Tower and Tree

Once again, unable to take a picture, so another old one from my trip to France. This particular photo was taken outside the chateau Chaumont-sur-Loire. We arrived there in the misty drizzle of a grey February morning, only to find that our tour guide had gotten hours mixed up or something, and there would be no one at the gate to allow us into the castle for about an hour. We all went our separate ways then, wandering around the vicinity, and for me, that meant a really beautiful long, solitary walk in the first greenery I'd seen since getting to France. So I'm not complaining!

It's Friday, so this picture is the obligatory nature piece, but it's also Friday the 13th (so glad I got my teeth out yesterday and not today, eh? ;) ) and so I wanted to go with something that had kind of a creepy look to it. Beautiful as this castle and estate were, I think the castle tower with a lonely, barren black tree are also pretty Friday the 13th-ish!

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Screaming Gargoyle

Sorry this is so far after the fact, but I had an unexpected emergency extraction of all four of my wisdom teeth, two of which were impacted. Not exactly fun times, and I wasn't quite capable of getting a photo up here. I was also incapable of taking photos, so you're getting another old one for today.

This gargoyle graces the courtyard of one of the chateaux in the Loire Valley, which contains over 300 such castles. We saw several in a matter of days on my trip, so forgive me if I'm not one hundred percent certain which one this was from! I'm pretty sure it's Chambord, as I believe that was the first we went to, but either way, they all have a certain similarity. The expression on this mossy-backed fellow's face is about how I feel now the Vicodin's wearing off...

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Paper Blossoms

I've not got a great deal to say about this photo, just that it's a string of origami flowers made by my sister's friend, strung up on a cabinet in our dining room. The string of flowers was a birthday present to my sister; they were packaged and wrapped in a decorated egg carton, each flower in its own little socket, which was pretty cute.









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Notre-Dame Interior

Exactly one year ago, I was in Paris, beginning the three most adventure-packed, interesting, memorable and life-changing months of my life. To be fair, that would have been true had I been spending three months studying pretty much anywhere outside of my own country, but the fact that it was Paris, this beautiful, incredible, historical city, just made it that much better. I miss the city, the cultural differences that made me feel so out of place at first, the food (ohhh how I miss the food), the fashion, my apartment in the 5th arr., and of course the beautiful, mesmerizing, awe-inspiring pieces of history like the cathedral of Notre-Dame, less than a minute from my apartment. I lived right next to it for three months. Now, all I have is pictures like this... That is, until I get the chance to go back!

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Sunbathing Flowers

I took this picture against the fence behind my backyard swimming pool. It was only a few days ago, but that was the last lovely, warm, sunny day for a while, it seems. The day after, it started raining and getting properly wintry and gloomy again - we had torrential rain and a little thunder & lightning, for a couple of days now. I woke up this morning and thought it was still night, because the sky outside my window was so dark and gloomy.



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Daisy Summer Piper

It's Sunday again! First of all, that means it's been exactly a week since Photolumination started. Second, that means the theme today is a song lyric, although it's actually one of two that I had in mind when I took this picture...

"Daisy summer pipers come to town
Piping people out of doors
To see the magic all around
Listen now you'll hear his sound."
--Daisy Summer Pipers, by Joni Mitchell

It was taken in Central Park, in New York City last June. We were waiting in line to get tickets to Shakespeare in the Park's Hamlet, and this man was one of several entertainers who took it upon themselves to keep everyone in the long, long line happy. It worked with these two - they were dancing around and listening intently.

The other song I had in mind was Joni's "For Free" -- as in, "He was playing real good for free..."

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Le Peintre

It's Saturday, and that means the theme is people. And in this picture, you get a bonus, three (and a half) people in one -- the painter and the Madonna and infant he's painting (plus part of a woman in another painting...well, plus the portraits and bust behind him, and the knee of a goddess in a niche on the wall...needless to say, this fits the theme).

I took this photograph in March or April of last year, in the Louvre in Paris. I was quite interested in the people who came to paint their own versions of the masterpieces on display in the museum, and by the chain created when I took a picture of them creating a picture of this other famous picture... At one point I got my friend to sketch this particular artist, and I tried to take a picture of her, him, and the original masterpiece all in one, but it didn't turn out well. So I'll stick with this one.


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