Wintry Weather Scenes

Sometimes I post images to my blog rather than words. Previously, these images have been of warm weather scenes, such as this past August, when I posted pictures of flowers and butterflies. This time, I’m posting images of wintry weather. After all, each season, including winter, has its own beauty.

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August Interlude

Occasionally, I like to share nature photos in my blog. Why?

One reason is that spending time in nature or looking at nature has been found to be good for human health. I shared information about the connection between health and nature in my blog about the benefits of birding. I like the idea of sharing nature images as a way of boosting the well-being of my readers.

Another reason is that by sharing photos of nature, I can raise awareness about the irreplaceable beauty of the environment. As I noted in a post a few years ago about overloading on negativity, I’m concerned about the destruction of the environment. Maybe by seeing photos of the beauty of nature, some of my readers will be inspired to take action to preserve our environment.

Yet another reason is that sometimes words escape me. As I explained in the blog I wrote about this situation, one cause of this phenomenon is being overwhelmed with topics to write about. At the time I wrote that blog, my list of possible topics included the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economic crisis, racial unrest, and environmental protection rollbacks. Those topics still seem relevant today, more than five years later. By sharing nature photographs, I’m able to communicate without words when I’m feeling at a loss for them.

So just as I did in November 2020 with photos of fall scenery, July 2021 with photos of summer sightseeing, and April 2022 and March 2024 with photos of springtime flowers, in this blog, I’m sharing photos of nature. I hope they provide you with a pleasant interlude in the midst of your day-to-day life!

Magnificent March Blooms

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (thank goodness vinyl has made a comeback so everyone will know what I mean by that), in this blog post I am again focusing on the healthful powers of nature. I mentioned these powers in my blog post about birding, which is a favorite hobby of mine. I also mentioned them when I wrote about ways to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, which humanity is still trying to do, although in a less frantic way than in March 2020.

What I said about the healthful powers of nature in those blog posts and what I will repeat now is that being outdoors in, viewing in real life, or looking at pictures of nature are all beneficial to human health. To share these healthful benefits, I’ve twice uploaded to my blog photos of natural beauty where I live. In the past I’ve shared photos I’ve taken of springtime flowers and of summer scenery.

In this post, I’m again sharing photos of spring flowers, but this time I’m focused on blooms I’ve seen during the month of March. I hope you find them as magnificent as I do! I also hope they bring you some of the healthful benefits that nature is known for.

Springtime Solace

Experts say spending time in nature or even just looking at nature is good for our mental, emotional, and physical health. I’ve written about this before, once when writing about birding, one of my favorite hobbies, and once more briefly when offering suggestions for coping with the pandemic (which, by the way, is not yet over).

Thankfully, nature has been beautiful where I live lately, so I thought I’d share some images of the flowers in bloom this time of year. I hope these pictures will have a healthful effect on you!

 

Scenic Summer Sightseeing

Eighteen months after we first learned about the current pandemic, stress levels are still high. Whether due to hearing about post-vaccine breakthrough cases of COVID-19, violent assaults occurring on airplanes, chaos surrounding the Olympics, political disagreements over the January 6 commission, or new COVID-19 variants, not to mention the personal circumstances we are each dealing with, we all have reason to feel stress. So what can we do to ease it?

I mentioned in a previous post that one effective way of dealing with stress is spending time in nature. If we can’t actually be in nature, research shows we can reduce stress by just looking at nature, whether through a window or in pictures. I wrote about this research when I wrote about my birding hobby. To this end, a few months ago I shared a collection of photos that featured fall scenery. I thought I would do so again, this time featuring summer scenes. I hope the images bring you some peace in trying times!

Fall Photos

A few months ago, I wrote about my dedication to lifelong learning. One of the learning experiences I mentioned was taking photography classes at the Smithsonian Institution when I lived in Washington, DC. In these classes, not only did I learn how to take photographs but also I learned how to process black and white film and how to develop black and white prints. For anyone who lives in the DC area, the Smithsonian offers lots of great studio arts courses to choose from.

One of the things I enjoyed about the photography classes I took was feeling a connection to my paternal grandfather. He worked several jobs over his lifetime, and one of them involved taking photographs at official events for the newsletter and archive of the company he worked for at the time. He also supplemented his income by being a self-employed photographer. In both of the houses he lived in as an adult, he built darkrooms so he could practice his craft. He took lots of photos of people’s weddings back in the day!

Unfortunately, I didn’t persist in my photography lessons long enough to become as good a photographer as my grandfather. After I moved away from DC, I lived in Pittsburgh for a while, and although I had access to a darkroom there, I needed more instruction before I could feel self-sufficient in my skills. Then I moved away from Pittsburgh, lost access to the darkroom, and never picked up any additional photography classes.

Nonetheless, I still enjoy taking photographs. I always have I guess. When I was in college, long before I lived in DC, I was the historian for my sorority chapter, and you could find me at all our official functions taking photographs for our scrapbooks. Also, every time I go on vacation, I take lots of photos to print and save in my memory boxes. In fact, I have a huge backlog of photos that I’ve saved to my computer but have never had printed...I’ll have to add that to my to-do list! 

In any case, over this fall, I’ve taken a few photos to capture scenes of my favorite season. Where I live, fall is now gradually changing into winter. Before the snow flies (although I know it already has in many places), I thought I’d share some of the photos I’ve taken. Maybe they can serve to give you a taste of nature, which is so important in coping with COVID-19 and other daily stresses. I hope you enjoy!