Weekly Photo Challenge: Happy

I have to say I really do love this weeks photo challenge. Happiness is such an important part of life, something that, due to life, we often forget to embrace. As well as photos this week I have decided to share a story with you about a moment that changed my outlook on life and on happiness.  I hope you enjoy!

Happiness is something that we all strive to achieve but sometimes, due to circumstances, fail to obtain. I´ve had my fair share of moments, like everyone, where life has thrown some curveballs in my way but, what I have learnt from these moments is, it´s not the events themselves that define your happiness, or unhappiness for that matter, but rather how you approach them.

A memory that always stays with me when it comes to happiness and what defines it is one from my university days. During my time in university I was lucky enough to volunteer as a teaching assistant in a programme working with special needs adults. The idea behind the programme was to teach these adults both basic english and other skills they need for day-to-day life.

The task set one morning was quite a simple one; to describe how a number of pictures made you feel. After a few pictures we came to a picture of a sunset in a forest with a deer at the forefront, nothing special –  or so I thought at the time as I was having a particularly selfish day that day, too consumed with my “student” problems to notice anything about it . That was until it was one of the students, who was severally disabled, turn to share how this picture made him feel. With a huge smile on his face, which I will never forget, he typed into his computer “It makes me feel happy to be alive”. Wow, I was instantly moved my this. I had so much insignificant stuff going on in my head that I hadn´t taken the time to appreciate the beauty of the picture. Yet, here was this man fighting a daily battle with disability who, despite his troubles,  he was able to find the joy in the most simplest of things.

I think that this moment was one of the most influential moments on my life. It taught me that happiness is all around you, you just need to open your eyes to see it. No matter what your problems are, whether they are short-term problems like deadlines to be met or long-term ones like illness, take the time to smile. I have been lucky enough to learn this lesson from three incredible people, this man who found joy in such a simple picture, my uncle who has been battling illness on a daily basis for six years and P who has braved his illness and never once let it stop him from smiling.

To me the definition of happiness is the ability to see past your problems and still find something positive in your day, something worth smiling about, something worth living for!

Remember: everyone has difficult periods in their lives but it doesn´t mean that you can´t find happiness hidden behind even the darkest of moments. Happiness is in your hands so embrace it!

So here are a few things that make me smile on a daily basis; no matter how big or small my problems may be: my friends, my family, butterflies, flowers and sunshine. I hope you enjoy them and that they may bring a smile to your face!

So that´s it, for now anyway! Hope you enjoyed my interpretation of this weeks theme. Sorry I have been absent for two weeks I was making my way back to Córdoba and settling back into work, I shall be back to normal again soon so thank you for your patience!

To see what other bloggers have come up with for this weeks challenge click here.

What did you think of this weeks theme? Did you have fun with it?

As always, thank you for reading,

Until the next time,

Giana

xoxo

Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary

This weeks photo challenge has been a tricky one for me; I had visions of photos of solitary people matched with this stupid inability to actually take them! I don´t know why; but I feel that if I take a picture of someone, even in a public place, that I´m somehow invading their space and privacy. I need to get over this, I truly do, as some of my favourite photos are of people. I love facial expressions, fine lines and wrinkles, eyes, posture, mannerisms, I love it all. To me a photo of a person is beautiful, always, as it captures so much more than just a moment; it captures a life story, especially in older people! So; basically what I´m trying to say is that this week the photo challenge really was a challenge for me, I found myself sifting through my countless albums and failed to come up with anything that truly grabbed my attention.

In the end I settled on a few different shots, five in total. I do like these shots but the quality isn´t the best! I hope you enjoy them, if I do manage to overcome my fear then I will post again during the week! So without further delay, here they are:

Theme one: People.

This was a shot taken in the Sierra Morena one cool and crisp morning last February.
Again, this shot was taken in the Sierra Morena, once the morning fog had lifted!

Theme two: Animals.

This image was taken at Córdoba Zoo.
Again, this was taken at Córdoba Zoo.

Theme three: Bikes.

Taken at the start of summer in Córdoba!

 

So that´s it, for now anyway! Hope you enjoyed my three interpretations of this weeks theme. If I manage to take some more shots, I shall post them during the week!

To see what other bloggers have come up with for this weeks challenge click here.

 What did you think of this weeks theme? Did you have fun with it?

As always, thank you for reading,

Until the next time,

Giana

xoxo

Two birds with one stone: Award time!

