30-Sep-2021
Sleepy angel
What on earth do angels dream of when they fall asleep?
Maybe they don't dream of anything, and they don't even sleep.
Maybe they just close their eyes, not to see what they can't change.
Perhaps even the angels are, at times, too tired to think.
The month of September ends today and this series of random and erratic photos also ends.
Thanks to everyone who took a look at them.
29-Sep-2021
The vineyards after the storm
In times of crisis, different people react in different ways.
Some might try to escape. Others might attempt to batten down the hatches and ride out the storm in a safe haven.
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
Life is about learning to dance in the rain.
28-Sep-2021
Dilemma...
When we happen to admire someone's specific talent, in whatever field it manifests itself, we often want to imitate it, even knowing from the beginning that this talent does not belong to us and that we could never be able to match it.
At the same time, by striving to learn and to be inspired by those who do best what we try to do, with questionable results, we always have a hope of improving our skills.
The dilemma is to decide whether mere imitation can make sense when one is aware of not knowing how to go beyond it.
All this reasoning, quite useless, is just an attempt to motivate the reason that prompted me to take some pictures quite different from my usual ones.
There is a very good photographer who has been posting the most beautiful photos of cars I have ever seen on PBase for some time. Even if cars don't fascinate me that much, I am always enchanted to admire what he can do with them in photography. The way in which he knows how to enhance the details, use the light reflected on the bodywork, emphasize the shapes fascinates me and fills me with admiration.
Today, returning from one of my walks, I found myself in front of a rather peculiar car, with only three wheels and suddenly I thought about the photos of Dan Greenberg and what he would be able to do.
That's all.
I wanted to try.
27-Sep-2020
Time wasted at the lake is time well spent.
The sound of water balances us, takes our discomfort, and energizes our lives, allowing us to feel peace and tranquillity.
“She listened silently to the water, which to her was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.”
(Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha)
26-Sep-2021
Meditation
Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality.
The best mediation is effortless.
The best meditation is a gentle awareness.
I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found.
By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well.
This to me is a miracle.
25-Sep-2021
Every morning is a fresh beginning.
There will come a time when we believe everything is finished; that will be the beginning.
Sometimes we can only find our true direction when we let the wind of change carry us.
24-Sep-2021
Encounter with a silent blackbird
"Saying nothing sometimes says the most."
(Emily Dickinson)
When you have nothing to say, say nothing...
23-Sep-2021
Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one
“Everything you look at can become a fairy tale and you can get a story from everything you touch.”
(Hans Christian Andersen)
“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.”
(Albert Einstein)
22-Sep-2021
The last sunflowers...
These can be defined as the last sunflowers of the summer, although, in a way, they are also the first sunflowers of autumn.
Almost everything is relative, very few things have an absolute dimension.
Then, as always, there are unpredictable exceptions that do not always confirm the rules.
The vision of our reality depends, at least in large part, on the perspective in which we place ourselves.
The first breath of autumn is in the air, a prodigal feeling, a feeling of wanting, taking, and keeping before it is too late.
21-Sep-2021
An unpretentious butterfly...
Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
-Nathaniel Hawthorne-
Just as not all butterflies produce a hurricane, not all outbreaks of bubonic plague produce a Renaissance.
Every day, during this month of September, I will try to share with the visitors of this photo gallery some pictures and some little stories of my daily life.
In case you are curious to also see the images of the previous days, instead of taking a look only at the most recently posted photo
20-Sep-2021
Illusion...
For me, serendipity, coincidence and chance are more interesting than any preconceived construct of our human encounters.
Coincidence may be described as the chance encounter of two unrelated causal chains which - miraculously, it seems - merge into a significant event.
Illusion is an anodyne, bred by the gap between wish and reality.
Illusion is often based on reality. The boundary between the two can be very thin when we are aware of it.
19-Sep-2021
Maybe...
Some see a hopeless end, while others see an endless hope.
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honour, duty, mercy, hope.”
(Winston Churchill)
“Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.”
(Thomas Woodrow Wilson)
18-Sep-2021
Reflecting on a herd of running cows...
