This week, the Daily Post features Danielle Hark for the Weekly Photo Challenge. Danielle is a photographer, writer, life coach and founder of her blog Broken Light Collective which empowers people affected by mental illness using photography.
She was kind enough to recently feature my post, Broken Tree, in which I shared some thoughts about my personal struggles in helping my Aspie daughter.
Danielle sets us the prompt ‘Between’ for this week’s challenge and asks:
‘Between. Capture something in the middle of two things. It can be a person or object, or simply the space in between. It can also be a feeling or relationship — a bond that connects people, or a space that separates.’
Thinking then of trees, how would you like to join me on a little tour of the tiny Croatian island of Lokrum? Only a 15 minute ferry ride from Old Town Dubrovnik, this delightful island is home to peacocks, a botanical garden and over 500 different kinds of trees, plants, vegetation and plants (brought over from the Canary Islands by Maximilian of Hapsburg in the late 1800s who made his home on the island).
There is also the Olive Meadow, a cave and a tiny salt water lake called the Dead Sea, a fort, and a fifteenth century Gothic-renaissance Franciscan Monastery. No wonder the locals refer to it as a treasure island.
Its earliest claim to fame came in 1192, when it provided a home to King Richard the Lionheart upon his return from the third crusade.
The ferry transports visitors regularly. Here it is, between Lokrum Island and the mainland, having just dropped us off:
Ferry to Lokrum Island, Croatia
(c) Sherri Matthews 2014
Once on the island, you can take a walk between the tall Cyprus trees:
A cooling walk between the tall Cyrpus trees on Lokrum Island, Croatia
(c) Sherri Matthews 2014
Or between the statuesque palm trees…
Lokrum Island, Croatia
(c) Sherri Matthews 2014
Here, you can see a palm tree between a gap in a hedge in the botanical garden…
Botanical Garden, Lokrum Island, Croatia
(c) Sherri Matthews 2014
How about a stroll between the old olive trees in the Olive Meadow? They pose with every twist and curve of their branches…
Olive Meadows, Lokrum Island, Croatia
(c) Sherri Matthews 2014
Before we leave, there is one more ‘inbetweener’…
This cheeky peacock poses between me and the Adriatic Sea which lies just beyond his magnificence. Lokrum Island, Croatia
(c) Sherri Matthews 2014
Reading between the lines, you can see that Lokrum Island truly is a little treasure and this is just a taster!
A View From My Summerhouse 
A lovely between Sherri. Lokrum sounds and looks like an absolute delight. Croatia is a part of the world I’ve never been and it was lovely taking a walk around a small part of it with you. Cheers Irene
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Thank you Irene, you would love Lokrum island, it really is the most delightful little place! I’m so glad you enjoyed this mini-tour, I will have to post some more photos but just used these for the ‘between’ theme! It’s great to be able to share all these different places in the world isn’t it? Cheers to you too 😀
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🙂
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I’ve been to Lokrum! Its a beautiful island in a beautiful part of the world
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So you know just what it’s like there Mikey! A truly magical place 😀
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Oh my, Sherri, each photo was more beautiful than the next. I love the olive tree photo! When are you going to start selling your photos? 🙂 xoxoxo
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Thank you so much Jill, you are very kind but I’m not sure I would get much for them 😉 The Olive Meadow is a truly magical place to walk through, you would love it 😀 xoxo
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What a delightful place, indeed. Thank you for showing us the place and I do love to walk in the olive groves. 🙂 I’ll check out your piece in Broken Light. 🙂
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Thank you very much Imelda, I’m so glad you enjoyed this little visit to Lokrum, and thank you too for going over to Broken Light, it is a wonderful site 🙂
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Beautiful!
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Thank you so much Elizabeth 🙂
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“Reading between the lines” and “seeing between the trees” is a wonderful combination of your writer-pen and your artist-eye, Sherri. These are stunning pictures, and the “cheeky peacock” posing between you and the sea is a delightful conclusion. Very Well Done, dear Sherri!
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Well I thank you very much Marylin, your high praise is so encouraging! Glad you especially liked the ‘cheeky peacock’. I know the post title is ‘between the trees’ but I had to end with him! He was very proud indeed 😉
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Wonderful photos!
