The patchwork playground of life

I decided I would have to do a mash up this weekend because these two photos are kind of special to me and have elements of both blue and green in them. They are two of the most prevalent colours in my natural landscape photographs and I love the combination.

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The excited playground

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This photograph is significant in many ways to me but I'll explain one of them. I took this at a park not far from where I am staying. I went there to have a cup of coffee _{(and possible a small pecan nut pie)} and I loved this landscape.

While it may look like a deserted playground, peaceful and calm, in reality it wasn't the case. Sometimes even images can be deceiving. In the jungle gym behind where I was standing, the kids were having a raucous go at it with screams and shouts of glee and frenetic, shrill enthusiasm and the feeling of it was contagious and made me feel slightly giddy. Ok fine, I admit it - in that instant I wanted to be a kid again and have that kind of freedom of mind where I wasn't having to worry about all the nonsense of adulthood that we deal with on a daily basis.

I don't like taking photos of other people's kids and I would never publish a photograph of someone without their express permission, so I took it to remember the moment. It was kind of special and rather liberating in a way.

The photo also represents the fact that my childhood is now behind me, long ago - but I can still visit it in my mind whenever I want to and draw from the fun experiences and moments that I had back then _{(a long, long time ago in a galaxy far away).}

And of course it serves as a reminder that even when things may seem calm and perfectly normal on the surface, that may not be the case if you zoom out and take a look at the bigger picture.

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The patchwork fields

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This second photo may seem pretty simple but this was a moment that spoke to my very soul. It was taken on a recent 11hour road trip and I had just settled into the long stretch of open road that lay before me.

There was little wind, the sky was gorgeous with wispy clouds all around that were furled up and puffy in some patches and stretched out thin like in this particular section of the sky.

But what grabbed my heart and soul was the landscape all around me - the farming fields. Little blocks and triangles of all different shades of green and yellow. Canola, wheat and vineyards as far as the eye could see. It reminded me of a patchwork quilt that a grandmother makes for her littlest ones, a family heirloom passed down through generations which is also often the case with these farms.

So many memories and moments can be sewn into a patchwork quilt, much like our lives. We have bonds with our family, friends, neighbours, communities...and they're all held together with some form of string tying each of us to the next and creating a lasting connection. Our shared humanity and all the shades of it that you can imagine.

The vastness of what I saw was breathtakingly beautiful and it spoke of life, of love, nurturing and vitality as well as all the forces of nature which can be cruel and kind, two sides of the same coin. The truck was perfectly placed too as even though it was farmland, there was a definite presence of people and how we traverse this landscape of life and carry things along through it; sewing them into our story as we go.

It was a bright moment and one I won't forget anytime soon, I believed it deserved a place on the blockchain not just as a reminder to me, but maybe for others to appreciate and enjoy as well.