From the Pennines to the Pyrenees

You’d have to have been following me a long time to know why I call my blog ‘From Pyrenees to Pennines‘. I began writing it in 2007, to record our big adventure in moving to the foothills of the French Pyrenees, to a small town, Laroque d’Olmes whose glory days as a textile manufacturing centre were long over, and where we were (almost) the only English . There we stayed till 2014, involving ourselves in local life from politics to choirs to walking groups, and falling ever deeper in love with the Pyrenees which formed the background to our lives.

Through the walking groups we came to know the mountains in every season. The abundance of meadow flowers and orchids in the spring: the relief from lowland heat in the summer: rich autumn colours that could compete with any on the planet, and deep snow in winter. We welcomed the physical challenge of yomping upwards to some high peak or plateau, and earning our panoramic picnic, and learnt to respect the mountains’ moods.

Here’s a selection of virtual postcards, which may help explain why the Pyrenees will always remain for us our Special Place.

And finally …

The view from our roof terrace. Going up to hang out the washing was no hardship.

For Karina’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #188: A Special Place

Odds & ends that didn’t get their 5 minutes of fame … until now

Becky’s Square Odds challenge has had us all producing all kinds of odds and ends to display in the blogosphere. Today is the last day, so I’m giving a chance to all those photos I thought I might use .. and didn’t.

A scarecrow supermarket delivery man in Time of Lockdown
Redundant tyres in the countryside?
Spotted on a private school’s minibus. What?
Anyone you want to keep out from here?
A wibbly wobbly reflection on an Airstream
Kids’ playground
Someone’s lost shoes in Spain
A hedgerow clock. Right twice daily.

Thanks Becky. I’ve had fun finding (square)oddities, and enjoying contributions from bloggers in every continent. Till the next time!

An odd outdoor picture frame

How odd. Out walking recently, I found a circular picture frame at the edge of a field. It hadn’t chosen its view with care. Look.

Who wants a landscape with a tatty old fence post in the foreground? If it had chosen the previous field, it could have had a portrait of an odd number of cows filling the frame.

If it had re-sited itself only slightly, it could have had part of the view shown in the header photo.

If it had applied itself, it could have taken a lesson from the frame near Brimham Rocks. That’s chosen its view with advantage.

Frankly, the frame I found hadn’t made an effort. It had taken no care with its appearance either. It was just an odd-ball.

For Becky’s Square Odds.

The Great, the Good or the Odd

Civic statues. The great. The good. The bad. The politicians, the soldiers, the rulers and poets. Women? Not so many. But the overwhelming number of civic statues are of people.

Oddly, in Barcelona there’s a lobster, a ten metre long fibreglass lobster by Spanish artist Javier Mariscal. Originally, it fronted a seafood restaurant, but when the place closed down, the city council in Barcelona bought and restored it, and installed it on Passeig Colom in Port Vell.

For Becky’s Square Odds …

… and Marsha’s Photographing Public Art Challenge.

Dragons in odd places

The header shows a splendid pair of dragons topping off a perfectly ordinary drainpipe on a perfectly ordinary house in Sagunt in the Province of Valencia. How perfectly odd. Here they both are, shown singly, to keep to the Rule of Squares.

And just to keep them company, let’s show two more dragons, gargoyles this time, one from Gdansk, and one from Krakow.

For Becky’s Square Odds.

The oddly charming drainpipes of Valencia

Mooching round Valencia old town, you may notice at roughly eye-height, little faces adorning the drainpipes. Quite what they’re for is in dispute: they may be the logos of local metalworks from the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, or they may be some kind of local tradition connected with warding off evil spirits. A few are fairly new, but mostly, they’re beginning to vanish as old and rusting fixtures and fittings disappear. It’s a shame, because these are charming: if a little odd.

For Becky’s Square Odds.

And Marsha’s Photographing Public Art Challenge #36

Odd things among the follies at Studley Royal

Last summer. the gardens of Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal celebrated some of the follies which are such an important feature, with installations by Steve Messam.

Generally, these installations were well received, and recognised for what they were, playful additions and talking points in a garden given over to pleasure rest and recreation. They were indeed ‘These Passing Things’, visible for one summer only.

For Becky’s Square Odds…

… and Marsha’s Photographing Public Art Challenge #36

PS. I prepared this post yesterday, just before I became aware of the devastating flooding at the site caused by Storm Eunice, and which you can see here.