Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

The past few weeks and months, I've been spending a lot of time on my blog and on Twitter. Reading Tweets, reTweeting them, posting photos and links to articles I'd read online, sharing some of my views and opinions with the world. I use my blog to share photos and use Twitter to read and post about what's going on in the world. Oh, and I use Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends! Of course I also use email to stay updated on current events and to keep in touch with family and friends, however I use social media more. Until I stopped doing so for a few days. Last week, I decided to take a break from the world of Twitter, blogging and Facebook. Partly because I've been playing Grand Theft Auto V on the PlayStation - it's addictive, that game! - and partly because I wanted to spend more time reading books than posting and sharing on social media. And also, because spending so much time online doesn't always feel 'right' any more. I'm not th...

I've been reading Marion Zimmer Bradley's epic sci-fi / fantasy series Darkover again the last few days. So I figured, why not make science fiction and fantasy my theme for this week's Photo Challenge? And maybe, just for a change, why not share photos and artwork made by others, instead of by me? While I enjoy writing, blogging, poetry and photography, I am not good at drawing or painting. Quite a pity as bringing my stories to life through art would be an interesting experience, however that's just the way it is. I'm also not good enough with computer programs to be able to create art the way some people can, using Paint or even Excel. While I do make sketches to go with my stories, they are meant to help me remember how places look in my imagination, not as illustrations. I tend to find those online, either as photos or drawings of real places or as others' works of art - scenes straight from fantasy or science-fiction. This week's Photo Challenge phot...

Stormqueen! by Marion Zimmer Bradley My rating: 5 of 5 stars Interesting, intriguing. A story with a clear line to it, no jumping about from scene to scene, no confusion. Reading the Darkover books in the order they were written in has been a little confusing, however thankfully there are others who've read the books before me, have written notes about the books, who help me understand and take away some of the confusion with handy maps and explanations of who's who. This book did not feel like a confusing jumble as some of the other (earlier) Darkover books have, it felt like a clear story with a beginning and an end, a story I enjoyed reading and felt a part of. Although the story of Darkover intrigues me and I am determined to read all the books, I am glad that in this book I was able to get to know the characters, to really get into the story and feel that I was part of the action. View all my reviews

Part of my 'mission' as an amateur photographer sharing photos with the world is to show off the beauty of the natural world around me. To urge people to "Look at what's around you, look at how amazing this planet is and appreciate how beautiful your home is."  While I edit photos to get rid of scratches and spots on the lens of my camera, I don't usually like editing them to the degree that they become fake-looking. Yet lately, that is exactly what I've been enjoying - changing photos so much that they clearly look edited. In last week's Photo Challenge post , I added four edited photos at the end. Our world is beautiful just the way it is and showing off that beauty through my photos is something I love doing. Yet lately, editing photos to make them look a little different and strange has been great fun, too. So this week, my Photo Challenge post will feature edited images. Not because the world looks better when edited or Photoshopped, but because...

This week's Photo Challenge photos are here! We are certainly not rich enough to own a boat, however we love spending time on the water. Living in a small and pretty crowded country means getting away from people for some peace, quiet and one-on-one time with nature is a challenge on land, which is partly why I love being on the water. So, we rent a boat for the afternoon or the day a few times every summer. Just a small boat (I guess I should call it a dinghy with an outboard motor, not a boat) however it gets us away from people and out into nature. Living in New Zealand, where one can spend hours in nature without seeing or hearing another person, has certainly spoiled me! While I enjoy living in Europe and love being able to walk around towns that are hundreds of years old, I do miss the laid-back approach to life, the natural beauty and the serenity of New Zealand. But... This post isn't about the many differences between my two home countries, it's a Photo Chal...

These quotes were all found through Goodreads' Popular Quotes section. “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson “We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods “The poetry of the earth is never dead.” ― John Keats “I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.” ― E.B. White, Letters of E. B. White “Looking at beauty in the world, is the first step of purifying the mind.” ― Amit Ray, Meditation: Insights and Inspirations “We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have...

Here are some photos of tonight's sunset. I can't say it enough: Our planet is truly beautiful and amazing. Whatever you may dream about, whatever religious or spiritual views you may have, whatever you may think about what the future holds, whatever your views are about humanity, the economy, world politics, war and peace, climate change, global warming and other big issues that should concern us all - I hope we can all agree on one thing: Our planet is stunning, amazing and ridiculously beautiful. As far as we know, our amazing planet is unique. It is in our solar system, at least. Other planets are certainly beautiful too, however humans exist on only one planet. Trees and flowers, birds and insects, fish and animals exist only here. Perhaps one day we'll make contact with sentient beings on other planets (or perhaps they will make contact with us!) and discover that they too live on a beautiful planet teeming with life, however until we figure out a way to get huma...

It's the simple things that make life worthwile. Smile. Love. Ejoy nature. Thank God / The Universe / The Powers That Be for all that you are, have, know, learn and experience each and every day. Repeat. It's the Simple Things...

This week's Black and White Photo Challenge photos are from a boating trip this week, around the Alkmaar / Broek op Langedijk / Heerhugowaard area. There are several locations around Alkmaar and the Alkmaar area where one can rent a boat for (part of) the day, as we did. The photos are Black and White / monochrome as I felt like editing some of the photos, changing the look and feel of the (colour) photos. I played around with changing the colours in these photos as well, wanting to give them a filter as one might see on Instagram or other photo editing apps. Depending on how busy I am this week and whether I have time to take my camera out, some of the edited colour photos might just become Photo Challenge number nine! "De Toekomst" - Museum Broekerveiling , Broek op Langedijk Mill, Museum Broekerveiling , Broek op Langedijk Poldermuseum , Heerhugowaard Bridge, Alkmaar Flats, Alkmaar Mill, Alkmaar Angles, Alkmaar Building, Alkmaar ...