Month: April 2012

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Sunday Post: Shelter

Shelter is an essential for our life on Earth, all living creatures take shelter! Human beings sheltered in caves for thousands of years, and eventually structures were used to provide added shelter and security.

The Galamus Hermitage, built in a cave where religious hermits sheltered for many centuries

Children love to hide in small spaces, enjoying the sensation of being sheltered and safe.

This cubby has a big cushion to close it and provide total shelter from busy household life, a real getaway for a small person and a few soft toys.

Houses and stores to shelter people and goods can be very large and ornate, or very small and simple. Here in the Thar Desert in Rajasthan  beautiful mud brick huts and enclosures shelter the local tribes people in a pleasing and renewable way.

Beautiful simple housing in the Thar Desert

Join in with Jake’s Sunday Post here, everyone is welcome!

Here are some more Shelter posts:
http://northernnarratives.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/1468/ 

http://jmeyersforeman.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/red-umbrella/

http://jobryantnz.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/sunday-post-shelter/

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Together

At the end of each yoga term we do something special, which might include partner yoga. Here are some images of one class having fun doing yoga in pairs …. doing yoga together!

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Learn more about the Weekly Photo Challenge at http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/weekly-photo-challenge-together/

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A-Z Archive: Q is for Quay

Quay on Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour

The industry on Cockatoo Island has long since ceased. We visited for a spectacular art exhibition, the 17th Biennale of Sydney. You can just see the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background of this photo. It was a rainy day, so this photo from the ferry window as we returned to Circular Quay is rather unclear.

Circular Quay Sydney, through raindrops on ferry window

Please find your own “Q” image and join us in the fun! Check it out here http://flickrcomments.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/a-z-archive-q-challenge/

and here is another one to enjoy, Q is for Quilting

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Sunday Post: Stairway

Monks on stairway at Punaka Dzong, Bhutan

Jake’s choice this week is “stairway” … he says “Stairway or simply stairs are names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps. Stairways may be straight, round, or may consist of two or more straight pieces connected at angles.” Punaka Dzong is sited on a large curve of the river, so must be built up high in case of flooding. All of the buildings have impressive staircases!

steps follow the tree buttressed tree root down

This stairway is on a narrow walking track that leads into a steep valley in the Gold Coast hinterland … steps have been made against the supporting tree root. Isn’t it beautiful? Finally, here are some ladder stairs … fire-escapes … in New York City.

New York fire-escapes

Join in the Sunday Post with Jakesprinter and check out his cool graphics!

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A-Z Archive: P is for Plein Air

My husband paints outside in nature, his works are vivid and full of life! This is known as Plein Air painting. A painting done outside rather than in a studio. The term comes from the French en plein air, meaning ‘in the open air’. The Impressionists were particularly interested in the influence of changing light outdoors on color.

You can see some of his art here: http://www.turosshead.org/Artists/StuartWhitelaw.htm

Dont forget you can join in the “P” photo challenge …have a look in your archives and go to http://flickrcomments.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/a-z-archive-p-challenge/ to see what it is all about.

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Sunday Post: Blossom

Banana flowers are also known as Banana Blossom, and used widely throughout Asia as a culinary ingredient. Our bananas have nearly finished flowering, and the bananas will ripen during winter.

banana flower with bird

close up of male flowers between the bracts

The inner pale bracts are used for cooking, and the outer bracts may be used as a serving bowl for salads. Of course we just leave them all on the tree to ripen, since we enjoy our sugar bananas so much!

This post is part of Jakesprinter’s Sunday Post, you can join in too, just follow the link 🙂

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Two Subjects

This photo was taken in the gardens of the Palais Royale in Paris, where people sit around a pool and fountain to catch the sun. The garden is very formal, but in this image you see the beauty of the water moving, the sunbathers, the bicycle waiting under the tree.

bicycle and sunbather at fountain in garden of the Palais Royale

To join in the weekly challenge look here! Other entries include: brothers,  fun, dog and cat, venice, skiers in the alps, night and day, frogs, barbed wire, cappadocia, redhat and sign,  moon and tree, and some from jo.

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A-Z Archive: O is for Official, Oxen, Ornate, and Ooops!

Back to my Bhutan archive for these images, inspired by Frizz’s A-Z Archive “O” Challenge.

now our driver has the official pass to proceed

oxen, practical power in small areas

ooops, major bridge repairs mean we wait for a while!

buildings are ornate, here a river spirit is depicted in an outdoor alcove

There are some wonderful entries for “O” already  … look at these:

Orchids,  Okavanga Delta,  Oasis,  Owl,  Osaka Castle, and Orange

then look in your own archives and you might find an “O” image too!

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Journey

My family line, in any direction, comes from England and Ireland. All those ancestors made a journey, sometime in the last two hundred years across the seas to Australia. One came as a stonemason, bringing his family from Somerset to find a better life in the colony of NSW. Another was sent as a convict from Ireland, for the crime of stealing clothing. A brave young woman from Bedford came as a companion for a married couple and their children. An enterprising young man came from Hampshire. A poor farming couple immigrated from Yorkshire, and so on.

Another couple from Cornwall ran away to be married on the Island of Jersey in 1858, then two months later sailed from Plymouth on the Fitzjames as a bounty immigrant to NSW. Their first child was born in a tent beside Sydney Harbour. Later they became successful business people in a bustling country town. When we traveled through England and Ireland a few years ago we visited the towns these people had left behind. The young woman who ran off to married, then immigrated to Australia came from Pentewan Cornwall, or Mevagissey, which is close by. Her journey began here, perhaps taking a small boat out to Jersey to be married.

Mevagissey, Cornwall

looking out to sea

My great-great-grandmother Amelia’s journey started here, my journey to rediscover her ended here!

Robert Rice and Amelia Solomon married in 1858 and immigrated to Australia

Do you have a picture that depicts ‘journey’ for you? Join in the Weekly Challenge here!