“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” Albert Camus
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Tea and scones
Good morning! Ever try the blueberry scones from Starbucks? They are fantastic. Especially with a nice cuppa tea. I may be an American, but I love this for breakfast or teatime. But only once in awhile. The calorie count must be baaaad.
When I was in my twenties, I traveled around Europe and the Middle East with my boyfriend for about four months. We ran into many Brits, Australians and an occasional South African, who introduced us to afternoon tea. No matter how primitive the camp, a kettle would be put on to boil around 4 p.m. It was wonderful sharing travel adventures and tips over hot tea and biscuits. Even if we were on our own, we continued the ritual.
(I usually make it with milk and sugar, but like the light of the black tea better. The china teacup and saucer are from my mom.)
One of my favorite things in Turkey was getting tea when we stopped for gas in the middle of nowhere. A little man with a red cap and a white caftan ran out to the van with a tray holding little glass cups of hot tea and sugar cubes. With gestures he told us to put the sugar cube between our front teeth and drink the tea through it. Delicious! And it was free. This happened more than once while traveling in central Turkey, and it helped, because we were often the only vehicle on the road for miles and miles. That can get lonely and scary.
When we returned to the States, we told some guy friends, “You’ll have to come over for tea sometime!” You can imagine the looks on their twentysomething faces. It makes me laugh now just thinking of it. Funny how you get so used to foreign customs when you’re out of the country. We drank tea for a while, then succumbed to the American-coffee-in-the-morning custom. It was years before I had tea again.
Once, a girlfriend and I made it a project to try all the afternoon tea places in Washington, D.C. What fun that was. We might just have to do that again, but this time with photos.
Posted in photography
Tagged blueberry scone, breakfast, china teacup & saucer, orange juice, Starbucks, tea, Turkish tea
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Mishmash
I said I was going to review The Social Network, then realized I’ve got way too much going on this week. So it will have to be next week, hopefully.
For now, a mishmash of sorts: random shots taken in the last month or so. Hope you enjoy them.
A rose from a grocery store bouquet.
These berries are everywhere in the neighborhood, but I think the plant is basically a weed!
I swear, this is my last pumpkin shot (this year).
Ageratum. Taken with my iPhone.
I’m taking Kim Klassen’s wonderful Photoshop class and did this with fill layers in CS5.
Have a good one….
Posted in photography
Tagged ageratum, berries, iPhone, Kim Klassen, pumpkin, red mums, rose, sunflower
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Addendum
Just a few more images from Washington National Cathedral. This shot and the next one are details from the ceilings.
And then, some flowers in the gardens:
On another note, we saw “Social Network” last weekend and liked it. I think I’ll review tomorrow.
Posted in photography
Tagged blue ceiling, red ceiling, Washington D.C., Washington National Cathedral, yellow flowers
4 Comments
Light show
[For some reason, a preliminary draft of this post got published when I hit “update.” Apologies to my subscribers. Here’s the finished version.]
Mr. Prose and I were going to traipse around Georgetown on Saturday, but traffic was snarled due to a race, so we decided to walk the grounds of Washington National Cathedral instead. The gardens are lovely and the view of the cathedral is, well, awesome. (See photos here if you’re interested.)
On a whim, we decided to go inside the cathedral. So glad we did, because we were greeted by this:
The sun was hitting the stained-glass windows just right, creating this light show on the limestone walls. It was like walking through a kaleidoscope.
I’d forgotten how many stained-glass windows were in the cathedral. It really is a lovely place.
This really shows the scale of the cathedral.
Here’s a closeup of one of the columns:
Don’t you love unexpected gifts? When you hear a song you once loved out of the blue on the radio or an impromptu concert outside an art gallery? I used to think if I ran home and played that song on my CD player or computer, I’d have that same great feeling. It never happened. The element of surprise was missing. Sometimes it’s more than that.
One of my favorite memories is from a trip to Prague. It was a perfect summer night and blue hour had just begun. We were crossing the Charles Bridge over the Danube, looking towards the castle. All of a sudden, a motley-looking string quartet struck up a beautiful rendition of “Ave Maria,” and I didn’t think it could get any better. Then fireworks went off in the distant sky. For once, I was glad I didn’t have my camera. It would have spoiled one perfect moment. And no matter how many times I played “Ave Maria,” it would never re-create that experience.
Charles Bridge via Webshots
Posted in photography
Tagged Charles Bridge, columns, limestone, music, Prague, stained glass windows, Washington National Cathedral
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Fractals and autumn
This was taken in our neighborhood. I think this may be the most beautiful autumn I’ve ever experienced. Everywhere I look there’s one gorgeous color after another, and it gets better every day. This certainly makes up for the beastly summer we had!
Lacework provided by common insects. The design almost looks like fractals, eh?
Random factoid: the father of fractal geometry, Benoit Mandelbrot, died recently. I’m not a mathematician, but my husband is.
We had a drought this summer and that’s supposed to make for dull fall colors, but that didn’t happen here….
Wow, this week’s gone fast! See you Monday….
Posted in photography
Tagged autumn leaves, Benoit Mandelbrot, berries, fractals, maple leaves
13 Comments
Pumpkinpalooza, part II
Can you believe the color on these pumpkins? They really are this orange. Have never seen this variety before. Nor these:
The ones on the right look like pink lace, don’t they?
Did I mention that chickens were running around the market? They move very quickly. So quickly that you can end up with shots like this:
I’m thinkin’ I may not be cut out for wildlife photography. After a few more tries, I finally got this:
Are these gourds crazy or what?
My favorite. Such an intense orange with touches of yellow and green.
Almost forgot the white ones. They show up much better against the darker colors.
Thanks for coming along!
Pumpkinpalooza, part I
As I mentioned yesterday, Mr. Prose and I went to Sugarloaf Mountain, with a stop at the coolest pumpkin stand. It’s called Comus Market and is located across from the Comus Inn, a lovely place to eat (red roofs in background.) Did you believe me when I said they had blue-gray pumpkins? Well, here’s proof:
I especially like these yellow-and-orange pumpkins.
And then there’s green-and-yellow.
They also had squash….
and gourds….
Talk about kaleidoscopic. That is a word, right? Yes, I checked. It’s not something I say every day.
Love these minis. More tomorrow.
Posted in photography
Tagged Comus Inn, Comus Market, Dickerson, gourds, MD, pumpkins, squash, Sugarloaf Mountain foothills
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“Bowtie”
Photographed by pearlsandprose October 2010
I have a tutorial and manuals to read, so just one photo today. We went up to Sugarloaf Mountain over the weekend and found some pretty amazing pumpkins. Who knew they came in blue-gray? Pics tomorow….
Autumn leaves
Happy autumn, everyone. I took this while on a walk through the neighborhood. Maple leaves really do it right, don’t you think?
Give a listen to Eva Cassidy’s version of “Autumn Leaves” when you get the chance. One of the best, in my opinion:
Pearls & Prose 