This challenge is simple: step back for a few minutes each week to find a lovely thing, a precious moment, anything you find lovely. Then post about it. You can just post a picture or you can go into detail and tell it as a reflection, story or poem.

It could be anything:

a smile…a rainbow…a flower…a kind act…a tasty treat

What was lovely in your life this week?

Lovely posts from last week

• My forever blog
• Second Wind Leisure
• Brashley Photography
• A Young Retirement
• Philosophy through photography
• Now at home

My lovely for this week

Last weekend we visited my sister. It was my birthday treat (a couple of days late). On Saturday we saw my friend Jacqueline (mentioned in last week’s post) and on Sunday we visited the Portland Japanese Garden. My sister is a member and has been on my case for years to come down and see the garden.

The day was sunny and beautiful and the garden is amazing. Here is a gallery to give you an idea. You can enlarge any image by clicking on it.

If you like gardens and are in Portland this is definitely worth a visit. It is in Washington Park near the Rose Garden.

Quick photography note: for whatever reason I seem to be in a dreamy, Orton effect sort of mood lately, so I added that effect to several of the pictures. If you like that effect I have a post on theSquirrelChase explaining how you can get that effect using the GIMP. The GIMP is open-source (=free) software that I use for photo processing.

Join in!

I will post once a week, Sunday at noon in Seattle (8pm GMT) is my goal, and put a list of posts from the previous week in it. Basically using the same method I do with the Pull up a Seat Challenge. Detailed instructions are on the page: Whatsoever is lovely blog challenge.

Background

We live in a world that seems to value drama, anger, fear and violence. Being mean often passes for being smart. These are the things that “go viral”, magnified in the media. Sometimes, the things that really make life worth living are small and simple. They don’t make for good TikTok. This is a chance to share that type of moment from our lives.