PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE
Landing in Spring
Week 85 of the photographic documentary of my daily life
And here we are again. One long-distance flight later and tropical thunderstorms and sunny days were in the distance. We landed in Germany, fought together to stay awake and avoid jetlag, and tried not to freeze to death.
The change in climate zones is always immense when we fly from one continent to another but that doesn’t bother us much. It’s the cold that hit us this time on arrival.
Last day in Thailand. Our flight out of the country was only in the evening and we still had a long list of things to do before we could head to the airport. Packing our bags, cleaning the flat, and handing it over were next to dropping off the scooter in the city which kept us busy that day.
We were busy trying to fit everything into our bags while not exceeding the airline's luggage allowance when it all of a sudden got dark outside. A huge thunderstorm was rolling in and minutes later the heavy downpour started.
It was one of those tropical rainfalls and it didn’t stop. When our taxi arrived it was still raining. We ran to get our bags through the rain into the car.
Two flights later, Thailand was in our past and a new adventure ahead of us.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve touched down at Frankfurt airport before. It’s been a fair few. This landing strip is familiar to me. So is the weather. But right now, it feels freezing. The captain said we were landing at 6° C in the city.
THAT is cold.
And this was only the beginning of a very long day. We both slept a bit on the second flight but were awake from 4 am on. We didn’t want to suffer jetlag again and pushed ourselves to stay awake the rest of the day.
My husband went to the garden with my dad who put him to work and I tried to empty our bags and worked in the house. At 8 pm that night we had reached our limit and fell into bed. Exhausted and overtired but we made it without taking a dangerous nap at lunchtime.
Day two in the country and another big day were ahead of us. We were celebrating my mom’s birthday in their garden plot and most of the family members from mom’s side came over.
It was a huge party, lots of talking and sharing stories from our side and of course more than enough eating was included.
As you can see in the image below, we’re all big meat-eaters. Most of it comes from local butcheries and is surely a tasty bite. But we also had some mushrooms on the grill and salads on the side.
It’s Sunday.
I had some work to do but walked down to the garden plot with my mom. Just for some sunshine, exercise, and because it’s fun.
I captured this lady in one of the bird feeders. We were looking each other in the eye. It was an intimate moment.
This is a blue tit.
This afternoon I was telling my mom I hadn’t watered any plants in my room since I didn’t know what her schedule was. She said she always waters them on Mondays. And it was Monday. She asked me if I could water them all.
Their flat isn’t big and you surely won’t find colorful or blooming flowers in the house. But you’ll find lots of greens. My mom loves plants. Flowers, not so much. She has succulents and some of the cacti do create a blossom once in a blue moon.
I was coming back from the supermarket when the daisies on the lawn caught my attention. I quickly dropped off the groceries and grabbed my camera to come back to our front yard and snap a shot of the blooming beauties.
Daisies are “ordinary” flowers. But I love them. As common and tiny as they are, they are still pretty.
I was lying on the floor to capture this image. I also wanted to get the different colored flowers in the background into the picture.
Since my dad is working every day in the garden together with my husband rebuilding the greenhouse, I do many walks down to the garden plots which become my daily exercise.
My dad is retired while my mom still works. I tried to do most of the housework so that my mom can also enjoy the rest of her day.
After lunch, I walked together with my husband back to the garden plot when we spotted a squirrel on the forest floor. My husband said, “schneeeeell” (quick) telling me to get my camera out.
I take my camera backpack always with me but I wasn’t sure which lens I had on. Upon opening the bag I could see the zoom lens was on, quickly grabbed the camera a clicked a shot or two.
The squirrel was still on the ground but moving fast with the bushy tail. It then jumped onto a tree and I got this last picture before we lost him out of sight.
I was very happy about this encounter and the picture I took because squirrels are very shy where we live and I struggle to get them on camera.
This has been my week in photographs. 7 days. 7 photographs. Anyone can join. Once. Or weekly. It doesn’t matter. We welcome everyone! Dennett was the one starting this photography challenge in summer 2020 and many have participated ever since.
Erika / Eileen / K. Barrett / Juan / David / Mia / Susan / LensAfield / Kim / Barbara / Diana / Barb / Sandra / Shruthi / Ellie / Pene / Olive / Gustavo / Jane / Penny and new to the team came Jillian Amatt with “We Are Living In a Zoo!”
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