Meditteranean reflections and more in Collioure

© Photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear    

The artist Henri Matisse found much inspiration in the beautiful seaside town of Collioure, France, near the Spanish border. When we visited in April, 2011, we were enchanted by the light and color, just as he was. 


We found beautiful reflections in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, and in the windows of the homes and hotels in this delightful town on the Catalan coast.

Posted for the Weekend Reflections meme, hosted

every week by James, now in beautiful southern California.

Thanks, James!

To see other reflections as they caught the imaginations of other bloggers,

please click

HERE!

Book Blurb Friday from spider web photo

Posted for  Book Blurb Friday, wherein

Lisa Ricard Claro of Writing in the Buff posts a photo as inspiration and invites us to

Write a book jacket blurb (150 words or less) so enticing that

potential readers would feel compelled to buy the book.

To see how other writer-bloggers responded to the prompt photo, please click

HERE!

The car had been abandoned for weeks and the windows and mirrors were completely iced over. Between the window and rearview mirror, a spider had meticulously woven a web which exactly reflected the pattern of the shattered windshield.

When police finally found the car and opened it, they found inside a body which exactly reflected the work of the serial killer known as Spiderman.

Would the Ontario Provincial Police be able to solve the mysterious killings, or would they need the help of the famous horsemen known to the world as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police?

Best-selling author Guelph Haliburton, known for his five previous OPP novels, reveals a procedural flaw in his latest work: Ingersoll Marathon. Available in bookstores and at Amazon.ca.

126 words

Sky watching in Matisse's Collioure

The artist Henri Matisse found much inspiration in the beautiful seaside town in Collioure, France, near the Spanish border. When we visited in April, 2011, we were enchanted by the light and color, just as he was. The sky offered a wide range of blues, from misty pale, to deepest blue reflected in the sea.

© Photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear       

Posted for  Sky Watch Friday, hosted by

the Sky Watch team of Klaus, Wren, Sylvia, Sandy and Fishing Guy. Thanks, team!

To see other skies from around the world, please click

HERE!

Hold that... it's Thursday Theme Song

Photo by Richard Schear   

HOLD THAT TIGER!

Here I am in 2008, at a jade museum in China, holding that tiger, just as it says in Tiger Rag

as sung by one of my Mom's favorite groups, The Mills Brothers.

Next week would have been my mother's birthday. (Still miss you so much, Mom.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKwNVi-Ug8I&feature=related

Posted for that musical meme, Thursday Theme Song,

hosted every week by Hootin' Anni, a southern lady with a love of music and a sense of humor.

To hear what songs others have chosen this week, please click HERE!

Watery Wednesday: Perpignan, south of France

© Photos by Richard Schear       

Posted for the Watery Wednesday meme, hosted by

2sweetnsaxy at T. Bruce Photography,

who invites us every week to get our eyes wet!

To see what wetted the eyes of other photobloggers, please click

HERE!

W is for Wheels and Women

© Photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear    

Shy pedi-cab driver taking a break.

When I consulted my husband about the letter W, he thought for a moment, then said "Wheels." Then he thought a while longer, "And women," he added, although I knew he wasn't out taking pictures of women when my back was turned.
The place for wheels in Europe is Amsterdam, with its ubiquitous bicycles (and a few other kinds of wheeled transportation).

Bicycles parked alongside canals and against bridge railings.

Wheels in Brussels, Belgium

Women: our tour guide and the captain of the Amsterdam canal boat were both highly-qualified women.

Women with wheels.

Women with attitude!

And, finally, women with blogs:

"Reader Wil" met me for a visit in Kinderdijk, in The Netherlands.

Mara met us for a visit in Amsterdam.

Gattina, from Waterloo, met us for a tour of Brussels.
We also met Debbie and Stijn in Brussels, but didn't have a camera with us.

Posted for ABC Wednesday, started by

Mrs. Nesbitt in the UK, and carried on by her faithful team.

To see how other bloggers used the letter W please click

HERE!

Our world: Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales

The city of Perpignan, in the French province of Languedoc-Roussillon, formed the hub of our travels one week. From its busy train station, we could go in almost any direction, making it, as Salvador Dali said, "the centre of the universe" for a while. My husband took these photos in Perpignan, the capital of the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France, during our March/April visit to Europe this year.

Our world for a week was in and around, and in and out of the city of Perpignan, which possesses many claims to fame, one of which is the oldest cemetery in France.

