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At the eleventh hour
Some time ago I read in English “The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins and really liked the story and its characters. I met there – for the first time – an English phrase “at the eleventh hour” and understood from the context that it meant “at the last moment”. I looked at my dictionary and browsed the Internet and found the following explanation: “The eleventh hour is the last possible moment at which something can be done, or which problems or solutions might arise. The phrase, “at the eleventh” hour became popular in the 19th century, but was in use much earlier. It alludes specifically to the book of Matthew…
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Spring in terms of flowers
It’s beautiful to come out of the house right into the garden and to see nature so close… I grew up in a city, in a block of flats with garages in the backyard and a busy main street in front of the house. Moreover, both grandmothers lived in the same city, just in other parts of it. How much I longed for some nice relatives living in the country!! I would never have guessed at that time that one day I would be living in the country. One never knows what experience waits round the corner… I guess the flower above is some perennial kind of begonia, I have…
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Spring has finally come…
… although winter hasn’t given up yet. April is known for its uncertain weather here and so we had 25°C a few days ago as well as just 5°C today. I am quite happy that we were able to do quite a lot of work in our garden during those warm days and so the world looks a little bit better now. On the other hand, I nearly don’t remember how my camera looks as I haven’t used it since winter. Let me open my archive for a while and present a photo from the last spring to start the new season: These crocuses are planted in front of our…
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Winter scenes
When we woke up on 30th December in the end of the last year and looked out of a window, there was a beautiful blue sky and unusually white trees. My husband got up, came back with his camera and started to take pictures of our garden. First I was laughing but after a while I went for my camera too… After comparing our shots we separated our ways – he made a decision to go to the village and explore its surroundings and I went into the garden to take a closer look. My hands were freezing while playing with the camera and when I finally went home, I…
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Second chance
While I was browsing through blogs a few hours ago, I unexpectedly found inspiration in one of them. There was a photo picturing trees lit by golden light and a forked trail running among them. First trying just to write a short rhyming comment I could not stop looking for better suited words and here it is, a product of that inspiration, together with a photo I took in the end of the last year: Snowy scenesAnd lonely trailsStretching to infinity Hearts being weighedOn precise scalesFound guilty or not guilty Of emptiness,Of apathy,Of being cold as ice We beg for our second chanceAnother game of dice
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Winter atmosphere
“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape.The loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.”― Andrew Wyeth I like all the disguises nature wears. One place can be either dull or prominent under different conditions such as light, time of the day, weather, season. Once I read an article about how to find the soul of a garden. The author of that article expressed an idea saying that the soul becomes obvious just in winter when there are no leaves disturbing its expression. Well, the truth is that places do look different in summer and…
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Kozel castle – Part 3
I tidied up my blog a bit, got rid of some older posts I found pointless, dressed the blog in a winter coat and now I can happily return to the last part of my Kozel castle series: There is a small island in the pond inhabited by ducks. I saw it from this side of the pond for the first time and was surprised that it was arranged and maintained. There were many ducks, coming for feed and looking tame, they were not afraid of watching people at all. Only when a dog appeared and ran after them, they followed their instinct without hesitation and flew away. I guess…
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Kozel castle – Part 2
So, the New Year is not that “new” any more… do you feel settled? As my birthday is at the beginning of January, a start of a year is also the start of another year of my life, funny feeling… How many years will follow… better not to know. I was wondering whether to continue my autumnal Kozel castle series when glittery white snow was everywhere here but as the snow has been disappearing lately and green and brown colours have been appearing again, the decision has been made for me. I am starting with a scrapbook page I created in the scrapbooking course following one of its assignments. I…
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PF 2011
Some time ago I subscribed to a scrapbooking course via the Internet. I wanted to improve my skills in using the Adobe Photoshop Elements software that I use for editting my photos and for making occasional scrapbook pages. The course is great, but it takes all the time I have for sitting at my computer, so I haven’t been able yet to continue my Kozel castle series. Autumn is gone, there is snow everywhere and I can see I am running late… I hope that I will catch up with your blogs as soon as possible but for the time being, let me wish you a wonderful Christmas time and a happy year 2011. Credits for…
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Kozel castle – Part 1
The official website of the castle Kozel states that this castle is the most visited castle in western Bohemia. On the one hand I wonder whether this statement might be biased but on the other hand I find it easily believable. I love the castle with its beautiful garden and park and I like to come back from time to time. But I don’t remember being there in autumn… this might have been for the first time… and I was enchanted. The castle season ends on 31st October in the Czech Republic, and we came there on Saturday, the 30th. It was a nice afternoon. Quite cold but accompanied by…
