Life continues

Italy is one of my favourite countries. It has been on my mind in the last several days because of the earthquake in L'Aquila. Watching clips of the community burial service in the town square was heart wrenching; I have no way of imagining how the families and community members must have felt even though many news services attempted to put a personal face on the catastrophe. The devastation was immense, and now families have to go about rebuilding their lives without loved ones. History has taught us that life continues in the aftermath of extreme hardship. It will grow and bloom in new ways.

These photos were taken on a recent trip to Italy. I was attracted to the signs of life and the need for beauty that existed in unlikely places. To me they were reminders that we are alive and will survive under very adverse conditions.

At ground level

or high up, most windows have some evidence of life sitting on their ledges. Sometimes scraggly and sometimes lush, they bloom.


Outside a very nice restaurant in Venice stood an old, boarded up building. I could not figure out who had planted geraniums there or why thy were in this location.

Beauty and purposeful destruction together. I know there is a graffiti art movement, I understand the ideas behind it, but I cannot like it no matter how hard I try to give it space in my mind.