Encounters in my Morning Hike – Ripples in a Stream

Wanaka Still

I like pictures with clouds – they lead my thoughts far and wild.

Here is a picture with stunning clouds; taken by my wife at Wanaka.

The wind was blowing very strong; creating ripples in the water.

Not only that, the sand on the right was blown up, creating heaps on the shore.

What a view!

Travel Theme: Ripples

Ailsa’s Travel Theme this week is “Ripples“. I always like responding to the challenge in Travel Theme as her themes are usually interesting and not superficial.

I like looking at ripples as they spread bigger and wider in concentric circles. According to the wave theory, ripples will spread to infinity but with smaller and smaller effects.

In the river of Annecy, France, a mother swan was radiating her love, as she taught her baby life techniques.

The picture below was taken in a temple of Zhangjiajie, China. A small child was captivated by  kois swimming in a pond. He was looking down with undivided attention at the kois which were causing the ripples.

While we were in West Lake, Hangzhou China, it was amazing to watch schools of kois coming up to the surface in competition for food thus causing the ripples.

At the throw of a pebble to a pond, the kinetic energy is converted to energy in the water surface. Energy just propagates outward on the surface as ripples.

Robert Kennedy used ripples as ripples of Hope in the quotation:

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy, June 6 1966 (South Africa address).

It is true that a great idea will send out ripples affecting the thoughts of many people, but to implement the idea, more energy is needed from all of us, all contributing to the ripples until, as R.F Kennedy said, it “builds a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance”.

Watching Kois in West Lake (Xihu) Hangzhou, China

Last Summer, the World Heritage Committee has inscribed the West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The inscribed landscape has inspired famous poets, scholars and artists since the 9th century. It comprises numerous temples, pagodas, pavilions, gardens and ornamental trees, as well as causeways and artificial islands.  The West Lake has influenced garden design in the rest of China as well as Japan and Korea over the centuries and bears an exceptional testimony to the cultural tradition of improving landscapes to create a series of vistas reflecting an idealised fusion between humans and nature

We knew it wasn’t the best time of the year for visiting West Lake in Hangzhou China. It was November, the sky was hazy and it was cool when we landed at the airport.

Early next morning, we started our exploration of the lake which is listed by UNESCO. We strolled along the banks of the West Lake, wandering into an area which is known as “Orioles Singing in the Willows “.

The view was refreshingly green. There were willows everywhere and the place looked very tranquil; although we didn’t see or hear any orioles.

As we wandered further along the bank of the lake, the rain began to fall.

We have a good watch of wild ducks swimming in the water and the whole lake with willows on the bank looked so serene.

Strolled further along, we were awed by view with this traditional Chinese bridge standing out of the water on the other side of the lake.

Not deterred by the rain, we walked further along and crossed the  footbridge (below).

We came to a lake where schools of bright-colored kois were  swimming ; they were mainly red and orange in color.

It was a joy to watch the kois admist the rain. The sky turned dark and this imparted a blue hue on the water surface. The whole thing started looking like a painting. Rain drops shooting into the water and spreading out as  ripples.

The kois swam underneath the water and only surfaced when they spotted food on the water surface. The kois swimming in the lake were just like impressionist paintings with a blue background. The contrasting  red and orange colors were in an ever-changing pattern of different spatial dispersion and intensity.

I was entranced by their movements, sometimes swimming together, came up to the surface and compete for the food they found.

I could see the individual droplets of rain hitting the surface  of the water and the resulting ripples spreading out.

I thought I could stay here all day gazing how the kois came together against the blue background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

For related post ” The Last Days of Autumn in West Lake, China”, please see https://retireediary.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/the-last-days-of-autumn-in-west-lake-china/