Alison Wonderland

cloudbusting

2010-06-15T01:40:00.004+02:00

This evening , just before it got dark , there were interesting clouds in the sky above Nice.

A thunderstorm has been threatening all evening and the sky was full of thundery clouds. Not the usual thundery clouds, but Mammatus clouds - which are named because they resemble mammary glands or udders.

Of course, once I noticed I had to take a photo but by the time I got my camera, the cloud formation had softened and a few minutes later , it had disappeared altogether.

The mammatus clouds aren't very common but they usually signify heavy weather -unfortunately the storm hasn't started yet so its very clammy and headache-inducing weather.

Pretty Flamingo

2010-06-01T00:39:00.001+02:00

A few weeks back, I visited the Var estuary bird sanctuary with my new camera.
The area is called 'la petite camargue' since it is like a very tiny version of the Camargue , an area of river delta and salt marsh , further along the coast.

Its an odd little bird sanctuary, sandwiched between a huge shopping centre and the airport with the river in the middle , but its a very important stopping off point for migrating birds.

While I was there, I was quite privileged to see two Greater or European flamingoes flying in.
I didn't get any photos of the birds of the birds in flight but I was able to watch them land while I fumbled taking my camera out of my bag.

The flamingoes were slightly off course on their migration trip from North Africa back to the Camargue.
One immediately retreated into the reed beds, but the other stayed in the open.

They have such amazingly flexible necks - they manage to twizzle into snaky 's' shapes with ease.

I find it hard to see flamingoes and not think of Alice and Red Queen playing croquet -even though I know they are just quietly filtering plantkon out of the water with their peculiar-looking beaks.

The flamingo flew over to the reedbeds , nearer to its companion. The reeds grow to an amazing height and its really difficult to see anything once it has penetrated beyond the first layer.

The flamingo fluffed up briefly, showing off its bright pink feathers.
I'd love to go to the Camargue at some point and spend some time viewing [and photographing] the giant flocks of flamingoes . That is definitely something on my wish list.

Arranged

2010-05-30T19:06:00.005+02:00

A few weeks ago, the giant Marché d’Intérêt National de NICE. {MIN}, a kind of wholesale food and flower market for market traders and shops had an open weekend so that ordinary people see behind the scenes and buy merchandise.

I really admired this stall selling cacti and succluents. I thought the arrangment was really lovely but I wondered if people actually bought anything since the stall looked so much like a very ordered still life.

I like the different shapes, colours and spiny arangements on the cacti.
This huge cactus had a hefty asking price. I wouldn't fancy lugging something like that home on the bus.

Nine Inch Nails

2010-05-03T07:40:00.002+02:00

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Tourettes-Levens Mediaeval fair.

One of the acts was a comedy strongman/ acrobat/juggler team who kept the crowd thoroughly entertained.

We ended up right at the front of the crowd, so we got to test the nails and check that they weren't blunt or fake. The strongman also dropped oranges on the nails to show they were quite sharp.

The piece of yellow paper was part of the humourous banter - it was intended to make the bed of nails ''more comfortable''.

The strongman's partner went into the crowd and chose a victim to help with the act. This guy had to stand on the strongman's chest whilst the strongman lay on the nails. I always find these things worrying in case the audience member does something unexpected and dangerous -but it passed without incident, thankfully.
When the strongman sat up, we could see the many indentations in his back from the tips of the nails -though no blood or broken skin.

The strongman was also a fire-eater, he managed to produce some huge plumes of smoke and fire.

I suppose he must be used to the taste but the smell of the fuel was really quite pungent.

Photo Friday -Sexy

2010-05-01T12:47:00.006+02:00

I must admit that i couldn't think of any of my photos that could be described as 'sexy'.

So, I made a conscious effort to find something for the topic yesterday , though I was a bit limited by being in a forest.

Maybe, most humans wouldn't find the following images sexy, but I expect the photos might make spiders blush..

These are some Long Jawed Orb weaver spiders mating by a lake.

There appeared to be a fly wrapped in spider silk at about 8 o'clock on the web. I suspect that was a mating gift from the male spider.

It turns out that these Long Jawed spiders have an unusual mating strategy. Unlike some other spiders which requires the male to mate first, before all the other rivals; the Long Jawed orb weavers have a last male priority . So , its advantageous for male spiders to be the last spider lover, which accounts for the the voyeur spiders that were hanging arround the web , watching the antics.

Sunshine

2010-04-23T15:59:00.002+02:00

Our cat , Gandalf, toasting his face in a patch of sunlight. I loved the dramatic light and the reflections in his eye.

Overcast -PhotoFriday

2010-04-10T16:23:00.004+02:00

Hotel Negresco's famous dome on an overcast day.

This was taken a few weeks back when we had snow in Nice - very unusual weather for the South of France. Normally, we have blue skies most days, even in winter.

Nice and the South of France were originally winter holiday resorts as the Victorians wanted to escape the dreary Northern winters.

The dome of the Negresco pictured here was supposedly designed by Gustav Eiffel but I'm not sure if that has ever been definitely proven. Edouard Niermans was the architect for the whole hotel.

The luxury hotel opened in 1912 but was requisitioned in 1914 and used as a war hospital for wounded WW1 soldiers . The lack of high paying guests during the war and the vast expenditure on the building work bankrupted the original owner, Henri Negresco.

The Negresco Hotel is now classed as a Historic monument .

Biot and the Templars

2010-04-08T00:02:00.000+02:00

In 1209 , the Count of Provence donated the village of Biot and some of the surrounding land to the local Knights Templar. Biot became the most important and rich Templar stronghold in the area for almost one hundred years , until various Papal and Royal decress excommunicated the Templars and confiscated their lands.

Biot village celebrates the Templars every year with a mediaeval fair and re-enactments of the donation of Biot and other events in local Templar history.
There are classical music and choral music concerts, lectures and discussions, and religious services as well as the usual craftsfolk, living history troupes, acrobats and street perfomers, etc

These are some modern Templars marching off the field of combat at the fair.The costuming and attention to detail is amazing.

One drummer drumming out the pace for the marching Templars.
The standrard bearer marching in the procession.

Some other knights-I can't remember their exact allegiance but they were the opponents of the Templars in the combat displays so intended to represent the King at the time of the consfication of land in 1308.

The chainmail and helmets must have been swelteringly hot to wear in the sunshine while walking, never mind when running about with a big sword and shield.

The smith hard at work at his portable forge.

This was one of the beggar and leper troupe. They had an encampment in the village and at time wandered around announcing their presence with clappers, wooden rattles [like old fashioned footbal rattles] and bells and begging for alms.
This guy was wandering around begging kisses from people.

The makeup was excellent and even though we all knew the sores etc were fake, there was still an automatic reflex to recoil away from the affiction. It was very odd to react like that as I am not a squeamish person at all.

A very colourful character with a tame crow and a tiny terrier peeking out of the bag.
Maybe its meant to be a mediaeval version of the portable miniature chihuahua.

The crow was really amazing -raised from very young but this one wasn't able to mimic human sp[eech.

Several members of the crow family [ crows, magpies, jackdaws etc] are better talkers/mimics than the more exotic 'talking' birds and they used to be kept as pets by poorer people -right back to the middle ages.

Some of the female camp followers in the Templar procession.

On the right -the open sides of the pinafore type dress [surcot] were initially called 'Hell's windows' because it was thought that men would tempted by the daring cut away sides , which revealed the womans shape and potentially lead to men's hands wandering. Side lacing makes the surcot slightly more chaste.

On rare occasions, an elf is seen in the crowd. I've noticed one or two turning up at medieval fairs here in recent years.

The singer here was an incredibly jolly Italian chap with a very infectious grin. He was singing Mediaeval and renaissance songs and encouraging audience participation with the choruses.
The musicians in the background were trying hard to keep their faces straight.

This guy was one of several who had birds of prey for hawking. Its an American hawk of some kind, rather than a European species.

A sundial , sunny coloured house and sun dried washing on the line.

Close-up you can see the gnomen is an arrow shot into the sun. The Provençal motto translates as 'the sun shines for everyone'.

This arrow piercing a heart was on the roof of a different house.
One of the cobbled streets -fairly typical for mediaeval villages in this area.

I liked this carving of a lion or cat embedded in one of the village walls. It looked like it had been firedamaged at some point in its history but it had presumably been rescued and re-used.

Up above the streets and houses...

2010-04-06T13:04:00.003+02:00

Some atmospheric shots of the Nice observatory wreathed in clouds with a rainbow stretched over it.

The full rainbow wasn't visible but the clouds and light were very dramatic.

The rainbow didn't last long - it just faded over a cuple of minutes . The clouds around the observatory dissipated quite quickly too.

I've had the Rainbow theme tune stuck in my head since I took these photos the other evening. Its always some madly annoying song , never something I actually like.Rainbow was the UK's answer to Sesame Street in the 70s and 80s and it now has a sort of cult following. There are lots of clips on YouTube of the puppets Zippy, Bungle and George and the very odd-seeming human presenters.

You can even find the infamous risqué 'twanger' sketch that was filmed as an in-house joke but never ever broadcast.

Frosty

2010-01-21T16:19:00.006+01:00

A lot has happened in the last few months , too much to sum up in a few words. Hopefully, the worst has passed.

This is a shot of York Racecourse in the snow at the end of December. I loved the shadows from the rails and the faded colours in the sky.

I couldn't resist taking some shots of the frost on the fence posts even though i didn't have a monopod or tripod with me. [All of the macro shots are all handheld with controlled breathing.]

Close-up, frost looks like anglar foliage or moss.

Closer still, the frost crystals show off their geometric shapes.

The crystals remind me of spun glass

Incredibly tiny , and far too small for human eyes to see without magnification , but breathtakingly lovely.

Speed Of Flight

2009-09-18T00:17:00.002+02:00

Hummingbird Hawk-moths , Macroglossum stellatarum, regularly get mistaken for humming birds despite the fact that humming birds are never found in the Old World.

The moths are quite unusual as they fly during the day, even in the rain and hover when feeding from flowers.

The moths migrate to northern Europe but only breed in the warm south.
Their wings beat fast enough to make a humming noise and this also makes them very difficult to photograph.

These are the best humming bird hawk moth photos i've managed to take so far. I'm pleased I managed to get the details of eyes and long tongue.

Fly me to the moon

2009-08-14T14:37:00.002+02:00

The moon was a very interesting colour last night so i grabbed a couple of shots.
I wasn't expecting them to come out very well because i was shooting through glass.
I was also leaning on something for balance rather than using a tripod .
I was amazed to discover that this photo turnmed out to be my best moon photo ever [so far?].

I was really pleased with the amount of crater detail.

Cascade de Gairaut

2009-08-11T02:26:00.000+02:00

This weird Austrian style building and artificial waterfall is sited on the Gairaut hill in Nice.
It was built to mark the inauguration of a canal which brings water from the Vésubie river into Nice.

Work on the canal started in 1878 and finished in 1883 with the building of the waterfall and chalet style 'Maison de Garde' at Gairaut.

The water flows underneath the building and the tunnel is decorated with concrete shaped like stalactites and stalagmites . This was a popular fashion at the end of the 19th century and there are the remains of a number of similar artifical 'grottoes' around the area , though most are in poor repair.

Its very strange to walk through the tunnel and look out through the 'cave' mouths
This is a close-up of the faux-Austrian woodwork - its kind of a cross between Austrian chal;e decoration and Victorian 'gingerbread' woodwork
This is a view from the front , showing some of the artificial waterfalls. Its quite a popular place to have wedding photos taken - we saw two bridal parties while we were visiting.

The view from the site is lovely . Nice is just a sea of terracotta roofs in the valley with the Mediterranean sparking in the distance.

A view over to mont Boron and Mont Alban on the left

The Cascade de Gairaut was a popular tourist attraction in Victorian times partly because of the lovely view and excentric building and partly because it was seen as an amazing engneering feat to be celebrated and admired.
The increased water supply from the canal allowed a huge expansion in flower growing in the Nice area in the late 19th C and obviously had a major impact on the fortunes of the city of Nice .

Greensleeves

2009-07-08T15:06:00.004+02:00

This summer we have had greenfinches [Carduelis chloris , Verdier d'Europe] , nesting in the trees in our street.
At dawn and dusk the male greenfinch sings at the top of the tree - he is really pretty loud.
I've been taking quite a few photos of him every evening but sometimes there just isn't enough light .

Luckily the greenfinch started singing earlier the other day so the photos turned out quite well.
I hope our neighbours across the street don't think I'm spying on them with my camera.

This particular greenfinch is a strong acid yellow-green colour- others are more green toned and females have a duller plumage.
He is quite a smart looking fellow and is looking more groomed and sleek now that the brood have left the nest. Birds often get very dishevelled when feeding you as they have less time for grooming and they also tend to eat less than usual.

