It’s our first journey to the bay since the hundred days of lockdown. In my mind’s eye we visited this pebbled shore a few times, walking through old photos and the memories collected. Now I can feel the wind buffet around us, see my grandmother’s face appear in the clouds once more.
learning to fly the kindness of herring gulls on bright water
During lockdown I’ve been looking at new ways of merging poems and images and participated in a few collaborative projects with other poets, artists and photographers. The above video is the first I wove together and I look forward to learning and sharing more.
We’re delighted that this haiku is featured in Haiku Dialogue: The Way of the Gardener, Troutswirl, The Haiku Foundation Blog, 10 June 2020. A very big thank you to guest editor Craig Kittner and post manager Lori Zajkowski for putting this edition together.
Wishing you all a blessed Thursday and a peaceful rest of the week,
with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/2.8 – 1/400 s – ISO 160, f/2.8 – 1/640 s – ISO 100 and f/3.5 – 1/250s – ISO 100.
Frank J Tassone’s Weekly Haikai Challenge #142: Firefly
After an invigorating walk on the beach this morning, we received some lovely news from our friends across the pond.
Last month we were honoured and delighted to have the above taiga (a haiga with a tanka) featured as part of the Tanka Society of America’s 20th Anniversary celebrations. Twenty-one taiga were featured in total, created by tanka poets from around the world.
Christine L Villa has now brought these contributions together in a beautiful video for all of you to enjoy:
A very big thank you to Susan Burch and Christine L Villa for this wonderful project!
The original tanka and image from which our taiga was created can be seen in last year’s post Zen Meditation.
We wish you all a very happy Monday and a beautiful week ahead,
We are deeply honoured and delighted to be part of EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration 2020, a collaborative poem created by haiku poets from around the world.
The theme for 2020 was The Year of the Nurse and we submitted six previously unpublished haiku for this wonderful project. We are sharing three of them here today and will post the other three on our sister blog Tranature on Wednesday 22 April 2020.
simple kindness how the nurse helps her to walk again
The cat in the photograph is Christy. We adopted him from a feline rescue organisation in 1992 when he was believed to be nine years old. He lived with us for another ten years and we were very grateful for all the time we had together.
If you are interested in adopting a cat or dog from a shelter, please consider adopting a senior. They can have the most amazing personalities and are a true joy to have around.
The full set of contributions to EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration 2020 is available as a free download here. A very big thank you to all the contributors and to Jim Kacian and the Haiku Foundation for putting this edition together.
We wish you all very happy Monday and may you be safe and well,
We are delighted that Between Heather and Grass – Poems and Photographs Filled with Love, Hope and Whippets is now available in paperback, ebook and Kindle editions.
When we selected images and poems for our first collection Sharing Our Horizon (September 2018), a few poems were set aside especially for this second book. One of those poems was A Message from the Stars, a poem about our nine-year old nephew Jamie Baker who suffered from leukaemia. His story shows us what love, football and a big dream can do, even in the most difficult circumstances.
With these poems in place, I dedicated the following year to creating photographs and poems that would flow naturally through the seasons with these earlier verses.
Your feedback and encouraging words helped us to select the most popular poems among these. In addition, the lovely bloggers among you who host regular photo and poetry challenges inspired us to look at what had been written from a different perspective.
As with our first book, we have created Between Heather and Grass to help raise funds for animal rehoming shelters, a cause very close to our heart.
We are also supporting Children with Cancer UK, in memory of our nephew Jamie. This charity works hard to find better and kinder ways to treat children with cancer. Their mission is to help every child ring their end of treatment bell, and to keep families together.
We want to say a very big thank you to Darlene Swanson for the book design and to the teams at Reedsy and Ingram Spark for putting everything together.
Our book is available in paperback and can be ordered from your local bookstore, online bookstores, Amazon, Indie Bound, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, Fishpond, Adlibris and any other store connected to the IngramSpark Global network.
Our Apple Book can be downloaded from Apple Books in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
Our ebook is available via Kobo, Nook and many others worldwide.
We’re delighted that this haiku is featured in Haiku Dialogue: Poet’s Choice, pathway, Troutswirl, The Haiku Foundation Blog, 11 September 2019. A very big thank you to Kathy Munro for putting this edition together.
Wishing you all a very happy Thursday,
with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/2.8 – 1/200 s – ISO 100.
Nancy Merrill’s A Photo A Week Challenge: Something New
Many of the Second World War defences along the Moray Coast are sinking deeper into the shifting sands. You can see some images taken earlier this year where they are still upright in Edge of New Tomorrows.
We’re delighted that this haiku is featured in Haiku Dialogue: Poet’s Choice, ambiguity, Troutswirl, The Haiku Foundation Blog, 4 September 2019. A very big thank you to Craig Kittner for putting this edition together.
Wishing you all a wonderful Thursday,
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 – 1/1600 s – ISO 100.
We’re delighted that this haiku is featured in Haiku Dialogue: Poet’s Choice, suchness, Troutswirl, The Haiku Foundation Blog, 28 August 2019. A very big thank you to Craig Kittner for putting this edition together.
Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday,
with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Settings: f/3.5 – 1/800 s – ISO 200, f/4 – 1/400 s – ISO 160 and f/4 – 1/1000 s – ISO 160.
We’re delighted that this haiku is featured in Haiku Dialogue: Poet’s Choice 5-7-5, Troutswirl, The Haiku Foundation Blog, 14 August 2019. A very big thank you to Craig Kittner for putting this edition together.
Wishing you all a beautiful Thursday,
with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/2.8 – 1/80 s – ISO 200, f/2.8 – 1/60 s – ISO 100 and f/2.8 – 1/80 s – ISO 100.
It’s quiet in the car park and the temperature is perfect for climbing up the crag. Winding our way through the trees, we’re welcomed by subtle scents of Summer greens and flowering heather. Squirrels are feeding on pine, hawks are gliding overhead. Soon we’ll bring a basket, pick our fruit again.
raspberry blues all grandma’s singing to help them grow
We’re delighted that the above haiku is featured in Haiku Dialogue: First Raspberry,Troutswirl, The Haiku Foundation Blog, 17 July 2019. A very big thank you to Kathy Munro for putting this lovely collection together.
Wishing you all a wonderful Thursday,
with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/2.8 – 1/100 s – ISO 100.
Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday Photo Challenge: Hill
