Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

 The Netherlands is experiencing a heatwave that ensures it feels like we're actually in a Mediterranean country instead of a north-western European one. With tourists speaking many different languages whichever way you turn and this amazing warm weather, being home in Amsterdam truly feels like I'm on holiday instead of living my normal day to day life. Loving the mellow summer feeling for sure! People seem to just be more relaxed, more willing to smile and make time for each other, more interested in slowing down and enjoying life. Dutch people often seem to run around a lot, stressing about this or that, rushing from place to place and from appointment to appointment, not taking or making the time to relax, to breathe, to take in the beauty of nature and of the world. Rushing about in this heat is simply too tiring and exhausting, so for a change - a very happy one! - people are actually slowing down, relaxing and truly enjoying life. If only summer lasted a little longer, w...

 I used to have an active blog. Started it in 2008, deleted a number of posts, posted more in 2009 and kept going. Posted photos and book reviews, wrote about the stories I was writing at the time, gave my opinion on what was going on in the world... Earlier this year I took the blog offline. Somehow I felt like I needed a change. Needed something different. Needed all parts of my life to be different. A lot has changed in my life in the past two-ish years. I was forced to grow up, if I can use those words even though I've been an adult for quite a few years already. I was forced to change, despite not being ready for change at all. When you don't choose change but are forced to deal with it because that's just the way life works, it can be really hard to accept the changes and the 'new normal'. Sometimes though, when life gives you an opportunity for change, you don't realise how important that opportunity is, how vital it was that you change, until you've ...

Each of us Is all of us. I signed up for Chabad's Daily Dose emails a while ago and love reading them. These wonderful pearls of wisdom always make me think about life, humanity, religion, faith, God, the world, myself... They make me think about what truly matters in this life and in this world, about the difference between what is actually and truly important and what is only important because we (or the world) make it so. Your Daily Dose of Jewish Wisdom: A team, a society, a world is healthy when each member says, "If I don't add in my two bits, the whole system will fail." Not just any two bits, but the two bits that belong to you alone. No one is here just because everyone else is here. No system can function from the top-down alone. Because each of us—and everything that was created—has a spark of the Divine. So that each of us is all of us. A photo posted by Chabad.org (@chabadorg) on Mar 7, 2016 at 10:53am PST

While I usually really enjoy taking photos and sharing them, I've barely taken any photos at all the past few months. Sure, I've got plenty of excuses I can use. It's cold outside. I've been reading a lot. I haven't felt like taking photos. Editing my photos to hide the spots and scratches on my lens is a real pain. I've been experiencing a winter dip . All these excuses are true yet when I took my camera out for a play-date recently, I realised how much I'd missed scouting for shots with my trusty friend. It was fun to traipse through the mud trying to find the right angle or the so-called perfect shot and doing my best to showcase the beauty of my surroundings. It was good to remind myself that even though there are no roaring rivers or majestic mountains near where I live here in The Netherlands, it is still a beautiful country with a lot of charming and scenic locations. So... I've decided that it is most definitely a good thing to remind myself of...

As a child, I dreamed of being an astronaut. Of seeing our planet from space, walking on the moon, leaving behind everything down here on earth. I wanted to explore, to travel, to see sights few others had ever seen with their own eyes. I wanted to know what it would feel like to be out there, floating in the darkness of space, weightless, far away from everything I had ever known or would ever know. These days I only dream of being an astronaut when I'm asleep. Yet others turned their childhood dreams into reality. American astronaut Scott Kelly is one of those people. He doesn't live his dream alone but shares it with the world, giving all of us down here on earth a glimpse of what life in space is really like. I can say one thing for certain - the photos Scott Kelly shares amaze, awe and inspire me. Our planet truly is an amazing place! For an instant before sunrise, the space station glows orange. #GoodMorning from @Space_Station ! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/FEXx8...

I wake up earlier than planned and see a world that is shining brightly. Everything around me is bathed in shades of purple, orange, red and pink. High above, the clouds stand out in a sky that seems to be on fire. Far below my balcony the wet streets reflect the fire-like colours above. I wonder - Is the world celebrating? Is the Source of All showing off just a bit? Is the sky dressed up in anticipation of a celebration? Is today special somehow, unique or amazing? I ponder the possibilities as slowly reality sets in. Before going to bed I heard the news from Paris. Forty people dead. Perhaps a hundred held hostage. Panic and mayhem and men with guns on the streets. I stand on my balcony listening to the silence. The pit-pat of rain coming down on the near-empty streets. Birds soaring past greeting the dawn of another day. It is peaceful and quiet where I stand. And yet. Only hours away chaos and terror reign. Only hours ago, over a hundred people died. The news tells me the deat...

Some more photos from last month's outing-with-camera in the mist. Not quite a separate Challenge but hey... It's been challenging lately to find the time to take and edit photos so I say it counts. Right?! Either way: YAY! I managed to write and publish a Photo Challenge post on a Sunday! It's been a while. Enjoy!!!

Love this! Seriously squealed when I watched this!

A photo posted by dg (@mr.danielgillies) on Sep 9, 2015 at 11:06am PDT

After posting a single photo as a preview of this newest Photo Challenge last week , here are some of the other photos. I hope you enjoy the beauty of a misty morning. As is evident, I haven't written a Photo Challenge post every week, haven't written a proper Photo Challenge post for some time now. Yes, creating a Photo Challenge for this blog was meant in part to challenge me to go out there and take photos, however I've just not felt inspired lately. Walking around with a camera, attempting to see the beauty all around, sharing that beauty - All that sounds great in theory, however doesn't always work out in real life. Sometimes you're just too tired or drained. Sometimes you have a period when seeing the beauty is hard. Sometimes you feel let down by others and taking photos takes too much emotional effort. Sometimes you look at what is happening in the world and feel like taking photos of beautiful scenes is pointless. Sometimes you wonder why you even bothe...

ME GUSTA LA ROPA PERO ME GUSTA MUCHO MAS LO QUE ME DICEN DE LA PERSONA QUE LA LLEVA PUESTA. #MTQuote A photo posted by MARIO TESTINO (@mariotestino) on Oct 8, 2015 at 4:42am PDT

Even though taking photos or posting Photo Challenges hasn't been on my priority list lately, there is something about a misty morning that is hard to resist. Knowing that the sun is shining behind the 'smokescreen' and waiting for that perfect moment when whatever you're taking photos of looks just right in the light... Here's one of the photos I took last Sunday. Isn't our world beautiful, stunning and amazing?!

Another weekend approaches and I am reminding myself that I still need to update my blog to add the right photos to not just one but two "Photo Challenge" posts. Actually, I haven't even posted the second Challenge post yet - even though it was supposed to be on my blog some five days ago - and still need to do that. How bad is that? I promised myself and my readers / visitors that I'd post photos every weekend yet haven't done so. Which means I've let myself down, and my readers and visitors too. As I go through my emails and read articles online, I try to gently nudge myself towards my laptop's "Pictures" folder. That's where the photos live once I've downloaded them from my camera onto my laptop. That's where I need to go. That's where I need to direct my attention. Yet knowing I need to do something and actually doing it are two very different things. I'm not usually this bad with sticking to my promises, with following ...