Poem

And they don't ask: What comes after death?
Though more intimate with the book of Paradise
than with accounts of the earth, they're preoccupied
with another question: What shall we do
before this death? Near to life, we live
and we don't - as if life were parceled out
from a desert where the haggling gods of property
settle their disputes.
We live beside an ancient dust.
Our lives burden the historian's night:
'Though I make them disappear, they come back to me
from absence.'
Our lives burden the artist:
'I draw them and become one of them, veiled in mist.'
Our lives burden the General:
'How can a ghost still bleed?'
We shall be what we want to be. And we want
a bit of life, not for just anything - but to honor
the resurrection after our death.
Unintentionally, they speak the philosopher's words:
'Death means nothing to us: if we are then he isn't.
Death means nothing to us: if he is then we are not.'
And they have rearranged their dreams
and sleep standing. 

Mahmoud Darwish

Study Bloom

Study Tulipa

In my garden, this morning

Etude

Study Tulipa

Confirmation

The two adorable girls

Study - my suburbia IV

Etude Tulipa

No More Frost?

My studies are getting enjoyable, I'm so surprised, but everything seems changed. I hope it lasts!

Fun in the Sun - study

My Suburbia - studies I

It was and still is a place of asphalt and stones, stones and asphalt. Before the Internet, kids playing in the streets. Now they are sent to do organized sport instead. We got too much money, I guess. The houses were built before Norway struck oil, but often ambitiously rebuilt after. Flats built when builders thought the people living there would not be able to afford cars. Groves of tress in the middle of everything. Pines. Woods near by. Schoolyards full of asphalt, cold, heat, and dust. Secret places. Offices and semi industrial buildings. Gardens turning into high rises. My heart cries out for the land and the place I grew up. Why are we so blind and deaf and without hope?

Study - my suburbia II

Studies

Study Yellow

Sunday Sermon

The body can not lie

               M. Graham

Study Sakura - ten hour Easter vacation in Tønsberg

Studies

Study Tulipa

Study Plant

Study - my suburbia III

Study

Die Nacht - Etude

A trip down memory lane. Die Nacht used to be a song I played in concerts, a very old favorite, Strauss being food for thought. 

Study Tulips

Saturday Sermon

little by little, a bird builds its own nest

Hiiroh Kikai

I Got Two Honorable Mentions in IPA - International Photography Awards - I can't believe it!

http://www.photoawards.com/en/Pages/Gallery/zoomwin.php?eid=8-61282-13&uid=&code=Flowers

and

http://www.photoawards.com/en/Pages/Gallery/zoomwin.php?eid=8-61243-13&uid=&code=Pets

I could have danced all night:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Today's picture:))

Lovely Interview with Hiroh Kikai in LensCulture

https://www.lensculture.com/articles/hiroh-kikai-hiroh-kikai-talks-about-photography#slide-10

Etude

Study

A Touch of Spring

And Then I Won the March Round of Oslo's Medical Library's Anniversary Photo Competition - #medisin200

Kind of fun - and a nice prize - I get a book I really need:))))

Ambulance Lights 

Sunday Sermon

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me

Shakespeare 

How much I hope for an everlasting now - and a now - and a now 

Anti Consumption

I'm shopped out. I feel like a hamster, mostly due to to wanting to get everything in order, but I'm shopped out and tired of "invisible practice" (expression for Gail Sher's book One Continous Mistake, four noble truths for writers) - sorting everything out so I'm able to get the real job done. I got everything I need, so no more buying anything except food! Hopefully this posting will keep me in check! 

Arend deGruyter-Helfer's I Got You Something: Facebook Gifts Arranged in a Pile, 2008

Today's Vegetarian

“We should always be clear that animal exploitation is wrong because it involves speciesism. And speciesism is wrong because, like racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-semitism, classism, and all other forms of human discrimination, speciesism involves violence inflicted on members of the moral community where that infliction of violence cannot be morally justified. But that means that those of us who oppose speciesism necessarily oppose discrimination against humans. It makes no sense to say that speciesism is wrong because it is like racism (or any other form of discrimination) but that we do not have a position about racism. We do. We should be opposed to it and we should always be clear about that.” 
― Gary L. Francione

My beautiful little "lion" Wahkan Nobu (Wahkan: sacred, Nobu: vow)

Haru

Guineapig Haru

Saturday's Vegetarian II

“Every time you drink a glass of milk or eat a piece of cheese, you harm a mother. Please go vegan.” 

― Gary L. Francione

Saturday's Vegetarian

We need, in a special way, to work twice as hard to help people understand that the animals are fellow creatures, that we must protect them and love them as we love ourselves.” 

― César Chávez

Today's Vegetarian

“I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.” 

― Isaac Bashevis Singer

Today's Vegetarian

About Edgar’s Mission

Edgar’s Mission is a not for profit Farm Sanctuary that seeks to create a humane and just world for humans and non-humans. Edgar’s Mission is set on 60 peaceable acres in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range at Willowmavin, Kilmore, in the state of Victoria, Australia.

Our farm sanctuary currently provides life-long love and care to over 300 rescued animals.

Edgar’s Mission was founded by Pam Ahern and named after her first rescued pig, Edgar. Edgar Alan Pig, aka “the pig who started it all” sadly passed away shortly after his 7th birthday party in April 2010. Edgar, a gentle giant, touched so many people and was an amazing ambassador for pigs and farmed animals everywhere. He will be missed beyond words – but his mission will continue.

Why do farmed animals need rescuing?

Few Australians are aware that the vast majority of animals in human care in this country – some 500 million ‘food’ or ‘production’ animals – have been excluded from the protection of our animal welfare legislation.

In particular, millions of farmed animals daily endure lives of abject misery in factory farms.  Barely able to move they endure acts of cruelty that would be illegal if they were your cat or dog. Imagine a life without sunshine, without freedom, without being able to socialize, without hope … Welcome to the ‘life’ of a factory-farmed animal.

How has this happened? As custodians of this planet, we have been guilty of playing favourites. We have designated some animals friends and some animals food. Yet they are no different. All share the same ability to suffer, the same need and desire to experience life, for it to have joy, meaning and purpose.

Edgar’s Mission provides you with the opportunity to meet these animals, read their stories and decide which life they need and deserve.

Come for a visit and spend time on The Kindness Trail which will provide you with quotes from some of the finest human minds that will challenge you, inspire you and simply make you smile.

Edgar’s Mission provides you with a glimpse into a different world – a merciful world.

http://www.edgarsmission.org.au

EA's Wonderful Soup

My friend EA gave me this recipe as I have been in bed with bronchitis for quite some time now and not eating well enough. It is a lovely lentil soup with ginger, and as EA said: "The ginger is comforting when feeling a bit queasy". I quite agree.

1 onion, 1 leek and as much garlic as you like, all fried soft in olive oil or rapeseed oil

add 3 cm of ginger cut into pieces, some vegetable stock, a tin of crushed tomatoes, 200 ml of lentils (softened in water for a couple of hours before cooking), two stalks of celery cut into pieces (a little chili if you like) and water to make a nice consistency. Cook until everything is tender, add more water if needed, run in blender.  Serve with sprouts on top.

Enjoy!

Oslo Graffiti