Kat Eye Studio

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Stepping along Flowers

This image has been popping into my head a lot lately, which means that I should just share it already! A little bit of color and a whole lot of texture can be found in Varenna, a town on the steep edges of Lake Como not too far from where we live. I like that the “streets” in these lake-egde towns are often really stairways up the hillside, and named appropriately in Italian, salita (which means climb, rise, uphill) instead of the usual via (which means street, road, or way). And a stairway means that you can have a fabulous flower display on many levels. I used to want to paint this picture, but for some reason I never did. Maybe that’s because the image was already good just as it was, waiting to be shared with you today. Happy Monday!

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Farewell, Assisi

At end of the day in Assisi, as we were heading back to il parcheggio (parking garage) we walked past this pretty entry way. Same place we walked past in the morning, same light (shade), but from this angle it looked totally different and caught my attention. Just a little reminder that sometimes we need to turn or look back to where we’ve been, for a different perspective. You never know what you might find.

With this, I’ll move on from Assisi, this wonderful town of stone and flowers and views of the Umbrian countryside.

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Spring Glow

A beautiful spring scene in Assisi. I love the contrast of tree practically glowing in the sunshine with the stone buildings in shadow. How the rock wall on the left turns into the rock of the hill, blending seamlessly. How, in a town made of stone and built on stone, little patches of trees and flowers bloom.

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Nature always wins

It must be spring, because I am seeing flowers everywhere. Flowers on the bushes and trees, flowers for sale from street vendors, flowers on our balcony. I love it. These flowers for you today are with some Roman ruins of Ostia Antica near Rome. Ostia was the first colony of Rome, a port town on the Tiber river. We spent a day exploring these interesting pathways and buildings.

Seeing the spring flowers in the setting of the Roman ruins makes me think. Everything man builds, once complete, starts to decay. It’s amazing that, two thousand years later, even this much of the Romans remains with us. But in nature, there is an ongoing cycle of renewal. After the darkness of winter comes the flowering of spring. After a severe forest fire comes the new trees. Nature’s creative energy always wins. It wins over these ruins, where the plants and trees have taken root and have been transforming the place back to a natural state. While for man, our creative endeavors begin a slow decay as soon as they are completed, we are constantly fighting nature.

Just something to make you think…

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Night Lights

You just never know what you might find when you look up. A beautiful spring garden, growing over the street lights on a street in Rome. One evening on our trip we wandered around the old city, to get a feel for it at night.

This year of travel I have fallen in love with night photography. There is such a different feel at night. Different illumination and shadows. More contrast between light and dark. A challenge of it’s own. But the result… beautiful.