© Photos by Richard Schear       

Porte Notre Dame, Perpignan, with the Catalan flag flying, above right.

The city of Perpignan offers history, culture and beauty.

It was a wonderful place to see, and to be.

Posted for  My World Tuesday the meme

hosted weekly by the team of Wren, Klaus, Sylvia, Sandy, Louise and Fishing Guy

Thanks, team!

To see other worlds on this planet, please click HERE!

Magpie Tales 70, Miranda's portrait

Photo provided by Tess Kincaid

In the first part of the last century, portrait photography was a serious business for both the photographer and his subject. The camera, of course, was on a tripod. Backlighting had to be arranged beforehand, and, after that, the subject’s pose had to remain precisely the same while the photographer ducked under his black cloth to look through his viewfinder, and opened the camera’s shutter. From there he would trigger a flash held aloft in one hand outside the cloth, then close the shutter again.

The portrait of Miranda was almost perfect, with her glossy hair and lacy collar backlit, her beautiful face a delicate mix of light and shadow, her expression soulful but with a slight twist of her mouth revealing humor in the dimples on either side.

“Almost perfect isn’t good enough,” said the photographer to himself when he later developed the plate.

“Here,” he said when he handed the photo to Miranda’s father the next day. “I’m sorry. The failure is mine. I know your daughter left last night for Europe, and this is all you have to remember her by, but I cannot charge you for my work. You see, one eye appears to be larger than the other.”

“But...” said the father.

“No,” insisted the photographer, “take this, and go, with my compliments and my apologies.”

Delighted with the result, despite the artist’s protestations, the father took the photo to his wife, who had lovingly prepared a needlework frame for her daughter’s face.

For the rest of their lives, even after Miranda returned from her years at the Sorbonne, her parents kept the portrait on a table between their two armchairs. After they died, Miranda kept it on the mantel over her fireplace, and left it to her own daughter, who treasured it.

How, then, did one of Miranda’s grandchildren find it at a garage sale, the glass scratched and the needlework badly faded, marked a dollar-ninety-nine?

Posted for Magpie Tales  hosted by

Tess of Willow Manor, who provides us with a photo prompt each week, and invites us to write whatever poem or prose the picture inspires in us. Thanks, Tess!

To see how other writer-bloggers responded to the prompt, please click

HERE!

Lovely yellows in Perpignan, France

© Photos by Richard Schear       

My husband took these photos in early April when we stayed near Perpignan at a condo in Canet-en-Rousillon. A city bus stopped near the condo complex and took us to the Gare de Perpignan. From there, we enjoyed many day-trips by train to other places in the south of France.

The bright Mediterranean colors of the homes were reflected in the trees and flowers. Even the trash and recycling containers were tidy and colorful.

The bus passed pretty playgrounds every time we went to and from the Perpignan train station, but somehow we never stopped to play!

Posted for Mellow Yellow Monday, hosted

every week by Drowsey Monkey. Thanks, Drowsey!

To see other mellow yellows from around the world, please click

HERE!

Succinctly yours...fabricate

“How low can you go?” asks Grandma
at Grandma’s Goulash about her writing meme 
Succinctly

Yours.

Use her picture to prompt a story of up to 140 characters or 140 words. Use the word of the week, if you can, but it is optional. This week’s word is 'fabricate'.

Criminals could fabricate evidence, Holmes knew, but there was no evidence of any evidence-fabrication here.

108 characters by Kay Davies, including spaces and punctuation.

My husband's contribution is even shorter:

Holmes could find no clues, even though he checked the stained fabric eight times.

82 characters by Richard Schear, including spaces and punctuation.

To see how the prompt and/or the word of the week inspired other writer-bloggers

to succinctly meet Grandma's challenge, please click

HERE!

Basking in the sun while on a walk

Lindy's buddy, Bozo, and his family 'way over in Mumbai have a fun meme called

Pet Pride  or  Pets Forever

This week it shows a photo of Bozo basking in sunlight coming through a window.

Bozo asks if his animal friends like to bask in the sun...

Lindy likes it so much, she'll lie down in the middle of a walk, just to bag a few rays.

We haven't had many sunny days since Lindy got her summer haircut, but here are

some 2010 photos of her sunbathing instead of walking with her dad or her mom.

See how other pampered pets feel about the sunshine, by clicking

HERE!

© Photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear