**Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!**

Welcome to the 78th 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.**

***
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:
***


![IMG_20210811_110919.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmRpDQaNcFfUrqsduyzGVaHBVpgW6kiWUYorray1x5AL9L/IMG_20210811_110919.jpg)



*Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the fascinating little world of snails. I noticed these two funny guys having a good time in the grass while being at my father´s backyard just yesterday. I usually prefer photos taken at places that are "more natural" than a backyard but I think this close up shot turned out pretty good so I decided to use it in my today´s post. I tried to make my camera focus on both of the snails but for some reason, it would only focus on just one of them. That´s probably because the snails were actually quite tiny. Photo taken in Opava, Czech Republic.*

***
***
***

In the last round, we had 9 participants. After some thorough consideration, I decided to pick these 3 winners:
***

@thomasd04 with this entry:


![F7944BF9-3449-4901-B8D9-8CC49CF441BD.jpeg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmTkNDqKrdCxnXFbYDHQkwTKHz9yE8n6ZnvpiX1sVzhYyx/F7944BF9-3449-4901-B8D9-8CC49CF441BD.jpeg)



*This summer one of my goals has been to find natural treasures close to home. Today we drove just 10 minutes to a community park I had never visited before. Besides the typical playground, baseball fields, and walking track, there is a 3 acre prairie habitat. I was a little “late to the party” this year as many of the native flowers were past their blooming stage and the prairie grasses were over my head! However there were still a few flowers popping with color. This is the only one of these flowers I came across so I am glad I captured it’s beauty! I look forward to visiting this park several times next year. To maintain diverse and vibrant native plants and control invasive non-native plants “controlled” burns prescribed periodically. The most recent prescribed burns of this habitat were March of 2016 and 2018. I would think they will have another “controlled” burn soon. Photo shot with iPhone on 8/8/2021 in Olivette, Missouri, USA.* 


***

@maxili63 with this entry:


![Jinete en la C.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmYry3GScztBkWifDGMqbxjmaUuxVupVBoKDVLgwKDDToh/Jinete%20en%20la%20C.jpg)


*Happy start to the week for everyone, This is my participation of the week, I share this beautiful image of a farm worker on his horse made on Saturday, near the town of Jarillo, Miranda Venezuela. This place is characterized by its beautiful views of many hills.*

***


@jamirul with this entry:


![IMG_20210613_190134.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmRFhzxGB71zwiDMprwUrX7VXKQQN1Der5RdC8BiLXasmD/IMG_20210613_190134.jpg)



*Assalamualaikum friend. Most of the time I go out for a walk in the afternoon to enjoy the sunset.I also took this wonderful picture a few days ago, to enjoy the sunset. From Dhaka, Rajshahi - Bangladesh.*



***
***
***


**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](https://hive.blog/trending/hive-127788) community, a great community for all nature lovers. Feel free to check it out ;)

***
***
***
###### <center>This post was created by me for the Hive blockchain exclusively. All rights reserved.</center>


***
***
***

<center>![7ohP4GDMGPrUMp8dW6yuJTR9MKNu8P8DCXDU9qmmivwA3A1QLkipSxWEChTncCX3jvtMRvcYq1rkYyx9mzv36Uegna899gd6PWdp.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmYZkx4rgUJnEVYcYfEMAhvguXANzKnnLCvtuJcmSsNnYB/7ohP4GDMGPrUMp8dW6yuJTR9MKNu8P8DCXDU9qmmivwA3A1QLkipSxWEChTncCX3jvtMRvcYq1rkYyx9mzv36Uegna899gd6PWdp.jpg)</center>
***
<center>**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! :)**</center>