He was peering up at some yellow legged gulls on a ledge here. He seems to be very wary of gulls , and for good reason as they are quite happy to snatch up a smaller bird to feed their own young.

This is a half grown baby greenfinch waiting to be fed. For a couple of weeks he spent quite a lot of time squeaking and calling to his parents at the top of the tree. Apparently the male greenfinches will continue to feed youngsters who have left the nest , even when the female is sitting on the nest with another brood .
Tags: greenfinch, Carduelis chloris, Verdier d'Europe, photos, bird

Morning has broken

2009-06-25T15:54:00.009+02:00

I've been living in 'interesting times ' recently and not had much time for blogging.
Hopefully things will calm down for a while at least.

For once I was up at dawn around the Summer Solstice and managed to take these photos.
The little round topped building on the hill is the Nice Observatory.

This reminded me of some sort of sci film special effects-the sky looked like it was on fire.
I loved the massive wedge shaped sunbeams lighting up the angry clouds.
Its hard to believe that these thick clouds all disappeared within an hour .

You shall have a fishy on a little dishy

2009-04-29T01:43:00.003+02:00

Juvenile gulls are really well camouflaged against the pebbles with their dappled brown and white feathers.
This pair had found a fish that an angler had left on the beach.

I initially thought the angler was intending to use the fish as bait or that he had given an unwanted the fish to the gulls.

However , when the fisherman waded back to shore and saw the gulls tucking in to the fish he was really angry and tried to scare the gulls away; shouting and waving his arms.
He calmed down quite quickly [maybe because he had an audience] and ended up giving the gulls the heads and guts of the other fish he had caught.

The gulls seemed quite happy with their al fresco sashimi lunch.

Freebirds

2009-04-20T14:33:00.008+02:00

There is a very unlikely bird sanctuary in Nice - its on the River Var estuary between Nice Airport and Cap 3000 shopping centre in St Laurent du Var. Its called La Petite Camargue after the huge river delta marsh area of the Camargue far to the west.

Strangely the birds don't seem to notice the planes taking off and landing and the folk visiting the shopping centre don't seem to realise there is a river and marshy estuary right next door.

This is a little egret [Egretta garzetta] -I was lucky to grab a few photos as the egrets took off. You can just about see that it has long black legs and yellow feet.
Another little egret taking off.

Here are two little egrets walking around -they stopped every so often to hunt for fish and amphbians.
I didn't notice the cormorant until I got home- it was so well camouflaged and most of the time has its head pointed towards the reeds.
Cormorants [ Phalacrocorax carbo] spend a lot of time with their wings outstretched. Apparently their feathers are not well waterproofed and this means they need to carefully dry them off between hunting sessions.
The immature gulls in the foreground are one year old yellow legged gulls .

There are supposed to be about 270 species of birds in the sanctuary- though some are just passing through on the way north or south. There are three different species in this picture- grey herons, moor hens and black winged stilts [Himantopus himantopus] .

The male black winged stilts has a black patch on his head [ left of the heron] and the female has a mainly white head [far left of the photo].

These birds are called stilts because of their exceedingly long red legs.

The two moorhens are in between the stilts.

A grey heron [Ardea cinerea] stalking majestically across the pebbles. Grey herons are very large birds with a huge wingspan . They mainly hunt for amphibians [esp frogs] and fish but they will also eat small mammals and birds.

Ugly bug ball

2009-04-07T00:38:00.005+02:00

In spring, some of the pine trees in Portugal, Spain and the south of Franceand other parts of Europs start to acquire fluffy tufts of white similar to candy floss.

These innocuous-looking fluff balls are actually the nests of Pine processionary caterpillars Thaumatopoea pityocampa [Processionnaire du pin /chenilles processionaires in french.]

It still sounds quite harmless until you see that the trees containing the nests are less healthy looking with missing and yellowing pine needles.

The caterpillars are voracious eaters and weaken the trees by stripping the branches and reducing its growth cycle ands this in turn makes the tree more susceptible to plant disesases.
In fact, its easy to see the yellow needles and bare twigs in this photo.

As the caterpillars grow, the nest gets filled with rubbish. There is no entrance or exit to the nest, the caterpillars just push their way through the fibres. You can see one of the mature caterpillars on the outside here.
This is the final stage of caterpillar developement

I did not take any extreme close ups because these caterpillars are very dangerous.
The caterpillar hairs are extemely toxic and easily released as a defence against predators , causing terrible rashes , swelling and breathing problems [especially in the children, asthmatics and the elderly] and eye problems such as conjuntivitis and in extreme cases, galucoma and cataracts.
Even empty nests contain a lot of hairs which continue to be dangerous - some folk have reported problems from wearing clothes that are being aired in gardens next to the empty nests.

This was another ball of caterpillars perched on the edge of a kerb.

The caterpillars are also a huge problems for pet and horse owners -I've read that eating one caterpillar can kill a cat and 3 will kill a dog.

Dogs, horses [ and seemingly to a lesser degree, cats] are attracted to the pheromone trail and pick up the irritant hairs on their tongues and this can lead to necrosis and gangrene of the tongue or death if the animal isn't treated quickly enough.
Many animals every year require partial ampuataton of the tongue or have to be put to sleep after licking or eating these caterpillars.
This is straggler trying to catch up with the rest of the caterpillars on top of the kerb. The caterpillars follow a pheromone trail and are often found walking in long lines nose to tail, which is why they were given the name processionary caterpillar.
In experiments, these caterpillars can be made to wander round and round in circles endlessly following the pheromone trail.

After all the havoc of the processional stage , the caterpillars burrow into the soil and make a cocoon/crysalis. Over time they eventually hatch out as nondescript moths , who lay eggs on the pine needles and start the cycle over again.
The caterpillars have a few natural predators - cuckoos and great crested tits will eat the caterpillars untill they are covered in the irritant hairs and the hoopoes eats the cocoons when they are buried in the ground.

Humans have a variety of ways of dealing with the caterpillars - from releasing bacteria [Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki ] and chemical insecticides - to removing the beginning nests by crudely blasting them with shotguns [the spread of hairs is still possiblity though] or carefully cutting off the branches whilst wearing protective clothing, face masks and gloves and then incinerating the nest , branch and all.

Grandmother of Europe

2009-04-05T15:25:00.001+02:00

Queen Victoria was once described as the Grandmother of Europe since her many children and grandchildren married into so many of the Royal families of Europe - Spanish, Prussian, Russian etc.
Unfortunately Queen Victoria was a carrier of haemophilia and this was passed on to her descendants and played a part in the collapse of the European monarchies.

This statue of Queen Victoria and her daughters is in the Cimiez district of Nice. It was placed there in 1912 to commemorate the Queen's visits to Nice.
During the Occupation of Nice during WWII , the Queen's head was knocked off the statue but the damage was repaired after the war ended.

Queen Victoria spent several holidays in Nice , exploring the arera by carriage and train and she adored the battle of the flowers and othe rlocal festivals.
On her deathbed she is reported as syaing, "Oh, if only I were at Nice, I should recover."

This is Victoria's hotel in Cimiez - the Excelsior Hotel Regina. It was deliberately built to attract the Queen's businesss and was built in front of the hotel she had stayed in previously, destroying the view.

The building is enormous and at the time it was built many people thought it was ugly and out of place in the Cimiez since it is right beside the Roman amphitheatre.

It is a totally over the top confection , like a wedding cake gone wild.

This is the part of the builiding reserved for Queen Victoria and her party. The tower has a little crown on top to show off the Royal connections.

The west wing of the Regina building with the crown on top of the domed roof of the turret. It resembles the small crown that Queen Victoria wore after her husband, Albert, died , although the real one was made of silver to signify mourning.

A gate into the private gardens of the Regina building. The little crown is part of the decorative ironwork. Initially the garden paths were laid out for easy access by the Queen's wheelchair. The gardens were quite elaborate and had croquet lawns, tennis courts, cycle paths and a tropical green house.

The Excelsior Hotel Regina closed in 1937 and Queen Victori'as coat of arms was removed from the private chapel and placed in the Holy Trnity Chrich in Nice where she worshipped once .

The former hotel is now subdivided into chic apartments and offices.

I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly

2009-03-30T20:32:00.006+02:00

The photo Friday topic 'Extreme Closeup' was appropriate because I have just got a raynox dcr-250 supermacro lens.

This red eyed fly was sunning itself on a dead leaf and I was very impressed with the rainbow shimmer to its wings.
Flies are maybe not the most attractive subjects but I find them fascinating in extreme closeup.

I was really pleased to capture the facets of the compound eyes and its quite jolly grey and black striped torso like some kind of sport referee.

O'er the hills and o'er the main

2009-03-25T01:32:00.001+01:00

A couple of weekends ago we went to Golfe-Juan for the re-enactment of Napoleon's escape from Elba.
Napoleon Bonaparte had been exiled to the island of Elba off the coats of Italy in 1814.
His exile lasted less than a year and he managed to escape with 1,200 men on the 26th February 1815 . The group landed in Golfe-Juan a couple of days later.

This is Napoleon about to set foot on French mainland once more. I thought 'Napoleon' looked as if he was contemplating his next step and wondering how he would be received by the French people - good acting .

After landing Napoleon was given a horse and insepcted the regiments.
The real Napoleon was welcomed back with open arms as the army refused to fire on the deposed Emperor.
However, the new reign only lasted until the Battle of Waterloo -a period called Napoleon's Hundred Days although it actually lasted 111.

Sappers from the Grenadier Guards - or in French sapeurs - the engineering corps who traditionally wore beards to distinguish themselves from other soldiers. They also wore leather aprons , gauntlets and carried axes.

The French fire service are called sapeurs-pompiers because Napoleon created the fire brigade from a military engineering division and, of course, firemen still carry axes like the original sappers.
Grenadier Guards tent insignia -they have little grenade insignias around Napoleon's eagle [the word for explosive grenade comes from the french word for pomegranante [grenade] because the early greandes looked very similar in shape]

I am not sure which regiment this standard bearing soldier was from but I liked his expression and the distant tiny soldiers across the sea in the background.

Some drummers drumming.
There are a lot of re-enactors in Golfe Juan for the Napoleonic weekend. They camp in Napoleonic era tents on the beach and everything looks very authentic.

These soldiers were just waiting to take part in the parades later in the afternoon but I thought they looked like a museum tableau or maybe a still from the tv series 'Sharpe'.

And it burns, burns, burns: the ring of fire, the ring of fire

2009-03-02T12:00:00.004+01:00

Here are some photos of a fire spinner at the night carnaval in Nice.
I was playing around with long exposures to capture the trail of light.

They were taken hand held rather than on a tripod which would have helped the photos but wouldn't have been too good in the crowd.

She was using fire batons rather than poi.

Hopefully I'll manage to learn from these and get better photos next time but I liked the firey shapes that appeared.

Nice carnaval- city life

2009-03-01T18:25:00.001+01:00

Place Massena during the Nice carnaval - the sky was filled with confetti , streamers and thousands of spectators.
One of the statues in Place Massena

Lamp post and confetti
The carnval king - Roi des Masquerades. The cat mask in his hand is a reminder of last year's giant cat king. The king is ceremonially burned to mark the end of carnaval but tehre are often reminders of the previous king to symbolise the idea that 'the king is dead, long live the king'

The Queen float - towering above everyone in Place Massena. Her skirt was made up of a carnaval mask and underneath there were lots of teenagers dressed in venetian carnaval costimes. Its hard to appreciate how immense the float is , but the jester characters also attached to her skirts are much beigger than humans.
This band member's helmet is covered in silly string .

There have been some calls to ban silly string at the carnbaval since it makes such a mess , can stain costumes ,and not forgetting the chemical propellants and empty cans and lids.
I'm not sure if a ban is possible though i am not a great fan of the stuff.

A couple of bizarrely masked and costumed stilt walkers with the Queen in the background.
A traditional carnaval group playing strangely shaped natural gourd instruments.
Originally carnaval costumes were simple- a bag or stocking hat , a face blackened with soot and a gourd instrument to make a noise. Very different from the elabroate costumes today.
This balloon was controlled by people using ropes - it was raised and lowered while a woman dangled and spun above the crowd.
A closer view of the balloon woman acrobat. She posed in various gymnastic positions whilst dangling from the balloon.
The aftermath - tons of confetti, streamers and silly string containers cover the ground. You can seen part of the tram track is covered in debris. During the carnaval processions, the tram doesn't cross Place Massena.
The clean-up crew dressed in fluorescent yellow. Its amazing how quickly they get the carnaval route looking normal again .

