Welcome to a brand new month. Back to school in many areas.
Super September!

Shall we begin September (though still over 6 hours left of August) with a volcano? This is Mt Taranaki/Egmont, the volcano had not been visible for about 10 days but on one day while I was there it was like this. An interesting Maori legend as to how this volcano found itself here all alone.

A hillside of wild lupins near Brunico in the South Tyrol in June this year. Such a pretty area with some wonderful cuisine

Seen in northeastern New Mexico.

For someone who lives in the desert I seem to have a lot of greenery in my backyard. I didn't plant all this stuff but I did find some interesting things. I'll post some pictures in the next few days.

More night material now I know how. On the right is the junction of Ossulton Way, Hampstead Garden Suburb, where I lived from 1965-93. Being one of the most expensive areas in the world (it has reached number one) I wasn't able to stay there on my own means but my mother still lives a few roads away so haven't entirely lost my connection.

This is the renown Britannia Royal Naval College which overlooks Dartmouth in Devon and which
is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. I took this from Kingswear on the other side of
the River Dart.



(Yes, it was built on a slope like that, honest!)

Love all the photos, particularly your wild lupins, Sellavee!

Yesterday I visited the Chapel of Sainte Barbe, in the Le Faouët area of Brittany. The church has the particularity of being constructed on the north/south axis rather than the traditional east/west one, and thus has the alter facing sideways-on rather than at the end of a long central aisle. In front of the altar there is, as in many Breton and French churches, a model of a boat hanging from the vaulted ceiling:



Edit: I've just been checking out the significance of the model ships. They are known as ex-voto maritime. The story goes that sailors, on finding themselves in a perilous situation, would often pray to the Virgin Mary, asking her to intercede and keep them safe. On returning safely to land they would offer the church a token of their thanks, in the form of a model of the ship they had been on, a painting, a piece of their ship, some rope or cordage or other such 'souvenir'. These ex-voto are kept in the church, and displayed in the regular processionnals which take place once or twice a year, when statues and other relics are paraded around the local area and back to the church. Even nowadays these pardons are commonplace, and draw large numbers of people, finishing up with a communal meal and festivities late into the night.

Wikipedia explanation

After a pleasant overnight ferry journey with a room to myself and a late dinner where I had to ask a Norwegian couple if I could sit at their table, we are arriving in Copenhagen. See, the Disney cruise ship did beat us here. Not much sunshine in Scandinavia so far....

Scary gondola trip overlooking Garmisch Partenkirken with the Zugspitze in the background...

Looking at all the alien shrubbery in my new back yard I found two avocado trees. Guacamole anyone?

The Golden Jubilee fountain in Hampton Court

Great photos everyone. Havn't taken much lately due to a variety of reasons, mainly decorators and workmen. Hope to do better soon though, but in the meantime I'm enjoying everyone elses shots.

Santana, that was interesting about the ships, having recently returned from Brittany I actually saw some of these ships and artifacts in a couple of churches.

Here is a picture of Conwy marina, taken last Monday.

I will break up the Mt Egmont/Taranaki photos with a few others around the New Plymouth area. This is the Waiwhakaiho River at the Meeting of the Waters Scenic Reserve. Looked like there were some good walks around this area but I did not have time to see what they were like.

September's off to a great start.

Sunflowers in Salt Lake City, Utah. Seen while on my walk early in the morning.

They would have been good for the monthly "S" theme too!

Here's a shot of the exterior of the chapel of St Barbe, Brittany, as seen through the pillared stairway:

These flowers grow at the tip of branches on a desert willow, which has leaves that look like a willow tree (this one is about 3 meters tall) but is really part of a family of flowering plants. Some have white, pink or purple flowers.

The Rick pond in Hampton Court, with the River Thames behind in front of the buildings on Portsmouth Road, Surbiton

Good to see the 'spring' flowers in ClaraSue and CmdrK's photos!

The pics are lovely - I especially love the sunflowers. They're my favourite.

My poor camera is sadly neglected but my ipod is never far away to catch a funny sight. This little bearded dragon doing some tight rope walking
I'd say he's only just waking up from winter as he's a bit on the skinny side!

Here's another flower to keep redwaldo thinking of Spring! I don't know what these are called but they seem to be one of Nevada's favorite flowers. You see them everywhere. Each individual blossom is only about 8mm. It's hard to get a good picture even with a macro setting. Or maybe my camera has bad optics.

Alexandra Palace from Highgate



This is where our first TV broadcasts came from as it was so high up, and the TV part closed around the 80s when the Open University stopped using it as their studios. The rest is used for exhibitions and ice skating etc, but had to be refitted after it burnt to a shell around 30 years ago.

Loving all the photos, especially that cool bearded dragon!

Apologies for fuzziness and not being centred, but I was just so happy that I reacted quickly enough to catch this chap when he flew for me the other day!

I think that it not being centred makes it!