Andie Summerkiss

The most beautiful colors can be seen in simple things. Hop over to Sarcastic Mom’s for more shots of the week. 

Lemon

Fuji Apple

Granny Smith

Lemon

Naval Orange

Pineapple

Vesak Day was on Tuesday, May 20. It celebrated the birth and the passing of Gautama Buddha, the ultimate leader of all Buddhists around the world. Followers are to be assemble in their temples for ceremonial singing of hymns and prayers. They brought offerings of flowers, candles and joss-sticks. All these items have their symbolic meanings very important.

This year, a very sad thing happened in Vihara Avalokitesvara, a temple at Pematang Siantar, three hour drive from Medan, one hour away from Lake Toba. It is a big complex with worship temples, school, and training center. The temple has the biggest Avalokitesvara Boddhisatv statue recorded in the Indonesian version of Book of Record as the biggest in the whole country, totalling 22,8 meter in height. 

The main temple held a big ceremonial event to prepare for the big day on Sunday, 11th May. The followers and helpers from out of town decided to stay that night in the temple to avoid late night travel back to their cities. Everybody was tired so they slept through the night, not knowing fire was starting to creep through the second floor of the big temple. When they finally found out, it was too late. The fire killed seven people in total, most of them elderly, who couldn’t jump off the third floor where they slept. Other casualties were those who hurt themselves by jumping off the building to the yard and burnt injuries. Read more here.

We went to the funeral and visited the temple. The fire ruined the whole second and third floor. Amazingly, the rest of the building was left untouched. It was one of the saddest thing I have ever seen. It is the most beautiful worship place in the whole North Sumatra. The beautiful pond with hundreds of big koi fish is now empty.

I took some pictures to keep in mind that miracles happen all the time. No matter what our beliefs are, great things do happen even when devastating events preceded it. Just need to keep that faith going strong.

Today we went to a small tourist town up the mountain at Karo Highland called Brastagi. It is about 90 minutes away from Medan. The area is the main producer of fruits, vegetables and flowers for the rest of the province. The weather is cool and the culture is very different. This city is where us, city dwellers, go when we go to the “country” for weekends.

Asisi Catholic Church for Karo Christians

 

 

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It’s another Weekly Winners hosted by Lotus Caroll. I have taken shots of nature and flowers and everything beautiful .. well, mostly. This week, I am going to show the “real” side of the city where I live in right now. The market, the people, the rides … 

Old Lady in Market

Becak Mesin - Motor Tricycle

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Temple on the Hill - Underconstruction

Orange Orchard 

Mandarin Uncovered

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This week I have decided to take picture on my oil paintings. They are pretty basic objects of everyday item I found in our house. They are humble objects but nevertheless quite special to me. 

mug in oil 

chinese medicine steamer 

earthware and oranges 

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Seems like I always take shots of nature. Not very creative, I’d say. It was a slow week.

Sunset

Cloud

Sun

Waterfall

Forest

The first couple of shots are from my recent trips. The others are from Lake Toba, North Sumatra. Weekly Winners are the courtesy of Lotus Carroll. Click on the button for more photos from this week.

Skyline of Makati, Philippines

Pollution of Manila

Lake Toba, North Sumatra

Flowers at Merek

Green Frog in Solitude

Moonlight