There is a more or less gregarious social drive in every individual, and most people are terribly uncomfortable unless they follow the same line as their fellow men (or cows, in this case).
Erich Fromm said "An illusion shared by all becomes reality".
In fact, as Mark Twain wrote, "It is much easier to deceive people than to convince them that they have been deceived".
But Abraham Lincoln, who was no ordinary fool like me, said one day, "You can deceive everyone for some time and someone forever, but you can't deceive everyone forever."
17-Sep-2021
The importance of good company.
I will probably say, as often happens to me, a series of platitudes.
However, I have always considered it important to choose to relate, whenever possible, to people who are better intellectually than me.
I believe that there is always the possibility to learn until the end.
The comparison with those who are more intelligent, more cultured, deeper spiritually, in the worst case does not make us better, but at least it can help us to try to improve ourselves.
With a choice, I would rather be the dumbest of a small group of intelligent people than the most intelligent of a bunch of stupid people.
I hope I managed to summarize these concepts in the snapshot I took today.
16-Sep-2021
The scents of memory.
We do not remember days, we remember moments.
Or maybe there are moments that reappear in our memory, evoked by elements of our present, such as sounds, voices, perfumes ...
I learned how to make authentic strudel from my maternal grandmother, who, in turn, had learned how to make it from my grandfather, who was born in Bohemia and raised in Austria.
The unique scent of a freshly baked strudel, a subtle mix of sultana raisins, apples, cinnamon and icing sugar, always makes me remember my grandparents and the remote days spent in their cosy kitchen.
Today I gave myself some of these dear memories, as well as the pleasure I got from a rich slice of strudel, accompanied by a cup of coffee.
As we turn down the light each night... May we have some little memory to mark the day.
Every day, during this month of September, I will try to share with the visitors of this photo gallery some pictures and some little stories of my daily life.
In case you are curious to also see the images of the previous days, instead of taking a look only at the most recently posted photo
15-Sep-2021
Tousled sparrow
A photograph should tell a story, even if it is irrelevant, or at least convey some emotion.
There are so many factors to consider.
Sometimes it happens that the real image differs from the one captured by a lens.
In other cases, however, the photograph, considered as an immobile representation of a moment, can reveal some detail, which would be lost in the action.
This little sparrow dared to approach the table where we were having breakfast, hoping to see his courage rewarded by a few crumbs.
Once he got what he was looking for, in flutter of wings, he disappeared.
Here remains, indelible, the visual memory of his ruffled feathers.
Every day, during this month of September, I will try to share with the visitors of this photo gallery some pictures and some little stories of my daily life.
In case you are curious to also see the images of the previous days, instead of taking a look only at the most recently posted photo
14-Sep-2021
The clouds danced an orange-pink waltz with the sunrise...
I count myself lucky, having long ago won a lottery paid to me in seven sunrises a week for life.
13-Sep-2021
A cat is a lion in a jungle of small bushes...
The only system to photograph a cat is to use infinite patience.
And the strongest emotion was that life was as precious as it was puzzling.
It was an ecstacy because it was an adventure; it was an adventure because it was an opportunity.
~G. K. Chesterton~
12-Sep-2021
Think any way you please, but know why..
A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life.
"I must do something" always solves more problems than "Something must be done."
11-Sep-2021
Dark clouds...
Today I have very little desire to take pictures and even less to spend unnecessary words. After all, this is a site for amateur photographers, not a blog for vain philosophical discussions on the darkness of the future. I only specify that although I am well aware of the tragedy that occurred 20 years ago and that I remember precisely, like millions of other people, my desire for thoughtful silence today is not strictly caused only by those dramatic memories.
I choose to leave the word to a great man whom I will never stop admiring.
“To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom, in the pursuit of truth as in the endeavour after a worthy manner of life.”
~ Bertrand Russell ~
10-Sep-2021
The same horses, the day after...
Even today I passed by the two horses' meadow.
They were both there, unaware that they were waiting for me.
Of course they weren't supposed to know.
Who knows how these two quiet horses see me?
