A to Z Challenge - E is for Explore

It has been my heart's delight to explore all things, all places. It has been my privilege to travel the world, following that passion. Today I offer a "double E" - Explore Europe -  in a photo journey through some of the places I've visited and loved.

Some highly recognizable places, some back corners, some main squares, some food and drink... and some Schwartz, the travel mascot.

Prague

Dresden

Berlin

Barcelona

Granada - The Alhambra

Seville - The Alcazar

Funchal, Madeira

Rome - The Appian Way

Venice

Mykonos

Stockholm

Helsinki

Copenhagen

Amsterdam

Sintra, Portugal

Paris

The Azores

Lucca

Cordoba

Schwartz in Lucca

So many more places and more yet to explore. Cheers!




©2018 April Hoeller

A to Z Challenge - D is for Debut

On this day in 1953, a debut on the world stage:

And today, another debut...

Officially a senior citizen. Officially an old age pensioner. 

Officially the government's problem (tee hee!). 

Time is such a contrary companion. When I want it to go fast, it crawls. When I want it to slow down, it slams into hyperdrive, and it never stands still no matter how much I plead. While it is an uncomfortable fact of life that many more years lie behind me than ahead of me, what these coming years will bring me is a mystery. And I do like a good mystery, a hands-on adventure!

Mount Misen, Miyajima Japan, 2015

I have learned that there are really only two reasons for doing anything -- love and fear. There's nothing wrong with fear, a healthy, rational fear of real things. The biggest, scariest real thing for me now is future health. It's not just a fly in the ointment, but often seems more on the scale of a velociraptor. My body has already betrayed me in small but undeniable, occasionally embarrassing, ways. So you won't find me mountain climbing, rollerblading, snake charming, bungee jumping, or even doing something so risky as drinking a full glass of water before a half hour car ride.





You will find me working out, walking, eating as I ought, enjoying a glass of wine, or perhaps sipping a cappuccino in a faraway place. You will find me in the company of the people I love, doing the things I love, in the places I love, and grateful for the love and life I am so blessed to experience.



Something else I've learned: life is not about perfection. It took some fifty+ years for this avowed perfectionist to learn this one, and I'm sure refresher courses will always be a part of my life. I've given some considerable thought to this debut over the past weeks, some of it has been rather melancholy (regrets, I've had a few...) but now that I'm here, well it's time to boldly go where many have gone before me - step out into the new day and work it.




Life is about doing the best I can, enjoying each day as it comes. And at the end of the day, it's about being content with what I have done and what I have not done, so that I can look forward to a new day, new joys, new adventures.

“Life is amazing. And then it's awful. 

And then it's amazing again. 

And in between the amazing and awful 

it's ordinary and mundane and routine. 

Breathe in the amazing, 

hold on through the awful, 

and relax and exhale during the ordinary. 

That's just living heartbreaking, 

soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. 

And it's breathtakingly beautiful.”

 L.R. Knost

©2018 April Hoeller

A to Z Challenge - C is for Camera

Where would I be without my camera? Bereft certainly, bored probably, and an absolute couch potato surely. I have had a camera since I was 11 years old. We were off to Europe in the summer of 1964 and I pleaded with my Dad for a camera of my own. He presented me with a Kodak Brownie Fiesta. I was over the moon.



Like my father before me, from then on there were few times I could be seen without a camera hanging from my neck or shoulder.

My Dad in London, England, 1964

Me in Lichtenstein, 1964

image courtesy of this link

In my early teens, I graduated to the world of the SLR, a PetriFLex 7. What I remember most about this camera was how heavy it was!

1971 in Niagara Falls, Petri around my neck

image source link

In 1975 I bought a Fujica ST801 (it had LED's in the viewfinder!). It was the photo workhorse through housebuilding, children, and travels for twenty-one years.

1978

1987

1997

I was so careful in those days. Slide film was too expensive to waste, even if I was able to buy 6 rolls of 36 exposure with processing included. I took time to set up each shot peering through the viewfinder for wires coming out of a person's ears and poles growing out the top of heads, and I fiddled with the aperture and/or shutter speed. Then and only then, I held my breath and pressed the button.

It might be a months before "36" appeared in the little exposure counter window. I clicked off the last shot, then carefully rewound the film back into the canister. At some point in the next week, I delivered the canister to the store for processing. Three days, five, or even a whole week after that, I got to see the results of my judicious compositions. Often I was disappointed. On a good day there might be as many as 25 well exposed but otherwise ordinary pictures and maybe, just maybe 3 exceptional images. In 26 years of film, 6733 slides made it into the catalogue.

Slide boxes, binders and even a few albums for 'real' photos!

The age of film ended for me on Christmas Day 2001 with the arrival of my first digital camera (Canon PowerShot A20), a gift from my beloved. It was followed over the years by a Canon PowerShot S50, a Lumix TZ5 and now my current digital the Sony a6000. Oh and let me not forget the advent of the cell phone which has put a camera in everybody's hand, including mine, while dumping a plethora of mediocre (or worse!) images onto the world wide web. Yet, it is also true that those little cell phone lenses and the mighty built-in software can produce some stunning photos too.

I'd like to think that over the years I have learned a thing or two about photography, that my pictures are better, or at least many of them are better right out of the camera. But with all the high powered editing software now at my fingertips, it's entirely possible to engineer a perfectly acceptable image from a mediocre one. "You know, with a little bit of work this picture can be stunning," I hear myself say. It's a trap! The result? Seventeen years of digital has produced 60k+ images. Yikes!

