The Flatland Chronicles

Pictures from the Earth: Judy Malley--Nova Scotia | Used by Permission

I've never visited Nova Scotia, but it's one of the places I aspire to see before I die.  Photographer Judy Malley has provided me with such a comprehensive glimpse of its many beauties.

All her Nova Scotia photographs just pulled me right in---it took me forever to choose which ones to use because there were so many that moved me. 

The ones I picked are magnificent, but you can click on her Flickr photostream and see many more equally so.  .

 

T13 #14 | Pictures from the Earth: Broken Hearts for Every Situation (13)

Not only love can break one.  Losing a friend,  losing a pet, losing a job, or losing hope can do it too.  As Paul Simon so rightly said:  "Losing love is like a window in your heart/Everybody sees you're blown apart/Everybody hears the wind blow...." Yes, they do.

These Flickr photographers have made art of the broken heart.  There's a strange beauty in the brokenness portrayed in each of these photographs.

They all look painful though, don't they?  Yes, they all look painful:  torn asunder, shattered, cut in two, crumbling, dripping, cracked, broken in half,  punctured,  ripped,  bruised,  riven, shredded, or torn. 

How does your heart look when it breaks, or does it just depend? 

A Beetle-Browed Bunny Rebukes the Internets

The large, cross bunny whose portrait appears below was featured here at Cute Overload. Normally I would just link to the picture, but this time I  had to have the bunny (generously made available to all  via Creative Commons) at my very own blog.  I would like a giant poster-sized version of this bunny to put on my office door on days when I don't want to be disturbed.

THE DISAPPROVING BUNNY:

T13 # 13 | Pictures from the Earth: Landscapes & Cityscapes by Patrick Boury

Fellow Thirteeners, my spouse and I are not fans of the day, which is either year round or nothing at all. My husband, Nicholas, averred that if there was going to be a list of 13 things I'm fond of about him circulated on the internet, he'd prefer to write them himself.

Instead, consider the following my Valentine's Day gift to you.  Many of you know one thing I love is photography.

<Click the image to go to the Thursday 13 website.  (Join us!)

Magical Glass---The Art of Dale Chihuly | Link of the Day

A Florida photographer and blogger whose work I've much admired---and much used---turned me on to Dale Chihuly.   How had I not known about Chihuly?  You know how I love glass, light, and color, so how? 

This is the sort of art that doesn't require any more words.  Click here, wait, watch, and adore.... Breathtaking. 

Pictures from the Earth: "Aurora Borealis"

I have never been far enough north to see the aurora borealis, but I found some amazing photographs on Flickr (made available, of course, through the generous people who contribute to Creative Commons). 

It was very difficult to choose, so I decided to go for variety of color and landscape. 

Pictures from the Earth: "Cascade Mountain Range Volcanoes"

I've always been fascinated by the Pacific Northwest, but it's a long, long way away from Gainesville Florida, and when I have money to travel, it's usually got to be eastward to my husband's family home in Britain (not that I'm complaining about that).

At The Happy Wonderer, there is a marvelous photo-essay on the volcanoes of the Cascade Mountain Range I immediately decided to scoop up and add to my list of photos other people have made of things earthly and wonderful. 
The photos are from along the I-5 from Washington State (only an easterner would feel it necessary to qualify this, I'm told) to California.  "It's amazing to think that these peaks are all volcanoes," she says.

Go here to look and learn....

Pictures from the Earth--"Closed for Winter"

My husband suggested the idea behind this photo essay. I asked him to suggest a subject and---it being a grey and melancholy day (we do have them in Florida)---he came up with the theme. I was concerned that I wouldn't find enough Creative Commons photographs on the theme, but honestly I was spoiled for choice, and it was extremely hard to choose.  But after looking through many, many, many, I decided that these beautiful images were the most evocative and diverse.

Pictures from the Earth: Fan Boy

The subject of this photograph is a "fan boy"  in the most literal sense of the word----i.e., he's a boy with a fan.  In Japan.  The photographer, Kamoda/Nathan Duckworth, has a blog that I highly recommend to anyone in need of visual inspiration.  I intend to blog-roll it as soon as I'm done with this:  "Daily Photos of Everyday Japan." 

This---one of my favorite Flickr Creative Commons photos ever---is one you won't want to miss:

Pictures from the Earth: Champagne!

Happy New Year!  What with sickness in the family, exhaustion from the stress of it, and the imminent return to work, we decided to have a quiet New Year's at home.  But with champagne!  And at least the worst I can expect tomorrow is to wake up with a slight headache.

I worked hard finding these five photographs.  Most champagne photos are of wedding toasts or champagne fountains.  Many were stiff or pretentious or cliche.  I wanted pictures that really conveyed: CHAMPAGNE!