Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun: round 186

Hey there my Hive friends and followers!

Welcome to the 186th round of my special weekly photo challenge known as Appreciate Beauty of Nature with @phortun :)

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 @phortun photo challenge is not to make you dig up your photo archives and submit the best pictures of nature that you have ever taken. Instead, I want you guys to go out and appreciate the beauty of our nature right now.

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.

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You can start submitting your entries to this round in the comment section below from now until the next round. If you want to create a separate post as your entry, you can do that but please always remember to submit your entry in the form of a comment here in this post as well. I only check the entries submitted here as comments.

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. I also give some smaller upvotes on the other entries too so that all participants get rewarded for their engagement.

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:

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September is the month where fruits like some species of apples, pears or plums get ripe and harvested here in Central Europe. A few days ago, I visited a little fruit orchard here in the Prague neighborhood of Stodulky where some interesting trees can be found. There are quinces, walnuts and also these peculiar trees that I didn´t know before. To my surprise though, Google says it´s the sweet chestnut so I suppose these little bushy balls contain the edible seeds that can be then used in cooking. Next time, I will try to break one open to see what it looks like inside :)

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In the last round, we had 7 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:

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@onlavu with this entry from Austria:

Caught this one on the top of the mountain Dobratsch (2166m), Austria, last week. An amazing piece of mountain - wonderful views, splendid hiking - we took such harsh paths that we met ZERO hikers :D On the left, there is a chapel, in the background you could admire the Slovenian Triglav National park. See you on the trail.

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@pardinus with this entry from Spain:

Here you go! Straight from Picos de Europa, a national park in northern Spain. The lakes of Covadonga are one of the park's crown jewels, and it's easy to see why: glacier lakes, surrounded by nature. Too many people nowadays for my liking, but I guess it's inevitable in this time of the year.

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@vikbuddy with this entry from India:

From my visit to the Octopus ViewPoint, Amrabad Tiger Reserve, Telangna State, India. A beautiful combination of nature and landscape amidst one of the biggest tiger reserves of India. This Picture was taken on 8th September.

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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!

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I post this series in the Amazing Nature community, a great community for all nature lovers. Feel free to check it out ;)

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This post was created by me for the Hive blockchain exclusively. All rights reserved.

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Thank you for visiting my blog. If you like posts about Nature, Traveling, Photography, Animals, Ecology, Crypto, Sport, Fitness 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! :)