I still take to heart what a venerable photographer, my Dad, once said to me, "If you can't take a good picture with a Brownie Box Camera, you can't take a good picture!"

Yeah, Dad, I hear ya!

Galapagos 2015 with Schwartz the travel mascot and valuable stand-in when scale is needed.

©2018 April Hoeller

A to Z Challenge - B is for Beach!

Ah, yes the beach - such an evocative, sensual, healing place in my life.  I was first introduced the wonders of the beach by my parents, my mother in particular.

1957 - Breezy Point, NYC

Mom and her girls, 1960

The beach she introduced her three daughters to was on the very southern tip of Long Island - Breezy Point was its name.

When she was a child, it was her 'home away from home' every summer, all summer long. Though we only got to glimpse her joy for about two weeks almost every summer, it was more than enough for my sisters and I to fall in love with the beach.

Mom and I, 1958

Mom and I, 1970

Beaches are my 'go to' spot for rest, deep rest and nothing beats a walk along the beach for just sorting the troublesome things out.

Virgin Gorda, BVI, 2016

Galapagos Islands, 2015 

Is it the salt air? The cry of gulls? The wash of water between my toes? The warm sand? Well, it's not just one thing, it's all of them. In desperate times, just the memories are enough to soothe my aches and pains. When that is not enough, there are the photos which bring with them times and places of tremendous beauty, serenity, and strength.

Come walk with me...

Cuba 2012

Galapagos, 2015

Galapagos 2015

Little Cayman, 2006

Abacos Islands, 2004

Galapagos 2015

Mexico 2018

Curacao 2009

Cuba 2012

ME! Breezy Point 1961

"Come walk with me, take off your shoes, let's walk the beach with only the moon to light the path and waves to hear you tell me you love me. Why does the ocean rock the moon to sleep every night? So the sun will wake and kiss the beach."

J. Henson

©2018 April Hoeller

A to Z Challenge - A is for Alleluia

It is Easter Day in the western Christian tradition and in many churches "Alleluia" rings out in hymn and acclamation for the first time since Lent began. I love this word. Be it whispered or shouted or sung, it is a word that for me is overflowing with gratitude, hope, humility, triumph, and joy. I cannot say it without a smile crossing my lips, a warmth rising in my heart, a tickling of joy sparkling through my soul.

This has little to do with any religious experience or celebration, and everything to do with my childhood memories and the family traditions that were and still are the Easter celebrations. When I was a child, Easter day was the climax of days of preparation, most of it having to do with cleaning. My room, the floors, the dining room table and, maybe the windows. Oh, and one other task - polishing the silver.

Fifty plus years ago, Good Friday was the day my mother, sisters and I gathered around the kitchen table to polish 8 full place settings and serving pieces. If we were hosting the whole "fam-damily" then the coffee urn and tea service were added to the polishing list. There was something very comforting about removing stains of darkness and renewing shine and sparkle.

Alleluia!

Saturday was the day we decorated the eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide. I don't recall there ever being a concern about how a bunny who hides eggs and Jesus rising from the dead were connected (or not!). They were separate events that shared the same timing. No conflict at all, at least not in my family. Easter morning we all rose to go to church (after the Easter egg hunt of course!). There we sang the great hymns, inhaled (and nearly fainted from) the fragrance of gazillion dozen Easter Lilies, and wished everybody a Happy Easter. Then it was home for the grand feast celebrated with family gathered around the dining room table.

Alleluia!

Nowadays, we are a family of blended faith and traditions. Our Easter is shared with those celebrating Passover (Hebrew greeting: Chag Sameach!) and those who will celebrate the Pascal Feast a week from now in accordance with the Julian calendar (Serbian greeting: Hristos vaskrse, responded to with Vaistinu vaskrse).

I am blessed by the richness that these traditions bring to my table.
I am blessed by the love we share.

Alleluia!

©2018 April Hoeller

Thursday, or Thereabouts - March 29, 2018

And, I'm back!

Well, at least I think I am. At the very least, I'm going to give it a good try, really I am! Let me not dwell on my absence from these pages. If I allow that to happen, I will fall victim to yet another deluge of should's and ought's which will surely paralyze my write hand. Not happening. Not today.


A few weeks ago, a blogging friend very gently suggested that I consider signing up for the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge" the April 2018 edition. I was intrigued and my write hand has been seized by incessant twitchingever since. After some seven months of languishing on the sidelines, my storytelling muscles are truly in need of a rigorous exercise program. This challenge is just the ticket!


So here's the deal: 26 days of blogposts in the month of April thematically arranged by the letters of the alphabet. Sundays, with the exception of April 1 will be quiet days. While some writers taking part may choose to assign a further theme to their posts, I will just write what comes from the letter prompt alone. That will be more than enough exercise for my flabby writing muscles!

My thanks to Arti Jain, my fellow blogger from Doha, for encouraging me to join her in the Blogging Challenge, to pick up my pen and write. Please do take the time to check out Arti's blog where you will find inspiring and evocative words along with great photos.

And see, my writing has already begun! I'm pumped. And, I'll be back here on Sunday.

Wishing you baskets of Easter blessings...

...from the Easter fur-bunny in my house.

©2018 April Hoeller