Wishing you all a wonderful, happy, healthy and inspirational new year. I hope we are able to travel more, be near to loved ones and friends and enjoy the world and our communities in more harmony together.
The sunrise reflected in the windows and sky as the moon sits still in the sky. Wishing you and your loved ones a merry Christmas and a wonderful, inspirational and exciting 2022 in good health and with plenty of love.
The theme for this week’s Lens-artists Photo Challenge #178 is You Choose. The palace of Westminster, long seen as the mother of parliaments and an example of a well functioning parliament, but in recent years showing a decline of parliamentary sovereignty to a more and more authoritarian executive. Shot from the London Eye as a view from an observer from a distance.
Before the pandemic I used to cross this canal twice a day, and I took loads of photos of it, but just recently I found out about its history and historical purpose.
As most of you probably know the Dutch have a long relationship with water, and learned how water could be managed over the ages. About half of The Netherlands is below sea level; the question was and is how to keep it dry? Some say that God created the world but the Dutch created The Netherlands. In reality we manage water. In days of climate change that gets more complex. Not only the amount of water coming in by rivers and rain is growing, the soil of The Netherlands sinks as well.
In 1840 this canal was build. From 1848 the former lake the Haarlemmermeer was turned into the Haarlemmermeerpolder and this canal was used to dump the water of that lake into the North Sea. Schiphol (ship hell) was a spot in that former lake notorious for ship wrecks as the story goes.
Nowadays the canal takes out the water from the West of The Netherlands to the sea at Katwijk.
The Autumn was short this year. High temperatures were pleasant, but the amazing colors on leaves that are normal for this time of year, were not present. And when the weather changed the leaves came off the trees very fast. Luckily the sunsets are always there.
Christmas is coming. Some people can’t wait to set up their gardens with light figures. Here is one I would consider, if I would decorate the garden. For this week’s Lens Artists Photo Challenge #175 Follow your bliss.