Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 128

Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!

Welcome to the 128th round of my special weekly photo challenge known as Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun :)

I know a lot of photo contests with nature as the main theme were/are/will be hosted by various people on the Hive blockchain but I wanted to come up with something more than just another photo contest where participants would submit their best natural photos. Therefore, I decided to go for quite an unusual concept that I am going to introduce in the following lines.

The aim of the Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun photo challenge is not to make you dig up your photo archives and submit the best pictures of nature that you have ever taken. Instead, I want you guys to go out and appreciate the beauty of our nature right now.

The internet (and the Hive blockchain as well) is flooded with picture perfect shots of landscapes, mountains, forests, beaches etc. taken years ago. But this is not what I want to see in this challenge. I want to see shots that may not be necessarily stunning but they must be fresh, proving that you have just physically spent some time outdoors in the fresh air. But remember that nature comes in many forms. It doesn´t have to be a pristine jungle or a deep remote forest. An urban park, a botanical garden, a little grove on the outskirts of your town - pretty much any place with some trees, plants, rocks, bodies of water or any other natural features would be just as fine ;)

Obviously, there is no way for me to verify whether the photo that you submit in the challenge is really fresh or if it was even taken by you so I am relying on your honesty guys. The prizes for the winners (as described below) are more symbolical than overly motivating so I don´t expect too much fraudulent behavior in this challenge anyway.

I want to keep the rules of this challenge as simple and benevolent as possible so let´s agree on just this:

Only one entry (photo) per person per round.

The photo must be yours and not older than one week.

Add a few words about the photo, at least where and when you took it.

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You can start submitting your entries to this round in the comment section below from now until the next round.

Prior to publishing the next round post, I will pick 3 winners, give my full upvote on their entries and feature them in the next round of the challenge. As long as the response is not too overwhelming, I will also try to give some smaller upvotes on all of the other entries to reward all participants.

I might change the concept and/or the rules of the photo challenge later on, depending on how things go. I usually host the challenge on Thursday but when needed for some reason, I can host it on some other day so better check my blog regularly not to miss out on it ;)

To keep up with you guys, I submit my own fresh natural photo to every round´s post too :) Here is my contribution to start out this round:

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Let me start out by apologizing for the delay, the past few days have been very busy for me so I´m coming with this round on Friday and not on Thursday when I usually host the challenge. Sorry about that guys. Now back to my entry. I´m currently at my mum´s place in the Silesian countryside and I just got back from a little walk with her doggie. I had my phone with me so I could capture the picturesque landscape that is all around here. The wheat fields have this beautiful golden color right now, which makes for a nice foreground to the green forests and hills in the distance :) I took this picture literally like 30 minutes ago here in the Silesian region of the Czech Republic.

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In the last round, we had 5 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:

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@itsmikyhere with this entry from Spain:

I took this picture last Saturday, while hiking the mountains of Teno in Tenerife. It was a little stressful for a bit: the path I had taken was closed due to landslides (which is pretty much every second path around here) and while I was climbing it, a helicopter flew over my head and stressed me out terribly (I know, my fault for climbing where I shouldn't). Anyway, this view right here is the reason why I did it. In the foreground, you can see a typical Canarian cactus species, and in the background you can see Puerto Santiago. It was a lovely hike.

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@taimen with this entry from Bulgaria:

What a nice idea for a contest, I'm glad I found it. I just shared a post about wasps. The photos were taken last Thursday during my holiday in Bulgaria. I am an animal lover but wasps are at the bottom end of my list of favourite animals. They are very important for farming and wildlife alike since they act as pollinators. Wasps are also attracted by fruit, honey, soft drinks and even beer. I have noticed that a significant number of insects like alcoholic drinks. Well, I haven't tried feeding them whiskey, but lighter drinks are a sure way of gathering some company.

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@dswigle with this entry from the USA:

Here is my entry for this week @phortun! I am not sure if I can post animals without the background of nature. Let me know and if that is so, I will post another. This is taken on the Chincoteague Island, Virginia, US where the horses and ponies are getting ready for the annual Pony Swim across the channel from Assateague Island to Chincoteague, where they will auction the young ones off. This is an annual event to keep the number down in the wild herd, otherwise, there won't be enough food to sustain them.

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Congratulations guys! It was my pleasure to give you 100% upvotes on your entries :)

I am looking forward to what you will come up with in this round.

Have fun and appreciate the beauty of nature!

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I post this series in the Amazing Nature community, a great community for all nature lovers. Feel free to check it out ;)

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This post was created by me for the Hive blockchain exclusively. All rights reserved.

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Thank you for visiting my blog. If you like posts about Nature, Animals, Ecology, Crypto, Sport, Traveling, Photography and discovering secrets and beauties of the World, feel free to follow me as these are the topics I mostly write about. Have a wonderful day and keep on hiving, guys! :)