Naples

My granddaughter's hair

This is the park in Kingsbury where my aunt and late uncle used to walk their two labradors from the late 60s onwards.

So that's your living room Szabs?

Super photos! Szabs, yours make me just a bit "homesick" at times

Nice and sunny out today, though still cold, and Precious was fascinated by my neighbour's empty recycling box.

Wallsend on Tyne The Green



A town whos' main industries were Ship building and coal mining The Green was an area on the outskirts where the better-off lived

Duck!

I am looking forward to my next trip to England in April! Yum

Drool...fish....

Another sign Spring is on the way Crocuses or Croci

Tropical Kingfisher
Panama

A little bit of old England remains in Chenies, this is about 25 miles NW of London.

"You may take My Freedom, but You'll never take My Ears...."



(Butu being A Big Brave Boy at the Vet's)

Oh I just love Butu! What a stoic expression. Aw!!

Are TARDIS sightings allowed?

I picked a little bunch of mixed salvia flowers, thinking they are the colours of our flag. Then I realised quite a number of us have national flags in red, white and blue.

A frost laden tree in a churchyard, took from the bedroom window of a property i was working in at the backend of last year.

Awww Butu, your adorable and don't worry, you will soon outgrow that cage.

Ren now that you saw my living room here is my pantry...

Liz this is just to make your mouth water just a tad!

These are the typical Spanish Serrano hams, they should always be hung, and the little white cups you see underneath is to catch fat drops, as the hams sweat quite a bit. This picture is taken in a typical bodega/tapa bar restaurant, where you can just go in for a few drinks and a plate of ham and cheese or other tapas.

Oh, yum! I found some rather nice packaged (and expensive...) Serrano ham here recently, but that is the real thing

Right when the Geraniums begin to make their presence known...

The Marigolds are starting to fade. They lasted three months. I plan to replace them with pink Impatients. But not until the orange from the Marigolds have done their part in giving me a little green, white and orange for St. Patrick's Day. Then by Easter this bed should be lovely, dressed in pink and red.

Tonights Sunset



I just stepped out the house about 6pm to take Lady the dog for a walk just had to go back for the camera when I saw this sky

How beautiful!!

Stunning, Gees!

Now the crocuses and primroses are out, a reminder of notsolongago...

This is the clock tower at the University of Western Australia - it's a very well known landmark in Perth. Last March we had a terrible hailstorm and the area around the university (Nedlands) was the worst hit. Many of the windows in this building were smashed by the hailstones (which were as big as golfballs), hence all the scaffolding you can see in the picture as they repair the damage. Regular visitors to this forum may recall that I used to work nearby and that my car was also severely damaged in the storm. My windows were broken and the body of the car resembled the lunar surface with hundreds of small dents. My daughter nicknamed the car "Dimples" - the insurance companies were mostly just writing off the thousands of damaged cars but I am happy to say that my insurance company paid for Dimples to be fixed. After two accidents (not my fault) and the hailstorm, all within six months, I now drive the most expensive Nissan Pulsar in town.

One of my little jobs online is to help look after the pre-Worboys (ie before 1964) UK sign pool, and part involves deciding which signs are actually eligible or not. Not remembering more than half myself, as although they were discontinued then many remained well into the 80s before they started becoming rare. This is a perfect example I stumbled across today, and bear in mind despite its almost perfect condition it's at least 46 years old.

I look at a number of preliminary criteria which instantly disqualify it if wrong, the font and design. This one reaches stage two, it's either made nationally so passes, or privately or by the local council in which case it still fails as they made signs in the style of the time but not the format. This sign is on a public road, but as it points to a private garage tells me the owner applied to the council for a sign as people kept parking in front of it and they allowed it to be made. It's still a beauty but would be nice if it scored another official point as well.

Spent the day at the lake today again. With this year being such a good one with the rain and the season there is an abundance of insects. I've never seen so many dragonflies and here is one that came very close.

Great shot of the dragonfly!



Shrimp Plant

Before I carry on with the San Francisco area, a quick trip to my home town with a ship arriving at the Port of Timaru.

or maybe not as the photo is not showing so I will try again later.

MG, I was looking up Sevilla, Spain for a tiny item I will post and I was interested in the Cathedral I visited when I was there. It has a tower made over from the original minaret of the muslim mosque which was on the site (Christopher Columbus is intered in the Cathedral! REM Sevilla is one of the world's largest inland ports thanks to the very navigable Quadilahara River) Anyway, your clock tower looks as if the design was based on the Cathedrals bell tower/minaret.
I'll share the image of the small thing here rather than the fortnight. While we were in Sevilla, the Festival of Semana Santa (Holy Week) was going on. Being from America, I wondered what had drawn all the KKK members to Spain while I was on vacation. It wasn't that group at all but Catholic penitents of various parishes donned in their particular colors in a native costume. The worshipers all carry candles. But rivalry between villages tends to transcend the observance so Diputados are needed to keep peace. They are identifiable by their different arrangement of color and that they carry staffs. I purchased this 2 inch plastic souvenir from that visit. Maybe Spanishliz or szabs can verify or correct that blah blah blah? Sorry about the focusing, the thing is tiny. You can just make out the eye holes cut in the face area.

Not a brilliant picture, but an unusual subject - a two-toed sloth...