It’s been two years now and I can’t wait to return to the cities I love in Spain and Italy. Top of my list will be Seville from where it’s just a short trip by train to Cordoba. May 1922 free us from the fear of getting Covid and allow everyone to travel freely again.
A direct lift from Jude’s site tells us that this month we will be looking for Gold, the colour of wealth, of power, of gods. Gold-leaf applied to paintings, gold crowns and coins. But look also for golds in the natural world, a fish, a sunset or sunrise, flowers and autumn leaves or sunlight on water. Or capture the light in the ‘golden hour’.
So I managed to find two golds, but neither of them are my own photographs. They are images I’ve just received from a friend who has a pond stocked with Koi and this golden one is his newest addition to the waters.
Golden Koi
He also has some lovely ducks, some very colourful, but at the moment all attention is on the chicks, fluffy golden yellow ones with yellow webbed feet.
‘Hello’ world. My feet feel too big for me at the moment.
At Beziers, not far from Narbonne in France, there is an olive press with the best olives in the world and when I visit friends in the area, I buy as many of these, the Rolls-Royce of olives, the Lucques, as I can carry home. Here, among hundreds of olive trees, is a bench made from an olive tree on the farm. I’d love to own this bench – a definite “pull up a seat” situation. It helps that almost next door is the Chateau Roquette sur Mer vineyard, where the delightfully named Vins de la Clape are produced – and an onsite shop. Who would have guessed?
Bench made from an Olive Tree at the farm where the Lucques olives are farmed.
While in Vietnam we visited a school where children disabled by landmines were being taught skills they could use in later life. Some were being taught ceramics, some embroidery and tapestry, some carpentry and carving, some silverwork and other traditional skills. To my eyes they were all experts at what they were doing.
Here the young people are being taught the skills of applying gold leaf. I tried it myself and made a total hash of it, much to the amusement of the students. It requires a good eye and a steady hand, not to mention extreme patience.
Applying gold leaf to a painting.
The teacher marks the results of the students gold-leaf applications to the interior of bowls and to Buddha statues.