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Thank you so much, I’m glad you enjoyed them 🙂
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Sherri this is a beautiful place to visit… I hope you will do a bit more on it in the future…
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Lokrum is a beautiful place Bulldog, you would love all the peacocks there! I will definitely post more pics from here since it seems to be a popular place! Thanks so much… 🙂
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Such beautiful trees, Sherri. The olive trees are so gnarled, and make wonderful picture. How lucky to see the peacock in its full glory! You must have been so thrilled. 🙂
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The Olive Meadow is truly magical, all the trees and vegetation there are beautiful. There are many peacocks on the island and it was indeed a thrill to be able to capture one in full glory! So glad you enjoyed the pics, thank you so much Sylvia 🙂
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The Island looks lovely. What a joy. You cleverly used your Between theme so well. How talented you are. Old olive trees like those always remind me of the ones I saw in Israel in the garden of Gethsemane. We were told that some of them were there when Jesus was there!! That blew my mind. There is something magical about them. I always look forward to reading your blogs, which fascinate and wake up the imagination. Well done, as ever dear Sherri. Love m xxx
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Yes, I can just imagine the Garden of Gethsemane looking like this Olive Meadow as it’s called. I am always fascinated by olive trees at how short they are, and the way they are so bent and gnarled. They can live for hundreds of years, how amazing that some you saw were as old as Jesus’s time! That must have been amazing for you to have been there. You would love the delightful island of Lokrum, I’ll do another post about it so you can see more of it! Thank you so much MP, knowing you enjoy reading my blog brings great joy to my soul…blessings to you and let’s keep our imaginations burning 🙂 Much love ❤ xxxx
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What a beautiful island! Thank you so much for taking us there. These trees look very specially.
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I’m so glad you enjoyed this little taster of Lokrum Amy, thank you so much for coming along 🙂
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I love the way that you interpreted the photo challenge Sherri! What a very unique and wonderful way to share some lovely nature scenes with us. I would like to transport myself to the palm tree in the botanical gardens for my lunch today!
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Thank you so much Heather, I’m always glad when I can stick to the theme, I know I push it sometimes, haha 😉 I remembered our trip to Lokrum and being especially fascinated by the trees and the clearings between them and it’s great to be able to match them to a challenge like this! It would be wonderful wouldn’t it to be transported there for lunch…you can bring me some of your delicious cookies and I’ll bring the tea 😉
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That looks a lovely place, I bet there is so much history around as well…I want to go now, especially for the bendy trees.
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There is a lot of history there Ste J. The combination of that and the ‘bendy’ trees (love that!) as well as the peacocks, the pools and caves makes for a truly magical experience. I hope you get to go there one day and see your bendy trees 😉
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Love the Olive Meadows on Lokrum Island Sherri. A spot-on, beautiful entry into the challenge!
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So glad you enjoyed this ‘between’ challenge Theresa, always such a pleasure to share them with you (especially when I actually stick to the theme, haha!) The Olive Meadows are particularly fascinating aren’t they? I could have stayed there all day! Thank you so much 😀
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Great interpretation of the theme. Love olive trees – they remind me of a very special favourite place in Provence! Lokrum Island looks delightful.
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Are yes, I can just imagine! I have always been fascinated by olive trees, hence my tendency to try to photograph them. I’m always so amazed that they are as small as they are! Thank you so much Jenny, you would love Lokrum Island, it truly is one of the most delightful places I’ve ever visited 😀
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Fabulous trek, Sherri… and can I mention a little coincidence ‘between’ this post and a recent one of mine? You mention Olive Meadow and then show a photo of a peacock. Well, I’ve recently posted a few photos featuring Olive the Peacock.
Sometimes, you can’t make these coincidences up!
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Hi Tom! I’m so glad to have you along and that you enjoyed this little trek and what an amazing coincidence, I’ll be right over! How funny is that, Olive the Peacock, haha!! 😀
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How adorable! And I love the olive tree shot – those trees look as if they are dancing. Nice response Sherri 🙂
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Glad you like it, thanks very much Jude! I thought that about the olive trees too, they look as if they are waving their branches to some kind of soft melody don’t they? 🙂
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It’s a lovely photograph.
