Category: challenges

Posted in bad luck, challenges

Bad luck

Posted on by Olga Brajnović

garzaSomething that always makes me smile is look at the new-born animals. So I took my camera today hoping to take pictures of some ducklings in the park for the weekly photo challenge.

It was the first mild day in this cold spring. The park was full of young parents with their kids and other people watching the animals, down in the ancient castle’s moats. There are swans, ducks, turkeys, peacocks, geese, cocks, pheasants and many more species. And there are also deer and hinds but there are not fawns yet.

When I was trying to take some pictures of the new ducklings, suddenly a big Grey Heron, came of nowhere and went down like an arrow, trapped a duckling with its beak and went up to a tree with its prey to have its meal. The little kids began to cry and ask to their parents that was going to happen to the duckling. Some began to tell fantastic stories about how the big bird only wanted to play with the little. Others, more realistic began to explain them in simple words how the nature works. So, no smile at the sight of the ducklings so vulnerable with the grey heron perched up, looking down, threatening…
ducklin

Smile

Posted in challenges

Admiration

Posted on by Olga Brajnović

 

Here is my mom solving crosswords at her desk. She is 96. She has total paralysis in the left half of her body due to a brain stroke she suffered four years ago and she’s completely dependant, confined in her wheelchair, but his intelligence remains intact. Last Christmas, her present was a kindle. She had been complaining that it was difficult for her to read paper books because with only one hand was almost impossible keep the book open and turn the pages. with the electronic book, she can do it with a single finger. She switched without problems to the digital format and she’s reading mystery novels and other books.
But I admire her because she’s a survivor with a lot of inner strength who never gives up. She survived WWII, a hard Communist Regime, an unjust incarceration, twelve years of forced separation of her husband, exile and now this sickness. And she never have lost her smile. Be optimistic, kind and strong. Never give up. That’s my mom.

Admiration

Posted in challenges

Memory

Posted on by Olga Brajnović

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I hate crowds. I need to see space around me ,and if not, a clear way to go out. This is why I usually don’t go to the Chupinazo that marks the beginning of San Fermin in Pamplona. But I miss it. I would like to be there to in the city hall square every July 6th at noon when they launch the rocket and everybody shouts Viva San Fermin!
Till that moment, everybody, clothed in white, wait holding up the red bandanas they will wear around their necks as soon as the pyrotechnic rocket explodes as a sign that they are taking part of the fiesta. All the square is white and red. Is really something worth to see.
I used to go with my friends when I was young until one year I felt my breath was failing me because of the crowd squeezed me. So I retreated to the street of Mercaderes and went to the Castillo’s square.
But now is an event for very young people. There is too much people and there is no way to enter the square. Besides now the youngsters have fun throwing each other wine and even flour and eggs, so the place is a mess, and the traditional white clothes with red bandanas finish awfully dirty, all pink from the wine and yellow from the eggs. You can always watch the spectacle comfortably from a balcony, if you’re lucky. Or from home thru TV.
I don’t like that. I prefer the memory of my young days when there was fewer people and it was possible to participate. I made a sketch of that previous moment when everybody is holding their bandana up waiting for the chupinazo chanting: San Fermin! San Fermin!

Posted in challenges

Color your World – Macaroni and Cheese – The giant and the pacifiers

Posted on by Olga Brajnović

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Here, in Pamplona, the Giants are a very important part of our renowned fiesta of San Fermin. (Not everything goes around the bulls and the famous run). Every morning the Giants go out to dance in the streets. They are enormous hollow figures with a wooden structure. Inside, covered by the costume of the figure, there is a man who walks and dances. It’s difficult to do so because the giants are tall and heavy and is tricky to keep the balance. They represent the queens and kings of the continents and were made in the XIX century. When they go out, thousands of kids and grown ups enjoy the parade and the music, and the dance in the streets.

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There is a tradition, and it is that the little kids that are trying to quit their pacifiers, promise to do so by giving their pacifier to one of the giants during the fiesta. So every day you can see parents talking to their kids and how every giant finally collects a lot of pacifiers, like the one of the picture.

I chose these pictures I took last summer because I think the costume of the Giant and some of the pacifiers have today’s color.

Color Your World – Macaroni and Cheese