Zooming in on one of the many gorgeous beaches of the Gulf Coast of Florida:
Photos chosen for this week’s Photo Challenge: Muse – illustrate a subject that keeps drawing you back – the endless blue of sea and sky.
How often do you take a photo expecting it to capture the perfect scene before you only to open it up on your computer and find it’s poorly framed, the light was too wrong to fix with editing, it’s dull, flat, boring or worst of all out of focus.
This photo of Canterbury Cathedral is one out of 110 that is exactly as I had imagined it. One out of 110? Thank goodness for digital cameras!
Why Roy G. Bivolo, of course! Rainbow Raider! Have you never heard of him? Me neither. For a massively extensive list of Flash enemies, Rainbow Raider amongst them, nickname Prism, click here. Not that interested? Thought not.
Thanks to Jude for informing me that in the UK schoolchildren learn Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain as the mnemonic for the colours of the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
Forget comic books and history lessons and chill out with these stained glass windows from Canterbury Cathedral:
These disappointing photos were taken for this week’s photo challenge – ROY G. BIV – with my little and easy to handle point-and-shoot camera as my right hand is still being uncooperative.
ROY G. BIV is this week’s photo challenge – all the colours of the rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. Would you prefer a model from the Hoover Dam gift shop:
Or the real thing?
From a vintage car show at Morgan Hill, California.
Meet them when they are babies . .
Handle them when they are young and have a souvenir photo taken . . . .
Handle them when they are older and have a souvenir photo taken . . . .
Ignore the signs . . . .
Make eye contact . . . . . .
Observe them in the wild. See that big boy?
He’s a little boy. Big mama is behind him . . . .
Make them smile . . .
Make them laugh . . . .
Get into a conversation with them . . . .
Make sure you can trust your brother . . . . .
Don’t let them get hold of your arm . . . . .
Great idea Jude! When people say, ‘What happened to your arm?’ I say ‘Well . . . . when I was in Florida I was attacked by an alligator.’
Much more fun than saying, ‘I’ve had an operation on my wrist.’
No one believes me but it’s good for a laugh.
. . . . . . or Kenilworth Castle and the Right-handed Camera
As soon as we drew up to Kenilworth Castle After we drove around the town of Kenilworth for 15 minutes looking for somewhere to park our Chevy unsuitable-for-tiny-villages truck, I leapt stumbled out of the passenger seat and grabbed my camera to fight with the zip to release it from its case. The parapets of Kenilworth Castle stood out in stark relief to the azure blue sky of a perfect English summer day.
Tiny specks of tourists wandered the parapets putting into perspective the enormity of the castle. If I was quick I could capture the scene. I managed to flick the lens cap off – it dangled on its safety cord – and held my camera clumsily in my left hand. I held it up to my face but daren’t even switch it on for fear of dropping it. Himself draped the neck cord over me and my hastily donned, stupid-looking Dora the Explorer hat and I tried again.
With no fear of dropping the camera I might have been able to awkwardly press the shutter button but the framing was wrong and I couldn’t possibly pull on the zoom lever. I let the camera drop on its cord, whipped my dumb hat off in disgust and himself pulled the camera off over my head. I could have asked him to be my cameraman for the day but I was so annoyed with the whole ordeal I thrust the disgraced and useless piece of equipment back in the truck.
A right-handed camera. Who knew? I certainly didn’t. I had taken for granted that it fit neatly tucked in my right 3rd, 4th and 5th fingers leaving my index finger free for the zoom lever and my thumb for the shutter. It was a perfect fit in my right hand and clearly unusable in my left hand.
If you’ve just happened on my blog and haven’t heard me whining before, my right arm is in plaster.
On a lighter note, I was free (as free as you can be with your arm in sling) to enjoy the delights of Kenilworth Castle and its Elizabethan gardens without the pressure of recording each scene at every step.
The following information comes compliments of a mature PhD student who was holding court with a history teacher and her family at the next table in the tea room. Naturally I eavesdropped. After a quick restorative nap I committed as much as I could remember to print.