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Thank you very much Jude, that is a wonderful compliment 🙂
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yeah, I feel that melody 😉
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Ahh…thank you Y 🙂
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wow – cannot believe that you were able to get the peacock with flared feathers – well I can believe it but I have not been so fortunate in my few encounters with this gem of a bird.
Also mon amie, I loved all of the pics for “between” – and really loved the first shot in a special way -the Ferry to Lokrum Island – the depth and soft misty “feel” (even though I do not think there was mist) but the hue was kinda washed out with a softer focus (?) and the mountains and water felt like a mix of Colorado and California – but then nothing like them at all – ha! and that is because it was Croatia! …. but you take really great shots and this post was a nice take on the prompt….
<3<3
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Well, to be fair Yvette, there were a lot of peacocks on this island so I had ample opportunity to do so.
I’m thinking now about the ‘mist’. It was mid-morning and it was mid-May so not hot hot and there would probably have been some slight mist but I probably would have used landscape mode. Can’t remember though! Still, glad you liked it and yes, I can see the likeness with those two States, definitely! (Although I’m guessing with Colorado, having never been, haha!).
So glad you enjoyed the post, many thanks for your kind compliments of the photos mon amie 🙂
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well thanks for the reply – and the sky is what felt like Colorado – at least to me – but the Denver area is so land locked and dry – and even though they have the Cherry Creek Reservoir – it is too land locked!~ but as you know – Cali has that mix of rocky coasts…..
❤ ❤ ❤
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Yes…it sure does 😀 ❤
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The summerhouse has clearly landed in a veritable arboretum for the latest epic adventure, Sherri P. I do have a soft spot for trees (Jennifer will be so impressed with me saying that, but even so, it’s the truth – who doesn’t love trees, more’s the question?) so these are a treat. I agree with the comment above about the ‘dancing’ olive trees, they truly do look as if they are linked and performing for you. I also love the pathway created by the Cyprus trees. Nice variety – I can hear the rustling of leaves!
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Haha! This island was like one big arboretum, another world. Mystical and magical, and yes, the olive trees were dancing in this shot. I should have written more about my thoughts but lovely to read what everyone else thought. You would love this little place JG…glad you enjoyed the pics, thanks very much as always 🙂
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Very well done, Sherri. Those are beautiful photographs. I think the olive trees are my favorite.
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Glad you enjoyed this little taster Lilka, many thanks. The olive trees seem to be the most popular, they were magical 🙂 My mum said they reminded her of the Garden of Gethsemane in Israel.
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What an amazing place 🙂
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So glad you enjoyed it Carolyn, thank you so much 🙂
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The olive trees are fabulous. They look alive. Great pics.
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Thank you so much for coming by scottishmomus, so glad you enjoyed the pics 🙂
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Wonderful pictures Sherri!
I always loved Cyprus trees, and the olive trees are amazingly structured. Well, I am pretty used to palms by now and have one right out of my window 😉 But I love the way you photographed them and how to transformed the topic of your challenge.
I think one day I will do a journey, visiting all the places you showed in your challenges 🙂
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Me too – I love the Cypress trees. They seem even taller there than I realised they could be. My favourite though is the olive tree – so tangled and complicated.
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Thank you Denise! It was so cooling walking between the Cypress trees, really lovely there. These did seem particularly tall I have to say. The olive trees seem to be the favourites. I love that…’tangled and complicated’…and that is just what they look like. Oh the stories to be told here!
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Ah yes, palms aren’t a novelty to you are they Ilka? I was shocked when I came back to the UK only to have one growing in the back garden of our first rental!! Having just returned from California, that didn’t seem right, haha!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this post, and I hope you get to go to these places one day, although my list is so long of all the places I want to see thanks to reading about them on other blogs that I fear I’ll never get to do it all! Oh well, at least we can enjoy the photos in the meantime!
Thanks so much my friend, have a wonderful weekend 🙂
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I’ve heard from many that Croatia is very beautiful and now I know for sure! Lovely pics.
