Wordless Wednesday: The Lights of Rome
Rome, Italy
Posts from the ‘Photo Travel Themes’ category
Monday Windows: The Summer Window
Pierre Loti, Istanbul Turkey
It will soon be summer, so let’s look out the summer window! What a great view! This could be your summer view from the hilltop village of Pierre Loti, in Istanbul, Turkey!
For more tips about visiting Istanbul look HERE!
Relaxing in London!
Or how about a nice quiet spot to relax, in London? A good place to just watch the world go by and enjoy your Pimms, Beer or Coffee! This photo was taken at the St Ermin’s Hotel in the Westminster district, close to St James Park! It is close to all the sights and an underground too!
For more photos of windows, by fellow bloggers, just look at Monday Window!
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Red and Yellow
Strawberry Waffles at Saturday Market, Carmel, IN
Food! How can you go wrong with colorful food? We Eat With Our Eyes! It’s that time of year when it is fun to eat outside at the markets and street fairs!
Piada Italian Street Food, Carmel, IN
Won’t you join in? I’m doing Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge!
One Word Photo Challenge: Box
Boxes and Boxes of Seed Packs at Renfrow General Merchandise, Matthews, NC
Seed Boxes at Renfrow General Merchandise, Matthews, NC
During a Photography Meet-Up Group Day I took a stroll through the town of Matthews, NC.
Matthews was an unspoiled rolling woodland with large strands of trees; the ancestral home of the Waxhaw and Catawba Indians. By the 1800’s this rich and fertile land attracted settlers, who were mainly farmers. The farmers began clearing the land and cotton grew well and became the primary cash crop. As the land was cleared for planting there were so many tree stumps left standing, that the early settlement was called unofficially Stumptown!
Box Shaped Store Fronts in Matthews, NC
Box Shaped Store Fronts in Matthews, NC
The Bicycle Shop, Matthews, NC
Most of the main street shops are in the shape of boxes. There is still a general merchandise store that sells everything! Well for planting that is! If you need ANY type of Seed this is the place for you! Have fun as you look around the small town of Matthews. Lots of boxes here and some outside the box images too!
Renfrow General Merchandise Store, Matthews, NC
Renfrow Hardware and General Merchandise, Matthews, NC
Outside Renfrow General Store, Matthews, NC
Renfrow General Store, Matthews, NC
Renfrow General Store, Matthews, NC
Renfrow General Merchandise got its start before 1900 with Thomas Jefferson “Captain” Renfrow, a mining engineer. Renfrow came to Matthews after the Civil War and opened the Rea gold mine. A movie theater is built upon one of the mine shaft’s openings. As the mine became successful, Renfrow purchased farmland and oversaw a flourishing cotton farm, later becoming a cotton ginner and broker. Renfrow began ginning cotton in 1906 and at one point had four gins operating in one building. The Renfrow General Merchandise Store is an American icon! And one last look at another photo; the BOXcar!
BOXcar, in Matthews, NC
Look here to participate the One Word Photo Challenge presented by Jennifer Nicole Wells!
Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola; Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue and Red!
A Crayola Collection in Quebec City, Canada
A Crayola Collection in Quebec City, Canada
Today is the 120th Day in the 120 Days of Crayola Challenge! Yeah! I did every color on every day! Yeah! I have had a wonderful time with the Challenge; looking up the colors, going through tons of photos and looking for the pictures that I thought would portray the color just right. The Challenge allowed me to be creative in the choice of photos and as always, I tried to make the posts entertaining and educational at the same time! It also reminded me of how much I like to travel and how I love gardens! This is also the first time I posted everyday for any length of time! I was on a roll!
My photos for today are pictures taken in Quebec, Canada and I thought they were a perfect set of pictures to end the Challenge, in a very creative way! Just look at all the Crayola Colors I found scattered all over Quebec City! Fabulous End to the Challenge I think! Thank you for looking in the past 120 days! I hope you enjoyed it! And thank you, Jennifer Nicole Wells, for hosting this Challenge!
