Whippet Wisdom – a Highland Journey
A journey through the seasons with adopted whippets, a poet and a camera
waiting here
in this field of flowers
your smile
© Xenia Tran
With love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/2.8, 1/800 s, ISO 100 and f/2.8, 1/640 s, ISO 100.
Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday Photo Challenge: Field
Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2018: Finding the Way
From the moment we arrive in the glen the energy feels different. The walkers we meet have this quiet calm that belongs here. A nod and a smile tell a thousand stories.
The ferns notice every glance before it slips away between the trees and joins the forest. It can rest here with all the other peaceful glances left behind. The trees feel every shimmer that rises from the burn and joins the sky. Each paw print and footstep remembers who left it here. The grass waves in the breeze while we walk on in wonder.
such beauty
following a butterfly
who knows the way
© Xenia Tran
We wish you all a happy Monday and a wonderful new week!
With love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, settings: iA, 1/100 s and Action, 1/800 s.
Carpe Diem Writing and Enjoying Haiku #5 – Creating Beauty
Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: Ooh, Shiny!
dVerse Poets Haibun Monday: What Did You Do?
we watch
in awe and gratitude
nature’s gifts
unfurl above the clouds
from our beloved mountain© Xenia Tran
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, setting: iA.
This is our last post before we take a short break from blogging to celebrate Christmas with our loved ones. We will continue to share adoption appeals from shelters via twitter throughout the festive season and hope that all those souls currently in shelters will find the loving homes they deserve.
We want to say a huge thank you for all the love and support from the wordpress team, our followers and our fellow bloggers and we wish you a blessed Holiday Season and a very happy New Year.
With love from us all,
Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx
Carpe Diem #1102 Symphony No 4 Op 50 by Johanna Senfter
Daily Prompt: Calm
Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: Path
Photographs by Xenia Tran, unedited.
Camera: Lumix Panasonic FZ38, setting: iA.
Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: Edge
A few images brought together here from early June, when we were experiencing a mini-heatwave in the Highlands.
This beautiful part of the Cairngorms National Park has featured in the television series ‘Monarch of the Glen’ and the film ‘Mrs Brown’.
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in windows photo editor.
Camera: Lumix Panasonic FZ38, setting: iA.
Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: Mirror
blue angels appear
on mountains cloaked in heather
feathers singing peace
© Xenia Tran
With love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx
Photograph by Xenia Tran, unedited.
Camera: Lumix Panasonic FZ38, setting: Landscape.
Carpe Diem #1040 Angels
Open-mindedness and mindfulness are themes which have been running through many of the stories, poems and haiku on this blog and today was another example of the blessings they can bring.
Those of you who saw my post ‘Haiku: Witness To The Magic‘ in response to the Daily Prompt ‘Witness’ will have read the following haiku:
mountain forest
mindfulness carries witness
to all the magic
© Xenia Tran
The haiku is accompanied by a photograph of Eivor and Pearl watching a bird of prey glide by. I did not mention in the original post what they were watching because I am not sure what kind of bird it was. Sighthounds have much better eyesight than humans and I was also partly blinded by the direction of the light. All I could see was a dark outline and to me it looked the size of a peregrine falcon. It was clear to me though, that it was a large bird of prey and that it had spotted potential prey.
Earlier today Denis from Haiku Hound commented on the post and after I told him what kind of bird I thought the whippets were watching he replied: ‘Hunters watching a hunter, there may be a haiku there Xenia?’
I looked at the photograph again and remembered I had taken two others at the same time. I had not used them for the original post but thankfully not deleted them either.
This is the first photograph in the sequence. We are energetically connected as a pack and when the whippets notice something I notice them noticing, even though I may not be able to see what they can see.
This is the second photograph in the sequence. Eivor is still watching the bird of prey and Pearl has now hardened her stance and her stare and is looking further down to see what potential prey the bird has spotted. This is when the haiku, encouraged by Denis and prompted by revisiting the moment, came:
awoken falcon
gliding on a promise
hunters understand
© Xenia Tran
The third photograph in the sequence is the photograph I posted four days ago with the first haiku.
They are now both watching the bird again.
I am very grateful for Denis and his encouragement to capture another part of this moment in a new haiku.
I am very grateful for all the comments and feedback I receive from fellow bloggers and followers and for all the wonderful photographs, poems and stories they share. Fresh perspectives are always a doorway to new understandings and deeper knowing and for that I thank you all.
Earlier this month I posted ‘Haiku: A Change In The Wind‘ and perhaps this is a nice haiku to end this post with:
a change in the wind
can carry many blessings
to an open mind
© Xenia Tran
With much love to you all,
Xenia xxx
Photographs taken by Xenia Tran, unedited.
Camera: Lumix Panasonic FZ38, setting: Outdoor Action.
Daily Post Discover Challenge: Open-Minded
stones by the river
within lives the spirit of
miniature mountains
© Xenia Tran
Photograph by Xenia Tran, unedited.
Camera: Lumix Panasonic FZ38, setting: iA.
Carpe Diem #1048 Stones
Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku Challenge 112: River & Stone
The blooming heather wraps the landscape in a purple frame, her sweet scent greeting the wanderer …
… the frame on which we walk disappears when rains fill the loch …
… new frames are created through shadow and light when the sun breaks through …
… for one who can see beyond what we will ever be able to see.
Photographs by Xenia Tran, unedited.
Camera: Lumix Panasonic FZ38, settings: Landscape and iA.
Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: Frame
It is normal for the snows to remain on the mountains until July.
The above photographs were taken in June of this year. It was warm and sunny in the glen and the temperature reached 26 C. On the mountain the temperature was just above freezing.
We went hiking in the mountains on two consecutive days this week. On Monday, the temperature in the glen was 25 C and there was no wind.
In the mountains above the loch it was windy and only 16 C.
On Tuesday we went up the mountain again and you can see the loch from the earlier photograph down below. The temperature on top of the mountain was the same as in the glen: 26 C. There was no wind either. This is extremely rare!
Photographs taken by Xenia Tran, edited in windows photo editor.
Camera: Lumix Panasonic FZ38, setting: iA.
Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: Rare
Whippet Wisdom - a Highland Journey 
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