Yellow Monday (5)

Even in my retirement, I want something to cheer up when starting on a new week.

After several weeks of rain, the kind Sun did show his face yesterday, However, this could be brief; forecast is that it will be followed by at least several rainy and cloudy days.

My mind still wanders back to February / March when our hearts were uplifted by the yellow rapeseed flowers in Luoping,  Yunnan of China.

I hope you don’t mind me posting a few more images showing similar but not identical view of the yellow fields.

What a joy it was to walk among the yellow fields. We felt blessed to be there strolling the fields when the flowers were in full bloom.

While I tried to take pictures without tourists in the images, but sometimes I feel that their presence would further remind us of the happy time when we were down at the fields.

Have a great week

A Word a Week: Mountain

This is the first time that I make a submission to the “A Word A Week” challenge.

The “Word” for this week is “Mountain‘.

Mountains loom large in many people’s mind. I used to think of them being majestic, mysterious and sometimes even sacred.

In my travels, sometimes, the best scenery are the ones that I miss while travelling in a car or a coach. When there is no way you can stop and take a picture; may be because it is a single lane road with many cars behind you and /or there are no places to stop. Perhaps, this is just like the river of life, the best view are those you see on the road. ……… life just goes on and on and cannot be stopped somewhere in between.

But this does not deter me from taking pictures while the car / coach are moving, while risking the fact that objects in the forefront may look blur when the images come out.

While travelling in Yunnan, high up in a mountainous area where even taller mountains appeared before my eyes, I took several images while the coach was on the move. More than half of the images came out alright; some of them suffered from the glare reflecting from the coach window.

I like the way the clouds have come down in an almost triangular shape, hiding parts of the mountain but leaving the peaks exposed. I also like the several distinct bands of colors of the mountain, the land etc.

I just couldn’t forget the lonely and dreamy house there too and the feeling that this couldn’t be China – this could just be anywhere in the world ( or out of this world)!

Weekly Photo Challenge : Patterns (2)

How could I have forgotten this image when posting on “Patterns”?

As part of the Three Gorges Cruise in China, we stopped by this temple and have a good look in the interior.

Apart from the following which caught my eyes:

* four red timber columns supporting the roof with beams painted blue on the underside framing into them.

* four figures jutting out from the columns each with musical instruments in their hands.

* a Chinese lantern slung in the middle.

what attracted me most were the colorful patterns everywhere: on the ceiling, on the beams, gold-plated wood carvings near the bottom of the image.

Fantastic and colorful patterns!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Patterns

Not knowing exactly what are patterns, I looked up for the meaning in Wikipedia:

A pattern, apart from the term’s use to mean “Template“, is a discernible regularity in the world or in a manmade design. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner.

As someone who likes taking photos of landscape, seascape and architecture, I don’t have a lot of photos showing how nature at work  which shapes many of the living and non-living matters into patterns of different scales.

I suppose as humans, we like breaking down things into manageable elements and assembling them to become bigger pieces. Like nature, we like them to look pretty and pleasing.

Here are a few examples of man-made patterns.

The photo shows the roof of a temple at YungGang, China. The glazed tiles which are already having their own patterns, are supported by two layers of rafters, the lower layer of circular beams and an upper layer of rectangular beams. On a bigger spacing, the columns heads are interesting decorated with what I believe Dragon Heads!

The picture below taken at Sofia Mosque, Istanbul shows the pattern to a gateway. The repetitive pattern of the ironwork and the gold colors on them are just amazing, not to say anything about the patterns above and around them.

Architects are so good at providing patterns on buildings to render them aesthetically pleasing.

The façade of the palace building at Dolmabache contains many repetitive and symmetrical patterns at different scales.

Can’t help being fascinated by patterns – both man- made and natural!

Smile

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it’s breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you’ll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You’ll see the sun come shining through for you

Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
That’s the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what’s the use of crying? 
You’ll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile

That’s the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what’s the use of crying? 
You’ll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile. . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . .

You may want to listen Nat King Cole singing this song at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN8oLGBNXpE

(Picture taken in Luoping,  China March this year, after climbing up 1,000 steps to the Smiling Buddha statue. This post is specially dedicated to my brothers and sister. . . . . please SMILE )

Travel Theme : Light

This week, Ailsa’s Travel Theme Challenge at Where’s My Backpack is “Light“.

I like the interplay of light and objects.

Last November, while in the HongLou Temple, Beijing we were enchanted by the effects of light on the yellow Autumn foliage.

The leaves were transformed into  gold color while the light illuminated the artistic details of the temple beam,, the doors and roof tiles.

The light, in fact, is the main object of the picture and imparts a surreal feeling!

Yellow Monday (4)

Have been raining for more than two weeks now. Need some sunny photos to cheer up.

The humid and unsettled Spring weather here remind us so much of the good weather we had earlier last month up in Luoping, Yunnan with the rapeseed flowers in full bloom.

Can we have some sunshine this week???

Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Clouds

This is the first time that I participate in the Wild Weekly Photo Challenge.

We were at the wrong season up in Napahai, Yunnan. Instead of a peaceful lake surrounded with a green scenery, all we saw was a dried up lake with puddles.

Napahai Lake (Napa Hai) is 3270 meters (10,728 ft.) above sea level and covers 660 square kilometers (254 square miles). Approximately 8 kilometers northwest of Shangrila, the lake fills up a valley surrounded on three sides by mountains which are covered in snow during winter and spring time.

High up in Napahai, the atmosphere was thin and the temperature was around 3 degree Celsius.  While wandering in the dried lake, a dark cloud came upon us and rain began to fall. There was basically no place to hide or take refuge. Herdsman were hurrying back to their far away shelters.

When the rain subsided, we found ourselves in this vast plain with barely anybody in sight. A buffalo was charging towards us . . . . . . .

Watching clouds is one of the enjoyable activities in the tropics. Apart from island hopping (see my earlier post Koh Samui – Islands Hopping), one of the things we like was watching colorful low hanging clouds as the sun descended below the horizon.

Here, the temperatures are more like 30 degrees Celsius.  One way to relax oneself is to watch the dramatic clouds while seeping a cold drink . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Also, not forgetting to mention the delightful white clouds dotted the blue sky of Inner Mongolia, China with yurts in the foreground. . . . . . .

Finally back at home, it is not uncommon to see rain clouds during summer months. Picture below shows clouds gradually lifting up from the mountains after heavy rain and people have restarted their wind surfing. . . . . . . . . . .

Green Wednesday (3)

I like Monet’s impressionist paintings, especially those with water lilies.

Painting has never been easy; I rather resort to photographing them instead.

Apart from the water lilies, the picture below is basically green in color. The picture shows some leaves starting to turn yellow. This reminds me that in real life, things do get withered. However, they give color to this otherwise monotonic picture taken in the gardens of Huánghèlóu , China .

I also like the reflections in water. On the top left are reflections of willows while on the top right corner are the reflections of a stone arch bridge; both are outside the picture.

For those who love water lily leaves, below is a picture taken in Hokkaido, Japan showing the whole pond full of them.

Yellow Monday (3)

While Christmas is usually associated with the red color, some people believe Easter is related to the yellow color:  the feathers, the daffodils and the chickens on the Easter cards.
In any case, yellow is usually related to the brightness of the sun; our joy and happiness.

For this week, the yellow rapeseed flowers at Luoping, Yunnan are still my favorite. What a joy it was to walk among the yellow fields!

While many tourists just walked along the main paths, some have actually ventured into the fields. It was a bliss to be in close contact with nature !