grass. I felt the individual, thin growths between my fingers. I did not have any picnic blanket and I was directly in contact with the green world and it was tickling me through my summery clothes. I was watching up to the sky and saw how an aeroplane crossed the blue natural canvas...and was followed by a flying dragonfly one meter above my head. 


This dragonfly I found earlier this week in Amstel park.

A dragonfly, in almost every part of the world, symbolizes a change, which is based on the perspective of self realisation. And the source of this change is said to be the mental and emotional maturity and understanding the deeper meaning of life. The thought of this is beautiful. I have seen so many dragonflies this week that I searched some information of this beautiful insect. The symbolic meaning hit in my mind, because this is just the way I am feeling lately, like the restless seeking is over. I am more balanced with myself, more flexible with other people, more open and more curious. 

I understand why people always seem to seek and create meanings and symbols from the nature. It is inspiring to think that the wisdom of these very old plants or animals can guide us somehow and give us more courage on our way to develop and make a positive change during our lifetime. And this power, stimulating the change, should not only be used in personal level - it should be used inside and between different groups of people,in societies - globally and universally. 


I made my own print on the soft ground and the grass made some prints on my skin. Two living forms or life in this planet !! It was like the earth and the sky were talking to me, like it already did to generations of human kind before our time, a long time ago. And I was happy I had time to cherish this moment. 











Friday 2 September 2016

Fresh Friday

Looking again at these pictures from yesterday, it feels I am there again. In the sun, in the shadows, in a garden full of details and fresh life. Even the Summer is slowly turning in to the direction of the new season...Autumn. The turning point for the nature and for me too. It is like a new year for me starts from this time of the year, the Summer being the last part of the book and the Autumn starting the new chapter. The Nature will be getting rid off the covers, the leaves will be falling, the naked structures of the trees are soon greeting us, showing us the veins of life. And like this, I am also ready to take what ever comes and what ever I have to learn this time, in the pages of a new story.

A Lotus Flower: The meaning of Lotus Flower


I went to my favourite spot again, to the Botanical Gardens of 
Amsterdam. When I want to have peace and when I want to collect some strength, I will go there. The mini forest of Amsterdam, being much more than a regular park. You learn so much by watching the plants and being surrounded from trees and flowers from all over the world. It is like travelling to a foreign country, without any expenses :-). And it is such an international place, because some tourists find their way there too. It is a peaceful place for everybody and every visitor seems to respect that. 












A warm thought is filling my mind in this Friday. The colours will be changing during the next two months. In the garden, I went in the middle of the little Bambu forest...this fallen leave was stucked between the thin trunks of trees. And the light was reaching to this dark spot, filtered through this orange leave. I was pleased seeing it and the feeling of trust was comforting me and my feet were stable, strong on the ground. The magic of life, shining out from everyone of us and in the details of the Nature. The peace coming from us, no expectations, no right answers. The Art of listening...there is no one truth - there are many and without that there would be no balance or new ideas.