The Gothic Revival, or Victorian Gothic style Boyd Gate House (1879) in San Rafael, California. Now the home of the Marin (County) History Museum.

That is a great house! I think I could die happy there LOL. I love that first floor verandah - just lovely.

I'm glad my photos are being so well received. I took about 500 so they'll keep me going for a while! lol (There's a lot of competition from all the other fabuloUs pictures on here.)

We also went to Verona, the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet & this is a shot of Juliet's Balcony.

my son did some archery at a school sporty day a couple weeks ago.

Oooooo ... archery and sons. Reminds me of the time my son thought he'd practise in his bedroom. He had no idea an arrow could get stuck in a window. *rolls eyes*

Nice museum there Paul.

Hey, Copago - here's a trivia question for you: what's the connection between your target photo and the film "The Red Shoes"?

Paul

Coffee beans

It's harvesting time, and the workers pick every day from 5am to 1pm. You need dexterous fingers and a nimble body to be a good picker, as only the red ones must end up in the basket. The coffee bushes are planted on the mountainsides with zigzag paths to work the bushes from. Hard work for little pay, the workers get paid $4 to $6 per basket, 11.5 kilos or 25lbs worth. A family picking including the kids, will earn $40-$45/day. Most Costa Rican coffee gets sold to the highpriced Starbucks.

edited to correct wages earned

Spotted this fellow when I was out walking yesterday, and he posed for me

ahh well there you go - that's my new info learnt for the day, Paul!
We don't allow linking to images apart from Photobucket so I took the image out of your post and just left the link to the photo.

Just after sunset on Saturday night:

A grey and wet Venice. Here is St. Mark's Basilica & square. (At least the bad weather kept the crowds, smell & pigeons at acceptable levels!)

Very interesting MadMags, worthy of the old "what is it?" thread. I'm thinking a bottle cap?

Anyway, here's Precious, helping with the Christmas lights

Charming old house in Healdsburg, California. April 2008. An example of when it pays to use flash in the daytime.

Thank you liz. You're right, it's a Bailey's if I remember correctly. Was taken a couple of months ago, by candlelight. Armchair photography.

Looks like Precious has settled in very nicely!

Back to Lake Garda. I took a boat to the town of Limone. Lots of steep, narrow streets leading up from the lake side. As I was making my way up one, I heard music in the distance & getting louder. In the nick of time I stepped into a shop doorway to avoid being run down my a brass band! (They were heading for some kind of religious ceremony further down. It was all in foreign so I couldn't understand it!)

Martin cube's picture of St. Mark's Basilica & square reminded me of this photo of the ceiling inside the Cathedrale Saint Caprais church in Agen, France.

Oooh, beautiful, lady!

We went to an aquarium again this visit to the UK, The Deep. which is in Hull.

Thank Heavens Sue! Now I know where you were off to: Finding Nemo (and his cohort....)

Flowers on my front porch

Beautiful and mythical looking Barn Owl.

The railway lines looking towards Brent Cross station in Hendon