-
Artistic Funchal
In the center of Funchal, not far from the city market, we came across an alley lined with artistically painted doors. Some paintings were realistic, others pure fantasy, and together they gave the street the feel of an open-air gallery. I didn’t photograph every single door — now I rather wish I had, if only to remember each scene more clearly. Later we found more painted doors scattered through other streets, but that first alley impressed me most. I have a soft spot for metal statues, and the ones we found here didn’t disappoint. Their green colouring added to the visual effect. Towns tend to put up statues of people…
-
Funchal flowers and trees
The plant that I found most impressive in Madeira was a Plumeria tree with its abundant clusters of waxy looking pink and yellow flowers. The pink decorated the edges of the petals while the yellow spread from the middle of each flower, leaving the rest of the petals soft white. I guess we were lucky to be there at the right time to witness the vibrancy and freshness of the trees. I’m still enchanted by them and wish they could grow in our garden. Hydrangeas are undoubtedly my favourite bushes. Every year I buy one or two plants in a pot to decorate our terrace. I also tried to grow…
-
Market in Funchal
Markets tend to be attractive sites as you can usually see a variety of goods and colours there, as well as people, whether they are sellers, buyers or just curious tourists. The city market in Funchal is no exception and if we were staying longer in the city, I’d have visited it many more times than just once. I was mainly impressed by the central part on the ground floor, which is filled with fruits and vegetables of many kinds. They looked fresh and to my Czech eyes often exotic. As I always prefer choosing the pieces I would like to buy, I appreciated that you could have a closer…
-
Enchanted by Funchal
When my husband and I were looking for a holiday destination last year, Madeira — the Portuguese group of islands — captured our attention. It was pricier than we expected, but we decided to go anyway. Or rather to fly, as travelling by plane is the usual way to reach the main island. And we never regretted it — even after a year, I am still full of nice memories. I would like to share some of them here, with my photos and words, but do not expect a guide or recommendations of any kind. It’s rather a story of me falling in love with this interesting place that somehow…
-
Strolling through Kutná Hora
In my previous post, where I was talking about our visit to St. Barbara’s Cathedral in Kutná Hora, I promised to share some photos from the town itself, and here they are. But before you scroll to them, I’d like to share a few comments. When looking up which places are worth visiting, I found the expected. The cathedral, the ossuary, churches and museums including an old silver mine and mint. But advice was also given simply to stroll through the historic centre, enjoy the atmosphere of the old buildings, and — importantly — come back another time and experience the town under different conditions. I can tell you, this is…
-
St. Barbara’s Cathedral in Kutná Hora
I’d been longing to visit Kutná Hora and its St. Barbara’s Cathedral for ages, and finally, during the Easter weekend just gone, my wish came true when my husband suggested we could make it happen. And I can tell you — despite far-from-perfect weather bringing rain and an overcast sky — we had a wonderful time strolling through the town centre and visiting the cathedral. In 1995, the Gothic St. Barbara’s Cathedral, along with the historic centre of Kutná Hora, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. It richly deserves the recognition, and I imagine the listing also helps secure funding for further maintenance. There are many fascinating historic buildings in…
-
Festive cheer
I named the December assignment of my still-life photo project for 2025 “Festive cheer” and, as you may have already guessed, it was meant to reflect Christmas and its magic. From my perspective, Christmas is a multi-faceted feast. It relates to Christianity when celebrating the joy and gratitude for Christ having been born. It refers to humanity reflected in people being — or trying to be — more generous. And last but not least, it involves traditions that keep our lives rooted. Over the years, my family has developed our own tradition for the Christmas Eve, which we consider the main Christmas day. Sometimes circumstances force us to alter this or that;…
-
Limited Colour Palette
The November assignment in my still-life photo project for 2025 focused on “Limited Colour Palette”, and it made me realise that I’ve already been using this theme repeatedly in my sessions. You could see this for example in the photos below, where the focus on combination of red and green or shades of yellow and orange highlighted the composition and the included parts. Simplifying the colour range draws more attention to the story a photo conveys. This is certainly true of black and white photographs, but even when using a limited number of colours, the effect remains striking. I’ve chosen two photos as my finalists from this assignment, which you can see…
-
Creative, my word for 2026
The start of each new year always brings a moment of reflection — looking back at my life, what was successful and what could have been better. For quite a few years now, this reflection has been connected with choosing a word for the year. The word that came to me for this year is “creative”. I have a need for creativity coded in my brain and body but in practice, I’m not very creative… Sort of a paradox, isn’t it? Because when I want to express my creativity, I can’t seem to find sufficient skills in my toolkit. I used to try forcing the expression of creativity by setting…
-
Caught in my tracks
When you’re bored, sad, or lonely, you can handle it in many different ways. The other day, I turned to something unexpected: asking AI to write a short story with me. I would start a sentence and AI would shortly complete the idea and vice versa. It was not an attempt at creating a literary piece, it was just fun. And it led me to genuine surprise. Here is part of the story as it was created: AI: The water seemed to shimmer, and the stone… Me: … looked like a riddle of sorts. I poured the water over the stone… AI: … and as the liquid touched its surface,…
