This week Teri has challenged us with:
Blue
We are soon to off on another adventure into the wide blue yonder, so you can expect some photos from that, but first a photo from a previous adventure.
‘Adventures’, Castlerigg, 2018.
Ken
Yesterday was a special day for the Lens Artists Quartet, their 53rd post, the one year anniversary of their Challenge, and so we had a special challenge from Tina, Ann-Christine, Patti, & Amy.
Your Choice
They chose Friendship , A Country That’s Special to You , Imagination , and Connected. I like the fact that these posts all deal with the web that has grown between us all as a community across the globe, holding different views, and beliefs, but brought together every Saturday to share our pictorial thoughts. Each week a little of our personality is shared with the other members of our group, and we in turn learn a little more about our place in the world and how we relate to others.
Most of you are aware that I enjoy visiting ancient stones, often in remote locations, so once more I will share a photo of the ‘Druids circle’, Penmaenmawr.
‘Ancient view’, Druids circle, Penmaenmawr, 2019.
I like to think I am taking some of you along with me for the walk, inspiring some to visit such places, or simply showing you something you otherwise would not have seen. In my imagined world I publish a post and then members of our digital community that exists as ones and zeros to me on the whole, but who are indeed real people slowly make the trek to the stones with me.
‘Ones and Zeros’, Druids circle, Penmaenmawr, 2019.
Ken
This week we are challenged us with:
We look forward to seeing your unique and varied responses to this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #49: Favourite Things.
What are my favourite things? There are a lot when I come to think of it, but if there are so many, does that make them favourite, or just things that make me happy and those I love. And what should I group into the category of ‘Things’. Anyway enough of an early morning existential crisis, here is a photo that has a number of ‘things’ in it. My wife, friends, me taking a photo, Long Meg and her daughters, stone circles in general, wide open spaces, the country side, walking, nature . . . I’ve used a different edit of this before but it just contained so many favourites, that the opportunity to re-edit was too good to miss.
‘Meg is a favourite’, Long Meg and her daughters, Cumbria, 2018.
What is missing, well cats, our cats especially, music, dancing, visiting new places, West Penwith, St. Ives, sunsets, a roof over my head . . . just where do the likes stop and the favourites begin!
So I am going to choose just one more photo:
‘A wife and two cats’, 2014.
Ken
This weekend GC and SueW have chosen the following as the theme for their challenge.
What makes you feel comfortable, is it a favourite chair, a pillow on your bed, a roaring fire on a chilly day, or something else? How about your discomfort, what takes you out of your comfort zone?
I feel comfortable visiting stones circles, I also feel discomfort when visiting stone circles, it depends on the place, the space, and sometimes the time. Sometimes I want to rush up and hug the stones, sometimes I want to depart as quickly as possible. This was a comfy circle, a warm morning, I may have had a snooze while my wife did some sketching, she has a whole series of photos that could be described as – Ken asleep at ancient sites.
‘Circle of comfort’, Torhousekie stone circle, 2018.
Ken
This week Nancy has challenged us with the following:
Smile
Given the group shot I used as my final photo for last week was taken by my wife and had me in it, this week I decided I would use a photo of my wife. Smiling as we had reached our destination of the Maen Mawr at the Cerrig Duon stone circle.
‘Stone pixie’, Cerrig Duon stone circle, 2019.
Ken
For this weeks Friday Fun we have been asked:
Please share a few of your ‘cloud’ photos, poetry or stories?
Whether through your lens or with creative writing … go where the prompt leads!
Post a photo or get creative
… skies the limit, be sublime, fluffy or grey … please share that!
Well no food to tantalise you or make your stomach grumble this week. I love a good cloudy sky in my photos, so here is one from last year while we were on holiday in Dumfries and Galloway, the skies were just amazing the entire time we were there! So a 4 photo panoramic stitch for you this week.
‘Acres of sky’, Glenquicken stone circle, Dumfries and Galloway, 2018.
Ken
Well this week Frank challenges us with the topic:
Your challenge is to share those vistas that inspired you or simply left you breathless!
I recently posted that we had visited our 50th Stone circle of the 50 we were attempting to fit in before my wife’s 50th birthday this year. It was the Cerrig Duon Stone Circle near the Maen Mawr standing stone in the Brecon Beacons. This circle is egg-shaped, and measures about 60 feet accross, with roughly 20 small stones. The stones are quite small, and the tallest only 2 feet high, however this is in juxtaposition to a very large monolith, or standing stone, known as Maen Mawr, ‘the large stone’, some 30 feet north of the circle. The stone is about 7 feet high, nearly 3 feet thick, and about 4 feet wide, and outside it are two small stones in a row. West of the circle are two rows of very small stones approaching at an oblique angle there are 17 stones in the west row and 12 in the east row, but they are hard to spot. The east row is about 80 feet long while the west row is 135 feet, and the stones are about 16 feet apart.
All of this is set against a most magnificent vista. So here is an 8 photo panoramic stitch of the circle and landscape, from our recent travels.
‘On top of the ancient world’, Cerrig Duon Stone Circle, 2019.
Ken
This week Teri has challenged us with:
Show us your version of your favourite playground for Sunday Stills!
Maybe not my favourite playground, but for this moment it was theirs!
‘Merriment’, Mumbles, Swansea, 2015.
My own favourite playground probably looks a bit more like this,
‘Stone dancers’, Long Meg and her daughters, Cumbria, 2017.
Ken
This week Debbie has challenged us with the following:
Welcome to One Word Sunday, and over to all of you to join the challenge with your own power post.
Some of you you may have guessed by now that I feel an immense sense of power, emanating from the earth when I visit these old stones, often in lonely places, on moors.
‘In the spaces in between’, Scorhill, Dartmoor, 2018.
Ken
This weekend GC and SueW have chosen ‘Yellow’ as the theme for their challenge.
Today, GC and I would like you to search your files, or take a walk, find somewhere peaceful to sit and dream, meditate a while and come back and tell us about it. Share your pictures, write your poems or send us your music. Whatever works best for you.
Those of you who pass by regularly will know that I really love visiting ancient monuments, stone circles in particular. The all have a different feeling sometimes I wish to sit and meditate a while, and some times I feel the need to depart as quickly as my legs will carry me.
Long Meg and her daughters has become somewhat of a pilgrimage when we visit Cumbria and the lakes, after only a few moments of being there I usually feel restored and at peace, I have no idea why this should be so, I am only happy it is so.
‘Restorative’, Long Meg and her daughters, 2018.
Ken