Something else, I wanted to mail you but can’t find a contact form on your blog. Would you be interested in a blog hop? The theme is swag bag, or goodie bag for a milestone birthday party. I’m scheduled for 7 July, could you/would you like to do 14 July? Link here: http://chicklitsisters.com/2014/06/23/birthday-swag-bag-blog-hop/
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Thank you Susan, Croatia is well worth a visit, it really is beautiful. My email is: sherrimatthews@btinternet.com. Many thanks for the invite, I’ll come over and take a look and let you know 🙂
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What a lovely jaunt, Sherri 🙂 All those years ago when we had a week in Dubrovnik I’m sure we were offered this trip. It was all package stuff in those days and we went our own way and did something else. I wish I’d gone now! Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
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Hi Jo, so glad you enjoyed this little jaunt, thank you 😀 We took this trip as an impromptu day out when we saw the boats at the harbour in Dubrovnik and so glad we did. It’s always so much better to do it this way isn’t it rather than as a planned excursion. Sorry you didn’t go but at least you got to see these pics here. I’ll post some more about this little island as it has proven to be a popular day out 😉
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Speaking of peacocks when I went to the Kelsey winery a peacock was enamored with my blue Ford Focus and wouldn’t let my friend in the passenger side till I chased it away with my hat. It then proceeded to “lovingly” peck at my car and screamed the entire time “Help me Help me,” at least that it what it sounded like to me! We couldn’t back out for the longest time and then he followed us a ways.
Croatia through your pictures and description seems somehow other worldly to me. A place I doubt I ever get to but through you I have! Keep up the lovely stories because I do live vicariously through them! 🙂 And yes I still haven’t cleaned my house! 😉
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Oh no! Your peacock fell in love with your car, haha! They do sound like they are saying ‘help me, help me’, I know just what you mean! What a story, thank you for sharing it my freind!
Did I ever tell you that as a girl we lived across from a mushroom farm of all things and they had peacocks? Their mournful sounds used to quite scare me and gave me all kinds of ghostly imaginings…
Oh dear Di Di, it’s so great to know I can share these photos and stories of Croatia with you and I will do some more. I love all your pics of Oregon, a part of the world I would love to explore more one of these days, hint hint… 😉
Now…I mustn’t distract you any longer…but first think you need a nice cup of tea ❤ xoxo
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🙂 Yep tea, that’s the ticket and yes I remember that story. You should write it here if you haven’t already!! ❤
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You have inspired me to write about it now my friend…watch this space…and keep calm and drink more tea 😀 I remember my mug…keep it warm for me… 🙂 ❤ ❤ ❤ xoxo
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It is beautiful Sherri and so many evocative photos of trees – I love tree ‘avenues’ because they’re just so suggestive of what could happen there, but the olive grove is amazing – those are truly trees of character 🙂
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‘Trees of character’…yes, that is it, those olive trees carry so much history in their very being, they seem so knowing and so wise don’t they? Thank you Andrea as always for your lovely comments and so glad you enjoyed this little tour 😀
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Wow – what a beautiful place, and beautiful photos of it. I’d love to see a peacock between me and the Adriatic Sea. You’ve really been to some wonderful places Sherri, and I love heading over to them in your virtual world. 🙂 XXXXX
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Ahh…thanks so much lovely Jo, I’m so glad you enjoyed this little tour of this sweet place. It was magical there and yes, for some reason, the Adriactic sea intrigued me. Why is that I wonder? The sea is the sea…yet, there are differences…always fascinated me that! I love having you with me on these journeys…isn’t blogging so great for sharing all these places one with another? Hope you are much, much better and have a great week ahead…see you over at your place soon 😀 ❤ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Blogging is brilliant for sharing these things – it’s great though that you’ve been a photographer for so many years. I was thinking the other day how cool cellphones would have been back in the eighties – imagine the shots we have now! All that cool hair and Out of Africa boots. 😀 I’m better now, thank you lovely Sherri – just having panic attacks at my work pile that waited and grew patiently. 😛 ❤ XXXXXXX
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Haha…Out of Africa Boots and the hair…love it! I’ve always taken photographs but never thought they were anything much, just shoot and point! Glad to have something to illustrate my blog posts with though! Will have to get scanning those old pre-digital ones though, I’m running out of stock LOL!! Soooo glad you are better…and you will get through your work because you are amazing and I know it to be true…..
3 ❤ 😀 😮 😎 😀 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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