A special thank you to Coreen over at Picture Perfect Memories for this nomination!
A special thank you to Eva over at Healthy Glow Nutrition for this nomination!

It´s happened again, I´ve been nominated for the “One Lovely Blog Award” and also the “Family of Bloggers Award”. I can honestly say I´m overwhelmed with the support and encouragement from my fellow bloggers, I´m honoured to accept these awards from two bloggers that I admire, Coreen and Eva.

Coreen is a very talented photographer living in Cape Town with her husband of 17 years and her two boys. Coreen´s blog is an inspirational collection of photographs each with a story to tell. It is obvious from her work that she puts her heart and soul into each shot and I would highly recommend checking out her blog!

Eva is “a mother, holistic nutritionist, and lover of all things healthy and delicious.” Eva’s blog is a passionate blog and again, like Coreen´s, inspirational. Eva’s appreciation for life and passion for motivating people to lead healthier, happier lives is evident from her work and makes it a pleasure to read. If you are interested in finding alternatives to unhealthy foods then I recommend checking out this blog, there is also the most amazing recipe for donuts, who doesn´t love donuts?

As I have received the “One lovely Blog Award” three times now, I decided to do both of these awards together; however, I will follow the instructions for the Family of Bloggers Award instead of the “One Lovely Blog Award” just to offer some variety! I hope you enjoy! Here it goes:

For the Family of Bloggers Award:

  1.   Pay credit to the one who nominated you
  2.   Place a link to the one who nominated you on your award page
  3.   Using the anagram of the word ‘FAMILY’ tell us the attributes you bring to the family of bloggers
  4.   Nominate at least 4 other people to be in your family of bloggers and notify them of their nomination.

I tried using the anagram of the word family; however, perhaps due to my inability to do anagrams, failed to come up with any attributes from the word. I was able to come up with the following: fail, my, aim, fly, if, I´m, fay and mil. Hardly attributes that I could use so; I decided to take the letters from the word and use them to form adjectives instead. ( I actually found it rather difficult to describe my blog, I´d never really though about it in these terms before!) So; I hope you can forgive me for not using an anagram but instead inventing my own approach to the task! Enjoy:

Friendly: I would like to think that my blog is a friendly and welcoming blog. I´m passionate about Spain and my life here and love sharing what this country has to offer. I welcome all comments and readers and if I can help in any way with information then I try!

Alive: I try my best to capture the spirit and passion that is Spain, sometimes I fail, sometimes I don´t but one thing´s for sure my passion is most certainly alive whether it comes across or not!

Memoir: This blog is most certainly a memoir. I provide an account of Spain from my personal experience and share it with my readers. For me Spain, through the good and bad times, has been such a positive life changing experience. I never want to forget that and I also want to encourage others to experience it with me!

Inspiring: Not through my words, obviously I don´t think what I write is inspiring, but through my actions, Two years ago I was inspired to follow my dream and come to Spain, while it hasn´t always been a walk in the park, it has been one of the best decisions I´ve ever made. So I would hope that my experience might inspire other people to follow their dreams, life is too short not to, and anyway, what´s the worst that could happen? You end up right back where you started expect this time without regrets!

Light-hearted: I would hope that my humour comes across in my blog. I´ve yet to learn so much about writing and expressing myself through my work. However, I hope that my posts don´t come across too serious!

Young: My blog is still very young, growing, developing and changing. This is something that it has to offer, the fact that it´s not perfect, never will be, but constantly changing and trying to be the best it can be!

Blogs I have chosen to nominate: This is in no particular order, I have limited my choice to eight so I have left out some of my other favourites, I´m sorry! I have also left out blogs who I know would rather not get involved in awards. So without further delay here is my very narrowed down list of the blogs I have nominated, congratulations and if you choose not to accept I will not be offended!

The Island Traveler.

Another day in Paradise.

East of Málaga. 

Thirdeyemom.

Picture Perfect Memories.

Focused Moments.

My Sardinian Life/ La Mia Vita Sarda.

Miramiandmog. 

Have you ever received a blog award? What do you think of them?

As always, thank you for reading,

Until the next time,

Giana

xoxo

One Day At A Time: Callosa, Part 1.

From a beautiful, melancholic City to an impressive waterfall; our next stop on our adventure brought us to the quaint little village of Callosa de’n Sarria. The Costa Blanca is famed for its long, sandy beaches and high summer temperatures, and so it should be: they´re fantastic; however, they pale in comparison to the cool, crisp waters of this mountain village. If you are looking for something a little different from what the standard sun, sea and sand holiday has to offer then look no further than Callosa de´n Sarria and its beautiful Fuentes del Algar!

