Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!
Welcome to the 112th round of my special weekly photo challenge known as Appreciate Beauty of Nature with 
I know a lot of photo contests with nature as the main theme were/are/will be hosted by various people on the Hive blockchain but I wanted to come up with something more than just another photo contest where participants would submit their best natural photos. Therefore, I decided to go for quite an unusual concept that I am going to introduce in the following lines.
The aim of the Appreciate Beauty of Nature with
The internet (and the Hive blockchain as well) is flooded with picture perfect shots of landscapes, mountains, forests, beaches etc. taken years ago. But this is not what I want to see in this challenge. I want to see shots that may not be necessarily stunning but they must be fresh, proving that you have just physically spent some time outdoors in the fresh air. But remember that nature comes in many forms. It doesn´t have to be a pristine jungle or a deep remote forest. An urban park, a botanical garden, a little grove on the outskirts of your town - pretty much any place with some trees, plants, rocks, bodies of water or any other natural features would be just as fine ;)
Obviously, there is no way for me to verify whether the photo that you submit in the challenge is really fresh or if it was even taken by you so I am relying on your honesty guys. The prizes for the winners (as described below) are more symbolical than overly motivating so I don´t expect too much fraudulent behavior in this challenge anyway.
I want to keep the rules of this challenge as simple and benevolent as possible so let´s agree on just this:
Only one entry (photo) per person per round.
The photo must be yours and not older than one week.
Add a few words about the photo, at least where and when you took it.
You can start submitting your entries to this round in the comment section below from now until the next round.
Prior to publishing the next round post, I will pick 3 winners, give my full upvote on their entries and feature them in the next round of the challenge. As long as the response is not too overwhelming, I will also try to give some smaller upvotes on all of the other entries to reward all participants.
I might change the concept and/or the rules of the photo challenge later on, depending on how things go. I usually host the challenge on Thursday but when needed for some reason, I can host it on some other day so better check my blog regularly not to miss out on it ;)
To keep up with you guys, I submit my own fresh natural photo to every round´s post too :) Here is my contribution to start out this round:
Here in Central Europe, the April weather is known to be extremely changeable and unpredictable and this is exactly what we have been experiencing lately. A period of unusually warm and sunny days was followed by a short period of snowing and freezing temperatures but today we have a clear sky again with temperatures reaching almost 20 C (68 F). Last Sunday, just after the unexpected snowfall, we went for a little hike around the Kosciuszko Hill here in Krakow, Poland. The higher we climbed, the more snow we saw. I took this close up picture at the foot of the hill though so there is not so much snow in there but I liked the contrast between the snowy blanket and the vividly green shades of the sprouting buds. I just hope the frosts didn´t ruin these first spring efforts of Mother Nature...
In the last round, we had 7 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:
This is another photo of my walk along the coastline of Wollongong, NSW, Australia last weekend it was on the side of Wattamolla Beach, the beauty and the vibes of this beautiful clean white sand beach almost made me feel like I was back on the tropical island of Koh Samui, it was like a hidden beach no one was here at the time I was walking along this beach front I felt like the castaway movie but enjoying it for the fact that I had all this beauty in front of me all to myself.
Thank you for hosting this challenge! It is always fun to get out and share a piece of Mother Nature with you! This was taken in the Washington, DC Metro Area at one of the wooded parks today, March 31st! The purple trees in bloom are called Redbuds, even though they are purple when they are budding, they are red :)
I was cycling in the olive orchards south of Patras, Greece, on Wednesday. Close to the coast I found a tree stump swarming with huge ants which had their nest in there. Usually it's almost impossible for me to get good close-ups of ants, since they are too busy & quick. But there was one spot where they threw out the garbage, so I could just focus & wait. Still only a few good shots, but better than ever. Don't know which species it is, but probably some kind of carpenter ant (genus Camponotus), perhaps Camponotus schulzi.
Congratulations guys! It was my pleasure to give you 100% upvotes on your entries :)
I am looking forward to what you will come up with in this round.
Have fun and appreciate the beauty of nature!
I post this series in the Amazing Nature community, a great community for all nature lovers. Feel free to check it out ;)
This post was created by me for the Hive blockchain exclusively. All rights reserved.
Thank you for visiting my blog. If you like posts about Nature, Animals, Ecology, Crypto, Sport, Traveling, Photography and discovering secrets and beauties of the World, feel free to follow me as these are the topics I mostly write about. Have a wonderful day and keep on hiving, guys! :)