Blue Door in London

Just a photo for the day. This is from London where I passed a couple of hectic but fun days this summer. Anyone else find their attention being drawn to attractive doors?

How I spent my summer vacation

Didn't you just hate those essays? Since I haven't posted since July the topic seemed a place to start anyhow. I got back to sorting through photos from the entire year of 2012. It seems my focus has been elsewhere than on blogging and photography. It is hard to explain. Sometimes these things happen. I wonder if in part I should blame Facebook. It seems as if some of my blogger friends gave up blogging for Facebook and that the blog movement has lost some of its momentum. I feel a sense of loss for that because although FB gives me a place to stay in touch with distant friends and family, blogging is a place where I can express myself anonymously without worrying about what those same people will say or think. I do like FB for the Scrabble though. I claim it will keep my brain young but the recent scientific data shows that exercise is more important than thought for staving off the decays of age. At any rate, I am hereby posting a few shots from my summer vacation which included a brief trip to London and Edinburgh. Hopefully if I keep at it there will be more to follow.

The Sketchbook Project

Sketchbook cover

Last summer a touring exhibit came through my local art center. It was called the Sketchbook Project and was a collection of sketchbooks from artists from all over the country (and some international folks too, if I remember correctly). The little books could be checked out and viewed and I just loved looking at and handling them.



I decided with heavy trepidation to try one myself for 2012. The trepidation results from my awareness that I am not talented in the drawing/sketching department and don't want to parade myself as being on a par with the talented folks who will be submitting theirs. On the other hand, there were many styles of sketchbooks and why not? Don't I need to lighten up and live a little? At 50 do I still care if my peers think I'm a dork and a geek? (Answer is, often, yes). So in the light of getting over myself I am submitting my little sketchbook this week (the deadline is the 31st). It will be out there for others to mock, ignore or enjoy as they will.



The theme of my book is Travel with Me. There was a choice and I chose to take my little book along with me to France this summer. As you can see from the pages I'm posting, mine is a cross between journal and scrap book with a few awkward sketches thrown in. I rebound the book and added additional sheets of paper, some from recycled paper items and a few from purchased sheets. At this point, I need to say, "It is what it is" and release it. I'm in the process of putting on the finishing touches and will likely post more scans in the next few days.

Visual relief from winter

Growing wild in the Bahamas.

Danger de Mort!

I believe this is warning fisherman not to get their lines caught in the live wires which were, incidentally, at least 20 feet up in the air. Electrocuting oneself would have been quite a feat.

For See It Sunday--theme "danger."

Sea shells by the sea shore

I collected these on the beach in the Bahamas. The picture had no color to speak of so I adjusted it to black and white. The animal is a mollusc known colloquially as Flamingo Tongue. Its scientific name is Cyphoma gibbosum. I actually saw one of these feeding on a sea fan while I was snorkeling. Alive, they are gorgeous but I didn't have a camera to capture how they look. They look sort of white with orange and black polka dots. I can't do justice to them so if you're curious do a brief image search on line.

Mangled Money

I'm rambling from past to present with my posts but bear with me.
We left the Bahamas the day after Christmas which was a holiday. We had time on our hands between the ferry from Great Guana Island to the airport in Marsh Harbor and nothing local seemed to be open. Our taxi driver suggested we go to this little cafe just outside of Marsh Harbor International Airport--one of the smallest airports you'll ever see that claims (truthfully) that it is international. It was one room with customs, immigration, baggage and ticketing all mixed up in and outside the building. On boarding a sign notified passengers that conch shells had to be checked in luggage not carried on the plane. I had to ask. It occurred to me that if they weren't well cleaned they might stink up the cabin but it turns out they might be used as a weapon. Who would've thunk it?


Sign in airport declares: "Penalty Imprisonment: X Months $XXX Fine."

At any rate our cabbie told us that her mother worked there and that we should mess with her by calling her by her first name when we walked in. We did so and she gave us a funny look, then said: "You met my mom." I think this gives one a feel for how small town the Bahamian islands feel.
Anyway we had breakfast/lunch at the cafe which was plastered with ornamented cash from prior diners. I found cash from multiple locations in South America as well as the expected US and Bahamian dollars. What fun. The food was "interesting." I ordered (for the experience) grits and tuna hoping for fresh fish. What I got was grits and a ball of tuna salad. I wouldn't especially recommend it. I should have ordered the fried plantains.

Old Houses

Vermont in the summer.


Bahamas in winter.


Chicago in winter

Gotta run to work now. Stay warm wherever you are.

Airport photos

On the way to Seattle before Thanksgiving I had a few moments to take airport pictures. Airports aren't too bad for photography. Sometimes, like in parts of O'Hare they can be quite eye-catching. In addition, I always have my camera and sometimes have nothing better to do. Here are a few shots.



