We were supposed to leave Scotland today and return home, but unknown to us when we booked to stay in Kirkcudbright, this was the week of their Jazz festival and today was the Jazz Brolly Parade. Now I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen a Brolly Parade so this I wanted to see. Fortunately we managed to get an EXTRA day in our accommodation. So join in!
For more EXTRAS click here:
The steam yacht Gondola is a rebuilt Victorian, screw-propelled, steam-powered passenger vessel on Coniston Water, England. Originally launched in 1859, she was built for the steamer service carrying passengers from the Furness Railway and from the Coniston Railway. She was in commercial service until 1936 when she was retired, being converted to a houseboat in 1946. In 1979, by now derelict, she was given a new hull, engine, boiler and most of the superstructure. She is back in service as a passenger boat, still powered by steam and now operated by the National Trust. Source: Wikipedia.
The Illustrated London News of 7 July 1860 reported after her maiden voyage that the first class saloon was “beautifully finished in walnut wood and cushioned and decorated after the style of the royal carriages of our railways.”
Locomotion Enterprises, a training company in the North-East of England, got the task of building the new engine whilst W Bertram & Sons of South Shields provided a new high-pressure boiler, fittingly to the same design as the Ffestiniog Railway’s locomotive Prince.
If you find yourself in the Lake District then I can recommend a cruise on this beautiful boat.
Just another day in Paris…
For this week’s challenge, we want you to become a documentary photographer and attempt to capture a candid moment of a person, place, or thing.
Several things immediately entered my head when I read the subject of this week’s photo challenge:
All very nostalgic but the twist is that I don’t have a photo of any of these things, so I am going with this delightful Springbok in Namibia who had to twist her neck to be able to scratch the itch. 
or what about these twisty horns of a male Kudu? 
so what has got you into a twist?
This particular photo has been given a watercolour ‘art’ effect. Enlarge for more detail and clarity.
The flowers bloom in early spring, which leads to the common name Pasque flower, since Pasque refers to Easter and Passover. Pasque flowers are the early harbingers of Spring, appearing before the leaves have fully emerged and it is a low-growing, clump-forming, perennial.
To me there is nothing more that represents a work of art than nature. A flower, from seed to decay, is truly magical.
TRAVEL WORDS 