• Around home and village

    Do you like lupins?

    Lupins are in full bloom in our garden now and that is a joy to behold, I love them. But the truth is that if you didn’t restrict them, they would force out and displace other less expansive flowers. I’ve learnt that in gardening as well as in life one needs to remove even what is beautiful when it’s out of place and doesn’t add to achieving balance…

  • Reflections

    Sempervivum fantasy

    I used to think that life has to be crystal clear and sharp, with obvious edges and unambiguous shapes. Yet gradually I’ve learnt that life can also be fuzzy, with undistinctive curves and curious colours, and still be nice and enriching. One simply needs to grow to appreciate some aspects of the existence…

  • Reflections

    Decisions, decisions

    When you start reading a book, do you always finish it? Or do you sometimes put it away because you don’t like or understand its contents? I rarely stop reading a book as I always expect it to lead me through its plot to something revealing, satisfying, interesting, thought-provoking. I even read in English the whole unabridged book Les Misérables by Victor Hugo although I did not understand lots of its contents as the vocabulary was too uncommon, I was so stubborn to make it to the end. And when you start pursuing an activity and you are not as good in it as you would like to be, do…

  • Around home and village

    Free to have a vision

    Sometimes we see or understand things that others do not recognize but we are afraid to share our vision not to be laughed at or misunderstood. And if we muster the courage to share and do not get any positive feedback or encouragement as our vision may not be interesting enough for those around us, we may feel to be let down or not appreciated. But that does not change a thing about the fact that the freedom to have a vision and follow it is still there. Follow your visions. They may not be always breath-taking but they will let you grow…

  • Reflections

    Memorable sunset sky

    People quite often take and share photos of notable skies with beautiful clouds, impressive colours, melancholy mood… Some of the photos are really impressive but on the other hand, quite a few were not able to transport the magic of the moment into the two dimensional picture where the observers intended to hold the wonder. Don’t understand my words as criticism, it’s just a statement of a fact. I know what I’m talking about as I made the same effort many times when trying to capture the uncapturable. Most of those photos ended in a bin, just the disappointment stayed of not being able to seize the beauty. Despite my…

  • Reflections

    Let your creativity lead you

    Do you at least sometimes create just for the fun of it, without expecting success and words of praise? Do you sometimes feel a need to express yourself no matter how amateurish the result would be? There have already been so many pieces of advice told regarding this topic… You’ve heard them surely: “Don’t let yourself get discouraged by others, don’t compare yourself with others (especially with those skilled ones), listen to your creative needs and satisfy them mindfully…” All those nice and well-meant words may be hard to swallow when you don’t believe in yourself, when you don’t find your skills good enough. Who wants to hide their creative…

  • Reflections

    Winter has not said its last word yet

    In our neck of the woods, winter has not said its last word yet. After some warm and sunny days that we could enjoy last week, this afternoon snow once again covered our roofs, yards and gardens. That made me think of winter sceneries rather than spring flowers… Overwhelmed by that mood I was browsing the photos I captured in January and found one I liked and wanted to process one day. So here it is, inspired by this April snow shower…

  • Around home and village

    Round the village

    The last week was cold, with occasional snow showers, and as much as I like snow, the time has come for spring to seize control. I’ve been looking so much for flowers to bloom in the garden and fresh leaves to appear on the trees and plants! In the meantime, before that happens in our neck of the woods, here are a few photos from Saturday’s walk around the village. Birds singing and chatting loudly in the branches (and I love how different impression the tree with the birds gives in colour and in black-and-white)… …and hopefully the last snow of the season… When passing power lines outside the village,…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Technical Příbram

    This year I’ve been pursuing a photo project called “Technical”, you can read more about its rules and my expectations here. My first target for the project was the town Příbram and its vicinity and here are the photos I liked most. When editing the raw files, I was aiming rather at the atmosphere than at the actual look, there is often much more to it than what we see with the naked eye, isn’t there? Click on the photos to enlarge them if you want to see them better. Příbram used to be a mining town and the traces of its history are present in many of its parts.…