Who knows if they recognize me or if, probably, for them I am just one of the humans walking along the fence that delimits their world? All the same, strange characters who walk on two legs and who do not seem to appreciate the taste of soft grass.
Of course there are some particular humans, those that horses have come to know, those who take care of them, who groom their hair, who give them a blanket to put on their backs when it's very cold.
It is certain that the two horses know how to distinguish them from the homogeneous mass of the others.
But, rightly, why should they pay attention to me when I stop to look at them and, even, capture their image?
Even today they stand still, just like yesterday.
If they weren't in a slightly different spot on the lawn, I might think they haven't moved at all, they've been petrified for twenty-four hours, and maybe they'll never move.
I would like at least one of them to raise his head, not to recognize me, I do not aspire to that much, but to break their living stillness.
09-Sep-2021
Two horses in the sun.
Autumn comes, but summer lingers.
Here and there gleams a yellow leaf, but green is still the triumphant colour, and the days have all the warmth of summer till the equinoctial winds have blown.
I meet these two horses every time I walk along the field where they usually live.
I don't know anything about horses, but these two are, in a way, part of the familiar landscape of my morning walks.
Sometimes they eat with the calm concentration of the grazing animals, their heads down, elegantly ignoring everything that happens around them.
Other times they stand motionless, close to each other, like equestrian monuments without a rider. The first morning sun envelops them in a golden halo.
Who knows if they notice it? Who knows what makes a horse choose to do what they do?
Unaware of what too often troubles us humans, these two horses stand out in the morning, bearers of their unknown truth.
08-Sep-2021
Sunrise sunflowers
There is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity.
Every morning brings me something new to discover, even in my small daily space.
An image, a shape, a particular light ... All this can inspire positive thoughts, without necessarily falling into total optimism, which makes us helpless.
Mark Twain said that whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).
Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.
Every day, during this month of September, I will try to share with the visitors of this photo gallery some pictures and some little stories of my daily life.
In case you are curious to also see the images of the previous days, instead of taking a look only at the most recently posted photo
07-Sep-2021
Drop the mask!
I am perfectly aware that this is just a very quick snapshot, not accurate at all. But sometimes what matters is seizing the moment.
Meet Tina. Tina is Portuguese and is one of the waitresses, all Portuguese, of the Portuguese café where we go for breakfast almost every morning.
In a way it is like taking a little trip abroad, immersing yourself in the pleasure of being lulled by a different culture.
In fact, most of the regulars are all Portuguese too.
Mostly workers and bricklayers, electricians and installers who work in the surrounding area.
You may not know it, but here in Switzerland there is a break in everyone's working day which is simply called "nine o'clock".
It is typically a break between twenty minutes and half an hour, during which workers take their time for a cup of coffee and a snack. If you come to this Portuguese café at the right time of the day, you find yourself enveloped in the chanting Lusitanian idiom.
Ah, I forgot to tell you that the café I'm talking about is called "O Bom Gosto", that means "The Good Taste".
Believe me, it's a fitting name.
Tina is a key character of this nice café. All the other waitresses are just as kind and diligent, always smiling, and the pastry chef / baker, who works hard to bake cakes, croissants, bread of all shapes and colours and, of course, the famous Pastéis de Nata (Portuguese custard tarts), despite his vaguely grim appearance, is a very sweet gentleman. But the fact remains that Tina is Tina.
Here in Switzerland, there has never been an obligation, in these difficult months, to wear any mask outdoors, but Tina and her colleagues continually go inside and outside, from inside the café to serve the customers who are outside, on the terrace. For this reason, they often keep the mask on their face, to avoid having to put it on and take it off all the time.
In this snapshot I present Tina, who has just brought us a tray with our coffees and our usual breakfast (the waitresses just give us a smiling nod from inside, asking for confirmation. "The usual?").
"Thanks, Tina. Can I take a picture of you?"
"But with great pleasure! Wait just a moment for me to take off this mask."
And then she immediately gave us her wonderful and spontaneous smile that you too can see here.
Smiles, freed from every screen, have even more value and warm the heart of those who receive them and those who make them.