Last Monday morning P,J and I set off on an adventure. We had wanted to visit Callosa and Guadalest, a town located some ten minutes from Callosa, for a number of years now but, between everything, never got the chance to. So; we decided that Monday was going to be the day to change all that! As they are both mountain villages we decided to give Betsy, our car, a break and take a tour bus!

I must say it was a fantastic idea, Betsy  would have really struggled on the steep mountain roads and the service that Coach Trips Costa Blanca provided was just fantastic. The tour guide, a lovely bubbly girl from Venezuela, was great; not only did she offer a fantastic run down of each area we passed but also was great to P. She arranged for him to have the front seats to himself, got him a private area in the restaurant and made sure that he got the most out of the trip that he could! It was a completely stress free day and extremely enjoyable. It´s amazing how kind people made such a huge difference to any journey!

The first stop of the morning was Las Fuentes del Algar! We arrived there at about 10.30 in the morning and were told that we had an hour and a half to explore this beautiful area; however, if I´m honest, this wasn´t enough time for me. First we went to the restaurant located at the foot of the waterfalls. We had been told by our guide to go there first as the tickets are half price there and, more importantly, they do the best muffins in the area. Never one to turn down a good muffin I jumped at the chance to try one; they really are worth the hype, fantastic!

Nonetheless, this took a good twenty minutes of our time which meant we only had an hour to enjoy the area, such a shame! This wouldn´t be the only problem we would encounter. After a two-man horsepower journey up a steep hill with the wheelchair we reached the entrance of the waterfalls only to discover that, not only was the whole area on a steep hill but the only access was by stairs, slight problem when you are in a wheelchair. I have to say we were slightly disappointed as we had asked when booking the tour if it was suitable for wheelchairs and we were told that it was, such a pity. Anyway, due to the stairs, P didn´t get to see much of the waterfalls. We were able to rest him at the foot of one of the more beautiful ones but for him, as you can imagine, it wasn´t the same as getting to see the whole experience. So; that is my one bit of advice, if you are not very mobile, even if your are not in a wheelchair but have difficulties with stairs, then I would avoid this area. You´ll only be disappointed otherwise.

Despite our little set back P insisted that J and I saw what was to be seen in this little bit of paradise but on one condition: that I took as many photos as possible so we could share the experience with him afterwards! What a great condition, I do love taking photographs. So off we went to see what awaited us behind the waterfall. Wow, that´s all I can say: wow. It was such a tranquil oasis, while it was full of people everywhere you turned; it didn´t seem to make a difference. Everyone was so relaxed and overwhelmed by what lay before them that no one dared ruin it.

Not only are there impressive waterfalls but also ice cool streams, beautiful flora, striking trees and craggy banks all of which are set against the austere backdrop of the local mountain range; awe-inspiring. The only noise to be heard is the wind rustling through the trees, the calming sound of the water flowing through the rocks, the birds in the trees and the splash of people jumping into the cool water followed by the odd scream or giggle due to the immense chill of the water!

It´s the first place I´ve visited in a long time where everyone was smiling. The young people were giddy from the enticing cool waters, the older people mesmerised by the beauty of what lay before them. It´s a great escape from the realities of life, so peaceful, so relaxing, so enjoyable. It was horrible that we only had an hour to enjoy it!

While it´s not a particularly large area; you do need more than an hour to make the most of it! While I loved every minute I was there I felt like I didn´t get the full experience as I was rushing through it, trying to see it all before it was time to get back to the bus. It seemed such a shame, I would have loved to have joined the numerous people who bathed in the inviting waters or spread out on one of the many rocks which were perfectly situated under the shade of the trees and listened to the water flowing around me. In saying that, rushed and all as it was, I loved it! It was a memorable experience and most certainly a place I will be returning to; however, next time I will go in Betsy that way my time there is my own!

So all that´s left to do now is show you the photos! I always say this, but this time I really mean it, if you want to really see what this place has to offer make sure to check out the photos! They are numerous but worth it, I have failed to capture how special this place is through my words so; please don´t miss out on the opportunity to see just how special this place is for yourself! So here it is, if you wish to see larger photos just click on the first one and it will bring you to a large slideshow, enjoy!

Have you ever been to Callosa? What did you think?

As always, thank you for reading,

Until the next time,

Giana

xoxo