Temple of Love

2009-02-24T20:35:00.000+01:00

This is the Temple of Love [Temple d'Amour] aka temple of Diana in Parc Chambrun, Nice.

The land was originally bought by Comte Caïs de Pierlas en 1837 and he had a botanic garden planted on the site. There are still some of the original olive trees on the site from before the botanic gardens.

Count Joseph de Chambrun then bought the land in 1876 and brought in the famous Swiss brothers, Denis et Eugène Bühler, to do further landscaping.
At one point there was an artificial waterfall - probably similar to the one on the top of Colline de Chateau in Nice centre.
The neo-classical temple was designed by the architect Philippe Randon and dedicated to Countess of Chambrun , who wanted a sort of bandstand for classical music recitals.
Winter concerts were given here in winter from 1885 - Nice was originally a winter desination rather than a summer one, due to the very mild climate.

These are the steps that lead up to the temple. Kids [and some adults slide down the sloping edges] and the marble is now polished from thousands of bottoms sliding down.

The interior ceiling is beautifully decorated with gilded rosettes. Its still in very good repair considering its age.The tops of the columns are highly decorated with bull heads and foliate decorations. The pigeons like to use them as perches -this one started to fly away at the moment i took the photo.

The 12 columns are beautiful white fluted marble. The top of the roof is 19 metres from the ground The city of Nice bought the 'temple' and a small amount of surrounding land in 1920.

Since then , the Temple of Love has become a popular and very romantic place for local people have their wedding photos taken.

He's a lumberjack and he's ok

2009-02-18T02:30:00.000+01:00

This isn't spiderman -though the colours are nearly right. In January and February we see lots of folk with chainsaws dangling from trees all over Nice.

Thankfully they are firmly attached with harnesses and ropes.

I don't think I could be a tree surgeon since I hate heights. I guess tree surgeons have different phobias.
This is the end result. The plane trees end up looking gnarled and impossibly bald but they soon sprout new shoots and branchlets.

In a few weeks the trees in the boulevard will be leafy and green again-which is really hard to imagine when the trees look so lifeless.

The palm trees get pruned too.

The huge spikes on the feet help with climbing and hanging on to the tree.

Even with the ropes and harnesses and other precautions, its still a bit creepy to watch the tree surgeons at work. I worry about people falling -even when I don't know them.

Pretty Flamingoes- happy valentine's day

2009-02-14T18:10:00.006+01:00

I thought some cute kissing flamingoes were appropriate for Valentine's day. I liked the almost heart shape made where their beaks touch.

These flamingoes live in PARC Phoenix in Nice.
I have been lucky enough to see a wild flamingo flying and landing on a beach in Antibes but I wasn't fast enough to take its photo. I think it had been blown off course and was really heading for the nearby Camargue.

Groundhog day

2009-02-02T01:57:00.000+01:00

These are actually black tailed prairie dogs Cynomys ludovicianus rather than groundhogs- but they look a little bit similar to me.

These prairie dogs live in Parc Phoenix in Nice

Prairie dogs dig elaborate burrows with separate toilet areas, a listening area near the entrance where they can listen for predators, nurseries and sleeping chambers .
Prairie dogs are very social animals -and they often 'kiss' each other - a bonding and family strengthening behaviour. After they 'kiss' the prairie dogs groom each other and generally snuggle up.
I was lucky enough to catch a couple in the act.
The name, black tailed prairie dogs, comes from the black tip on the tail -just visible in this photo.

meditation

2009-01-21T01:07:00.003+01:00

Gandalf the cat spends a lot of time appearing to meditate - especially when the window is open. He stares off into the distance without seeing anything but he is really listening very hard for the scary pigeons and seagulls.

The star shaped catchlight in his eye might have a mundane explanation like camera optics and the sunlight or maybe its a sign of cat enlightenment .

white

2009-01-15T21:42:00.004+01:00

I think a lot modern people forget that street lighting is a modern innovation so it was interesting to see how the Romans dealt with the problem of low light levels.

This is a road surface in Pompeii. The white stones were deliberately inset between the large slabs in order to help people see their way around at dusk or to catch the light from torches or lamps . Quite an ingenious solution to a problem.

As well as in the roadways, Roman people also made use of white and light coloured stones inside their houses.
In this peristyle [a covered walkway in the middle of the house surrounding a garden or courtyard] there are large pieces of geometrically shaped marble as well as a circle and cross stud pattern made up of small pieces.
This meant that people were able to walk around in the evening or night and make use of the open space and fresh air without the risk of falling into the plants or ponds.

This is some of the mosaic edging from a differnet house entrance way to light the path of any guests.
This is the imposing gateway of the House of the Faun-so called because of a dancing faun statue found there.
The greeting 'HAVE' means 'Hail' so it acted a bit like the modern doormats that say 'welcome' and with the added advantage of really impressing the neighbours.
The white lettering would have also helped the greeting stand out when guests arrived for a dinner party.

This is the faun that gives the house the name. Its actually a copy , the original is in the archaeological museum in Naples. The pond the faun is dancing in is actually an impluvium which collected and stored away rainwater. The white surrounding and the multicoloured slate tiles also make it stand out in low light.

We were there in November and by 5pm when the site closed, visibility was very poor so we were quite thankful for the Roman ingenuity that allowed us to see the last few things.

Sunrise, sunset

2009-01-06T08:10:00.000+01:00

Happy new year and all the best for 2009!

I took these photos yesterday morning when I saw the spectacular sunrise and I'm afraid it started a number of show tunes and cheesy songs playing in my head - starting with "Oh what a beautiful morning" from Oklahoma and Rolf Harris' song 'Sun Arise.'

We live on the 4/5th floor of an old apartment block so we are 'high above the chimney tops' so we get a lot of light and a view of the most amazing jumble of tv aerials .
When we first looked at the apartment it reminded me of the singing chimney sweeps from Mary Poppins because of the views over the roofs.
I particularly like this aerial against the intense orangey sky.

At the other side of the house , the sky was mottled blue and pink with candy floss clouds.
This is one of our neighbours , a yellow legged gull , calling out at passing birds. I'm not sure whether it was a cheery good morning or more of a grumpy call. I liked how he looked ,almost silhouetted against the dawn clouds.

I managed to capture the last of the sunset yesterday -it was much more subdued in colour than yesterday's sunrise by the time I managed to get home to take the photo.

Of course , this reminded me of Fiddler on the Roof and the song Sunrise, Sunset.

Invaders

2008-12-17T07:31:00.001+01:00

The south of france has a very favourable climate attracting millions of tourists but the pleasant climate also suits invading species of bird and animal and plant.

This is one of a colony of feral Fischer's Lovebirds that have taken up residence in St Jean Cap Ferrat , Beaulieu and Villefranche. Fischer's lovebirds aren't the only parrots that have taken up residence - peach faced lovebirds Agapornis roseicollis, Yellow-collared Lovebird Agapornis personatus, black cheeked lovebirds Agapornis nigrigenis have all been spotted and there is some suggestion that they are interbreeding.

Lovebirds form a lasting pair-bond, hence the name. They are called 'les inséparables' in french.
They make a lot of noise in groups and they can be destructive but i think a lot of people enjoy seeing parrots flying around -though maybe not actually nesting in their eaves.

This is an Indian silverbill Lonchura malabarica lit up as the sun was setting. as the name implies they are native to India but they have established a substantial breeding population in Nice.
They are very gregarious and often seen in flocks and groups. They move quickly and are very alert so these shots were digiscoped [shot through a telescope] so that i could stay as far away as possible.
They prefer to be beside water -this group is having a bath and one is calling out that a potential threat is lurking nearby with a camera. They flew off immediately after this shot.

A Geranium bronze butterfly Cacyreus marshalli is well camouflaged on this withered flower head. The geranium bronze is a native of South Africa where it feeds and lays its eggs on wild geranium plants.

The butterfly was accidentally introduced into the Balearic islands in the late 80s and since then has spread along the Mediterranean coast where it feeds on Pelargonium and Geranium sp. Unfortunately, it can have many generations of offspring - up to 5 in one year- so it competes with native butterflies and also causes a lot of damage to the geranium host plants.

It is not considered a pest in its native land because the numbers are well controlled by parasitoids which lay eggs in the caterpillars and eventually kill them.

Photo Friday- food

2008-11-24T15:50:00.004+01:00

One of the Niçois speciality foods is socca- a kind of chickpea pancake .

This is a mobile socca oven. Socca ovens are traditionally wood or charcoal fired. The pancake mixture is cooked on a large copper pie plate called a 'plaque de socca' . The huge pie plate is visible in the photo leaning against the oven.

This is the socca man watching the socca . The socca plate stays at the front of the oven and the wood burns at the back. The copper plate is essential to allow the heat to be distributed evenly. It takes about 6 minutes for the socca to cook. This is the socca is nearly ready to eat. It always smells wonderful - but I am allergic to chickpeas so I've never tasted it.

Photo Friday- Autumn

2008-11-17T01:47:00.008+01:00

Autumn would be hard to miss here in Nice as the trees outside our house gradually fill with European Starlings Sturnus vulgaris and the noise is unbelievable. Its like a scene from 'The Birds' by Alfred Hitchcock.

They start to appear by mid October -one or two at the beginning, then a dozen , then fifty , until it seems as if every branch of every tree in the street is covered with dark bird shapes.
The birds look almost black from a distance but close up they are speckled with white in winter plumage and have a greenish purple gloss and fewer speckles in summer

Here are a couple of the starlings sitting as if they were posing for a William Morris tapestry or wallpaper.

Starlings are very gregarious and roost in flocks of hundreds and even thousands of individuals [which is partly why they make so much noise].
Every year people park cars under the starling roost trees and come back to find the car is completely covered in guano which has a negative effect on the paintwork.
I suppose the unlucky car owners don't anticipate that hundreds of birds equals lots and lots of droppings.

Flocks of starlings make some amazing acrobatic and

I took this video today -it gives an idea of the noise and the number of starlings . The windows are all closed so imagine how loud it would be if the video hadn't been taken through glass.

Starlings are good mimics and can be taught to 'talk' like myna birds. William Shakespeare refers to the mimicry in Henry IV :

“I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak
Nothing but ‘Mortimer,’ and give it him,
To keep his anger still in motion.”

Sadly , the birds were introduced to the US in the 19th century by the American Acclimatization Society who had the bizarre goal of releasing all 600 species of bird mentioned by Shakespeare.
Under 100 starlings were initially released in Central Park but now there are estimates of over 200 million starlings in the US.

Photo Friday - sharp

2008-11-08T10:12:00.005+01:00

The sharp back end of a European hornet Vespa crabro- the stinger is not extended which would be even sharper.

Hornet stings are more potent and painful than those of wasps and bees but they actually very gentle and timid .

They definitely don't sting on sight despite the comments in the SAS survival handbook -though my kids say that's because i have been nominated the hornet press officer and i am an exception.

Hornets mainly eat flies so they are useful to humans - and in some places they are protected species.

In Gerrmany, a fine of up to 50,000 euros is levied on people killing hornets or destroying their nests.

These are the best photos i managed to get of a hornet this year - it was half way down a wall at the mediaeval village of Eze - so I did quite well getting the shots before the vertigo kicked in .

Photo Friday- Freeze Frame -Arquebus

2008-10-20T07:23:00.005+02:00

It seems like ages since I posted anything here - I have had a terrible chest infection that is finally starting to go. It seems like I have been ill for weeks and weeks. My camera has been sitting forlornly on my desk , gutted of batteries and sd card. I've only left the house for really essential things and only really been in this street or round the corner.

The topic for Photo Friday this week is 'freeze frame' and the photo I thought was best for that is the third one when I managed to catch the muzzle flash from the arquebus.

An arquebus is an early form of 15th century gun . The arquebusiers were called handgunners in english from the previous type of gun called a handgonne that was pretty much a small hand held cannon.

This arquebusier is putting the wad [ cloth or paper] into the barrel of the arquebus - he had previously put black powder [gun powder] into the barrel but the various shots i took did not turn out because the scene had so much going on in the background . Originally shot [a lead ball] would also have been put in the gun and kept in place by the wad -however at the mediaeval fair only black powder is used to give the effect without the actual bullets.

Then the ram rod was used to tamp down the shot and wad

The arquebus has a matchlock- a sort of 's' shaped device that automatically lights the gunpowder when the trigger is pulled . The 'match' is a rope soaked in saltpetre called a 'slow match' because it burned slowly [and hopefully safely if you were a gunner].
This is the instant the gunpowder explodes and the muzzle flash [the visible light produced from the combustion] .
The instant after the powder flashes - when the field is full of people firing arquebuses , the place ends up filled with a thick smoke.

Its not hard to imagine how much worse a battlefield would have been with cannon large and small thundering away as well as these early guns- not forgetting swords clashing and men and horses screams.

Even here, under controlled conditions at a mediaeval fair, people in the background are plugging their ears with their fingers -the noise is intense and leaves the ears ringing for ages afterwards.

Photo Friday -the extraordinary

2008-09-22T01:29:00.001+02:00

About 15 years ago, a couple of wolves crossed the border from Italy to France and since then around 50 have made their home in the Mercantour National Park. Wolves were previously extinct in France since 1937.

These wolves are Italian wolves ,Canis lupus italicus, also known as Apennine wolves and they are a sub species of the European Grey wolf.

These are some pictures of Italian wolves taken at Parc Alpha. They are semi-wild and like the other wolves in the parc are deliberately not habituated to humans or tamed as they are part of a breeding programme and the idea is that the offspring will be as wild as possible.

Wolves are viewed from specially constructed hides and they will stay in the treeline or leave if they hear too much noise. All the photos are taken through double glazed windows.

This is another pack of wolves at the parc - these are from eastern Europe. They are quite a bit bigger than the Italian wolves.

We were lucky enough to arrive at this hide when the wolves were feeding.

This is one of the two cubs belonging to this pack. According to the warden, we were very lucky to see the young one as they usually hide in the trees and have food brought to them.
he was quite bold and boucny, like a half grown Alsatian puppy.

This is one of the older pack members taking food back to some of the females and other cub.
Wolves will cache prey for leaner times and I was amazed when these wolves started to dig in front of us to cache some meat.

photo friday- relationship

2008-09-14T01:01:00.005+02:00

Humans have a complex relationship with animals. We destroy their habitats and then we try and save them

These are several ring-tailed lemurs, Lemur catta, with my son. The photos were taken at a small wildlife park in Tenerife , Canary Islands which is working to conserve and breed lemurs of various kinds , tamarins monkeys and some other species of small primates and also acts as a rescue centre [mainly for squirrel monkeys].

I think the lemurs decided my son was their friend, or maybe a very large two-tailed lemur. I think his camouflage trousers looked sufficiently 'ring-tailed' for him to be adopted as an honorary member of the group.
The lemurs took turn about to sit in his lap and be stroked , I think all of the lemurs snuggled up close to him and most of them climbed on him.

This seemed to be the Shakespearian Thespian among the lemurs - he seemed to be practising for a lemur version of Hamlet.
Alas, poor Yorick.Then he ate the prop and showed off his long , sharp canine teeth.

Lemurs are native to Madagascar and most lemur species are threatened or endangered. They are omnivorous though they tend to eat fruit and leaves mostly, with insects and small animals , lizards etc as smaller part of the diet.

Photo Friday- the ordinary

2008-09-06T21:24:00.001+02:00

The Common Blackbird [Turdus merula] is a very ordinary bird but its also one of my favourites.
They always seem quite inquisitive and cheeky and i suppose i can easily imagine them popping out of a pie as they do in the Sing a song of sixpence nursery rhyme .

The strange thing about blackbirds is that they are not all black. Only the adult males are truly black [with a bright orange beak], the females and the young are brownish.

This part -brown part-black blackbird is a first winter male. Eventually, all his brown freathers will tuurn black.

This male actually has some greyish-blue feathers that tone well with the scattered flower petals.

Somewhat oddly, its quite common for blackbirds to have white patches.
Completely white blackbirds which generally aren't true albinos are also possible. they are called albinistic forms and they generally have normal coloursed eyes bills and legs and varying degrees of white feathers from completely white to a speckling .

This young blackbird is hiding behind some leaves thinking that its completely hidden - lucklily I was only hunting him with a camera.

These photos are all digiscoped using a small 10x40 monocular . Digiscoping means taking photos through a spotting scope or telecope to increase the range of the camera [ usually for nature photograhy of birds or animals but its also a technique used by astronomers].

Messing Around in Boats

2008-08-20T14:00:00.001+02:00

This is a view of Port Hercule Marina in Monaco. Lots of very posh yachts are berthed here -they can be up to 135 metres long.

Needless to say, we weren't visiting a superyacht, though it can be nice walking around a marina and looking at the boats. My kids used to play a game of 'which one is our favourite ' when they were little but they hate any mention of that now.

The mountain haloed by cloud is called the La Tête de Chien [Dogs head] -it looms over Monaco , but is actually in France in the La Turbie district. La Tête de Chien is 550metres/1800 feet high so it was a very strategic military site over many turbulent centuries.

This photo was taken out on the water when we crossed the port in the bateau bus [boat bus] You can see the boat's wake in the water.

The bateau bus is a handy little ferry which crosses the port , and like the local buses only costs one euro per trip [and includes a connection with the buses if desired.]

Some smaller yachts with La Tête de Chien mountain and the Prince's palace in the background.

This is a view from the inside of the bateau bus looking over to the Prince's Palace.
The bateau bus is an electric, non-polluting boat which can take up to 50 passengers at a time. The crossing only takes 10 minutes but it saves a lot of time in comparison with a long walk around the marina.

I liked this huge midnight blue yacht. Its difficult to appreciate the massive size in a photo though.

The bateau bus passing by the midnight blue yacht. Some of these huge yachts are like floating palaces - some are as big as cruise ships but boats of that size are too big to come right into this harbour.

The bateau bus moored beside a huge sailing yacht. The sailing yacht dwarfs the bateau bus but I expect it costs a lot more than one euro to sail in it.

Photo Friday- self portrait

2008-08-17T04:14:00.003+02:00

My kids thought taking a self portrait was an incredibly emo thing to do and I was told a cell phone camera would be much more appropriate for the task. I hate cell phone cameras , I'm always taking photos of the inside of my bag by accident, so I had to make do with my normal camera.

I took quite a few completely hideous photos before deciding to use a mirror for a 'through the looking glass look'. I tried a lot of different approaches but both kids assure me that this one looks most like me in real life.

The others were somewhere on a continuum from axe murder through passport/mugshot photo to living dead. Some of them looked interesting and suitable to me but I was told they were too embarrassing for teenagers and strangers to deal with.

Photo Friday- rough

2008-08-13T00:16:00.000+02:00

Viper's bugloss , Echium vulgare , [Vipérine commune in French] is a very odd plant with rough hairy leaves and stems. Its related to the borage plant which is also hairy.

The flowers start out as pink buds and turn into purply-blue flowers with reddish stamens. The plant is sometimes known as blueweed as it looks very blue from a distance.
Its a native of Europe but has become an introduced pest in some parts of the US.

A seven-spot ladybird, Coccinella septempunctata, , [coccinelle à sept points or La Bête à bon Dieu in French] was prowling around looking for aphids.

You can see the bristles are all over the plant. The reddish spots on the stems gave us the viper part of the common name. The plant was thought to be a good remedy for snake bites due to the speckled appearance reminding people of reptile scales.

Bugloss apparently comes from the greek word for ox tongue -a description of the roughness and shape of the leaves

The ladybird sat and groomed itself for a while.

Elsewhere on the plant a spider sat in its web- the black thing looks like a beetle larva,=. , probably another ladybird

photo friday beauty

2008-08-02T20:23:00.000+02:00

I couldn't decide on a single photo for the topic of beauty so here are a few beautiful things.

This is part of the steel and glass Queen Elizabeth II courtyard roof in the British museum, London. Its apparently the biggest covered courtyard in Europe .
Its an amazing modern design and manages to blend well with the original classical style from the 1830s.

The rounded section to the left side is part of the original British library reading room -it has been covered with white limestone. [The British Library has now moved to another site near St Pancras station.]
This statues is also in the British museum -its called Lely's Venus and depicts the Goddess Venus being disturbed while bathing, and trying to cover herself with her hands.
I thought the male statue in the background looked like it was part of the story.

The Venusis from the 1st or 2nd century CE and is a Roman copy of an ancient Greek original.
The statue is supposed to have inspired the artist Rubens when painting his female nudes.

Another thing of beauty, a rainbow to brighten up a dreary day. The photo was taken at Brixham harbour, in Devon, England.
I love dandelion clocks -the ball of fluff is beautiful but as you look closer it just seems to get more and more intriguing.

monte carlo or bust

2008-07-15T00:36:00.000+02:00

My parents were visiting from Scotland a couple of weeks ago so we went for a day trip to Monaco.
Monaco , and Monte Carlo, is about 50 minutes away from Nice and the bus fare is the bargain price of 1 euro! [Public transport is heavily subsidised in this area to get people to leave their cars at home.]

We haven't visited Monaco very often , as its one of the places we tend to go to when visitors arrive. I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to take some photos of the world-famous Monte Carlo Casino building.

This is the back of the casino building -this side houses the theatre and Monte Carlo Opera house. The ballerina sculpture in the foreground is by Marco Lodola.

This is one of the amazing architectural details on the building - comedy and tragedy masks, quite appropriate for a theatre.
The mask theme is continued in mosaic

This photo give some idea of the scale of the place -its a massive complex. Even with my wide angle lens it was hard to get the full building into shot.

Many of the winged figures decorating the building all have butterfly wings.

The casino complex was designed by the architect Charles Garnier in the baroque style which accounts for the immense scale and opulence of the design.
It reminds me of an immense and lavishly decorated wedding cake with hardly a surface untouched by some beautiful ornament or moulding. It would be easy for something like this to look too busy or overdressed but instead its an amazing feast for the eyes.

This is one of the 'turrets' on the casino side of the complex- even the coloured roof tiles are arranged in a floral pattern.

Bronze sculptures decorate the roof. I loved this photo of the huge casino windows reflecting the mountains and clouds. This is one of the casino doors -though not attached to the main building. The doors acted like distorting mirrors from a funfair and everyone looks size zero and real size zero people must turn invisible.

This is the famous front entrance seen in the James Bond films etc. There were Ferrari's, Bentely's , Morgan's and other posh cars parked outside the casino entrance.
The hoi polloi from outside Monaco can visit the casino for a small fee but Monaco residents {Monegasques ] are not allowed to enter so a passport or ID papers need to be shown.

A zoomed in view of the casino clock.
As I was taking the photos, a little cock sparrow landed on the left hand statue by the clock. His little black bib is just visible.
This is a circular disc statue, fountain, and reflecting pool in the gardens opposite the casino. The huge building looks very small reflected on the disc but its probably the only way of getting most of the complex in the same shot.

Illustration Friday- foggy

2008-07-13T19:43:00.002+02:00

A couple of months back I saw some wonderful fog rolling over some hills with skeletal trees and lots of rooks and crows flying through the mist like the start of a creepy ghost film. .
Unfortunately , I was in a taxi on the way to an airport at the time and wasn't able to take a photo.

When I saw the topic was 'foggy', I thought I would do something simple based on the image in my minds eye -basically a skeletal tree, the moon and a magpie swirled around with fog but I quickly came to the conclusion that I wasn't very good at painting fog and decided to do something else.

The something else , I decided on was Count Dracula - he always seems to be wandering around up to his knees in fog.

I wasn't sure what the Count would be doing in the fog but as I was sketching his ears, I realised they reminded me of chihuahua ears.

I thought that a celebrity like Count Dracula would be swept up in the craze for teeny, tiny chihuahuas. Of course, he would have to carry his little dog everywhere or it would be constantly lost in the fog by his feet. I expect it would get plenty of exercise running around the corridors of Castle Dracula though.

Once I was happy with the Count and his mini dog , Titan, I fiddled some more with the magpie image. Its a lot better than it was but I think painting fog isn't my strong point. Maybe i just need practise.

Illustration Friday- sour

2008-07-09T16:13:00.001+02:00

This Illustration Friday topic ended up a kind of marathon. I initially wanted to do something with the Aesop's fable "Sour Grapes" aka The Fox and the Grapes.
I tried quite a few different approaches to the story and in the end decided on a graphic-y book plate type look. The fox still has hope of getting the grapes at the point and hasn't decided that they will be sour and not worth bothering about.

My other idea-that I intended to be a quick addition was a type of boiled sweet from Scotland called a soor ploom - which is Scots for sour plum.
Soor plooms are green and acidic tasting and the sweets are supposed to have been originally made to commemorate a battle near Galasheils [Scottish Borders] in 1337.

The Galasheils town motto is sour plums /soor plooms and coat of arms has a plum tree and two foxes trying to eat them -which harks back to the Aesop's fable.

When i was a kid growing up in Scotland there were still lots of traditional sweetshops that stored hundreds of different types of sweets in huge glass jars. The sweets were weighed out and poured into a little paper bag or a twist of paper.

Kids most often bought two ounces of sweets , adults usually bought sweets in quarters [ 4 oz].
Sweets aren't the same without the solemn ritual of choosing from massed ranks of glass jars but I suppose that is probably just nostalgia.

Photo Friday- spiral

2008-07-05T18:29:00.003+02:00

I saw this spiral on some ivy leaves at the base of a tree. Its a white-legged snake millipede, either Tachypodoiulus niger or Cylindroiulus londinensis urled into a defensive spiral .

The head and legs are tucked in to the interior of the spiral for protection.

This is the mini-beast unfurled and crawling around. It moves quite quickly on its many white legs -so its not the easiest thing to photograph.

You can see from the photo that it really is a millipede as they have two pairs of legs per body segment while centipedes only have one pair of legs per segment.

Froghoppers

2008-07-03T03:22:00.000+02:00

I managed to photograph a couple of froghoppers recently. Froghoppers are very small jumping insects that look surprisingly frog-like when seen close-up.

The ability to jump very high adds to the frogginess.

I was quite impressed with the bright orange eyes of this one.

Froghoppers have been recently assessed as being the most powerful jumper of all the animals -previously fleas had been considered the champions.

The new research has shown that froghoppers can leap up to 70cm into the air, which is one reason why they are hard to photograph.

As soon as they sense a camera, they leap away.

This photo helps show the scale of the insects-they are very small, about half a centimetre [0.2inch], and most are well camouflaged with brownish or greenish colours.
The nymphs of the froghopper make a 'nest' bubbles from excess plant sap. This is commonly called Cuckoo spit or snake spit. The frothy nest hides them from predators but also allows the nymphs to control their temperature and moisture levels.

Photo Friday- Religion

2008-06-28T23:50:00.000+02:00

I thought this series of photos suited the topic. This is the Anglican Parish Church at St Marychurch , South Devon.

It looks like the quintessential English Country church with a couple of yew trees and a carpet of wildflowers between the higgledy piggledy gravestones.

The blossom from a flowering cherry floated in the breeze and drifted across the grass like fine snow or confetti.

A cheeky squirrel hopped up on one of the gravestones and watched me while I was taking photos .

Another view through the graveyard to the church. A church has been on the site since the 12th century [there is a Saxon font inside the church ] and local legend says that the site was initially consecrated by St Boniface in the 8th century.

Parish registers date back to the 1500s so there is definitely a long history of religious worship here.

The building itself has been rebuilt repeatedly; most recently after being largely destroyed in 1943 by aerial bombing.

Sadly, around 26 people died in the bombing raid on the church -at least 21 sunday school children and a couple of sunday school teachers.
The churchyard has a very peaceful atmosphere despite its tragic history.

This is the church's lychgate -originally a lychgate was a roofed gate which protected the pallbearers and coffin from the elements while waiting to be formally received into consecrated ground by the parish priest.

Golden Hind

2008-06-19T21:20:00.001+02:00

This is Brixham harbour in South Devon, England. Brixham is a pretty fishing village that in Victorian times was a busy deep sea fishing port. the old fisherman's cottages are painted pastel colours and surround the harbour.

The harbour is still filled with fishing boats, and a very beautiful replica of Sir Francis Drake's galleon, the Golden Hind. [There is another full size replica of the Golden Hind berthed in St Mary Overie Dock, London]

A view from the other side of the ship shows the gun ports for cannon and some of the different deck areas, the coat of arms and Tudor style decoration.

The original Golden Hind was part of a flotilla of 5 ships which sailed off partly in exploration and partly in semi-legal piracy against Spanish ships, possessions and allies.

She was the only ship of the five to return three years later, after circumnavigating the world.

When the galleon set sail from Plymouth in 1577, she was named the Pelican - its not clear why the name was changed to the Golden Hind during the voyage.

The crow's nest is the lookout post on the top of the main mast. Its a kind of platform surrounded by a railing - and look-out was not the best job for someone with vertigo.

The Golden Hind figurehead [a hind is a female deer]. I wonder what the original Pelican figurehead looked like.
The ships tender which would have been used to row from the ship to shore when the ship at anchor and not safely moored in a harbour.
Queen Elizabeth the First was delighted with her share of the booty collected by Francis Drake's privateering . She dined on board the Golden Hind and knighted him Sir Francis Drake -though the actual knighthood ceremony was conducted by the French Ambassador for diplomatic reasons.

Queen Elizabeth might have given the original privateering charter to Drake to allow him to attack and rob Spanish ships but it would have been poor form to be seen as completely condoning and honouring in the culprit.

Photo Friday - movement

2008-06-18T00:26:00.003+02:00

I decided that these photos of a Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres [in breeding/summer plumage] would be good for the photo friday entry 'movement'.

The birds were not easy to photograph as they spent so much time bobbing their heads up and down in the water and turning stones over to find small creatures to eat. This movement is how they acquired the name 'turnstone'.

I had never seen them before until a couple of months back at Brixham harbour in Devon, England.
I managed to grab a shot of this one in a rare moment of stillness - I took quite a few photos but most were awful as the bird moved so fast and unpredictably.

This one was splashing and shaking off the water -I was quite pleased with how the water droplets came out given that it was raining heavily when i took the photos.

It seems that these birds can be long-lived- the average is about 9years and the longest living ruddy turnstone was over 19 when it died.

Gourdon and waterfall

2008-06-06T16:03:00.001+02:00

Gourdon is a mediaeval perched village [vilage perché] - built on a 760 metre high spur of rock as a defensive measure. The is nicknamed the Eagle's Nest, Le nid d'Aigle .

Gourdon is considered one of the 149 prettiest villages in France - unfortunately I visited on a stormy day so the photos of the village look more like Frankenstein's castle ...

or maybe Dracula's lair.

Normally, the pale honey stone is lit up by the sun and the buildings seem to glow -but on Wednesday the sun only appeared in brief spells before it hid again.

This is the postoffice - probably one of the most attractive post offices I've ever seen.

This is an old sweetshop with lots of lollies and traditional candied fruits on sale. There is a faded painted sign on the side wall advertising local honey.

One of the busy cafes. I liked the blue stripey parasols which echoed the pale blue sky and blue shutters.

The fountain dates to 1852. The building with the arches is the communal wash house [lavoir] , where people used to wash clothes in the days before washing machines and indoor plumbing.

This is a famous restaurant on the edge of the cliff named the Eagle's Nest, Le nid d'Aigle after the village's nickname. The terrace must have an amazing view down the valley on a good day.

Gourdon from the other side looked less imposing without the black clouds but the sky soon darkened again.
The angry sky above Gourdon village - we were having a picnic and managed to finish before the thunder, lightning and torrential rain started.

The Gorges du Loup is a massive canyon that starts beneath the village of Gourdon -the Loup [Wolf] River cuts through the 700 metre high cliffs and the road follows a little bit higher up the side of the canyon.

There are several spectacular waterfalls though most aren't easily visible from the road. You can visit the procession of waterfalls at the Saut du Loup [the Wolf Leap] between July and the end of October.

The Cascade de Courmes is one of the waterfalls in the Gorges du Loup that can be easily spotted -though its in an awkward place as far as photography is concerned.

It seems to appear at the side of the road just after going through a road tunnel cut through the rock.

The Cascade de Courmes waterfall has a 130ft/40metre drop from the top of the cliff -apparently its hard to get a photo of the falls falling straight as there is normally a wind blowing the water around.

The first photo was taken from the car window but I thought I'd get a better one by walking back from the nearest lay-by.
Unfortunately, almost as soon as I left the car, the heavens opened. Within seconds I was soaked to the skin - but I thought I might as well try and take the photo anyway. The rain was so heavy, I might as well have been in the waterfall -the camera lens was running with rainwater and the photo didn't show much more of the falls.

The rain got too heavy to see properly and I was concerned about being run over by passing cars so I didn't cross over the road to take shots of the pools and smaller drops to the gorge below.

Ah well, at least I tried.

Photo Friday - minimalism

2008-06-03T01:14:00.006+02:00

Minimalism can mean a lot of different things -in this case its related to how I took the photo rather than the photo subjects.

I have been interested in digiscoping for a while after reading about it on a few nature type blogs.
Digiscoping is using a spotting scope of some kind [including binoculars ] instead of a long camera lens.

The idea behind digiscoping was originally to save weight by reducing the amount of gear people needed to carry with them and also to reduce expense because long lenses suitable for bird photos can be prohibitively expensive.

Anyway, this is a digiscoped photo of some yellow legged gulls - using a 10x50 monocular and my Canon A720is camera -camera and monocular are both handheld -no tripods or adapters.

The chick has grown immensely on a diet of fish provided by both parents. Initially, it was a tiny bundle of fluff with long legs sticking out the bottom. Since this photo was taken the other day, the chick has had another growth spurt and its adolescent wing feathers are starting to grow.

As far as digiscoping is concerned, I'm quite pleased with the results so far -it certainly extends the range of my camera well beyond the add-on 2x teleconverter lens and with reasonable results.

Collared dove chick

2008-06-01T01:03:00.005+02:00

A couple of weeks ago a collared dove chick landed on a bar at our window. He was big enough to flutter his small wings but not fully confident in flight -so he was quite lucky to have landed on the ledge rather than the street 5 stories below.

Our cat ,Gandalf , has a love/hate relationship with the nearby birds - he loves to watch them from the windowsill but he finds their swooping and fluttery wings quite scary.

Gandalf soon spotted the chick - he could hear the faint cries of distress and I think he felt the chick was within his league.

He tried to reach up as high as he could but was not quite long enough -the chick seemed oblivious to the intrepid hunter behind the glass.

After a while, Gandalf got bored, and the chick's parents came and encouraged it to land on the ledge that runs around our apartment block. It survived, and seems to have almost reached adult size now.
This is what it will look like eventually -quite a change from a small bundle of grey feathers.

Rosemary Leaf Beetle

2008-05-26T14:50:00.000+02:00

I found these amazing metallic beetles on some lavender plants.

It turns out that they are Rosemary leaf beetles , Chrysolina americana, and they are native to Southern Europe despite the 'americana' name.

I loved the metallic green and purply stripes but they were quite difficult to photograph because they were so shiny. The last time I had such problems with strange reflections was when taking photos of a highly polished vintage car at a wedding.

It was very hard not to be reflected in the metallic gloss- in fact, the dark blob on this beetle's back, is my reflection. I suppose it makes the camouflage very effective.

The beetles are very beautiful but can be annoying for gardeners as they can cause some damage to herbs such as rosemary, lavender, thyme and sage plants. Relatively recently, they have become established in the UK

Photo Friday-difficult shot

2008-05-25T12:55:00.002+02:00

I spent a couple of hours in Parc Phoenix recently. Parc Phoenix is a sort of botanic gardens cum animal park with a huge lake for water birds. Most of the birds are varieties of duck but there are a few black swans and some pelicans.

I am quite fascinated by pelicans so I try and photograph them when I visit. Its not always easy to get decent shots because its hard to properly frame them -they are really big, odd-shaped birds.

I started photographing this one when it suddenly bolted out of the water.

I ran backwards up the slope as the pelican rushed at me with its huge wings outstretched. I thought I must have annoyed it by taking photos.
I think Pelicans have a close resemblance to pterodactyls - so there it was a strangely freaky experience having one running towards me.

The pelican veered off past me and i discovered that I hadn't been its target...
...the pelican had spotted a potential mate.

Tags: photo friday, pelican, parc phoenix, Nice

Baby Gull

2008-05-12T20:37:00.006+02:00

I looked out on the neighbouring roof today and saw that the gulls had a fluffy grey baby. I'm puzzled as to how they managed to get the chick out of the chimney where they were nesting , as its several feet above the level of the roof tiles.

Unfortunately, it was raining, very windy and getting dark so the photos are not the best but since chicks grow really quickly, i didn't want to miss my first glimpse of this one.

The baby opened its mouth and begged for food.
And mum obliged by regurgitating something delicious for tea.
I took a video with my camera -this is the first attempt at putting a video up here - I don't have much video experience but I thought the baby was cute.

Mum went off to see dad who was standing guard about 10ft away further along the roof ; the baby decided to follow her . You can just about hear the little mournful cheeps as it tells mum to come back
The chick sat down and waited for mum to return - but the female gull didn't leave the chick alone long- some humans could learn thing or two from her.

Photo Friday - Professional

2008-05-12T14:18:00.005+02:00

Ant society is very well organised . many ants have specialised roles such as nursemaids, farmers [of aphids and fungi], hunters, workers and soldiers.

The least known ant specialism is the probably that of the undertaker ants, who carry the dead bodies of their colleagues out of the ant nest and bury them in a safe place.

This is important to prevent the spread of infection and epidemics within the ant nest.

I watched this undertaker ant carry the body up and down rocks before eventually burying the body and covering the burial place with dead leaves.

Photo Friday - my little secret

2008-05-05T17:54:00.005+02:00

A male herring gull Larus argentatus guards his little secret...

His partner [top of head just visible if you look closely] is nesting inside a chimney.

Up pops the female's head and the male squawks to warn off a rival who has come too close to his nest.

Luckily, the chimneys around here aren't in use

Edited to add-
It turns out that these gulls are actually yellow legged gulls Larus michahellis - a Mediterranean sub-species of the herring gull that is now considered to be a full species of its own -also known as the yellow-legged gull or Goéland leucophée in french

Illustration Friday- Primitive- Platypus

2008-04-23T14:11:00.005+02:00

Platypuses [Ornithorhynchus anatinus ] are primitive mammals belonging to the group called the Monotremes - egg-laying mammals. The monotremes comprise of the platypus and various kinds of echidnas.

Platypuses are interesting animals and they were originally thought to have been a made-up traveller's tale - people could not believe that a mammal that swam like a beaver , had a beak like a duck, laid eggs and had a poisonous claw could really exist. At the time it was popular for carnival side shows to display things like 'mermaids' made from a taxidermied baby monkey and a large fish tail so this reaction is quite understandable.

The platypus is sometimes called a duck mole but the beak is not like a bird's bill- its a sensitive, rubbery appendage used to search the muddy bottom of streams for food such as crayfish and snails.

Platypuses are good swimmers but are quite clumsy on land, They close their eyes , ears and nostrils when they dive and they even mate whilst in the water.

The females dig long tunnels in the river banks and create a nest of leaves and grass in order to lay the eggs.

Platypus eggs are thought to be held within the females for a while and nourished before being laid. The female playtpus incubates the eggs , usually two at a time, by placing them on her belly hair and covering them with her tail.

The eggs aren't like bird eggs - they are closer to reptile eggs as the shell is soft. Its not fully known how long the babies remain in the eggs but its estimated to be about 10 days.

After the young emerge, they are fed on their mothers milk which oozes from specialised pores on her belly - platypuses are unusual mammals because they do not have defined nipples.

This is an illustration of the female platypus in her nest with her twin eggs snuggled into her belly hair. It took a long time to get the platypus looking the way i wanted- partly because reference material for platypus nurseries is not readily available and partly because platypuses are such strange looking creatures that its easy to make them look even weirder. The grass of the nest took a long time to paint too as i was starting to get really obsessive about the celtic-knotwork effect of the interwoven grass.

Photo Friday- Cold

2008-04-19T02:25:00.000+02:00

When we visited Casterino in the Alps, i took lots of photos - here are a couple I didn't post to the blog earlier.

I liked the contrast between the strangely shaped icicle and the grain of the wood behind it.

This is a photo of my son with a large star shaped snowflake caught in his hair. I just had enough time to quickly take the photo before the snowflake melted.

Monastery at Cimiez

2008-04-18T01:03:00.004+02:00

Cimiez Monastery [Monastère de Cimiez ] is close to the remains of the Roman town of Cemelenum, the archaeological museum and the Matisse museum. I think its worth visiting, though its not as well known as the other places, I mentioned.

The church is called, Our Lady of the Assumption [Notre-Dame de l'Assomption] and dates to the 15th century. However, the original monastery and church complex was founded by the Benedictine monks in the 9th century.

The Franciscans took over the monastery in 1546 and have occupied the site since then. There is a museum about the Franciscan order at the monastery but it wasn't open the day we visited since it was Sunday.

The interior of the church has some interesting carvings and three 15th century paintings by a well known local artist called Louis [or Ludovico] Bréa ,who seemed to specialise in religious art.
One of the old Trompe-l'œil painted door surrounds. A lot of the church exterior decoration was actually painted trompe-l'œil rather than carved stone and glass.
This is the 16th century cloister and part of the Franciscan monastery adjacent to the church - the monastery is still in active use. This is one of the Franciscan monks chatting to a couple of visitors.

The monastery gardens are large and impressive, though we visited at the wrong time of year to see the roses in full bloom. I expect we will go back to see the gardens in summer and also to visit the nearby cemetery where Henri Matisse and Raoul Duffy are buried.
The sunken garden was laid out in geometric flower beds and was a peaceful place to sit and meditate.

Unfortunately , when we were visiting a small dog fell off the surrounding wall into the sunken garden - luckily it landed in a recently dug flower bed but there was quite a panic until the owner checked the dog over for injuries.
I loved the interference patterns made by the water falling from the fountains.

Illustration Friday- Save - Caterina Ségurana

2008-04-08T18:49:00.001+02:00

I couldn't decide what to paint for the Illustration Friday topic "save' to start with. I was going to do something along the lines of bees storing honey or maybe squirrels hiding nuts but I really wanted to do something more dramatic.

My next idea was to do something with Grace Darling , the English woman who became famous for rescuing people from a shipwreck when the sea was too rough to launch a lifeboat.
Grace helped her lighthouse keeper father row a small boat called a coble out to the wreck and 9 people were rescued.
I was still thinking about the Grace Darling idea when I came across the monument dedicated to one of the local heroines from Nice which made me change my mind.

Her name is Catarina Ségurana in Nissart, the local Nice language, and Catherine Ségurane in French.

Catarina Ségurana was a local washerwoman [bugadiera or lavandière] at a time when washing was done by hand in rivers and streams or publicplaces with very basic facilities called lavoirs .

Lavoirs are generally covered areas with a communal trough with a diverted stream or water running through the centre. Some have facilities to burn wood to provide the cinders which were added to the wash to whiten and de-grease it. This is a public lavoir from the village of Le Broc.

Rich people employed the washerwomen to do the work because it was both exhausting and time consuming. The washing had to be pounded and soaked and rinsed , washed again and then laid out to dry in the sun.

Washerwomen had rough calloused hands due to the constant immersion in waster and exposure to the poor quality washing soaps and lye derived from the cinders.

I already knew the basics of Catarina Ségurana's story and knew that there was controversy about her importance and whether or not she really existed.

Many guidebooks report that Catarina Ségurana was a semi-legendary heroine famous from scaring away the Franco-Turkish enemy during the Siege of Nice in 1543. Often, her method of repelling the enemy is given as 'showing off her ample bare buttocks' [mooning] Mooning and mocking the enemy by exposing oneself does have a long history but this doesn't seem to be Catarina Ségurana's real story.

Instead, Catarina Ségurana inspired the Niçois when she seized one of the Turkish flags after whacking the standard bearer with her battoir [linen beater ] -a kind of wooden paddle she would have use to beat the cloth as she washed it. During the struggle with the standard bearer , local legend adds that Catarina's 'hidden parts' were exposed and this was perceived as an additional indignity for the invaders.
Later on in the seige , two more Turkish standards were seized and this destroyed the morale of the invading troops.

Catarina Ségurana's bravery is honoured by the city of Nice each year in a ceremony on the 25th of November when a wreath is placed on her monument.

My illustration depicts Catarina Ségurana holding her wooden battoir [linen beater] with the captured Turkish flag in the background.

Photo Friday - far from home.

2008-04-08T02:29:00.000+02:00

Queen Victoria's Royal Coat of Arms seems an unusual find in the middle of Nice, France. The lion and unicorn support the shield which features the three lions passant guardant of England quartered with the lion rampant of Scotland and the harp of Ireland.

The church where the arms are displayed is a typical English Anglican church and most definitely 'far from home'.

The Holy Trinity Anglican church is in Rue de la Buffa, in the heart of Nice and apparently has regular services in English all year round.

The stained glass altar windows here date to the 1920s

Queen Victoria apparently only worshipped at the church on her first visit to Nice. On subsequent visits , church services were performed in her hotel in the district of Cimiez which is north of Nice centre.

The stained glass windows and some of the paintings are Pre-Raphaelite inspired so its well worth making a detour to see -and very different from the traditional Nicois churches around Nice.

The Anglo-American Library is based in the one of the church hall rooms , which is why I ended up visiting the graveyard and church grounds on a regular basis.

The graveyard has graves from about 1830 onwards till around the first world war -there are probably about 50 graves in evidence now , though at one time the graveyard was considerably larger. Apparently the land was sold off to property developers who built the adjacent shops and high-rise apartments.

I'm not sure what happened to the graves and remains that were displaced -I'll need to check up on that next time I'm at the library.

There are some interesting statues and gravestones, including a couple of memento mori skull and bones.

One particularly moving epitaph tells of a 19year old Scottish boy who tried to rescue his parents as they were swept away crossing a 'river in torrent' near San Remo in Italy [ further down the coast]. The parents survived but the boy's body was never recovered , so the stone marks and empty grave.

I think a lot of people mistake this cherub grave marker for the grave of the hymn composer Henry Francis Lyte [author of Abide with Me] because the signs are misaligned . His real gravestone is quite plain.

Like many of the people buried in the graveyard, Henry Francis Lyte died of consumption [tuberculosis] . People suffering from lung diseases such as TB used to travel from the damp north of Europe to the sunny Mediterranean [especially Nice] in the hope of breathing more easily and living longer.

Illustration friday - Homage

2008-03-31T23:51:00.000+02:00

Its been ages since I took part in Illustration Friday but 'homage' was the first topic for ages that appealed to me.
I decided to do something of an homage to Leonardo da Vinci and my first thought was to make a Vitruvian man type thing based on a weevil monster from the BBC sci-fi series Torchwood.
I decided against that idea, although its somehow really appealing, so I might tackle it another time.

I wanted to continue with the da Vinci theme so I thought about the Mona Lisa [la Joconde in French].

The painting is now very dark due to oxidised paints and varnishes but there was probably a lot of ultramarine blue used in the original work, especially in the glazes of the background. Ultramarine was a very fashionable [and expensive] pigment derived from the gemstone lapis lazuli used by artists at the time, including da Vinci. I love the intense blue colour, hence the colour of my crocodile character's dress.

I have never managed to get the the Louvre, its on my to-do list, so i haven't actually seen the painting in real life . Until this weekend, I hadn't really studied the painting much at all so I've discovered quite a lot of new information about the Mona Lisa.

This is based on my idea of what the Mona Lisa would have been like if she had been an enigmatically smiling crocodile rather than Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a cloth merchant, so its definitely not intended to be slavish re-interpretation.

Tags: illustration friday, illustration, crocodile, mona lisa, leonardo da vinci

Almond blossom sky

2008-03-24T01:57:00.000+01:00

On the way home from the supermarket on Saturday , I noticed a beautiful young tree laden with white blossom. [I think it was a sweet almond tree.]

Honey bees were loving the pollen -this is one coming in to land on a flower.

A honey bee is just visible burrowing into the blossom here. Its a pity the branches weren't lower, I had to use the zoom and hold the camera above my head to get these shots.

The blue sky was dappled with a thin cloud layer, almost like it had been dusted with icing sugar.

Something was nagging me about the unusual dappled blue sky and white blossom combination , but I didn't work out what it till later. It turned out that the photos were incredibly reminiscent of a Vincent Van Gogh painting called Branches with Almond Blossom [Amandelbloesem in Dutch]

Van Gogh painted the almond blossom in February 1890 while living in the south of France. The painting celebrates the coming of spring and the birth of his nephew also called Vincent. Ironically, Van Gogh's own life was near its end -he died a few months later that year.

Carnival dragons

2008-03-13T18:10:00.001+01:00

The Nice carnival season has finished but i'm only now sorting through the photos .

The carnival isn't just a one day Mardi Gras event but lasts for 2 weeks and has a variety of events - day time and night-time processions , battle of the flowers and a grande finale when the Carnival King float is burned and a huge fireworks display lights up the Baie des Anges.

When our kids were small we used to mainly go to the carnival during the day time but the night time carnival is an impressive show with lit-up floats and luminous paints and make-up on the performers.

We visited the night carnival twice this year. The carnival processions are not exactly the same each time on each visit -the huge floats are the same but there are different groups of dancers, stilt walkers, musicians, folk lore groups and costumed performers etc so there is always plenty of new stuff to see.

This was one of the biggest floats -it was an immense articulated dragon creature- reminiscent of a dinosaur skeleton from the Natural History museum .
The head and tail and wings moved , the mouth opened and closed
Acrobatic people swung around on bungee straps from the wings and a magician figure dressed in black rode on the dragons head.
Photos don't do justice to this spectacular dragon

Dragon head breathing smoke.
The colourful ribs of the skeletal dragon. The ribs seemed to light up with different colours at different times.

This was a strange metal dragon vehicle piloted by 'humanoid creatures' like a cross between Mad Max renegades and Orcs. I didn't get any good photos of the 'humanoid creatures' ,unfortunately.

Dragon vehicle breathing fiery sparks. The huge dragon appearing out of the smoke and fire was a breathtaking sight.

This is a float designed by a British cartoonist called Jeremy Banx [cartoonist for the Financial Times].

The float called Neoconzilla and an interview with the cartoonist talking about his inspiration for the float is here

The Statue of Liberty is being swallowed up by the Neoconzilla monster and only the torch is visible.

Photo Friday- fuzzy

2008-03-04T02:16:00.001+01:00

I couldn't decide what to post for fuzzy -I had hoped to find some processional caterpillars of the moth , Thaumetopoea pityocampa , [if i could have done so safely] but none of the pines I've seen had any caterpillars in evidence. There were some official notices warning people with small children and dogs to beware of the caterpillars since its currently processional caterpillar season.
The caterpillar hairs are a very potent irritant and can cause dermatitis, eye irritation and extreme allergic reactions in humans and animals who touch the insect bodies.

In the end I decided to post a macro photo of our cat, Gandalf's little pink nose and fuzzy cheeks.

This is the owner of the nose, blissfully asleep . I fiddled with the colour -his nose is really as pink as in the macro photo.

Photo Friday -Art -Jelly Babies

2008-02-22T19:35:00.001+01:00

The route of the new Nice Tramway has become an open-air museum of modern art, L’Art dans la ville, with a variety of artworks by 15 international artists.

Some of the works include the jingles which announce the stations in a variety of voice tones and languages, calligraphic massages on the sides of the tram stations and special lighting under bridges and between some of the buildings.

This is the artwork by Spanish artist , Jaume Plensa, called Conversation à Nice. It is installed n the centre of Nice at place Masséna.

During the day the sculptures are an opalescent white , but at night they are lit up and cycle through a range of colours.

According to Jaume Plensa's artist statement, the figures are meant to represent the 7 continents and the ease of modern communication. Additionally , they are meant be a modern landmark almost like a lighthouse and to watch over and protect the passers-by.

I have heard a variety of suggestions about the meaning of the statues that differs from the official one - the most common theme is that the statues are cross-legged Buddhas or possibly yogis who represent the different areas of Nice [quartiers] , although people are slightly puzzled as to why Buddhas represent the quartiers.

My favourite suggestion is from my kids and their friend is that the statues are giant jelly babies!
-though I suspect that is a very ex-pat British opinion due their familiarity with the jelly baby sweets.

One of the sculptures when blue.

Huskies

2008-02-13T23:43:00.001+01:00

I'd been thrilled to see the dog sled running through the snow at Casterino when we visited the recently. I didn't get a good action shot of the dogs in action but I was pleased to at least get the full sled and dog team into one shot.

This is the musher seeing to his dogs. Musher seems like a strange sounding word but its apparently the correct term for the human in charge of the dog sled team.
He was taking them off the sled harness and making a big fuss of them all individually, which was really nice to see.

The dogs had a rest and a snack after their run. Some chose to have a quick snooze.

This dog was my favourite. It was so beautiful curdled up and sleeping in the snow. The reddish gold coloured fur seemed to glow against the white.

This dog was really lovely , especially with the fine dusting of snow on his dark furry head.
I was pleased I managed to capture a photo of his bright pink tongue.

Tags: photos, husky, huskies, dog sled, snow

photo friday - 'What Is That?'

2008-02-10T13:43:00.000+01:00

I've taken a few 'What Is That?' photos over the years. Mostly , I've managed to figure out what i've photographed but I haven't had any luck with this alien-looking plant.

The seedpods were about the size of a mango, so reasonably big , and the whole plant looked so strange that we started calling it a triffid without really noticing.

As the seedpods ripen they seem to split and release hundreds of black seeds carried on hairy parachutes.
I've spent some time looking at seed catalogues but still have no idea what this plant is.

This is an example of Teabagus arborealis -the tree dwelling tea bag. Its something that often provokes a 'What Is That?' response when out in the countryside -but further examination reveals it to be an ordinary teabag that some idiot has thrown up into the branches, rather than taking their rubbish home.

Its particularly annoying because they must be carrying a vacuum flask and cup around with them and a used tea bag isn't exactly heavy.

Snowy Mountain Sports

2008-02-07T12:25:00.000+01:00

When we visited Casterino the other day, we saw a lot of paragliders [parapente in french] .

I don't think I can ever see me doing any paragliding - I am too freaked out by heights.

I expect there is a tremendous feeling of being at one with the birds and the views must be unbelievable -but the thought of potentially smashing into the ground [or trees] at the end puts me off.

Having said that, I didn't see any bad landings so maybe its not as dangerous as I fear.

This was the landing target -it doesn't look to me like it would be very visible from the air, though most managed to land close.

I saw two little kids triumphantly carrying off some small blue flags, so the target must have become progressively more difficult to see as the afternoon went on.

A few paragliders landed in the middle of the mountain bike racers, and the billowing parachute was an awkward obstacle to cycle round.

The mountainbikers were taking part in a 4hour moutainbike relay race over snow -La 4ème édition des 4 Heures VTT sur neige.

The two-person teams had to cycle a 6km route as many times as possible in 4hours in relay. The snow was pretty thick and visibility poor so it must have been hard going.

A pile of bright red snowshoes just begged to be photographed.

A very sleek black skidoo was a more hightech approach to speeding across the snow-they make a lot of noise and have other drawbacks but they do look like they would be fun. I can't drive and I am pathetic at steering virtual machines in computer games so I'd have to give the skidoo a miss too.

We saw a dog sled pulled by some beautiful huskies -it was possible to reserve rides on the dog sled in advance, I think the price was around 35 euros per person so it would have been a bit much since there were 4 of us.

I would have liked to have taken a ride on the sledge, though, maybe another time.

I have some really lovely photos of the dogs themselves which I will post tomorrow.

Casterino in the Snow

2008-02-04T23:45:00.000+01:00

We took the Train des Neiges to Val Casterino at the weekend.
The Train des Neiges is a special train and shuttle bus that takes people to the snow for winter sports certain weekends of the year. This one departs from Nice [others leave from Marseilles and Aix and have different snowy destinations].

We had been intending to take the train des neiges to the snow for years and never managed to get organised enough to do it [a booking needs to be made a few days in advance] so it was great to finally get there.

Casterino is a tiny hamlet , high up [altitude roughly 1550 m/5085 ft] in the Alpes Maritimes close to the French-Italian border. Its strange to think that this is higher than Ben Nevis [Scotland and Britain's highest mountain] which is only 1344 metres/4406ft.

The scenery is amazing as Casterino is in the middle of three mountains - Mont Ste Marie [2740m, just under 9000ft] Monts Chajol [2293m /7500ft] and Mont Agnelet [2201m/7220ft].

Unfortunately , snow fell all day so visibility was not prefect, although it added to the impression of walking around inside a Christmas card.
I wasn't able to work out which mountain was which from my photos-maybe next time we visit, I will pay more attention.

There aren't very many buildings in the hamlet but most of them are beautiful wooden Alpine houses , with carved balconies.

I think the man standing with the bundle of red snowshoes is one of the mountain guides. In the summer people trek out from Casterino with guides ; on foot, in 4x4s and on horseback to see the famous ancient rock carvings of the Vallée des Merveilles.

I saw a man clearing thick snow from the roof -its hard to imagine that this is just a couple of hours from Nice.

The rich tones of the wood contrasted beautifully with the grey local stone stairs and snowbanks.

Casterino is surrounded by wooded slopes so there are no formal downhill ski slopes. Most of the skiing is cross country but other sports are also available such as snow shoeing, dog sledding , ice climbing, paragliding and sliding on sledges and building snow men .

Next time we go, hopefully early next month, we have decided to hire snowshoes and see more of the trails around Casterino.

Eze sunset progression

2008-01-30T03:07:00.000+01:00

I have a new computer, so I am back again.

I'm still getting used to Vista [though things have been much smoother than I expected] and I have a lot of stuff to transfer from the other hard discs, especially photos and artwork, but its absolutely brilliant to have machine of my own again.

We went back to Eze at the weekend and took Nietzsche's Path down to the sea. It was quite different from the last time I walked the route since many of the trees were bare and the bushes and plants had died back for winter.

We were lucky enough to witness the sun as it gradually set and the sky changed from blue to palest pink to deep orange and charcoal.

Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat reaches out to sea behind the two trees on the hill.

When I looked back, I could see that the rocks were tinged with pink from the sky. I'm not sure if its as visible in the photograph as it was at the time.

A soft pink sky glowing through the leafless tree branches.

The sky is darkening over Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat, which looks like a snaky island visible in the v-shaped notch [the bay of Eze sur mer is hidden at this angle]

The sky is darker and the soft pink has turned to peach.

I think the following photo is my favourite -the sky and sea were so beautifully lit and whole bay was tranquil and still.
The sun was setting behind the headland and because there was so much cloud cover it gave the effect of a glowing volcano. It reminded me somewhat of Mount Doom.
The sun had dropped further here and these were the last deep orange rays .
I loved the subtle light on the bay as the light died.

It was such a privilege to have witnessed this spectacular sunset.

Tramway

2008-01-09T02:18:00.000+01:00

I hope everyone has had a wonderful start to 2008.
As yet, I still don't have my computer sorted and I am suffering from a rotten flu-y type bug which is dragging on since just after Boxing Day- I hope I start to feel a bit more normal soon.
Surprisingly, I am feeling remarkably optimistic about 2008 despite the strange start to the year.

I had intended to take a lot of photos of the new trams and things en route but it hasn't quite worked yet-this might be an ongoing project for 2008.

The trams in Nice have been a huge success- I think they have been much more popular than was originally expected.

On the opening weekend at the end of November , the trams were free and every tram car was jampacked with people squished together like sardines. We joined the throng and went from one end to the other, which was quite an adventure.

It wasn't quite as bad as the Japanese trains where people are pushed on by white-gloved officials but it probably wasn't too far off.

Things have settled down now that the tramway is running smoothly - though the trams can be busy at rush hour and night.

Here is one of the trams approaching the station nearest the Gare SNCF [train station].
The electronic sign with red letters gives the estimated time till the next tram arrives plus the times for the ones which follow.

The trams are very sleek and shiny and the journey is pretty smooth and quick. The trams and ligne d'azur bus system are integrated so that connections from tram to bus [or vice versa] can be made using the same ticket, which is pretty good value.

There is also an all day ticket that allows unlimited travel on the tram/bus system or a 10 journey ticket that is handy for multiple journeys or travelling with other people.
(The tickets need to be validated on board the tram in the same yellow machines as on the ligne d'azur buses)
Technorati Tags: trams, Nice, tramway

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T08:38:00.001+01:00

I have been having some computer problems [my computer seems to have come to the end of its lifespan] so haven't been able to update the blog.

I'm hoping to get back online properly soon-fingers crossed.

Here is a little card I painted the other evening to wish everyone a very happy festive season and a wonderful, healthy New Year in 2008.

Technorati Tags: illustration, mouse, christmas card

Photo Friday - Travel

2007-11-14T19:01:00.001+01:00

We are just back from a family reunion in Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. We flew there from France and the rest of my immediate family flew in from Scotland.

Not so long ago this sort of thing would have been unheard of and near impossible - due to the distance, travel time, costs and dangers . Now, with local airports and budget airlines , travel is much more accessible and safe -at least for people in the West.

Its hard to imagine that people are still undertaking dangerous journeys across the sea in flimsy boats with a real risk of death-and spending all their life savings to do so.

This is a cayuco, a Senagalese fishing boat. They are normally used for fishing rivers and estuaries and not intended for sea crossings.
Basically they are a form of large canoe and this one was in a terrible state -and probably not exactly sea worthy at the start of the journey, never mind the end.

I've quickly removed the stone jetty from behind the cayuco to show the shape and size of the boat.

Tenerife is fairly close to North Africa and in recent years there has been an upsurge in the number of illegal immigrants trying enter European territory in the hope of making a new life.

Unfortunately, many people die in the attempt or end up exploited in a kind of indentured service to pay the huge amounts of money for the passage.

The cayucos are jampacked with people when they set out on the 8 to 10 day crossing and its not known how many cayucos sink on the journey. I have heard estimates that over a thousand people have died in the attempt to reach the Canary Islands since the 2006

90 men were rescued from this boat when it was intercepted. 6 people were in critical condition and sadly one man died later in hospital, probably from the effects of exposure and dehydration.

The coastguard emergency boat that intercepted the cayuco is in the foreground and the cayuco is visible behind.
When we arrived at the port to take photos we saw the bright orange emergency boats and initially thought there had been a training exercise rather than a real emergency.

It was only when we saw the rickety cayuco and the ambulances and men being lead off for medical treatment that we realized what had happened.
The Spanish red cross and medical teams were giving medical aid, food, water and clothes to the people from the cayuco inside these inflatable tents.

After medical treatment, the men are repatriated if their nationality can be established.
The cayucos are destroyed since unsafe fuel storage generally leads to the hull being impregnated with fuel. Plus so many people crammed onto a tiny boat leads to unsanitary conditions and the boats are considered hazardous to health.

Technorati Tags: cayuco, photos, tenerife, red cross

Toussaint/ Fête des Morts

2007-11-03T07:06:00.000+01:00

Here in France, the first of November is All Saints Day [la Toussaint] and second of November is the Festival of the Dead [Fête des Morts].

These two festivals have become somewhat interchangeable over the years, and its more common for people to visit their family tombs on la Toussaint. I've heard it said that this is mainly due to Toussaint being a public holiday here.

However, since there is a famous painting of families visiting a cemetery on Toussaint from 1888 [ Émile Friand] it would seem that this is definitely not a recent development.

Bunches or pots of Chrysanthemums are used to decorate the grave sites. This association of chrysanthemums and the dear departed now means that its bad luck to receive chrysanthemum flowers as a gift.

The cemetery in the centre of Nice is on top of the Colline de Chateau with a view over the sea and Nice old town. Most of the tombs are from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century and the sculpture is quite opulent-with plenty of angels and cherubs in stone.

This tombstone depicts someone rising from the grave at the last judgment when called on by an angel. I think a lot of modern visitors find it creepy to see a shrouded hand lifting up the stone.

I think this grave sculpture is really attractive-it was quite a different style and i liked the lady's peaceful expression.

Old cemeteries are often filled with children's graves-and its a reminder of how much the world has changed in the West and that most people can now expect their children to live and thrive and reach old age. And yet, such a short time ago, losing children to disease epidemics was commonplace.

This little girl is depicted here in her first communion dress, circa 1930, I think.
These little portraits were on a large family tomb which depicted many members of the same family and a considerable number of children.

The little ten year old and 4 year old somehow remind me of Mary Cassatt's painting the Sisters Some angels on pedestals, towering over the cemetery - very reminiscent of a scary Doctor Who episode called Blink where Angels statues come to life.

These angels were street performers at the Haut de Cagnes mediaeval fair. They moved quite slowly as if they were statues coming to life.

There was something quite freaky about them, even for people who more than likely hadn't watched the "Blink' episode of Doctor Who.

Some of the performers were on stilts and looked very imposing, especially when they moved suddenly. This woman was obviously taken by surprise when the tallest 'statue' started striding through the crowd..

[I've blurred the faces of non-performers in the photos slightly]

This little princess found the living statues very intriguing.

A little Knights Templar boy acting as a scale marker
Their clothing and skin was covered in a kind of clay -which must have made moving difficult- although it definitely added to the impression of statues coming to life.

The programme for the fair called them Living Gargoyles,which seems quite appropriate.

Technorati Tags: photos, tombs, cemetary, toussaint, living statues, gargoyles, street performers, stilts

Trams

2007-10-03T23:46:00.000+02:00

The Nice tramway project has been a massive disruption to the centre of Nice for a couple of years. However, the trams are at last running -though its only for practice at the moment.

The tramway is supposed to be officially starting in about 6 weeks time so I hope the finishing touches can be done on schedule.

Seeing the new gleaming trams gliding on the rails is quite exciting -at the moment people stand and watch as the trams go by. I suppose there was probably a similar reaction when the the previous tramway was built at the end of the 19th century.

Unfortunately , this old tramway stopped around 1950 due to the expanding bus network - I suppose Nice has now gone full circle in terms of public transport.

Technorati Tags: photo, tram, Nice

Photo Friday - comfort

2007-09-30T23:14:00.000+02:00

Last week was very stormy and the wheel of the seasons has definitely turned to autumn. The leaves are turning yellow and brown and soon they will be whisked away by the winds.

There is a chilly dampness in the early morning or evening air, even though the middle of the day can still be warm and sunny.

I think that thick, dark, hot chocolate is the perfect comfort drink when the wind is howling and the rain crashing down.

Technorati Tags: photo friday, hot chocolate, cup and saucer

Dragonflies

2007-09-20T14:53:00.000+02:00

Dragonflies have very ancient origins and fossils have been found of dragonflies which are up to 300million years old-long before the dinosaurs appeared on the earth.
The ancient dragonflies were huge, with wingspans of up to 30 inches [75cm]

The dragonflies in these photos are very small by comparison - the wingspan is only about 2inches [around 6cm]

They are darter dragonflies [meadowhawks in the US] -Sympetrum species but I'm not sure exactly what kind they are.

Close up , dragonflies look very mechanical with the intricate arrangements of wings and giant eyes.

The wings can look like leaded glass if the sun catches them at the right angle. The dragonfly motif was common in Art Nouveau especially in jewelery and stained glass work.

This is a close view of the legs, showing the bristles and hooked, grasping feet. When dragonflies are hunting, they use the hooks and bristled legs as a trap to snare flying insects.
They can catch insects as large as butterflies and they are beneficial to humans because they eat a lot of harmful insects.

Technorati Tags: macro, photos, dragonfly, Sympetrum, darter, meadowhawk

PhotoFriday - Fantasy

2007-09-16T13:03:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago we went to the Cagnes sur mer Mediaeval fair.
In this case, the street performers were definitely more Mordor than Mediaeval.

I'm not sure if they were definitely meant to be Orcs as I couldn't find the company name on the programme-but they looked authentic enough for the audience.

This orc was demonstrating his prowess with his strange curvy blades.

The costuming and choreography was really good-although it must have been very tiring to wear all the layers of prosthetic makeup, costumes and amour on such a hot day.

One of the Orcs put his hand on my shoulder when i was busy talking to my kids and looking in the wrong direction - I nearly leapt of of my skin when I turned to see his creepy Orc face close to my ear.

It happened too fast for my husband to photograph , though I think the look on my face would have been priceless.
They were good fun and stayed in character; wandering through the streets staging axe fights, fire eating and acrobatics.

The photo below was taken during the axe fighting. I liked the firey shields and the axes landed with impressive thumps.

One thing that always amazes me at event like this, is how often parents in the audience seem to have no appreciation of danger.
It seems to escape them that the fighters are using real axes and fire etc so allowing toddlers to wander towards the actors or lifting them up to see the action better and into the path of an axe could result in a trip to hospital or worse.

Technorati Tags: photo friday, mediaeval, cagnes sur mer, orc

Photo Friday - Old

2007-08-18T13:48:00.000+02:00

Blogger has been playing up, so a post I'd been working on for a couple of days has disappeared into the aether and I've been having trouble posting images which is annoying.

The Photo Friday topic this week is 'Old.' I have a lot of photographs that could fit the topic as I've been traveling around visiting a lot of mediaeval and Roman era places recently, but I decided that the mascot from an old Rolls Royce car would fit nicely.

The Rolls Royce mascot is called the 'Spirit of Ecstasy' It has a variety of nicknames including the Angel, Silver Lady, Flying Lady and even 'Nellie in her Nightie' after Eleanor Velasco Thornton who posed for the sculpture.

I'd originally been under the impression that the mascot was based on the dancer Isadora Duncan. Isadora Duncan died in Nice on the Promenade des Anglais outside the Negresco Hotel when her voluminous scarf became tangled in the wheels of a sports car, so I suppose I thought this was a weird irony.
The Spirit of Ecstasy sculptures have been supplied with Rolls Royce cars since 1911. They aren't made of silver [they were silver plated in the early versions] and apparently each piece is unique due to the casting method used.

The Rolls Royce was parked outside a church, its bonnet decorated with flowers for a wedding. The orange and peach colored lilies are just visible behind the mascot

Technorati Tags:
photo friday
macro
rolls royce
spirit of ecstasy
eleanor velasco thornton

Photo Friday- oddity

2007-08-11T21:48:00.000+02:00

We went to the Mediaeval fair in the mediaeval village of Haut de Cagnes last week.
Some of the street performer groups were wild and wonderful and definitely qualified as oddities.

This particular group of stilt walkers and musicians is called Bugel Noz.

A Bugel Noz is a Breton imp or sprite who steals a family's galettes [buckwheat pancakes] and their lait ribot [a fermented milk drink similar to keffir]

According to their publicity, the group is mean to represent spirits of earth, air, fire and water.
The costumes were amazing and quite believable -some children were freaked by the strange;y dressed people and others convinced they were real.
They certainly had an impish sense of fun and they used sort of buzzy kazoo things to make their voices squeak-not unlike Mr Punch's swazzle from a punch and judy show.

Technorati Tags: photo friday, stilt walkers, bugel noz,

Insects

2007-08-09T01:57:00.000+02:00

The Scarce Swallowtail Iphiclides podalirius is also known as the Sail Swallowtail because of its large sail-like wings.
Its not a particularly scare butterfly here in the south of France.
A close-up of the tails showing the orange spots and blue details -this particular butterfly has lost the tip of its tail - either in a collision with a branch or in a near-miss with a predator.
This is Dolycoris baccarum the Hairy Shield Bug [aka Sloe Bug] Punaise des Baies [translation - berry bug]
The colours are a close match for the buddleia stem it is sitting on, so it is well camouflaged.

These bugs eat sap from plant stems or berries. Berries , such as raspberries, can be tainted by a fluid produced by these bugs although they are not a major problem for gardeners.

This is the Striped shield bug Graphosoma lineatum [italicum]
The French name is Pentatome rayé which also means striped bug
It looks like a Grammar school boy wearing a striped blazer -all it needs is a straw boater hat

The same bug is spotted rather than striped underneath.

There are quite a few burnet moths found in this area of France - the commonest being the 6-spot burnet moth Zygaena filipendulae.
Its difficult to be sure which type of burnet moth this is because the wing spots are so indistinct .

I've spent a lot of time looking at books and websites trying to identify the moth but haven't been able to decide definitely one way or another.

Burnet moths fly during the day and are dramatically coloured [Aposematic colouration] to deter predators.

The colour display warns that the moths are toxic due to a cyanide based poison created by the moths themselves rather than gathered from their food.

Burnet moths remind me of family holidays in Lytham St Annes and walking through the sand dunes towards the beach and sea. There were always loads of brunet moths feeding on the plants. In my mind's eye , I can see the vividly contrasting colours of glossy black and fiery red burnet moths flying past the yellow ragwort and sun bleached marram grass.

The dunes at Lytham St Annes are a site of special scientific interest and home to a diverse range of flora and fauna. However, they are under threat from commercial sand extraction, housing developments, and erosion from recreational vehicles.
The Defend the Dunes campaign is trying to preserve Lytham St Annes dunes.

photos, butterfly, moth, shield bug, scarce swallowtail, Iphiclides podalirius
burnet moth, sloe shield bug, hairy shield bug, striped shield bug, Dolycoris baccarum, Graphosoma lineatum

Photo Friday- wet

2007-08-06T10:04:00.000+02:00

The weather has been incredibly hot here in the South of France so any chance to cool off is very welcome.
These are my husband's feet and one of my son's feet- the photo was taken while sitting having a picnic on the banks of La Levenza river by the village of La Brigue.

The natural marking on the rock made this look like a fraction sum to me -one smaller foot over two feet -but maybe that was just too much sun.

The Levenza is a tributary of the Roya river which flows down to the sea close to the border of France and Italy at Ventimiglia.

The Levenza river is much more impressive in the spring when it is swollen with melt water - but its clear and sparkling and most of all cool water to paddle in.

Technorati Tags:photo friday water levenza river

Photo Friday- Loud

2007-08-01T01:24:00.000+02:00

It's the school summer holidays and we have been busy with day trips to nearby towns and villages.
We've visited the village La Brigue twice recently -the first time just to have a look around and the second time to go to the mediaeval fair that we'd seen advertised on the first visit.

These folk are the very loud drummers and trumpeters of Asti Medioevale , an Italian Flag throwing group performing at La Brigue mediaeval Fair.

All the groups taking part in the mediaeval fair went to a local retirement/nursing home to perform for the residents, which I though was really thoughtful,although I hope no one was trying to sleep.

Some of the thrown flags are just visible here above the first row of shuttered windows.

La Brigue is surrounded by beautiful mountainous scenery, visible beyond the mustard coloured building. La Brigue village, itself, is at an altitude of 812metres [2664 feet] and is on the edge of the Mercantour National Park.
Asti Medioevale in procession, walking back towards La Brigue village
Flag throwing dates back to the mediaeval guilds and wartime flag brearers. Its very impressive to watch the flags being thrown ,waved and caught

I don't know how they managed to keep walking , playing and flag throwing while wearing the velvet costumes on such a hot summer day.

A view of the unfurled square flags as the flag throwers walk in procession. The drummers and trumpeters kept playing all day.

Technorati Tags:
photos drummers
flag throwers
la brigue
mediaeval