Every day, during this month of September, I will try to share with the visitors of this photo gallery some pictures and some little stories of my daily life.
In case you are curious to also see the images of the previous days, instead of taking a look only at the most recently posted photo
06-Sep-2021
“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”
Early in the morning, when no one is around, my thoughts swell like sails in the wind and lead me to retrace sensations, readings or encounters that have contributed to the formation of my life.
Many years ago I read a book that left an indelible mark on me, as many books have the power to do.
It was called "The Conquest of Happiness" written by the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell.
Just this morning, when the sun was having fun painting the dawn sky with vibrant colors of optimism, a phrase from that book came to mind:
"The secret of happiness is very simply this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile"
Every day, during this month of September, I will try to share with the visitors of this photo gallery some pictures and some little stories of my daily life.
In case you are curious to also see the images of the previous days, instead of taking a look only at the most recently posted photo
05-Sep-2021
I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat
“Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are God.
The phrase ‘domestic cat’ is an oxymoron"
If a kind visitor had the curiosity to know what else I do, besides walking around and taking pictures...
CLICK
04-Sep-2021
A solitary giant...
Herman Hesse wrote that trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth.
Trees fascinate me and calm me down.
I particularly like solitary and isolated trees, as if they expressed a sense of independence, without being comforted by the close presence of other trees, in the protection of a forest.
One tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber.
One tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.
03-Sep-2021
A natural frame for our lake.
When I took this photo, during one of my morning walks, a quote from Oscar Wilde came to mind.
“Things are because we see them, and what we see, and how we see it, depends on the Arts that influenced us. To look at a thing is very different from seeing a thing. One does not see anything until one sees its beauty. Then, and then only, does it come into existence. "
Of course, I cannot compare myself to an artist and therefore, unfortunately, art is unable to exert on me the same effects that it has on authentic artists, who naturally cultivate it in their creative spirit. However, I believe in the power of beauty, which is proposed to our eyes, indifferent to whether or not we have the skills to grasp and understand it.
The beauty of nature, in its simple purity, is never complicated, but, at the same time, it is complex. The positive impact it has on us depends on our ability to perceive it as fully as possible.
If a kind visitor had the curiosity to know what else I do, besides walking around and taking pictures...
CLICK
02-Sep-2021
A silent morning walk
Some seem to be afraid of silence, as if it were a dangerous place of the spirit, suspended on an abyss, which must necessarily be filled with sounds and words.
In fact, I also believe that I would be frightened by absolute silence, which fortunately I do not think exists in nature at all, thanks to the atmosphere that allows sounds, even the faintest, to spread.
When I speak of silence, I do not mean the total absence of sounds, which I can only imagine as distressing, but the welcome absence of unpleasant noises and voices.
Silence, understood in my sense, is rich in virtues and generates introspective reflection or, simply, peace of mind.
I am reminded of a film by the great Italian director Federico Fellini, entitled, if I remember exactly, "the Voice of the Moon". At one point, one of the protagonists said "Hush, let's have a little silence. If everyone did a little silence, we would finally be able to understand something."
I like to walk alone, along a country lane, accompanied only by a distant echo of muffled sounds, the song of the wind among the leaves and the croaking of invisible crows.
It really is a great way, even for my limited mind, to start understanding something.
If a kind visitor had the curiosity to know what else I do, besides walking around and taking pictures...
CLICK
01-Sep-2021
The vineyards of early September
There isn't much to say. Who can ever care to share my disordered reflections, which keep me company during my daily walks? In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
Goethe said (if I remember more or less exactly) that the soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone. According to the words of the great German poet, my spirit should have the gift of perceiving the beauty of what surrounds me, since I especially like to go for a walk alone.
Much more modestly, I think I am able to pay attention to the details that mark the passing of the seasons.
September starts today. The vines are still a triumph of green leaves, which will soon turn to golden yellow, the bunches of grapes are already well formed, even if they do not yet stand out in the green, camouflaged among the leaves. Yet time will pass faster than it may seem to me and the change in colors will be the measure.
If a kind visitor had the curiosity to know what else I do, besides walking around and taking pictures...
CLICK
