Images of architecture and urban fragments from around the world.
This weekly challenge is hosted by Dawn from ‘The Day After’ who invites participants to post pictures of any windows that they find curious, inviting, photogenic, or in some way tell a story. Visit her blog to see more windows and/or to join in with the challenge.
All windows and shutters taken in the Carouge district, Geneva.
Every week Sue from ‘A Word in Your Ear’ dips into her English Oxford dictionary and picks a word on the page that it falls open at. The challenge is to post a photograph, poem, story – whatever the genre you like best to describe what that word means to you.
Yellow is an unusual colour for houses to be painted, but here in Ludlow there are two. Both timber-framed buildings with the frames revealed.
Ed is a truck driving photographer from Tennessee who hosts a photography challenge blog called Sunday Stills here on WordPress.
This week Ed would like to see Bridges
Above: The Ribble Viaduct. It is the longest and most famous viaduct on the Settle-Carlisle Railway, a railway line passing through some spectacular British scenery. The viaduct is curved, and so may be seen by passengers on the train.
(click on an image to enlarge it and get more information)
This weekly challenge is hosted by Dawn from ‘The Day After’ who invites participants to post pictures of any windows that they find curious, inviting, photogenic, or in some way tell a story.
Down the drive,Under the early yellow leaves of oaks;One lodge is Tudor, one in Indian style.The bridge, the waterfall, the Temple PoolAnd there they burst on us, the onion domes,Chajjahs and chattris made of amber stone:‘Home of the Oaks’, exotic Sezincote.
Sezincote (pronounced seas in coat) is a British estate, located in Gloucestershire, England. It was designed by Samuel Pepys Cockerell in 1805, and is a notable example of Neo-Mughal architecture, a 19th-century reinterpretation of 16th and 17th-century architecture from the Mughal Empire. At the time of its construction, British India was becoming the “jewel in the crown” of the world’s largest empire…. Wikipedia
It was also the inspiration for the Brighton Pavilion.
This extraordinary Indian house set in the Cotswolds hills has a central dome, minarets, peacock-tail windows, jail-work railings and pavilions. The main photo above shows the curving Orangery which frames the Persian Garden of Paradise with a fountain and canals. A more in depth post about the gardens is on my flower blog: Earth Laughs in Flowers
Onwards south to Victoria today after a wonderful breakfast of lemon waffles with mixed berries and warm maple syrup and freshly ground coffee. If you do get to Canada it is well worth seeking out the B&Bs to stay in rather than hotels or motels as in my experience they provide a great place to stay with some wonderful hosts and extremely inventive breakfasts – much more interesting than the “full English”. Actually one of the best places we have stayed in was a tiny B&B in Toronto with a brilliant chef where I first experienced the Canada blend of sweet and savoury for breakfast – omelette with a slice of watermelon on the side!
We awoke to grey skies but fortunately it was still dry. We had considered crossing over from Crofton to Vesuvius on Salt Spring Island and driving down to Fulford for the ferry over to Swartz Bay. The island is unique in the Gulf Island chain with diverse and fascinating artists’ studios, bakeries – Salt Spring Bread and Laughing Daughters Bakery – cheese factories, a lavender farm, a vineyard, textiles, potters, jewellery makers, glass art, wood turners and many, many artists.
But given that most places appear to be open by appointment only and some close from the end of September, we decided to drive straight down the Trans Canada Highway 1 through the Cowichan Valley from where it becomes Malahat Drive named after the Malahat First Nation.
The Malahat Drive is one of the most beautiful roadways in the world with viewpoints providing scenic vistas of the Saanich Inlet, the Saanich Peninsula, Salt Spring Island and the Gulf Islands in the distance. It begins just south of Mill Bay and takes a 25 km winding and steep route over the 365m Malahat Summit to end in the Goldstream Provincial Park which is very busy during November’s salmon spawning run. The park has several hiking trails and is best between April and June when the wildflowers are in evidence.
We drove all the way without stopping so there are no photos from this stage of the journey, but in August 2005 we diverted off the highway onto the 1A to Chemainus, a small town snuggled in between a mountain range and the Stuart Channel. Mining, fishing and forestry were the original industries that gave work to many Chinese who worked in “bull gangs”. Later they were joined by Japanese, Scots and Germans looking for riches in the mines and staying to work the forests and on fishing boats. And the Cowichan Valley has been home to The Original First Nations peoples and their ancestors for generations. When the lands’ natural resources started to dwindle and Chemainus was in danger of becoming a ghost town it found a new lease by inviting artists from around the world to paint huge murals on the sides of buildings. Thus becoming a famous tourist-attraction. Although quite kitsch, there is a kind of wonderment that makes you want to see more. And many of the murals have very interesting tales to accompany them.
Click on a photo to see the slide show and more information about each mural.
TRAVEL WORDS 