Category: Uncategorized
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Thursday Doors
And coming up at the back, a long way back, late and far behind as usual, is Mari with a few Thursday Doors.
First up is one from Noyers in France. Noyers was once touted as the prettiest village in France, and far from me to argue with the French but I’ve seen prettier.
Door in Noye In the next photograph, the eye is drawn. not to much to the door as to the tomb above it. This is the sarcophagus of Cangrande, founder of the Scaligeri dynasty of Verona who died in 1392 supposedly of poison. One of the most bizarre examples of Gothic funerary art, it sits over the entrance to the church of Santa Maria Antigua not far from Piazza Erbe in Verona. This was the first to be built, there are other dynastic members buried nearby, behind locked gates. Sorry about the ‘intruders’ but honestly, I waited ages for them to move but I think their messages were very important!
Not sure if I may not have used this one before but anyway, here is the door to an old Haman in Limassol, Cyprus.
Old Haman in Cyprus -
New Book Discovery
TRAVEL TAKEAWAYS by JULIE WATSON
It’s not often I blog about a book I’m reading. It has to be exceptional or part of a writing or a photography challenge, but in this case it is because I have just discovered a paperback by someone who writes travel articles that really appeal to me, the sort I used to enjoy in the Sunday papers before they turned themselves over to the advertising world.
I found it through Beachy Books, an Isle of Wight publisher whose listings have often included quirky and interesting books. It turns out that Julie Watson is also an Isle of Wight writer, someone I don’t know but someone whom I’d like to meet one day. So, as well as being happy to introduce a travel writer to those here who write on travel, I’m also excited because she’s from my area, a local writer!
Julie’s book is a collection of travel memoirs from her first independent trip to the French Alps to work as a waitress, to later trips to more exotic places like India, Russia, Egypt, Malaysia, Costa Rica and Borneo, to name but a few. And each tale is an anecdote, a story about her trip, not a list of restaurants and hotels, but about the chance meetings that occur on holiday when we open ourselves to new experiences, serendipitous moments that are evoked in exhilarating detail. And all this brought to us in a very personal, authentic prose. I finished the book feeling I’d learned something new about the places and the people.
One of the Contents pages Above is one of the Contents pages, from which you’ll see that the articles are short, bite-sized, and as the cliché has it “small but beautifully formed”, ideal for dipping into when you have a spare few minutes.
It’s hard to choose a favourite from so many great pieces but I think I’ll opt for Birdsong, an exquisitely crafted piece written in lockdown, a simple tale, yet one that when read, left me with the feeling that I had known that place, and I had known that moment. And I was strangely moved.
Available from all good bookshops and from Amazon, of course.
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BUSY
The word is Busy for this week’s One word Sunday from Debbie at One Word Sunday
Hey Ho! It’s nearly Monday. I almost went for the usual bicycles in Saigon and crowds homeward bound across the famous zebra crossings in Tokyo but opted for a quieter form of busy.
Keeping busy with social media on the metro in Tokyo 
Street food prep in Hanoi. She’s busy because she has a lot to do, removing the meat from the bones, chopping it with that dangerous cleaver, cooking it on that dodgy looking grill on the bike. then serving it. No wonder she needs a tin helmet. See more at One Word Sunday
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SIX WORD SATURDAY:
END OF SPRING, BEGINNING OF SUMMER
Linked to Debbie’s Six Word Saturday
Last days of Spring, First days of Summer. -
One Word Sunday: BLUE
This week’s theme from Debbie for One Word Sunday is BLUE and it has been a more difficult challenge. Although I have lots of blue skies and blue waters, I was hard put to find pictures that showed a blue theme. I managed in the end and it was good for me to re-visit photos I haven’t looked at for some time, even if I did spend too long in a nostalgic wander through the past!
Blue Shutters on Houses in Arles, France Blue Reflections in a Blue Pool. somewhere in the Med. 
Thai Hill Tribe Woman in Traditional Blue Costume This week’s theme from Debbie for One Word Sunday is BLUE
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Sculpture Saturday: Saltzburg
I loved the statue but I committed one of the biggest sins in photography by not managing to cut out the post on the right which makes it look as though my cyclist is holding it up. My photoshop skills aren’t up to removing it either!
Link to Sculpture Saturday
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CMMC – April Alphabet Ending in G
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My Year in Books (2022)
I thought I’d better try and post something before the year ends and then up popped Cathy at 746 books with her meme My Year in Books. I can never resist a quiz or a challenge, so I looked through some of the books I’d read this year and answered her prompts. Here is the result.
In high school I was Lost for Words (Deric Longden).
People might be surprised by Siracusa (Delia Ephron).
I will never be The Whistleblower (Robert Preston).
My life post-lockdown was Act of Oblivion (Robert Harris)
My fantasy job is The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher (Hilary Mantel)
At the end of a long day, I need The Rosie Effect (Graeme Simsion)
I hate being A Keeper (Graham Norton)
I wish I had A Song for Dark Times (Ian Rankin)
My family reunions are Play All (Clive James)
At a party you’d find me with The Sympathizer (Viet Thanh Nguen)
I’ve never been to The Salt Path (Raynor Winn)
A happy day includes House of Fun (Simon Hoggart)
Motto I live by: Kick Ass (Carl Hiassen)
On my bucket list is Hunting Season (Andrea Camilleri)
In my next life, I want to have Nada (Carmen Laforet)
If you feel like joining in, just do your own list from the prompts and let Cathy know.
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SILENT SUNDAY
The bells were ringing when I took this photo in Stresa in Italy, a few years ago, so it was a Sunday. In the garden it was silent but outside it was a typical Italian Sunday, the animated passeggiata, the queues at the gelateria, and the family groups, grandparents to babes in arms, all out to enjoy Sunday.
Stresa, Italy
