lone hiker
his red scarf flaps
in the wind
© Xenia Tran
haikuKATHA Issue 15, January 2023
Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Recharge
Haiku: Lone Hiker
Category: Nature
Looking Back at 2022 – Thank you for the Love
First of all we want to say a warm-hearted thank you to all of you who visited, commented, inspired and prompted us with photo, word and poetry challenges.
During a year when we lost both our beloved adopted dogs within one week and three dear friends within a fortnight, friendship, community, kindness and the healing powers of nature wrapped us in a much-needed blanket of comfort.
longest night –
the moon shines on a raven
polishing its beak
© Xenia Tran
Autumn Moon Haiku Journal 6:1, Autumn-Winter 2022-2023
The sadness connected us with an even deeper level of gratitude for all the special souls who walk beside us on our journey in this life. With our heart broken open, we were more ready than ever to receive all the beauty life and nature have to offer.
We are grateful to share a collection of those posts, which resonated with you the most. As in previous years, they are organised season by season, each offering their own gifts and magic.
To enjoy the photo-galleries as they are intended, it is best to visit this post in website view.
Winter
The most popular posts this season were Beach Art, Peace Candle (first published in Haiku Dialogue), First Snowdrops, Light Frost, Crystal Leaves and Berries and Scintillating Sunrise.
Some of you may remember our Restoring Nature post on our sister blog where I introduced Cairngorms Connect, a bold conservation project with a 200-year vision.
In February 2022 I was offered the opportunity to take part in a series of writing workshops organised by Cairngorms Connect, which focused on our relationship with place. What I learned there has become an integral part of my writing throughout the rest of the year and I am very grateful to Elizabeth Reeder and Cairngorms Connect for their inspiration and guidance.
Spring
In March 2022 I took part in the Sit-Spot Challenge organised by An Darach Forest Croft, which involved sitting somewhere quiet in nature for at least twenty minutes each day. I sat in the sun, snow and rain and filled waterproof notebooks with haiku seeds, thoughts and reflections.
It is amazing what you notice when you stop walking and sit for a while in a landscape, especially during a colder time of year.
Warm thanks to Hugh Asher of An Darach Forest Croft for all the inspiration.
I was deeply honoured and delighted to see ten haiku featured in the World Haiku Series with beautiful translations into Japanese by Mr Hidenori Hiruta.
The most popular posts in Spring were Morning Cruise, For Ancestors and Progeny, Here the Silenced (all three first published in The Asahi Shimbun), The Field of Everything, Colour Crochet and Urquhart Castle.
Summer
The six cygnets that hatched in the middle of May on our river were thriving, as well as many ducklings and other young birds. The noisiest were the herring gull family on our roof. One of the chicks hurt her wings and was taken to the vets by an SSPCA inspector. The other one grew fast and learned to fly a week later.
The most popular posts in Summer were Eastern Light, Cherry Blossom Moon (both published in haikuKATHA Issue 10, August 2022), Salmon Sky, The Lunar Codex (featuring my poem Grandma Alice from the anthology Chiaroscuro that is going to the moon), Riding the Waves and Clan Stones (first published in Presence #73, July 2022).
red berry tea
the birds just starting
to sing
© Xenia Tran
Presence Issue #73, July 2022
Autumn
Autumn started off warm and offered some glorious walking days where the colours were just beginning to change. We spent some time in Perthshire, exploring new walks and historic sites, before the weather turned.
The most popular post in Autum was Coming Home (featuring a monoku published in haikuKATHA Issue 14, December2022), which also became the most popular post for the year. The other most popular posts during this season were Meet and Part (published in haikuKATHA, Issue 11, September 2022), Silent Treasures, Corbenic Circles and Curves, View from the Hide and Milestone (published in haikuKATHA, Issue 13, November 2022).
pilgrim’s way
slowly, slowly,
the pain eases
© Xenia Tran
Under the Basho, 16 November 2022
Thank you for walking along with us here. We will now take a short break and will be back here on Wednesday 11 January 2023.
We send you our warmest wishes for a healthy and happy 2023 – may your year be filled with joy, peace and wellbeing!
With love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Fantastic
Sunday Stills: What Did YOU Do in 2022?
Wordless Wednesday: White River Mallards
Tina, at Lens-Artists, invites us to post some images we did not get a chance to share earlier in the year.
These white mallard ducks may be offspring from escaped domestic ducks or hybrids. They have made themselves at home on the river and seem very friendly.
We wish our friends in the Northern Hemisphere a Happy Winter Solstice, and our friends in the Southern Hemisphere a Happy Summer Solstice.
We wish all of you who celebrate Christmas and Happy Christmas too.
We will return on Wednesday 28 December with a special post where we look back at 2022 and all the treasures it brought us.
Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday and peaceful rest of the week,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #230: Last Chance
CFFC: Salt White Colors
Wordless Wednesday: Forest Lace
Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday and a peaceful rest of the week,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
CMMC: December Close Up or Macro
Haiku: Milestone
autumn moon
my first sixty years
of wandering
© Xenia Tran
haikuKATHA, Issue 13, November 2022
I wrote this poem just after my 60th birthday (end of September) and am delighted it was published yesterday in haikuKATHA. Warm thanks to the editorial team and congratulations to all the other poets featured in this issue.
Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday and to our friends in the US, a happy Thanksgiving too.
With love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #226: Textures
CMMC: November Alphabet – T in the Middle or at the End of a Word
Haiku: Kindness
bumpy road
a postman helps inflate
the tyres
© Xenia Tran
Under the Basho, 16 November 2022
With warm-hearted thanks to the kind postman in Cannich who helped us continue on our journey.
Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
CMMC: Pick a Topic from my Photo (buildings, houses, trees)
Wordless Wednesday: Cargill’s Leap
Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday and a peaceful rest of the week,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Jez Braithwaite’s Water Water Everywhere #151
Word of the Day Challenge: Memorial
Wordless Wednesday: View from the Hide
We visited the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Loch of the Lowes Visitor Centre and Wildlife Reserve in September, where you can observe the wildlife from a variety of hides, without disturbing the animals.
Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
CFFC: Animals Unaware – Domestic or Wild
Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Visitor
Wordless Wednesday: Etched by Distant Lives
Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Weekly Prompts Wednesday Challenge: Displays
Haiku: Meet and Part
forest trail
a frog meets and parts
with its shadow
© Xenia Tran
haikuKATHA, Issue 11, September 2022
The above haiku is a variation on Trust, as the frog’s movements reminded me of a moment when Eivor and Pearl were meeting and parting with their shadows on a forest trail two years ago.
Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday and a peaceful rest of the week,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Sunday Stills: Life is Made Up of Fleeting Moments
CMMC: October Pick a Topic from My Photo (Path, Grass, Shadow)
Tranature 
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