Saudade

Saudade (noun) Origin: Portuguese | sɐw’dadə A nostalgic longing to be near again to something distant or someone that is distant.

I am nostalgic about almost every place I have ever been.  I miss the memories of the traveling I have done, of the places I have seen, of the people I have met.  I took a trip to Croatia with my youngest daughter a few years ago and it really was an amazing time.  Sure there were the mommy/daughter moments that were outrageously annoying.  However, I prefer to only remember the best parts of that trip.

I think it’s easier to remember … and to forget the annoyances of traveling with family than it is regarding issues that arise while traveling with friends. For me, it is because family has known you forever and you have your patterns and histories of the good and the bad.  For every bad there is a good.  Especially with your children.  My dream has always been to show my children the world.  Luckily for me, I have been pretty successful at that.

Venezuela

Though I do love traveling with friends.  There is always a feeling of saudade when my children or family are not around.  I feel like I have let them down by not having them participate in my adventure.  The re-telling is never the same as the being there.  Also, there is a freedom of being able to comfortably be at your best, your worst, your goofiest, your happiest, and even your saddest.  I am looking forward to more travels with them, more memories with them, and really, just being nearer to them.

“That strange sense of being different stays with you. You long to be with people who are more like you. Similarities are what bonds humans than differences, Beevitha.”
― Husna Mohammad

Saudade:  Irina; Iamfierce; candk; seeking; julia; zeki; simon; Asakura; agogo; chronosfer;

Peripatetic

Peripatetic (noun) Origin: Greek | peri·pa·tet·ic A person who spends his time wandering.

If there is a word that most describes me, it would be this word.  I AM a peripatetic.  I started my life as one and I believe that is how it will end.

I have mentioned this several times, but from the time I was a very small child. I read books on travel and adventure.  From the wild west to space exploration.  I loved the idea of being anywhere and everywhere.  I loved all things related to magic, space, the future, the past, immortality, and any form of travel, survival, and escape.

My first attempts at travel (meandering and wandering throughout the world), were simple road trips close to home.  I’m not sure why my mom and dad allowed me to drive from Spokane to Shelby at 16, by myself, through a mountainous, and over a sometimes dangerous highway.  But they did, so I did. Meh, it was the 80s.  I’m still alive.

My best friend in high school was also game for wandering here and there. I think we started in what appears to be the 1800s?

We wandered by car, dance, skiing, and apparently a bit of cannibalism.  At 17, both of our parents allowed us to drive from Spokane to Seattle and off into Canada. Again, it was the 80s and meh.. we are both still alive..

I have wandered with friends, cousins, kids, and whoever else was game.  I have wandered by train, plane, moto bike, bicycle, boat, balloon, parachute, hashing, hiking, tram, subway, slide, skeleton, camel, elephant, my daughter’s back, and car (just to name a few modes of maneuver).

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My favorite wanderings were by car, followed super closely by train.  I love seeing new things ahead of me but also love seeing what I’m leaving behind in my rearview mirror.

There is something magical about wandering across the U.S. and other countries by car that is difficult to replicate.  One of the beautiful things is when you are in a car is that everything is directly in front of you.  Sometimes it is annoying (heavy traffic) and other times, it simply takes your breath away.

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You are going slow enough to really see things.  If you see something you like, you can stop and take a photo, interact with the actors in this flick that you have just created.  You can experience your surroundings in any way you choose.  Admittedly, sometimes it can be terrifying and sometimes you feel like you have been taken hostage, or you have taken your passengers hostage!! I’m delighted to say that both of my daughters have developed a love of wandering as well.  I personally feel that the many wanderings we have made, have drawn us closer than nearly anything else we have done in our lives.  We have this expansion that has happened in our heads that can never be reduced or taken away.

The same goes for walking.  When you hike or walk, you are in the thick of it. You can be invisible and interact or you can simply pass through.  I think so many people miss the purpose of travel because they are constantly flying from here to there, simply to get there.  Dude!!! For me it’s the journey.

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“I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” – Mary Anne Radmacher

Wanderings: mousumi; fanny; srikanth; islandtraveler; dave; janny; sonofasailor; alec; ab; artsyfartsy; karen; Gary; laura; geekyhooker; Ruth

Mother Nature – Get back on your meds

I understand that springtime and fall can bring about a wide variety of weird weather patterns.  Leaving Africa in August to arrive in Washington State.  Traveling to Seattle and then California with a friend in September, and eventually driving to Washington D.C. in October has had me confronting the most drastic weather patterns that I have encountered in my entire life.  I have been exposed to 89 degrees, clear down to 10 degrees.  I am seriously not sure how to feel about this.. except to say at this time I am seriously ready to go back to Africa!!!!

“When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure.”
― Alice Hoffman

Ahhh – comforting warmness

“SAUL: ‘We made love outdoors, my favorite place to make love, assuming the weather be fair and balmy, and the earth beneath be clean. Our souls intertwined and dripping with sweat.”
― Roman Payne

…. then rain….

“From where we stand the rain seems random. If we could stand somewhere else, we would see the order in it.”
― Tony Hillerman

But the sun returned.. with an enormous amount of cold.. but still the beautiful sun..

“Even after the stormiest weather, a true warrior will still reflect the brilliant rays of the magnificent sun through both his or her eyes. You may get hit by sudden lighting or take severe beatings from the cruel wind, but you will always get back up and stand strong on your feet again, soak in the sunlight, and be prepared to get hit by even the most merciless hail – time and time again.”
― Suzy Kassem

 

So yeah… then came the snow and the very, very cold.

Finally, after a torrential snow, sleet, rainstorm…I wake up today to this.

I’m going to just assume it’s cold out and stay inside and pretend that it is still summer.  I do love the seasons changing.. I just wish they would not visit every season in a one day period!!

“Pray don’t talk to me about the weather, Mr. Worthing. Whenever people talk to me about the weather, I always feel quite certain that they mean something else. And that makes me quite nervous.”
― Oscar Wilde

 

B & W Challenge

I was very recently nominated to compete in a 5 day B & W Challenge. The goal was to each day pick and post one favorite B & W photo I have taken.  Anyone who knows me will absolutely not be surprised that I could not seem to focus on just one thing and therefore did not exactly follow the rules.  After perusing over 300 photos I finally narrowed it down to “some” of my favorite photos.  I like them so much I thought I would share (and in some cases re-share) the entire grouping here.

These photos represent only a few of my favorites from New York to India.  I love them because they express everything from sadness to pure chaos.  There is just something about a black and white that is timeless and beautiful.  I hope you enjoy.

Festival Seoul Korea

Other posts I enjoyed

• Ilargia
• Bambang
• Humanity Daily Press
• journeyman
• cee’s
• Lens and Pens
• YSalma
• Captured with my phone
• Out of office
• Eye candy

The number three and Distance from Seoul

Without mathematics, there’s nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers.

Shakuntala Devi

As terrible as I am with numbers.. I love them.  I grew up on statistical commercials such as “Three out of four …”

Or, even the commercials that don’t specifically state numbers but use words like more than or less than.

Really powerful, RIGHT?!?

We all have special numbers in our lives, and 4 is that for me. It’s the day I was born. My mother’s birthday, and a lot of my friends’ birthdays, are on the fourth; April 4 is my wedding date.

Beyonce Knowles

My special number is three.  I have two sisters, two daughters, and two grandkids.  My birthday is the 3rd month on the 30th day.  Like a book, I have a beginning, a middle and eventually I will have an end.  I’ve only found three leaf clovers.  “I AM SAM” is sort of my favorite thing to say.  Weird right?!?

Camping in Montana with my sisters- great smilers

Haute Pink Photography in Seattle with daughter and grandson

Montana camping with my favorite little smiler.. my grandson

Haute Pink Photography in Seattle with granddaughter

Time with dad – Spokane

Posers – Korea

Seattle WA and my daughters – haute pink photography

Haute Pink Photography in Spokane with daughter and grandson

Volleyball game in Korea with daughters

Hiking – Venezuela

Haute Pink Photography always caught the best smiles – Spokane, WA

Memories from childhood, wish I could find this same foto when my sisters and i were kids in Hungry Horse Montana

Rafting the end – Barinas

Haute Pink Photography and my favorite smilers

Yeah.. I’m smiling but what are you doing in Korea.

Seattle, WA… my favorite smilers … my daughters

Camping in Montana.. with my daughter.

Time with the girls – Korea

Spokane- Daughter and granddaughter – always makes me smile

Spokane WA with daughters – Haute Pink Photography

Haute Pink Photography in Seattle.. favorite smiles

Haute Pink Photography in Spokane, WA and one of my favorite littlest smiler.

Success in the Kitchen in Spokane, WA

Dodgeball fundraiser – Korea

Camp trip in Montana. Sis and dad

1972 or 1973 Family foto

Road trips.. terror and smiles

Cooking in Thailand building memories and smiles

Beautiful scenery in Montana with family

But enough of that.  Ailsa’s theme this week was photo’s with numerals.  I also do not take that many photos with numbers in them. However, I actually did on my trip to Seoul.  I hope you enjoy.

Counting …

Other posts I enjoyed.

• Travel Theme: Numbers | Wind Against Current
• Travel Theme: Numbers | Ese’ s Voice
• Travel theme: Numbers « Sasieology
• Travel theme: Numbers | mój punkt patrzenia
• Travel theme: Numbers | Canoe Communications
• Travel Theme: Numbers | A Day In The Life
• Traveling Numbers. | To Wear A Rainbow
• Travel theme: Numbers | snippetsandsnaps
• Not a matter of numbers | Le Drake Noir
• travel theme – numbers | myguiltypleasures
• Travel Theme : numbers | Looking at tiny stars
• Travel Theme: Numbers | Middleton Road
• Travel Theme: Numbers | Patchwork Ponderings
• Travel Theme: Numbers | Rewired and Retired in Nicaragua
• Travel theme: Numbers | Figments of a DuTchess
• Travel theme: Numbers | Oh, the Places We See . . .
• Travel Theme: Numbers | Getting the Picture