For those of you who have never flown United through O'Hare airport, this is looking up in the lighted moving walkway area. It is great fun to take pictures of.



Looking through a circular screen in the food court.

Have One for Me

Downtown San Francisco has some charming clocks to add to my "collection." For more clocks see my Flickr set.

Plotting

Last month I attended a conference in San Francisco. I still haven't processed the photos but I did score a few more clock photos for my "collection" on Flickr. I stayed in a trendy-seeming hotel, a bit too trendy for my middle aged tastes, one of the highlights of which was this postcard.
Still trying to blog a bit more.

Without Reservations

Siena, Italy

I just finished reading Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach. It is the story of a nearly year long "sabbatical" she took from her career as a journalist to live and travel in Europe and try to find herself along the way. I saw a lot of myself in the book as I read about her. She was 50 something at the time, her kids had left home and she was coming to terms with being in the latter half of her life.
This has been on my mind a lot of late too. Many existential questions of where do I go from here? On the one hand I think I love my work--note that even there I am losing my certainty. On the other hand part of me wants to "run away from home" and find a new life.
The back to school season leaves me thinking about transitions and empty nests--my oldest has moved into his own apartment near campus and my youngest started high school. In four years it will just be me and my husband, cats, turtle and fish rattling around in a too big house. Even before Alice suggested the idea by her own life choices, I had been thinking about what the next steps will be.
There are all these lists nowadays--50/100/1000 things to see/do/read before you die. I don't need a book to come up with my own list. It is there in my mind, more so when I get itchy feet and need to do something new or challenging.


Paris, France

Ms. Steinbach spends her year of wandering in France, Britain and Italy. She writes concisely as in a series of essays about her experiences of each place she stops, as well as her experience of herself in those places. Not everyone can do what she did--it requires a financial freedom and a freedom from pressing responsibilities that not everyone has. It also requires a degree of courage and spirit of adventure to make the leap.
I'm not likely to make any great leaps until my son graduates high school and heads off to college but I'm dreaming now. I hope I make the right choices for me when the time comes.
But back to the book. I very much enjoyed it. It is a relatively light read--easily accomplished in a couple of days but journeying with the author was a pleasure. It also may inspire me to pick up the works of some of her favorite authors: E.B. White, Freya Stark and Janet Flanner.
What's on your life list?

Much Ado about Deux Chevaux

I don't care much for cars except for a way to get to point A to point B. My husband will gleefully point out how poorly I take care of my current vehicle but I can't help but not care as long as it drives. Maybe it is just a girl thing. In this case (as in quite a few others) it makes be proud to be female. Call me sexist, but there it is.



However, I saw a convention/gathering of fanciers of the Citroen 2CV while visiting the Chateau of Chambord in France and have to say I found them intriguing in an anachronistic way. Sort of like a vintage Bug I'd say. These cars were all over the place when I lived in Paris in the early 80's. I'd not thought about them since and now, like me, they are vintage. Alas, I doubt I'm considered a collectable.

One or two bits (horses?) of history: the Citroen 2CV (deux chevaux--two horses, meaning two tax horsepower--not sure about the tax part) was made from 1948-1990. It was intended as an economy car and as such was much cheaper than the aforementioned Volkswagen Beetle. It even had a bit part in a James Bond film.
OK so maybe I'm not car crazy, but cute is cute.

Jeudi, le 28 juillet, 2011

Now that I have time to post about my trip, I'm going back to my first day's journal entry. Here goes:



Craches, France
Are we there yet? Jet lag is still muddling my sense and senses but here we are in a small town somewhere near Chartres. Our arrival in France was unremarkable. Driving here involved a few wrong turns due to an unfortunate lack of a good map and a French-speaking GPS. (Actually it turns out it spoke English too, and probably Swahili if I'd tried to check, but we didn't figure that out the first day and by the time I had done so, I was stubbornly determined to use the French voice as part of my continual aspiration to maintain my French language skills). My French is good but having to adapt to "Tout droit," "Prenez le rond point. . ." has me surprised that GPS devices don't swear, along the lines of "You effing moron; you were supposed to turn back there!"


St. Aignan, Chartres

We visited Chartres and its wonderful Cathedral. It is under construction which is unfortunate but even so it is a wonderful building. Cathedrals such as this make me half wish I were Catholic so I could have the spiritual experience of praying in one. Fortunately, the urge passes quickly. I also feel drawn to lighting a candle but don't.
Our night is spent at a farm turned B&B in Craches. "Tres atmospherique," I'd say in French.