A Crayola Collection in Quebec City, Canada
A Crayola Collection in Quebec City, Canada
Yellow-Orange has been in the Crayola assortment since 1930. It is also known as Pineapple Yellow in the series in Mexico, and Mellow Yellow in the “Retro Colors” set. It is the color for Wisconsin, called Moovalous Cheese, in the “State Crayon Collection” and Glowing Eyes Yellow in the “Halloween Crayons” Collection!
Thursday Doors: April 28, 2016
Shot Gun House, New Orleans, Louisiana
One of the best places in the world to look at DOORS would be New Orleans, Louisiana. The houses are colorful, quirky, old, and one of a kind and so are their doors! And notice the intricate latticework too!
The “Shotgun House” is very popular here. It is a narrow rectangular residence, usually no more than 12 feet wide, with rooms arranged one behind the other and doors at each end of the house. It is said that a shotgun blast could pass from one end of the house and out the other, un-impeded, hence it’s name! It was the most popular style of house in the Southern United States from the end of the American Civil War through the 1960’s.
Shot Gun House, New Orleans, Louisiana
Shot Gun House, New Orleans, Louisiana
Some of the houses are the “Double Shotgun” style with two front doors.
Double Shot Gun House, New Orleans, Louisiana
Double Shotgun House with Icicle Trim, New Orleans, Louisiana
Space is at a premium here in the Marigny neighborhood. The houses have several common traits; trash cans (sometimes painted a wild color) always sit in the front of the house, as do cars and motorbikes, mostly parked on the tiny sidewalks along with the trash cans. Parking space is a luxury here. Also notice the beads, lights and other trinkets scattered haphazardly everywhere! Color is everywhere, and for the most part the brighter the color and their combinations on the house, the better! It’s always nice to add a plant or two too!
Shot Gun House, New Orleans, Louisiana
Wrought iron (worked by hand) decoration or fencing is associated with New Orleans too. Previous to the mid-1800’s balconies and porches were made of tall wooden columns. The Spanish influenced the decorative ironwork, mimicked after their lacework, to add visual contrast to dreary fronts. The more ornate work is often floral or leafy, adorned with the French fleur-de-lis and coquilles (shells) associated with saints (Saint James ) or religious pilgrims. Cast iron details are Victorian additions and not original to the townhouses. Some of the houses are fancy!
Fancy House, New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans Style
New Orleans Style with Color and Plants
New Orleans Style
New Orleans Style with Black Cat Fence
And there is a combination of everything that brings the businesses to life!
The New Orleans Style Business Door
Just ride your bike so you can drink more!
The New Orleans Style Business Door
The New Orleans Style Business Door
The Jazz Club, New Orleans, Louisiana
AND The Plants Match the House Color!
The Jazz Club, New Orleans, Louisiana
Now for the Purple and Orange House! This one is an attention getter!
Purple and Orange House, New Orleans, Louisiana
And One More thought! Size Matters!
Out of Scale: Out of Touch. No High Rise in Marigny! No tear downs and replacing them with high rise dwellings here! Good for them! New Orleans should look like New Orleans!
Size Matters!
This is just one of many photos in the Thursday Door Collection featured by Norm2.0! Won’t you join in or take a peak at all the doors?
Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola; Yellow Green
Muckross House Garden, Killarney, Ireland
Muckross House, Killarnry, Ireland
Muckross Gardeners Cottage, Killarney, Ireland
View of Killarney National Park, Killarney, Ireland
There is every shade of green in Ireland, so today I am going to share Muckross House with you! These are some of my favorite pictures of Yellow Green!
