lens-artists photo challenge #105 – Spring

I don’t know what has happened to me lately??? I forget things, mix up dates and times … and this challenge, lost out on #104, missed one week again. I blame everything on COVID-19.

Tina, want us to bring Springtime back .. or bring it back sooner. Who doesn’t love Springtime?????!!!

“My weaknesses have always been food and men
— in that order.”
Dolly Parton

I start with one of my favourite spring dishes, my own creation … that I probably have knicked the idea from some restaurant along the way and through the years – that while working over in the UK became one of our most popular starters: Avocado mouse with Parma ham and black olives.

“Some old-fashioned things like fresh air
and sunshine are hard to beat”
Laura Ingalls Wilder

Here in Sweden, we are mad about the first spring sun. We just have to sit and soak it up … with so much cloth on as possible. I guess it’s because of all the darkness we have to live through during the winter up here in the North. Up in the Northern part of Sweden, they only have 4 hours daylight in January. Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Alaska has even less. I couldn’t manage to live through that.

“The magic in new beginnings is truly the most powerful of them all.”
Josiyah Martin

Springtime is when our roundabouts here in Landskrona comes to life … and we have many, our city’s park team do a fantastic job – our roundabouts and parks are so well looked after and they follow the 4 seasons. We are so spoiled. It’s also when the city brings our fountains to life.

“Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!'”
Robin Williams

The first sheer greenery … is there anything more hopeful and welcoming???. When nature wakes up again to give us all that joy. This image is from the Gardens of Schönbrunn in Vienna.

“Spring: a lovely reminder of how beautiful
change can truly be.”
Unknown

… and of course, all the flowers it brings us and one of the best places on earth (in my book) to enjoy them is of course at Keukenhof outside Amsterdam.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
Lao Tzu

Then we have “my” Swan couple … that for many years has given me so much joy – not least through their cygnets, but this year they didn’t have any … and the last two years before … they had, but somehow they disappeared. So sad, but nobody seems to know what has happened to the small ones.

©clasical fm

The cloud for this post was very easy … I just have to use Vivaldi’s Spring. The Four Seasons (Italian: Le quattro stagioni) is a group of four violins as they are called concerti by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, each of which gives musical expression to a season of the year. They were written around 1716–1717 and first published in 1725 in Amsterdam.

https://travelsandtrifles.wordpress.com/2020/07/11/lens-artists-challenge-105-spring/