WPC: Earth

In celebration of Earth Day today (22nd April) the weekly photo challenge this week was to show what ‘earth’ means to us. I’ve been very fortunate to have visited some amazing places around the world, which have quite literally taken my breath away, and could quite easily have posted dozens of photographs that mean ‘earth’ to me… BUT, my favourite places in the world nearly all have a common theme to them. I’m fascinated and drawn to water, whether it’s the ocean, waterfall, river or burn (stream)(or creek here in the USA).

Ever since I was young you couldn’t keep me away from water. When we used to go for a day out as a family my parents would drop me off at the local swimming pool and go do whatever they did when they visited a new town then come back and pick me up in an hour or two. Also growing up in the countryside I was never far from a river and playing stepping-stones inevitably led to falling in and wet feet. As an adult and living close to the sea on the west coast of Scotland I used to drive the 10 minutes to the seaside and walk the dog or jog along the promenade if I was feeling energetic. When my kids were born it was a fantastic excuse to go rock-pooling at the beach again and go fishing for minnows in the burn.

My happy place is always beside some form of water or other so I thought that throwing some photographs up of water fit in this week’s theme well. Anyway here’s a selection of water shots from my archives.

The River Doon in Alloway, Scotland

The bridge in the photograph above is the famous ‘Brig O’Doon’ in Ayrshire where Tam O’Shanter escaped from the witches in the Robert Burns poem ‘Tam O’Shanter’ by crossing the stream (seemingly witches can’t cross running water. Good to know!)

River pebbles at Glencoe

The kids all decided to climb one of the Three Sisters mountains at Glencoe and we waited for them at the bottom so decided to go for a paddle. The water was F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G so we didn’t paddle for long!

Ayrshire sunset

Sunset at Troon with a bag of chips. Nothing more to add really!

Beautiful Florida beach

Breakfast with a view. My sister is lucky enough to live on the Gulf coast of Florida so visiting her we can go out to a beach restaurant and enjoy spectacular views like this for free.

Kauai seascape

Beautiful Kauai. I’ve done a few posts before about my Hawaiian adventures but don’t think I’ve used this photograph. The rock formations formed perfect steps and watching the waves come over and cascade down in mini waterfalls was mesmerising.

Sea caves in Kauai

I could have stood there all day and just watched the power and majesty of the ocean battering into the cliffs at Kilauea, it was just wonderful. “Wow!” as my sister said every five minutes when we would find another gorgeous thing to look at.

Kauai beach

And finally a beach photograph. It really is good for the soul to sit and watch the ocean/sea/river/waterfall/burn/puddle. Well, maybe not puddle…

I should have been a mermaid.

Earth