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
We were delighted to learn that Chiaroscuro – Darkness and Light, the dVerse Anthology published in 2017, is going to the moon. It is one of the poetry anthologies selected by Dr Samuel Peralta to be enclosed in time capsules and launched to the Moon, as a message-in-a-bottle to the future.
The anthology contains a selection of poems written by over 100 poets from all over the world and includes two written by me: Grandma Alice, a poem I wrote for my grandmother’s 100th birthday, and Frozen Footsteps, a haibun written after a walk in Glenmore Forest with our beloved late dogs, Eivor and Pearl.
My grandmother was fascinated by the moon landings and anything to do with space and time. She used to dismantle old clocks and watches to study their inner workings and create ornaments and paperweights with them floating at their centre.
I can imagine her smiling where she is now and it is making everyone who loved her so happy to know that a poem about her is going to the moon. In their own way, Eivor and Pearl will be delighted about this too.
The Anthology will be part of The Polaris Collection, Dr Peralta’s payload associated with an Astrobotic Griffin/NASA VIPER mission, landing in the vicinity of the Lunar South Pole in November 2024.
You can read more about this collection here and more information about the Lunar Codex here.
Warm-hearted thanks to Dr Samuel Peralta for this wonderful gesture and for filling his amazing moon capsules with poetry and art from around the world.
Wishing you all a blessed Sunday and a peaceful new week,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr; photograph of my grandmother by K H Seeger.
CFFC: Would Make A Friend Happy
Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge: Memory
Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #209: Surreal
Word of the Day Challenge: Timeless
Lunaria Annua
Wishing you all a blessed Sunday and a peaceful new week,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Cee’s Flower of the Day
Word of the Day Challenge: Luminous
Wishing you all a blessed Sunday and a peaceful week ahead,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #203: Local Vistas
Word of the Day Challenge: Mysterious
Other birds have been watching the robin on our window feeder and this blackbird is now a regular visitor too.
Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Word of the Day Challenge: Irresistible
Wishing you all a blessed Sunday and a peaceful week ahead,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge: Mother
Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge: Earth Story
second-hand bookstore
a blue and yellow candle
lit in the corner
© Xenia Tran
Haiku Dialogue, The Haiku Foundation, 9 March 2022
It is heart-breaking to see what is happening in the world today because of one man’s fear of open and honest conversation.
It is heart-warming to see how many of us are working together for peace and freedom at the same time.
Yesterday’s visit of friendship to Kyiv by the Prime Ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia and Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister hopefully marks another step on the road to peace.
When you look more closely at the actions taken by people in support of peace for Ukraine, they all come from a place of kindness and compassion. Each and every one of these actions make a statement and make a difference.
Last Monday I signed an Open Letter (organised by The Society of Authors) to the writers, illustrators and translators of Ukraine expressing our solidarity. When I looked at the signatures more closely, I noticed that the name above mine was almost the same as my late grandmother’s. She was nearly 101 years old and lived through two World Wars.
Had she been alive today, I’m sure she would have signed the Open Letter too.
Wishing for peace and freedom in Ukraine and wishing you all a blessed Wednesday,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #190: Close and Closer
Word of the Day Challenge: Statement
Just as Tina invited us to an Odds and Ends Lens-Challenge, I came across this beach art installation made from driftwood, rope, netting, a creel, leaves and berries, sea shells and seaweed, covered in sand.
I am taking a short blogging break to focus on a nature writing project and will be back on Wednesday 16 March 2022.
Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday and a peaceful week ahead,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #189: Odd and Ends
Word of the Day Challenge: Cover
Cullen skink and stovies
a lunch-time line forms
in the rain
© Xenia Tran
The Asahi Shimbun, 18 February 2022
Cullen Skink is a popular fish soup along the Moray coast, where it is served in many restaurants, cafés and takeaways. Seeing people wait in line outside a takeaway inspired the above haiku.
This traditional Scottish soup originated in Cullen, a town that has featured a few times on this blog, most recently in January’s post Seatown.
It is an easy dish to prepare yourself. Some people use onion, we prefer leek. Some people use mashed potato with cream, we prefer cubed potato, steamed in their skin.
Ingredients:
Organic leek, organic potato, smoked haddock, milk, parsley (or lovage).
Method:
Wash, peel and chop the leek, wash and cube the potatoes. Steam the potatoes for approximately 15 minutes, the leek for 10 minutes.
In a separate saucepan, poach the smoked haddock in semi-skimmed milk for five minutes. Remove the haddock with a strainer and transfer it onto a plate. When the fish is cool enough to touch, flake it into large pieces, removing any bones, and return it to the milk in the pan.
Add the steamed potato and leek to the milk and haddock and heat together for another five minutes. Serve and garnish with fresh parsley et voilà – you have a simple, wholesome dish for any occasion.
Wishing you all a blessed Sunday and a peaceful week ahead,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Thank you Cee for honouring us with this post as a CMMC Featured Blogger!
CMMC: Close-Up or Macro
Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Wholesome
Word of the Day Challenge: Occasion
Wishing you all a beautiful Sunday and a peaceful new week,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Word of the Day Challenge: Resting
Tranature 
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