MARI'S TRAVELS WITH HER CAMERA

Category: photo challenges

  • Life in Colour: Green

    I’m trying to avoid green fields and green trees, so bear with me while I struggle. I found a few, so here goes.

    Not quite 40 Shades of … but some green scarves
    A favourite piece of lime green glass
    Green Railings
    A Greenhouse filled with Green-topped Pineapples
    If you look carefully at the centre of the greenery, you’ll see a Sloth.

  • Challenge Your Camera 9: Kitchen

    This week Dr. B has selected the theme of Kitchen as a challenge to our photography. If you would like to join in #challengeyourcamera, the rules are printed below.

    I’m not really into kitchens so I’ve found this one very hard. The things I thought to do have already been done, like arrangements in lovely jugs done perfectly by Marie from Hops, Skips and Jumps. My herb pots were nearing the end of their life, my pasta jars at less than half full looked sad, and the rest of the kitchen stuff was boring. Then my eyes lit upon my favourite Christmas gift, but because it sits in the corner quietly humming away I almost overlooked it. So, I give you my mini-wine fridge, flanked by my very old microwave (40 years?) and an orchid bought for me yesterday because I’d had a bad fall in the bathroom (that’s another story but I’m lucky to be all in one piece today and able to post).

    Wine Cooler & Microwave

    It only holds ten bottles I think, but I don’t drink a lot of white wine so that’s fine. At the moment it contains 2 bottles of wine, 1 bubbly, 2 Manzanilla, some fizzy water, beer for visitors and a few soft drinks. But it’s great and looks elegant. I couldn’t photograph it face on because it has a slightly mirrored front – in fact you can probably see the other side of my kitchen in the reflection – if your eyes are better than mine! The wooden lunch carrier on top of the microwave is real, i.e. not a tourist buy. I bought it from a village shop on my first trip to Thailand about 50 years ago after I’d seen similar being used by field workers. One compartment contains rice, one vegetables and one fruit,or, if available, a little bit of fish or meat.

    RULES of CHALLENGE YOUR CAMERA

    Each week Dr. B selects a single theme to point his camera at or display a few photos from his collection as a way to brighten up the week. If you would like to join in #challengeyourcamera then here’s what to do:

    • 1. Follow Dr. B to discover the weekly theme.
    • 2. Select a few photos related to the week’s theme
    • 3. Post your own photos that week, any day you like.
    • 4. Include a caption with each photo so we know what/where it is
    • 5. Include a link to his blog in your post so that he is notified and can follow you back
    • 6. Add a pingback/link to YOUR post in the comment section of HIS post on that weeks theme.
    • 7. Include the tag #challengeyourcamera
    • 8. He will follow you back and encourage other posters to follow you
    • 9. He will list each blogger in his weekly post in arrears
  • Challenge Your Camera 8 – SPORT

    Challenge Your Camera 8 – SPORT

    Dr. B has a new challenge this week – Sport. Below are my sportie images

    The first two are from my friend Solange Hando, travel writer and trekker, who has covered most of Nepal and Bhutan and who can’t resist climbing a mountain if she sees one. I know, I’ve holidayed with her and waved her off many times as my energies don’t run as far as mountain-climbing.

    TREKKING:


    • Kyrgyzstan, canyon trekking
       
    • Trekking on Ben Nevis

    RIVER FISHING:

    The next photo shows a slower and more sedate form of sport, river fishing on the Guadalquivir River that flows through the heart of Seville, in Spain. There was often as many as 20 sitting along the banks of the river while just as many stopped to chat and pass the time of day.

    River fishing on the Guadalquivir, Seville, Spain

    Still in Seville, it is kayaking this time, and the second image is the same sport taking place in Syracuse in Sicily. Both are major cities and both support a large number of water-sports clubs.

    KAYAKING:

    • Kayaking in Seville
    • Kayaking in Syracuse, Sicily

    Off to Thailand now for horse riding on the beach. A few of the beach hotels have recently opened stables where horses are kept for visitors to ride along the beach, very early in the morning or late in the evening as it is too hot for afternoon trotting – even in the water.

    HORSE RIDING:

    Horse riding on the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand

    Still in Thailand, windsurfing is one of the coolest (in both senses of the word) and most enjoyable sports to be had on the water.

    WINDSURFING

    Wind-surfing on the waters of Bang Tao Bay, Phuket

    Along with windsurfing, para-gliding is popular in Thailand and I first encountered it there in the early 70’s, long before safety harnesses were thought of, never mind health and safety rules. I grow failt at the thought of the foolishness of it all, trusting myself to a harness into which I was strapped by someone whose language I didn’t understand and relying on his mate to catch me as I landed on the beach – if the boat maneuvered correctly. And my husband encouraged me! I have dark thoughts about that now. The quality of the first photo is pretty bad but I had to include it as this was Pattaya before it got its reputation for night-life of a certain kind. It was just beginning to attract the US servicemen on R&R from Vietnam, but was at that time, quite genuinely, a fishing village with, I think, about 5 hotels and we had one of our best holidays, ever, there.

    And last, PELOTA, the Basque game of very fast handball. This is a Pelota Court but I never got a photograph here because the game is so fast and the atmosphere so tense that I couldn’t really take a camera out as it would have disturbed the onlookers. They were all locals as this was quite a small village and this was the main event of the week. If you are ever in an area in which it is played (mostly along the northern coast of Spain and in the Canaries), then do try and catch a game.

    Pelota Court in Navarre, Spain

  • Life in Yellow 21

    Linked to HeyJude‘s photo challenge

    My entries for the colour Yellow.

    Road Markings in Taipei
    Forsythia 2020
    A (Very) Bright Yellow Room

     

  • Wordless Wednesday

    Speechless in the face of such beauty

  • Thursday’s Special Words

    Linked to Thursday’s Special at Paula’s here

    First up is Impregnable and I give you The White Cliffs of Dover. We don’t know if they are but it’s a good song and a nice idea.

    The White Cliffs of Dover

    and not far from here is Dover Castle which commands the Strait of Dover, the shortest sea crossing between England and continental Europe, a position of strategic importance throughout history and whose underground tunnels housed troops. war rooms and hospitals from the early 19th century right up until the Second World War 1939-45.

    The castle visible today was established by Henry II (r.1154–89), in the decade 1179–89, creating at Dover the most advanced castle design in Europe, a sophisticated building that combined defence with a palatial residence.

    Dover Castle, Kent

    Next word is Volte Face and there are so many in the political field today that it’s hard to choose. However, anyone who reads politics these days must agree that the winner in any volte face competition has to be

    Boris Johnson

    Linked to Thursday’s Special at Paula’s here

  • Pick a Word – Sept. 5, 2020

    Linked to Lost in Translation’s Thursday’s Special: Pick a Word

    I’m a newbie on this site but love having an excuse to showcase my images by linking them to a word provided by Paula. Hope you like them.

    ESTIVAL

    Dessie – Morning awakens and there’s the beach.

    To me this photographs is summer writ large. It’s a 3-year-old member of my city dwelling family on her first morning on holiday on the Isle of Wight. The sheer delight on her face as she ran towards the sea, without fear, was wonderful to see.

    SPAN

    The Bridge at Mostar

    The Red Bull Cliff Diving Championships at Mostar, 2018

    We arrived at Mostar to find the town packed with divers who had come to take part in the Red Bull Cliff Diving Championships, their friends and managers. At first I was annoyed as the crush prevented us from doing the sight-seeing we’d planned but we soon became fascinated onlookers at the event. We were lucky to find a restaurant with balcony overlooking the river from which to view the diving so we settled in for lunch and watched the proceedings for most of the day. The boats in the water are there in case of any accidents (they have been known) and as you can see, some dive from the top of the tower and some dive from off the bridge.

    We did manage most of the sightseeing later, after the crowds had gone and it was worth waiting around and getting back to Split much later than planned as history came to life as we wandered alone through the back streets in the early evening.