The changing seasons: April 2017

/ Su Leslie
Water droplets hanging from bare tree branches. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Image: Su Leslie, 2017

April is usually my favourite month, and I’m still not quite sure how I managed to let it pass in such a blur. It’s not as if I’ve been madly busy, or travelling, or … well anything really.

How will I remember April 2017?

As the month that New Zealand suffered two huge storms that left whole communities cleaning up and counting the cost of floods and landslides.

The month that the Big T and I devoted much time and great care to our impromptu butterfly rescue project. With the last viable chrysalis now a shell, the wooden shelter has been deconstructed and we’re quietly congratulating ourselves that around 50 Monarch butterflies have emerged and flown away to their winter hibernation.

A month of staying close to home, of introspection and attention to detail.

A month where life feels alternately out of focus and strangely distorted.

A month I can best sum up in one image.

And since May is New Zealand Music Month, I’ll add this track — Run — from Shihad‘s 2002 Pacifier album

… so you run
whatcha holding on, holding on to
run
life is going on
all around you
run
whatcha holding on, holding on to …

The Changing Seasons is a monthly challenge hosted by Cardinal Guzman. Please visit to see the Cardinal’s month, and find links to other participants.

There are two versions of the challenge:

Version 1 (The Changing Seasons V1):

Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons
Each month, post 5-20 photos in a gallery.
Don’t use photos from your archive. Only new shots.

Version 2 (The Changing Seasons V2):

Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons
Each month, post one photo (recipe, painting, drawing, whatever) that represents your interpretation of the month.
Don’t use archive stuff. Only new material!

 

38 thoughts on “The changing seasons: April 2017”

  4. You know I love drop shots, Su, and this one’s a winner. We have so many drops here right now, but it hasn’t been nice enough to get out to shoot them. When I went to the park today, I forgot my phone, so I’d best get back tomorrow to take some shots of the flooding.

    janet

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    • Thanks Janet. Much as I hate flooding for the terrible impact on people whose properties are affected, it does bring some wonderful photo opportunities. Look forward to seeing your shots.

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  5. Such a beautiful photo. It’s been like that for a lot of April over here in southern Australia. I agree about it being a funny month that seemed to disappear in a haze – out of focus and distorted is a good way to describe it.

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  6. A fine photo, Su. And April did seem strange this year. Here it was not wet, but bitingly cold, and felt like one big cringe. But you and Big T did a marvellous job with the monarchs. It has great symbolic power too 🙂

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  7. You express things in such a beautiful way. I love the line “A month where life feels alternately out of focus and strangely distorted”. I could immediately relate to that feeling.

    I hope May provides greater clarity for you.

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    • Thanks Sally. When I was standing under the tree, shooting the photos I had a very strong image of what I wanted. That’s not quite what I ended up with, but I like the shot anyway 🙂

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  11. Pingback: The Changing Seasons: April 2017 | Cardinal Guzman

    • I’m so glad you like the song! It’s become an earworm I can’t get rid of since I wrote this. I was singing it (terribly tunelessly) as I hung the washing out the other day, totally oblivious to the fact that my neighbour (a musician) was in his yard, just over the fence.
      “So I ran …. ”
      Life imitating art. 🙂
      Have a wonderful weekend. xxx

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      • It´s also become an earworm for me!! 🙂
        And how funny: one of my neighbors is a singing instructor and when she moved in I was totally terrified to sing aloud when cooking – which I love to do: tunelessly but passionately 😉 But then I heard her students and knew she´d heard worse 😉 xxxxxx

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        • Love it!! I feel so sorry for music teachers, to be so good at something and have to listen to pupils who have little talent. When the boy-child had guitar lessons I used to wait for him. By the waiting area was the room where the violin teacher worked. Our time-slot co-incided with that of a boy who had to be the worst violin pupil EVER. Over the weeks the poor teacher looked more and more dejected at the end of each lesson. Even I was losing the will to live!

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          • LOL! But I´m sure the worst violin pupil ever was a kid in my class that tortured us regularly every time there was an opportunity 😀 It´s cruel what people can do to their instruments… 😉
            I hope that poor teacher chucked him out and found her will to live again!

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