Lens-Artists Challenge #372 – Ephemeral

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Tina has set this weeks Lens Artist Challenge and has helped by giving us the dictionary’s short and simple definition of the word ephemeral – “lasting for a very short time“. Her original challenge post can be found here. Ephemeral is not a word I was familiar with until now.

I think this Easter Lily Cactus plant, epitomises the word ‘ephemeral’. We waited five years for our cactus to flower. When it did we had this fantastic display. Sadly the flowers faded after twelve hours and a day later they had gone completely!

I don’t have any other examples quite as good as the cactus plant above. However since its still the Halloween weekend I thought this rotting pepper I carved a few years ago fit the brief. Once carved it didn’t take very long to decompose to how it looks here and was soon gone completely.

My Halloween pepper.

We don’t get a lot of snow in our part of the world so chances to photograph it are few and far between. Even when it does snow it soon thaws. This was taken about ten years ago, probably the last time we had any significant snow.

Snow, even makes barbed wire look good!

I’ll finish this shortish upload with two images of the same wall in central Bristol, UK, just to show that nothing stays the same, even a Banksy. I suppose ephemeral, or lasting for a short time, might depend on how long you think something is going to be there in the first place. That applies to the first mural below. Other Banksy’s murals in Bristol are still on the same walls they were painted on twenty five years ago. He did create one artwork on a local beach. That lasted as long as it took the tide to come in!

The first mural here, known as ‘The Sniper’ was created by Banksy but was painted over four years after it was created. It was then replaced with the artwork in the second image known as ‘Queen Ziggy’. Some people think it was another Banksy artwork but others claim it was actually created by another street artist known as Incwel. Banksy has never claimed it.

The beach at Weston-s-Mare. Bansky’s mural – Gone!! (Actually it was on the other side of the pier, I don’t have an image of that side)

Thank you to Tina for hosting this weeks challenge. I’ve enjoyed the responses I’ve read through so far and I’m looking forward to the rest.

All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.

18 thoughts on “Lens-Artists Challenge #372 – Ephemeral”

    • Thank you Pamela. We had to travel to the states to see proper snow. It snowed so hard at my brothers one Christmas the fire hydrants were covered. The roads were soon cleared though. An inch or two over here brings the country to a standstill 🙂

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      • I find that so fascinating, an inch or 2 bringing the country there to a standstill, however Ive always lived in Ontario and our typical winters is alot of snow! Back in 2014, we had so much snow it was well over the roof of my Jeep on the side of one rural road. Last year it was the height of my truck! We finally got snow after a couple years of barely anything!

  2. I had quite a chuckle at your sorry little pepper Steve😊. And I loved your snow on a wire. Funny we get a bit of snow every few years and typically it’s gone by the next day. On those rare occasions when it isn’t life comes to a standstill except for those who, like me, love the opportunity to feature some photographs of it! Loved your response this week!

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    • Thank you Tina. That pepper was small but scary! Snows is a real treat for us these days. Our winters have changed a lot in recent times and we no longer seem to have distinct seasons.

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