For more about this photo please visit my post about the wonderful Franschhoek a town in South Africa’s Western Cape with centuries-old vineyards and Cape Dutch architecture.
Still time to join in with Becky’s (“A life of a 40 something”) March challenge of square photographs with the theme:
March Square | 22nd March
Home thoughts from abroad is a new series on Travel Words featuring a single photograph that reminds me of a country visited and showing something that uniquely identifies it as being ‘abroad’.
This photo takes me back to the Greek islands with their whitewashed buildings draped in bougainvillea and lemon trees in the large terracotta pots; blue skies and heat. The smell of sun-cream and cloudy ouzo; grilled sardines; octopus stew; crispy calamari. Ice cold beers poured into ice-rimmed glasses taken from the freezer. Lying by the pool. Slow swimming to cool off. Gentle waves slapping lazily onto the shore. Eating in tavernas by the shore-line in the still warm cloak of darkness, candles flickering, bouzouki melodies in the night…
1971: Old men gathered around playing chess or draughts. Smiling brown faces greeting the arriving ferries from Piraeus. Dark moustaches. Equally dark eyes. Donkeys swaying up steeply cobbled streets. Dancing on a penny-sized dance floor to the Rolling Stones. Camping on the beach. Blue roofs of Santorini. Windmills of Mykonos. Athens and the Plaka district where I purchased leather-thonged sandals. Twice. Souvlaki – sliced lamb with onions and peppers wrapped in pitta bread with a yogurty sauce. The tang of Retsina and thick white yogurt sweetened with golden honey; dark and bitter Turkish coffee. Sticky baklava, licking fingers. Sand and salt in the hair. Spanish guitars around a camp fire. My youth…
This is one of those photos that shows the use of patterns in the composition of an image – adding depth. Even more interesting is the use of a focal point where you break the pattern and it is even more interesting to the eye (remember the rule of thirds?) if that break is on one of the intersections.
And it just happens to feature round objects. Red apple anyone?
If you fancy a distraction from the weather this month then join in with Becky’s (“A life of a 40 something”) March challenge of square photographs with the theme:
March Square | 21st March
Full Moon, Blue Moon, Worm Moon. In March there are two full moons, one was on the first of the month, the other (the blue moon) on the last day. The second moon of the month is important because it is used to fix the date of Easter, which is always the Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. This year, that moon appears on Saturday March 31, which means Easter Sunday falls the day after, on April 1.
Why Worm Moon I hear you ask? As temperatures warm, earthworm casts begin to appear and birds begin finding food. It’s also known as Sap Moon, Crow Moon and Lenten Moon.
If you fancy a distraction from the weather this month then join in with Becky’s (“A life of a 40 something”) March challenge of square photographs with the theme:
March Square | 20th March
If you fancy a distraction from the weather this month then join in with Becky’s (“A life of a 40 something”) March challenge of square photographs with the theme:
March Square | 19th March
TRAVEL WORDS 