He let us them know that much of the information was not available on the internet. You would need to go to the Tower of London and read and copy out documents by hand as he had done as you cannot borrow or photocopy any of these ancient documents. He also let us them know that this was privileged information that would be divulged in his dissertation. Am I about to reveal . . . ?
According to Mr. Not-Quite-Doctor, Kenilworth Castle is mentioned in the Domesday Book – a survey of much of England and parts of Wales ordered by William the Conqueror and completed in 1086.
Kenilworth Castle was the most powerful castle in the land, much more so than its neighbour Warwick Castle, at one point housing 6000 troops as compared to the 2000 troops at Warwick.
Killing pits with weight sensitive trap doors were used at entry points. Attacking troops would fall in and be at the mercy of the castle troops. Lime mixed with water was a form of torture that would cause eyeballs to burst and fatal burns. It was a political stronghold.
I knew of Warwick Castle but had never heard of Kenilworth Castle until I picked it off the road atlas map as being the nearest garden to our campsite near Coventry. You revolutionaries in the US may not have heard of either castle.
John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, turned the medieval castle into a fortress late in the 14th c. He was one of the most powerful men of his time owning 30 castles and land in virtually every county in England. His legitimate heirs included Kings Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI.
Rulers were always wary of castles as they were seats of power so according to Mr. NQD the very first Act of Parliament was to destroy Kenilworth Castle as it was a threat to the seat of government.
Part of Kenilworth Castle was destroyed by Parliamentary forces in 1649 but I can’t substantiate this as a first act of parliament and that is way past John of G’s time. In fact, the dates are completely wrong. Is this one of Mr. NQD’s secret facts or did I zone out after a dose of sunshine? If he’d known I was listening he’d have kept his voice down. If I hadn’t had a tantrum over my frustrating (albeit temporary, yes I know that) disability I would have had my phone with me and could have recorded him verbatim and could wow you with many more fascinating facts.
I have padded this post out with some Google images but none of them are as perfect as the pictures that are in my mind’s eye: the jutting ruin and every space within filled with families picnicking, children frolicking, couples courting, teens bounding, all on the green, green grass under the blue, blue sky. The fact that it was at odds with the gory, impromptu history lesson made the present day scene even more delightful. It was a lost photo opportunity. I just hate that.
Do you have any missed photo opportunities that play on your mind still?
Do you have a right-handed camera? Is there such a thing as a left-handed camera?
Hoping to see Old Faithful and Yogi Bear when visiting Yellowstone National Park, I found Old Faithful but was disappointed not to find the Bear. But better still, and to my utter delight I discovered these Vivid pools:
These astonishing colours have an astonishing explanation: heat and bacteria. if you want to know the science click here.
If you want to see more pretty colours in the WordPress Photo Challenge, click here!
So where’s Yogi? Have you seen him?
Purple Haze all in my brain,
lately things don’t seem the same,
actin’ funny but I don’t know why
‘scuse me while I kiss the sky.
~Jimi Hendrix
On the Way in a roundabout way from the train station to Seville Cathedral in 2006 we happened (as we do in our unplanned way) on La Noria (Ferris Wheel) in Prado de San Sebastian, the whole of which was enveloped in a purple haze of Jacaranda blossom.
. . . without Bill Bryson.
As part of Sudbourne Manor given to Bishop Æthelwold by Kind Edgar C959-963 who then granted the land to a Benedictine Monastery, this ancient woodland has been owned by bishops, noblemen and moneyed landowners through the centuries until more recently it was acquired by Suffolk Wildlife Trust. It showcases, if I can use use that word in the same paragraph with ‘wildlife trust,’ a breathtaking display of bluebells in the spring.
Would you care to join me Restless Jo for a stroll in the bluebell wood?
A bench with a view,
Of a sea of blue,
There’s water here too,
But no beach for you,
Jude.
Which Way Now 101 