Paris hasn't changed much in the past millenium or two

I thought I'd just copy here my journal entry from yesterday afternoon:
August 5, 4:45
I've been wandering the Marais area all afternoon. I wound up continuing to shop--buying some old paper and an embroidery stamp at an antique shop in the Village St. Paul area which was, the shop I mean, stuffed to the brim with small items--sewing supplies, linens, buttons, items for school kids of earlier years, etc. While I was in the coffee house earlier, I had read through a picture book about the author's school days in the 50's and many of the things he mentioned were for sale there in the shop. I then found a "vintage", ie used, clothing store. I've been in search of a skirt as I overpacked shirts but found one pair of jeans, one pair shorts (not appropriate for Paris) and one dress wasn't quite the right mix of clothes. I didn't find a skirt that fit in the store but I got three great floral short sleeved blouses--one by Cacharel--probably from the 80's. I'm happy. While waiting for the changing room, I watched some French ladies browsing through the dresses--they favored red ones-- and some Asian (probably Japanese) girls trying on shorts. They were giggling in the dressing room for the longest time and left an enormous mess of empty hangers. I asked the sales girl and she said they did spend a fair bit which I hope justified the extra work they left her.
I was also able to visit a real antique store, mostly carrying iron work. The owner kindly educated me about "les heurtoirs"--door knockers but I couldn't afford the lovely item he showed me--a 17th century piece priced at 1700 Euros or so. It would have been so nice on my door too. He showed me one in a Druot catalog (like Sotheby's) of a hand shaped knocker--also 17th Century)--beautifully done with veins and finger nails evident on the iron hand. That went for 15,000 Euros. I still want a hand door knocker but I'll have to look for a "cheap" 19th Century one. As for now I only have a collection of pictures of them--I still find them quaint.



This journal entry was written while drinking Perrier in a Scottish pub. The bar man turns out to have been English not Scottish but after more than a week in France he felt like a compatriot. Sometimes my brain feels tired from straining to think in French. BTW the music in the bar was Dylan. It is rare to hear French music playing in a shop or cafe.

Greetings from the Marais-Poitevin

The photo is of Chartres, France



Look it up! It is kind of interesting and I'm not sure I have time to explain in detail. I am running between this stop and our next with a boat trip on the "Marais" which means swamp but which is really a system of canals first created in the middle ages by a group of monks for control of water levels. It is nicknamed the "Green Venice." I'm sure I'll be taking a million pictures. I hope I don't drop my camera in the water!

Gotta run! Having a great time!

Going, Going. . .

Not quite gone. But I'm going back to France! We leave on Tuesday for a two week trip. I will be spending around 10 days on the Atlantic coast of France with my husband and then a solo 5 days or so in Paris. I've spent too much time on line trying to find the perfect itinerary, perfect hotels, etc. but who's complaining? I'll try to post a bit while I'm gone but that depends on time and internet access. Life is good.

July 4, 2011

I have to get some chores done but I thought I'd just post one or two pictures from my July 4th celebration. There are many more to come, as we had a lovely but too brief trip to New England for my cousin's wedding. So this is just a teaser and to let you know I'm still here.

Indulge Me

The theme for Moody Monday is "indulgent" and I'm going to indulge myself by posting more than one photo. None of them are exactly award winning as the conditions and the photographer weren't the sharpest but here are some indulgent goodies from last year's trip to Spain. Yum. Are you hungry yet?

Loot

Wupatki National Monument, Arizona (my own photo)

I'm racing through my back-pile of books to read although I sheepishly have to admit that the local Border's is closing and I bought a pile of new books at 60% off. It seems unlikely that I'll ever clear out a bookshelf.
My next book to review is Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, and the Looting of the Ancient World, by Roger Atwood. I had a great time reading this one. It is a non-fiction work about the illicit trade in antiquities, centered largely on Peru. It reads like a book on Global Warming--message, the world is going to hell in a handbasket and no one can do anything to stop it.


Petroglyphs, Petrified Forest National Park

It is also reminiscent of the effort to protect wildlife in poor countries. How can you stop the poachers (in this case looters) from taking items they can sell for a profit when the crime is supported by the need of poor people to eat and by the desires of rich people for more trophies for their collections? In Peru, ancient tombs are being raided daily by local people, but the trade is fueled by the wealthy buyers (including museums)in developed countries.
The author interviews people at all sides of the antiquities industry from the looters themselves, to private collectors, archaeologists and law enforcement people. His message is that the world has to collectively take action to prevent the destruction and theft of local treasures.
I can understand the urge to dig for buried treasure and then to hoard and acquire these treasures. I'm not confessing to any misdeeds, mind you, but I've always wanted a chance to participate in an archaeological dig. Not that I ever considered a career in archaeology but maybe after my younger son leaves home, I'll sign up to volunteer to sift sand in some exotic place. I'd love to find a few pot shards or ancient bones and I promise not to keep any for myself!
Back to the book--it's great. Read it.