Tuesday Photo Challenge: Heat
Posted on April 25, 2018
After last week’s rain, this time it’s images of ‘heat’ that Frank is seeking for his Tuesday Photo Challenge at Dutch Goes The Photo!.
There’s no shortage of – often intense – heat in the Arabian desert, even in the oasis city of Al Ain. That goes equally for the world-famous zoo as well. And what sensible pair of lions wouldn’t seek some shade to protect themselves from that heat?

Benched
Posted on April 20, 2018
This well-weathered wooden bench is just outside the Cabinet Médicale, on the main road through our local village of Mézières-sur-Issoire. It’s been there for quite a while.

Thursday Doors: Encore Cahors (2)
Posted on April 19, 2018
Back to the town of Cahors yet again, for more doors from the medieval quarter, starting this week with a particularly shabby one:

Time to inject a little colour:


And some rather better cared-for examples. This one eases the transition from blues…

…to greens:

But there’s no getting away from the fact that brown is the prevailing colour:

Next week another selection from Cahors, then, by way of diversion, somewhere as yet unseen…
Thursday Doors 19 April 2018
Tuesday Photo Challenge: Rain
Posted on April 17, 2018
Answering Frank’s call for posts on the theme of ‘Rain’ for this week was a bit of a challenge. I’m something of a fair-weather photographer, so if it does happen to be raining then the chances are that I’ll be inside and not out getting wet and taking pictures.
Here’s an acceptable compromise, though. I captured this image in the Hunter Valley wine-growing region of Australia a few years ago. It wasn’t actually raining at the time, but it was just about to.
And how.

Perspectives on the Pont Valentre
Posted on April 13, 2018
The Pont Valentré, which bridges the river Lot in Cahors, dates from the fourteenth century, so certainly qualifies for Cee’s category this week of anything over 50 years old.
Then again, so do I….
The bridge’s four towers makes it visually appealing not only from a distance but also – unlike some – when you’re actually standing on it.

Thursday Doors: Encore Cahors
Posted on April 12, 2018
After our little diversion to Rancon over the past two weeks, it’s time to dip back into the cornucopia of interesting doors from Cahors.
Last time we featured some of the doors from the Cathedral of Saint-Etienne, one of two principal landmarks of the town. The other is the Pont Valentré:


There must be literally hundreds of doors in the narrow streets of the medieval quarter, although they aren’t all original or neglected:



Finally for this week, and just for a change, how about an artfully rusted gate?

Thursday Doors 12 April 2018
Weekly Photo Challenge: Awakening
Posted on April 12, 2018
There’s a bit of a story behind this particular image, posted in response to the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge ‘Awakening’.
In October 2004 we came to France with the express purpose of finding a house to buy. We stayed in a gîte – I can’t remember the exact location, but it was somewhere in the Vienne département – and I brought with me my first digital camera, a 3MP Olympus compact (really good lens, by the way).
One morning – upon awakening, you could say – I looked out of the bedroom window and saw the dawn mist in the shallow dip between the hamlet where we were staying and the local village.

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Breathe
Posted on April 10, 2018
This week, Frank has gone with the theme of ‘Breathe’ for his Tuesday Photo Challenge at Dutch Goes The Photo!
That’s not as straightforward as it might seem at first – or at least I didn’t find it so easy. I have plenty of images that portray something or somebody in the act of breathing, but it tends to be a background activity; breathing itself is very rarely the point of the picture.
However, applying a bit of lateral thinking….this is what happens when you (or, in this case, a grandson) breathes on a thin membrane of soap stretched on a hoop.
And since Frank was inspired to produce this prompt by a Pink Floyd song, doesn’t that bubble remind you a little of an early Floyd lightshow? (A: Yes.)

Reflections in a Volvo
Posted on April 6, 2018
Going back a few years, while we were still living in Abu Dhabi and our house here was being renovated, we would spend some of our summer holidays locally. We stayed in a Chambre d’Hôtes opposite the massive Collégiale church in Le Dorat.
Looking out of our window one afternoon, I saw this reflection in the roof of a car parked just below.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Cars, Trucks and Motorcycles
Thursday Doors: Rancon revisited (2)
Posted on April 5, 2018
This week a second set of doors from a recent return visit to the village of Rancon.
Every village in France has to have at least one hairdressers (‘Coiffure’). It’s the law, or seems to be, and Rancon is no exception. I’d have to say, though, that the adjacent blue doors and shutters are rather more interesting…

…and continue round the corner:

But what we really want is some properly tatty doors:



This last one’s a bit of a mongrel:

Thursday Doors 5 April 2018




