Spring seems to flirting with us. We have a couple of days of lovely warm weather, just right for short sleeves and sandals and then, the temps drop and snow falls on the mountains creating an icebox effect. What a fickle maid is spring! This is the courtyard as seen from the loggia at the front of my house. I used FotoSketcher to create a soft oil pastels effect for my monochrome photo.
This is how the cropped monochrome photo looked before the treatment:
Ciao, Bastet
Hello!
I’m a day late with this challenge … here the weather is beautiful; the skies intensely clear, therefore the colours of the hills, mountains, fields and woods are particularly vibrant, in some cases they seem like they’ve been “apped” before I’ve even had a chance to do something with the photo editor! So today’s challenge (based on the haiga I published yesterday on my main blog) is
and here’s my haiga:
as morning dawns
enchanted light and colour
a finch calls his mate
© G.s.k. ‘16
Yes, today isn’t Monday, although to me it feels that way, so what happened?
Piazzale Loreto
Yesterday here in Italy we had a national holiday … it was Liberation Day or Resistance Day – but here it’s usually called just 25th of April. It is the day when Italians celebrate the end of Italian Civil War, born upon the landing of the Allied Troops in Sicily in 1943 after the surrender of the then Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio which officially ended Mussolini’s Fascist regime (who’d been arrested but who escaped, joining the Nazi German forces heading for Salò on Lake Garda signalling the occupation of Northern Italy by the Nazi-Fascists).
The date was chosen arbitrarily in 1946 … on that day (April 25 1945), Mussolini was captured by resistance forces in the North – and shot three days later, then hung in Piazzale Loreto in Milan, where earlier 15 Partisans had been shot. The rest of Northern Italy capitulated after that in a domino effect. It should be noted that the Italian Civil War was a very bloody event in Italian history which left many scars and divisions in the Italians as a Nation. Even after 70 years there’s still an off-key eco.
April 25th officially became a permanent national holiday in 1949 – though for years it was ignored and fell into obscurity and except for the placing of a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldiers by officials (or on the sight of a Nazi-Fascist retaliation etc) went by unmarked and uncelebrated. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi during his administration (1999-2006) did much to revived and redirect it (and June 2 or Constitution Day or The Day of the Republic) stating that the holiday was important, since it reminds all Italians of the constant need for renovation through the understanding of the origin of the Italian Nation as a Republic.
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If any of you would like to add their haiga to my challenge … please feel free to do so .. you can link directly in the comments below of add your name to the Mr. Linky app below. In order to help other’s find you easily in the reader and Google, you might want to tag this post as well …. Bastet’s Monday Haiga Challenge.
reflections
as the lake awakens
in silence – dawn
© G.s.k. ‘16
the spring lake
rising up to sit
on the bench
ripples
the lake ear listening
to us
Good morning!
As I mentioned on my former post, yesterday I went walking with the city of Arco. This is a yearly event. For a chosen charity each year people gather together to either walk (a five and a half kilometre itinerary) or run (a twelve kilometre itinerary) together. Here are a couple of photos of the event.
And now for today’s prompt:
And here’s my example:
For those who would like to participate you may do so simply by tagging: Bastet’s Haiga Monday and linking up to Bastet’s Haiga Monday Mr. Linky App below! Have a great week!
tanka
moonlight dreaming
as crickets sing for lovers
hidden gazebo
on this balmy spring morning
creating illusions
© G.s.k. ‘16
Yesterday I went for a walk with the city of Arco … one of our stop overs was at the Arch-Duke of Austria’s historical botanical garden (for which I did a Sunday walk in 2013). This morning one of the photos reminded me of moonlight … so with a little magic of imagination and an app … my haiga was done. My next post will be this week’s Monday Haiga Event … hope to see your there!
Carpe Diem #950 dreams – this month Carpe Diem Haiku Kai will be prompting for a daily haiga for those who enjoy this type of work, a great opportunity!
For those who would like to link up with me:
Through the Eye of Bastet 