• Focused on photography

    Lovely monster

    As a photographer, I’ve learned one really important thing about taking photographs. Use your brain and think about what you want to photograph but also listen to your guts what they tell you. Here and there it happens to me that I notice something and feel the charge right away but I don’t see the result. I used to dismiss such perceptions… Don’t do that, go where it speaks to you no matter how commonplace it may seem, and pay attention. An old agricultural building that spoke to me when passing it in a car brought me to creating the image below. I love it and I’m happy I seized…

  • Around home and village

    Living Living Stones

    Some time ago I told my family that I love succulents and would be happy to get some on the occasion of my birthdays and name days and soon after that I got a little pot from my son with a little succulent called “living stones”. The plant didn’t seem to thrive at first, its leaves were fading, so I decided the pot was way too small and replanted the succulent into a little bigger one. I think it helped but in the first place I had to learn that it is normal that the older leaves shrivel up and also that I need to respect the existence of winter…

  • Focused on photography

    Fire engine and Rabí

    On Saturday my hubby and I went on a photo walk, despite quite unfavourable weather forecast. You never really know what the weather will be like in two hours in a location far enough from where you start and we rather wanted to give the photographing a chance than stay at home and regret what we might have missed. Well, I can tell you that the weather was bad enough at the destination we headed for and arrived at after almost an hour of driving. The temperature was just below the freezing point but the wind was chilly and then it started drizzling persistently so taking photos was rather a…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Winter trip to Karlovy Vary

    In the Czech Republic, we have a tradition of so called “spring holidays” for schoolchildren. The holidays last one week but they are planned within several weeks so that all districts don’t have them at the same time, this year the span is from February 5 to March 18. My younger son Zbyněk has had the holidays this week and because we don’t go skiing, we were thinking about a trip to make. Finally we decided to visit the spa Karlovy Vary where Zbyněk was on a school trip last June and it seemed interesting to visit the spa in winter under quite different conditions. Also, I had never been…

  • Poetry

    Life is like a whirling ball

    Life is like a whirling ball,Experiencing rise and fall. In a land of ice,In a land of fire,In the realms of fancy,Shifted by desire. Sometimes moving up,Sometimes moving down,Sometimes gathering speed,Sometimes slowing down. Heading to the left,Turning to the right,Facing walls around,Getting to the light. Can you feel the rise?Can you see the fall?Life is so much morethan the whirling ball. I have to tell you… that when I published the post, my poem ended with words saying “life is nothing else but the whirling ball”. When I came back a while later, it suddenly dawned on me how good the words sound but how false they actually are so…

  • Focused on photography

    Captured in three different ways

    December will end tomorrow so here I am with the final photos that I’ve taken and selected to represent the theme A THING OR SCENE CAPTURED IN THREE DIFFERENT WAYS assigned to this month in my 12-month photo project. The aim of this theme was to look at the objects and scenes that we photograph from different angles, perspective or distance to realise there is more than one way how to see and capture them. I decided to arrange the final trios into horizontal triptychs to visualise the differences, here they are. No. 1: Door If I am not mistaken, this door leads to a café but I had different thoughts to deal…

  • Focused on photography

    One plus additional

    The November theme of my 12-month photo project was defined as ONE PLUS ADDITIONAL which was meant to be a photo accompanied and complemented by a few other related photos. The main photo had to be taken in November, all the photos taken this year could be used as the complementary photos. There were actually more ways of how to interpret this assignment so after having created several sets I decided to choose just those strictly satisfying the conditions. For example, I excluded a set of five observation towers… The photo I took in November was the largest in the set but it was not the main photo, it was just…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Botanical garden in Liberec

    When I was planning trips for our holiday in the Jizera Mountains, the Botanical garden in Liberec was one of the places which caught my attention, especially for the architecture of its greenhouses and for its new „Water Lily Pavilion“. The garden greatly exceeded my expectations which is why I would like to present it to you. The Botanical garden in Liberec is the oldest botanical garden in the Czech Republic. It started its operation in 1895 and its purpose was primarily to provide green vegetation for the town. During both world wars its condition deteriorated, it served mostly as a market garden. At last in 1954, it was changed…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Observation tower Slovanka

    Slovanka, the oldest iron observation tower in Bohemia, is situated at the top of the hill Slovanka in the Jizera Mountains, at an altitude of 820 metres, not far from the town Janov nad Nisou. The tower is 11 metres high, 14 metres including the base. It is permanently accessible and the access is free of charge. We spent our family holiday in the vicinity and visited the observation tower twice. I would say that there is nothing spectacular about the tower, yet it looks good, there is a nice view from its top and also, it represents an interesting piece of history. The tower was constructed according to a…

  • Poetry

    Step by step

    Step by step moving slowly forwardstep by step through the barren landstep by step put your best foot forwardstep by step feeling good and bad  Without cheer of crowdsfeet may seem too heavywithout sign of lightpassing through despairtouching barren landprints are left alreadywithout breath of airpain is hard to bear And yet step by step moving slowly forwardstep by step through the barren landstep by step put your best foot forwardstep by step feeling good and bad