“And his wife made this”

The impressive architecture of St Mary’s Church in Beverley, East Yorkshire includes these graceful curves, which, to judge by the words carved on the little bust (“And his wife made this”), show a feminine touch.

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Circles and Curves

Thursday Doors: La Chatre

On a coach outing last weekend, we stopped for lunch in a town in central France called La Chatre. I’m not really sure why, since it wasn’t anywhere near any of the places we were actually visiting either before or after lunch.

Be that as it may, perhaps it was the dull, overcast conditions, but it didn’t strike me as a particularly cheerful or attractive place to be, or to spend much time in. There was a sign pointing towards a ‘medieval centre’ – although we never got anywhere near it – so perhaps I’m doing it a disservice.

I think these doors rather catch the mood of the place:

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Even these atrractive arched doorways are somewhat blighted by the accretions of grime at the top of the wall:

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This grand house has a nice enough, if shabby, front door, but oh my dear, the shutters:

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…and as for the tradesmens’ entrance:

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Maintaining the theme of grubbiness:

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But, to try and finish on an upbeat note, I liked these doors on an obviously recently refurbished building:

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Fortunately, the afternoon was spent in rather more cheerful and picturesque locations, with doors to be shared here over the next few weeks.

Thursday Doors 29 September 2016

Macro Moments: Week 12

Last Sunday, we visited the house of George Sand, the prominent 19th century French author(ess). The house itself was very grand (she was a very succesful writer) and the gardens, while past their best, nonetheless still had some interesting flowers in the beds, including this. I have no idea what it is, but it’s very pretty:

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Nikon D800 with 24-70mm f2.8 lens at 70mm. 1/90 at f2.8. ISO 100. Cropped and edited in Lightroom. I desaturated the green channel to minimise background distraction.

Macro Moments Challenge: Week 12

Tuesdays of Texture: Paint

This door – of a church on the island of Burano, in the Venetian lagoon – could really do with a fresh coat of paint.

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Tuesdays of Texture: Week 40

52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 8 – Pink

I wish I could have come up with something a bit more original than a flower for week 8 of the 52 Weeks Photo Challenge being run by The Girl That Dreams Awake. However, the truth of the matter is that pink isn’t really my colour.

However, that’s not to say this wasn’t a very nice pink poppy (complete with wasp) growing in Monet’s Garden at Giverny.

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52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 8 – Pink

Weekly Photo Challenge: Quest

Birds of prey are on a perpetual quest for food – even those that have been trained to take part in this ‘spéctacle’ at St-Germain-de-Confolens earlier this summer.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Quest

Blues Knight

Cee’s Black & White Challenge this week is looking for an image of two unrelated items. So, here’s a random juxtaposition of a suit of armour and a basket of flowers, seen in the Chateau d’Amboise.

I don’t often use selective colour, but I think it works in this case.

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Thursday Doors: St-Germain-de-Confolens – the sunny side of the street

More from St-Germain-de-Confolens this week. I should explain that the village’s main (effectively only) street runs more or less north to south alongside the Charente river. In practical terms that means that on sunny afternoons the shadows can be quite harsh. However, I think the doors are still worth looking at.

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This door’s obviously still in use:

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Unlike this one, opposite, of a closed-down restaurant…

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…which echoes the colours of the building that houses the Post Office. The modern door doesn’t have a lot to say for itself, but I like the strong geometric shape of the security grilles:

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Finally, my favourite of this week’s bunch – gloriously decrepit, with the finishing touch of a rose growing next to it:

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Thursday Doors 22 September 2016

Tuesdays of Texture: Skull

We came across this oryx skull during a safari drive on Sir Bani Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. Lots of texture here, especially rendered in this high contrast monochrome version:

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Tuesdays of Texture: Week 39

52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 7 – Time

This photograph was taken – as you can see – on New Year’s Day 2012, in the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It shows the date on both the Gregorian and Islamic (Hijri) calendars, as well as the names, in Arabic, of the five daily prayers (the display alternates with the time that the prayers are to be said on that specific day).

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52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 7 – Time