The sixty five roomed, Muckross Mansion, built in Tudor Style, was designed by Scottish architect, William Burn, and completed in 1843 for Henry Arthur Herbert and his wife, the watercolorist, Mary Balfour. Mary met Henry in Rome and married him in September, 1837. The estate was given to her, by her grandparents, for a wedding present. She loved the grounds, as it reminded her of the family home in Scotland. She brought a large dowry to the marriage equivalent to 3.28 million pounds in 2016, and she and Henry used part of this money to start construction on the house in 1839. She then worked at developing her talents as a watercolor artist, and with no formal training or formal art education, she displayed considerable skill.
Less than twenty years later, in preparation for a visit from Queen Victoria in 1861, extensive improvements to the house and contents, were made for the Queen’s visit. Tapestries, mirrors, Persian carpets, silverware, musical instruments, linen, china and new servants’ uniforms are said to have been specially commissioned for the queen’s visit. Special curtains for the Dining Room were woven in Paris, also to please the Queen.
The Queen’s apartments at Mockross were described by the local press as: “An entire section of apartments has been set aside for the royal family so that they do not need to communicate with the Herbert family when passing through halls. The Queen will live in privacy, and from her rooms can walk onto the delightful grounds, which will be kept private during her stay.” It was clear the Herberts thought the Royal couple and friends would stay awhile.
The Queen, Prince Albert, and two of their children spent two nights there! Little time was spent with the Herbert family and on the last day, Queen Victoria took a carriage ride around the grounds with the Mrs. and then Queen Victoria and entourage went to the train to go elsewhere. As a farewell gift Mary gave the Queen two of her paintings of the landscape at Muckross.
Moral of the story: never re-do your house to please someone else. If they want to come, they can come as you are. Don’t live above your means.
The restorations resulted in huge financial difficulties for the Herbert family, which resulted in the sale of the mansion and the 11,000 acre estate.
Henry died in 1866, (he probably never fathomed being in debt), and Mary with two of her daughters moved back to England, where she lived until 1871, and then moved to Lake Como, Italy, to continue her artwork. She died in London in 1893 and was buried next to her husband in the family vault near the Muckross estate.
In 1899 the estate was bought by Arthur Guinness, who wanted to preserve the landscape.
In 1911, the house and estate were sold to William Bowers Bourn, a wealthy Californian involved in mining. He and his wife passed the estate to their daughter, Maud and her husband Arthur Rose Vincent, as a wedding present. The couple lived there until the death of Maud in 1929. In 1932, her parents and her husband decided to give Muckross House and the 11,00 acre estate to the Irish people and it became the first National Park in the Republic of Ireland. The house and grounds are now part of Killarney National Park.
Yellow Green has been in the Crayola Collection since 1930. It is also known as Monster Green in the “Halloween Crayons” series. The Muckross House and estate turned out to be the green-eyed monster for the Herbert family, but a windfall for the people of Ireland!
This post is just one of many in the Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola Challenge!
Check out some of the other 150+ challenge participants, it’s amazing what we have done with the Crayola colors!
Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola; Yellow
THE LAMP!
It’s Day 118 of the 120 Days of Crayola Challenge! Wow, we are coming closer to the end! Today the color is Yellow! My photo for Yellow was taken in London at the St Ermin’s Hotel, situated in the heart of Westminster. What a fabulous and convenient spot to stay in to explore London! They even have bees! This unique lamp was in the lobby of the hotel! Now This is a lamp!
St Ermin’s Hotel, London, UK
Yellow has been in the Crayola Collection from the beginning in 1903. It is also known as Sunshine Yellow in the “So Big” set, World Wide Web Yellow in the “Techno Brite” series, and both Starlight Yellow and Sunfish Yellow in the “Discovery” series. In the Hallmark “Tales of a Tooth Fairy” set it is called Cheesy Yellow and Yellow Brick Road, the color for Kansas, in the “State Crayon Collection.” In the “110th Anniversary” set it is named Sunny Side Up!
This post is just one of many in the Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola Challenge!
Check out some of the other 150+ challenge participants, it’s amazing what we have done with the Crayola colors!
