• Reflections

    Inspiring food for thought

    The other day I was listening to an audio English lesson on business English and I felt intrigued by its topic, which was dealing with difficult people. I had to think a lot about what was said because it felt genuinely true and applicable to our lives generally, not just to those professional ones. In a nutshell, the thing is that there are quite a few people in our jobs, in our neighbourhood and generally everywhere we find ourselves, which we find hard or almost impossible to put up with. We usually blame them and although in many cases we may be right, sometimes – and probably more often than…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    By contrast

    We encounter many contrasting places, objects, thoughts and people in our lives, some of them more prominent than others… In Giant Mountains, there are many nice old houses typical for the long-gone era of our ancestors. The houses look lovely and cosy, such as this one in Rokytnice nad Jizerou. In my opinion, there used to be different roofing material, this one looks too modern to me, but the house itself radiates the history. And it definitely shows a stark contrast to the contemporary houses in its surroundings. The new may not suit the old yet one day the new will become old as well and another level of contemporary…

  • Miscellaneous

    Learning to work with WordPress Block Editor

    When WordPress team first introduced the new block editor, I panicked. I was quite happy with my WordPress blog and the way the original editor worked and switching to the block system seemed unnecessary and intimidating. Why the change? Fortunately for all of those unwilling, a plugin was offered featuring the older (classic) editor, so I had it activated and calmed down. After some time I thought I should give the new editor a try and created a post using it. Well, how to say that… The experience felt not quite awful but definitely unconvincing so I happily reactivated the classic editor… What was spoiling my happiness though was the…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Reflections

    Winter moments

    This week has been chilly and snowy here and to see the landscape covered in snow and frost has been a lovely sight to behold. We hurry through our lives so many times but there is stillness as well that’s worthy of enjoying.