The Daily Post at WordPress.com has posted its new weekly photo challenge: Dreaming.
What carries us into dreams? What prompted an inventor, poet, or artist to visualize a now realized dream? What inspires your dreams and daydreams?
When you see a castle, do you wonder who has lived there and imagine another time? Do you see yourself inside those walls, looking out?
When you’re in a pristine environment, can you imagine being the first person to ever set foot there? Can you smell the warm dirt, hear the moving water, sense the wildlife hiding from view?
Or can you imagine being on the shores of Loch Ness, with its black peaty water, and seeing an unknown creature poke its head above the inky surface?
Photos and artwork can move us to wonderful dreamy imaginings.
For me, music is also a wonderful gateway to daydreams. I love so many kinds of music. I love thinking about what inspired a sonata, indigenous folk music, or a popular song. I can be transported to the first place I heard a song, or to new places altogether.
And there are some great songs about dreaming – like Dream a Little Dream of Me, California Dreamin‘, Disney’s A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes, The Everly Brothers’ (All I Have to do is) Dream, and my personal favorite – Johnny Mercer’s Dream (When You’re Feeling Blue). There have been so many covers of this one – everyone from Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, and Linda Ronstadt, to Michael Buble and the Captain and Tenille (actually a nice recording). My favorite, though, is Roy Orbison’s poignant rendition. Some of you may recognize this from the movie You’ve Got Mail….
So what inspires your dreams? To see what dreamy photos and thoughts other bloggers have posted, click here. And dream, dream, dream…
The castles are always fascinating to me.
Me too
Spot on with your opening thoughts about castles – I often wonder about the who and the why of old buildings, what they might have seen and heard…
When you’re in some of these old places, you realize how different life was – and how politically precarious! Lots of drama there, if those walls could talk!
Wonderful landscapes.
Thank you!!
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Pretty astounding images you have here! Timeless indeed.
Many thanks, Myra!
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Wonderful and dreamy post for the challenge. Love the photo of Loch Ness.
Thank you, Robin!
Lovely post for the challenge. Love that Roy Orbison song too.
Thanks! So glad you enjoyed the music
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I wonder how many princesses were locked in the towers of the castles
and made to await thier prince charmings while dreaming of them coming
to their rescue. This is s magical entry for the challenge.
Very nice – i like it.
Isadora
Thank you Isadora!
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Castles are the stuff of dreams for sure. I also love music. Thanks so much for adding that. I had not heard the Roy Orbison version. Loved it!
Thanks – glad you enjoyed the music!
The pristine environment photo is my favorite. And yes…I wonder all the time what places looked like to the first person who saw them without the buildings and civilization…
Also, I love your bringing music into it with all the songs about dreaming…
Thanks so much for your visit and these comments – music is such a wonderful thing, isn’t it?
I can’t imagine the world without it.
your post made me dream of visiting those places…by the way here is my own take on the weekly challenge. http://langaeh.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/weekly-photo-challenge-movement/
Thanks! And thanks for your visit! I did enjoy your post as well.
Loved your take on dreaming..sumptuous words with stunning shots…thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much for your kind comment, and your visit!
Great work
Thanks!
Love your 4th shot, may I know where is that? I would love to hike or just to visit and of course taking as many pictures as I can
I’m not sure exactly – I took a lot of pictures that day – but it is in Scotland, somewhere after we left the “Trossachs”, heading north into the highlands, along the lower part of the “Great Glen.” The Great Glen (valley) is a diagonal fault line across Scotland followed by glaciers that left a string of lochs (lakes) like beads on a chain – the top one being Loch Ness.
Hmmm… will try to search is using those names
Thank you so much for the info TRS 
There are a number of hiking tours up the Glen. Here’s a Google link to other images and some tours (click on the images). Hope you make it there!
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+great+glen&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=1sMCUOaSF7Ky0QGN2PzUBw&sqi=2&ved=0CGAQsAQ&biw=1454&bih=665
Wow… nice, hopefully next year we will have time to book a hiking holiday there
Once again thank you for your kindness TRS 
Any time!
Oh yes, all these would set me dreaming
Love the ‘pristine environment’ shot…just breathtaking!
Thanks! These mountains aren’t as high as many in the world, but there really is something about them.
Really lovely! I feel like drifting into the walls of these castles right now~~~
Thanks!
Interesting about the famous Loch Ness stories :p can not imagine if something big and weird ….. ….. scary
LOL! Actually, science can’t debunk the “monster” which has been spotted for over a millennium. We cruised the loch on a boat with sonar. Because of the amount of peat in the water, divers can’t see anything, but they believe they’ve found eels deep in the loch the size of a school bus – So we can still dream that Nessie is there in some form!
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Yes wonder what it was like although pretty awful things happened there too
Love Dream a Little Dream of Me
Nice blog
Thanks! And yes, they did! The Scots and English have a brutal history. Actually, when I was a child they were still keeping up the bloodstains in Mary’s chamber where Rizzio was murdered at Holyrood! But, there are also wonderful love stories, and the chapel of St. Margaret at Edinburgh Castle built by her son. And the views from the walls… lots of drama to imagine!
Love the photos of the castles. If you love castles, you might like to visit Wales, there are some awesome castles there! I like the idea of mentioning music in your post, some fine dream related songs there. My personal favourite is Dreamer by Supertramp.
I’ve been close to Wales (near Bath), but haven’t made it there yet – maybe next time! Ireland also has some beauties. Thanks for the comment on the music!
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Love the pictures – the castles look so majestic.
Thanks – the top is Edinburgh Castle, and bottom right is Windsor Castle – bottom left is Holyrood House – actually a palace (not fortified), but castle-y enough for me! It’s the queen’s official residence in Scotland!
Stunning photographs. I especially like that picture of the sea+mountain+sky!
Thanks! Gotta love the Scottish highlands!
What dreams may come…
Lovely post – places such as this do fire the imagination in all sorts of direction.
Thanks! And thanks for your visits to my blog!
What a wonderful expression of dreams… I really loved the ideas of the castles. I too dream about what life would have been like in that moment of time. When I was little, as most lilttle girls, I would always dream of being a princess
I love it! I first saw two of these castles when I was ten years old, and silly as it may seem, more than 50 years later, they still transport me – partly because of the magic I felt then, hearing about the people who had lived there… and imagining what that would have been like!
That is the perfect dream that transends time
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for visiting!!