Blogging inspiration

I have had a bit of a blogging break recently. With my arm and much of my hand encased in plaster, I couldn't take any photos for weeks, and typing wasn't exactly easy either. But I did keep reading blogs, and in this post will share just a few of my favourites. Call it a bit of springtime inspiration if you live in the right part of the world- or autumn consolation otherwise I guess!

We'll start locally with Pohangina Pete who takes exquisite photos, some shared from his overseas travels, and some taken somewhere quite nearby, little things I might have noticed myself if I had looked- like this apple in winter or this detail on a building down Main St.

And next we'll jump across the Tasman, where I know a whole bunch of bloggers who often have me wishing I could take a quick jet trip to explore that wee island out west of us. One of them is Simon, who loves to head out into the local National Parks whenever he can find the time. Here is one of his latest forays, to Penrith Lakes, man-made; and here is a record of what he saw at Goulburn River National Park, shortly after he returned home from a trip to England that had been slightly extended by a certain volcanic eruption.

Now I will jump continents to a newly discovered blog by George. You can see some of the reflections he has captured here on the waters of the Inner Harbour of Baltimore, and also see some of the visions he has recorded of the modern buildings. Art and beauty and inspiration. And while we are in the US of A, I have been a regular reader of Kelle Hampton's blog, Enjoying the Small Things, for months.  She shares many beautiful photos of her two young girls, and here is just a random sample. She leaves me wanting to notice and enjoy the 'small things' every day in my own life.

I can't quite leave the other side of the world without paying a visit to Robert, the Solitary Walker, (who in fact led me to Blogger George.) Robert has been walking the South West Coast Path in England in recent days, and writes so persuasively, and adds such photographs that you wish you were walking with him, even if it is raining.... Then there's ornithologist Maalie, who spends a bit of his retirement having 'well-earned holidays' bird-watching in odd places all over Europe; but who has recently bought a kayak to explore a bit closer to home.

I guess I do tend to dabble more in blogs with photos, but there are more text based blogs that inspire me as well. (Can you spot the 'lapsed Catholic' peaking out from the next two?) Recently Paul Brian Campbell SJ, who often shares little tidbits of inspiration, shared a bit from a poem by Mary Oliver that I love:

"this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice can speak."

And Becky Eldredge, in her blog "Everything is Holy Now" recently quoted something about the very concrete-ness of being Catholic, that almost made me wish I still was one....

" Catholics are a sacramental people. We see signs of the presence of God around us in every moment of our lives. We know, of course, that God is greater than we can imagine and beyond all that we can touch, but we are also convinced that creation, from the most ordinary--water, oil, bread--to the most unlikely--the stranger, the enemy, the cross--can reveal divine love. "

Anyhow, that is enough for now..... more another day perhaps.