Thursday Doors: April 21, 2016
My Favorite Door in Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy
The View of All that Quirkiness, Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy
Today for Thursday Doors we are in Manarola, one of the five villages in Cinque Terre, Italy. We stayed at the tippy top of this small village and would walk down everyday to the harbor or train station. These are some of the doors I observed along the way! My favorite is the first Pale Blue Shutter Door! Quite quirky, don’t you think? That entire building was quirky from the porthole windows to the cement gate pass through! What about that wrought iron railing made up of different finds? I liked the curly ques placed at the top of the cement arbor too. The walkway was narrow so I could get up close and personal to study all the finds near this door!
More Sea Blue to Add a Touch of Contrast
Here a Touch of Green Goes a Long Way
Why Not Add a Bit of Red to Draw Your Eye?
Manarola may be the oldest of the villages in the Cinque Terre, with the cornerstone of the church, San Lorenzo, dating to 1338. The name Manarola is a form of the latin worlds “magna rota” which means “large wheel” in reference to the mill wheel in the village.
The Teeny Tiny Church Door of San Lorenzo Church
Notice the bell above the church? As part of the history of the church, we learned that at one time the priest liked to ring the bell a lot, to remind the villagers to come to Mass. The villagers pleaded with him to stop all the ringing, day and night, to no avail. The priest was found murdered in the church and the bell no longer tolls! No one was ever prosecuted for the murder either!
A Door With A Lot Going On Above It
In the picture above one could jump out the window, scoot across the walkway and be gone on the next roof!
A Stroll Along Narrow Walkways Through the Village
Most of the residents in Manarola are involved with the fishing or wine-making industry. The local wine, Sciacchetrà, is well known, and the high quality wine of the region was noted in Roman writings! The only way to get around the five villages is by train, boat or the hiking trails in the hills and vineyards above the towns, which makes up the Cinque Terre National Park. To read another post about Manarola look Here. You can collect charms that represent each village in the Cinque Terre, to make a bracelet or necklace. To find out how to get the Cinque Terre Charms look Here!
What’s your favorite Door ?
This is just one of many photos in the Thursday Door Collection featured by Norm2.0! Won’t you join in or take a peak at all the doors?
Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola; Vivid Violet
Vivid Violet Flowers at Charleston House, UK
Vivid Violet Flowers at Sissinghurst Castle Gardens, Kent, UK
Vivid Violet Flowers at Sissinghurst Castle Gardens, Kent, UK
Vivid Violet was added to the Crayola line in 1997. It is Day 112 of the Crayola Challenge and I have presented more beautiful flowers from the gardens in the UK. I thought perhaps my flowers were not quite vivid enough. But, I came across this Vivid Violet also.
Vivid Arene Violet
Arlene Violet, a real life Vivid Violet, was born into a middle class family in Providence, Rhode Island. After attending Providence College, she entered the Sisters of Mercy convent in 1961, taking her final vows in 1969. Later Violet earned a bachelor’s degree from Salve Regina University and was a school teacher in a disadvantaged neighborhood during the 1970’s. She became interested in law and graduated from Boston College Law School in 1974. She then clerked in the judge’s chambers and did an internship in the Rhode Island General Attorney’s office. When the convent had financial difficulties she left her legal work and returned to the convent, serving as an administrative nun into the 1980’s. In 1984, Violet ran for election and won, becoming the first female Attorney General in the United States. During her term in office she focused on organized crime, environmental issues and victim’s rights. One of her innovations was to use videotape interviews of child victims rather than direct testimony. In the courtroom, she was known as Attila the Nun! After leaving office, Violet returned to prosecuting, taught environmental law at Brown University, and ran a talk show from 1990 to 2006. She has written two books, Convictions: My Journey from the Convent to the Courtroom, and Me and the Mob, a book about the witness protection program. As you can tell, Violet was no shrinking Violet!
This post is just one of many in the Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola Challenge!
Check out some of the other 150+ challenge participants, it’s amazing what we have done with the Crayola colors!
The Travel Lady In Her Shoes 