I have followed Janie Fortenberry's beautiful blog, Southern Lagniappe, for a couple of years. And, I early learned from her example to get up and go out to see more of this beautiful world, in order to be thankful for and share findings with friends. "Pictures Waiting to be Taken" recently posted by Janie just firmly gripped my attention and became a call to my heart to go out in response to her faithful so doing.
That was what Kanit and I ventured out to do this late afternoon.
We took a small road opposite of our village that led us to and through other farmer's villages. It was nice and quiet as farmers were returning home while the aroma of home-cooking began to hung heavy in the air, and all the while it was bit overcast. Yet, just as we were leaving the first village, we found a beautiful ray of sunlight shining through gloomy clouds.
Coming up next was a reservoir that looked soothing as it was in the midst of the green surrounding with the mountain as a backdrop under the vast sky. It was simply lovely to be out in the country.
A farmer shed came into view .... No one was there. It might be as simple as that the sun was no longer beating down as strong that anyone would care for a shade or all already went home.
Oops! Maybe not!!!! Someone was still working on his field not far from there.
Another village came into view. We found a very lovely and peaceful local 'convenience' store.
The rest of the way through the village proved to us a very active and strong community. Housings were nice and well kept. There were community center where people shared and worked together.
There were also sign of a busy hands around in this village. In any small clearing, we often found someone's small garden where herbs and vegetable thrived.
A 'Wat' or a Buddhist Temple is the heart of most of Buddhist community. So was this one. Thought it was a small one, it looked very grand and stood there as a sign of the villagers' strong faith in Buddhism.
Bamboos! They were big, thick and tall.
And, here we were again right by Mae Lao River. This was an upriver, compared to the part IngSong and I rode along earlier. But, what got my attention was a little house or rather a wooden hut across the river, where I spot cooking flame from the rear part.
In a poor lighting and with my humble old camera, I zoomed right in.
And, sure enough, there was a tiny orange light from the far back kitchen. The stack of firewood gave it away that the family still lived simply. Yet, with a careful closer look, I found a store-bought water bottle right on what seemed to be a dining table at the front. People buy drinking water everywhere in this country now, including the north where once every single house would provide an earthen jar and a dipper for every passer by to help themselves with. Things are changing, and rather too rapidly as well.
Upon hearing a rushing sound of water flowing, Kanit decided to take the dirt track to explore the cause of the sound. We did not see much of anything, but still enjoyed being up and around by all lush green surrounding.
We stopped by the reservoir on the way back. It was nice and quiet. Trees lined up around the small body of water and seemed to provide pleasant shades. It would be nice to have a picnic here sometime.
With Janie on my heart, I pictured with my mind's eye how she would be thrilled to see all these simple things and lives around here. I thought of her and wished to thank her for her sweet spirit that she would be able to see the simple 'beauty' all around, captured them in moments in times and shared them with friends.
Thank you Janie for rubbing this on me - helping me be alert and vigilant, and await for 'beautiful' things in life. And, yes, definitely there are 'Pictures Waiting to Be Taken,' out there everywhere, everyday. All we need to do is to open our hearts and minds to them.
