… comes from the Museu Blau – the Museu de Ciènces Naturals de Barcelona. It’s not on the tourist trail, so it was blissfully empty. I took lots of photos with my camera, but I can’t download them till I get back to England, so here is the last from my phone: a selection of shells.
For Brian’s Last on the Card.
It was just five years ago this week that my whole family revealed the outcome of a Cunning Plot, months in the planning. Every single one of my chidren (three) and their partners and children conspired to get themselves to a holiday house in Catalonia, and then get me (and Malcolm of course) there too, without my suspecting a thing, to celebrate – extremely belatedly – my 70th birthday.
We had a whole weekend of catching up, of playtimes, of long lazy meals and silliness on the beach …
… and the memories will last me for the rest of my life.
For Becky’s #SquaresRenew Challenge, she’s inviting us to post square – only square – photos on the themes of Burgeoning; Moving Forward; Reconstruction; or Renewal.
That’s what the old saying says: ‘Eat breakfast like a king; lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper’. In other words, make the first meal of the day your best. And it’s easy enough with a bakery like this just down the road: easy to renew your energy and begin the day – even on Sunday!
For Becky’s #SquaresRenew.
Here in Premià de Mar, I’ve found evidence of people putting their Best Foot Forward – here’s a man on a mission …
… and three women on a different kind of mission – to master the steps of the Sardana, so they can join in a street party.
All in the interests of Becky’s challenge, inviting us to find posts illustrating Burgeoning – Moving Forward – Reconstructing – Renewing.
Everybody knows that Antoni Gaudí’s La Sagrada Familia is the oldest new church in (probably) the world. Begun in 1882, it may finally be finished in 2026. Promises, promises. It’s certainly been burgeoning for years.
The header photo, taken from the flat where Emily’s partner Miquel once lived shows how this monumental edifice dominates the skyline in a city where so many modern buildings scrape the sky.
For Becky’s #SquaresRenew
The sea is greedily consuming the beaches of the Maresme coast, Catalonia. So here in Premià de Mar, the council is building a series of groynes going out into the sea to prevent the sand being swept away and to encourage it to creep back to the shore.
For Becky’s #SquaresRenew
That’s the task of the conscientious fisherman, every time his boat returns to land, laden with fish.
For Becky’s #Squares Renew
Paula, who blogs at Lost in Translation, offers each month a different set of five words to illustrate. Look at this month’s: sabulous; brimming; guarding; berthing and bight. Interesting, aren’t they? I bet you had to haul the dictionary out for one, maybe two of them.
It was bight that caught my eye. It actually means …
But it doesn’t mean that to me. Like so many Brits, I’m a devotee of the Shipping Forecast, that four-times-daily forecast to anyone out at sea within reach of the British coast. The coastal waters are divided into zones, each evocatively named.
I’m not out at sea, dicing with the elements: I’m a rotten sailor anyway. But I can be soothed by the predictable poetic rhythms of the regular broadcast. Do watch this explanatory video. It’ll take up under two minutes of your life.
It’s so much a part of my life, I even have a cushion showing many of the much-loved names.
… and there you’ll have spotted it. German Bight. So that’s what Bight means to me. Ships at sea, their crew always ready, four times a day, to tune into that most necessary programme.
It seems only right then, that my four remaining photos should have been taken on the sea, or at any rate by the sea. Here they are …
This week for the Lens-Artist Challenge, John invites us to focus on the tools we consider when taking photographs: Shape, Form, Texture, and Light.
Sarah of Travel with Me fame (You don’t follow her? Why not?) decided to focus on texture alone in her role as Guest Presenter for Leanne’s Monochrome Madness . I’ve decided to follow her excellent example.
I often like to use monochrome to ‘describe’ texture. It seems to highlight shape, form and – er- yes, texture to advantage, with no colour to distract the eye.
In fact my featured photo of nearby Brimham Rocks is changed very little by the use of monochrome. The sky was a bright azure blue that day, with whiteish clouds. Realistically, grey is so much more authentic this year.
Let’s stay with the natural world, and go to Mossyard Bay in Dumfries and Galloway, to inspect the rocks there, and a sheltered pool as the tide goes out.
We’ll stay by the sea, but in Arenys de Mar in Spain this time. A rusting chain, a decaying lump of concrete in the fishing port.
More man-made creations, battered by wind and weather. A has-been saint awaits repair in the stone mason’s yard at Rheims Cathedral.
And here’s a characterful shuttered window that’s lived a long life in a village in the Hérault, France.
An English country garden, complete with bee.
… an icy puddle …
And let’s leave you with that most Yorkshire of animals, a sheep: happy to show off a magnificent fleece, magnificent horns.
A few shots from our recent stay: only one is from Barcelona. It’s not hard to tell which one.
For Debbie’s One Word Sunday.
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