PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE
Reversing the Seasons — After Spring Comes Winter
Week 87 of the photographic documentary of my daily life
This week March has ended and spring vanished with the last day of the month. To my joy, a cold front blew over most parts of Europe and brought some snow to the beginning of April.
It was surely a climate shock coming from the tropical weather of Thailand to Germany's winter but as usual, I made the best out of it. Dress for success and enjoy the winter wonderland. It surely won’t last.
About that spring part of my story. My dad is ready to plant his seedlings in the garden. They are all decent-sized. But so far, it is still too cold to even keep them on the balcony overnight. Every evening he has to bring them back into the living room.
It was predicted, but it could as well just have been an April fool’s joke.
The snow.
It snowed all day long but due to the ground being still very warm after an unusual hot March, none of those white crystals remained. The snow melted the moment it touched down.
I didn't mind the weather since I was busy with the tax returns and simply enjoyed seeing snowflakes dancing in front of my window.
But this snowy weather surely got my inspiration going. I wanted to get more of it. Of the snow and the experience of winter.
Last night I decided to head to the mountains for a day. To hike in the snow and board or sled down again. Depending on how much snow we’d find.
My dad would have loved to join but had other plans already this Saturday. My mom came with us even though she doesn’t like spontaneous changes of plans and was taken by surprise.
It was snowing as we left the house in the dark. I was driving since my mom doesn’t like dodgy road conditions and well, my husband had so far a rather limited experience of winter (growing up in Africa, what else do you expect).
We had about a 2-hour drive ahead of us but since most roads were covered in snow I had to drive slower. However, when we got to the ski resort (which was closed because the season had ended already) we were blown away by the beauty of this winter wonderland.
It was snowing all day long. We hiked up with barely any sight at times, and I went back on my snowboard to enjoy an amazing ride down in powdery snow.
I was tired when we got back home this day, but it was a happy tired. All three of us had a blast in the snow and made some memorable memories.
After another night with temperatures below the freezing point, the soil was now cold enough for the snowflakes to remain and another beauty unfolded the next morning.
Before breakfast still, I got up to capture the spring flowers covered in a white blanket. It was an incredible sight and artwork of nature that didn’t last long. But long enough for me to capture all of those tiny packages of snow on dandelions, daisies, tulips, and other spring beauties.
The following day almost all the snow had vanished already. The night was still freezing which is why frost had covered all cars on our street and those parked in the shade had some snow leftover.
This week my newly started photography challenge with my writer friend Shruthi Sundaram included the topic of taking photographs of an object from different angles. It should teach about perspectives.
“Find something around you that you find interesting in some way. Take photographs of it from at least 3 different perspectives. What can you see from one perspective that you can’t see from the others?”
I have this one specific cactus. It’s been there for long. It’s not a very pretty one. It’s not one with a unique shape or color. It’s just a round-shaped cactus with spikes.
Most of the time.
But sometimes, this boring, normal cactus unfolds his beauty.
They say only when cacti are happy in their environment, they form flowers. Then this one must love my presence because I haven’t been home much in the past 7 years but whenever I was home it was blooming.
Like today.
So, this is the object I selected. It’s special to me because it talks to me in a different way. Through flowers in my favorite color which appear whenever I do stay home.
About that other question. Looking at the cactus from three different angles I could see special features in each shot.
From behind: While we can see the bright shining flower, we can also see the spikes which stand out from the green body of the cactus.
Side view: The side view offers us the most three-dimensional sight of the cactus flower. You can see the dried flower, but you can see as well the main flower in full bloom and the sharp spikes.
Front view: You can see the inside of the cactus flower in detail.
And here we go again. The three weeks staying at my parents' place flew by like nothing and all of a sudden we had to pack our bags again. This time not by plane. This time we move by car.
We’re moving to the North of the country. Berlin. The capital of my home country. A city I’ve never visited before.
And no, we won’t be staying in the city. You all know I’m not a city person. We’re outside in the countryside. But more about that one tomorrow.
The packing of the car today was a bit like Tetris. Apparently, we’re good in it because we did manage to fit all our belongings and some extra stuff in our VW Golf.
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 / Jillian
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