Thomas and Rebecca Jarvis

Poppies

Poppies outside St. Aidan's Winery on Lindisfarne.

Weathered Stone

Weathered stones in the wall of St. Mary's Parish Church on Lindisfarne.

Rancho Texas, Lanzarote

Flying vulture at Rancho Texas in Lanzarote, it passed so close to me I could feel the wind from its wings.

La Santa, Lanzarote

Teguise, Lanzarote

Swinsty Reflections

The last picture is actually a portrait shot of a fallen tree lying in the water, but rotated to landscape it looks like an upright tree.

Swinsty Reflections

There was a gunmetal grey sky when I was out walking on Monday which made for some lovely mirror like reflections in the surface of Swinsty reservoir.

It was a lovely afternoon's walk - until I slipped and smacked myself in the mouth with my own hiking pole which resulted in a trip to dentist to repair a broken front tooth.

Stained Glass

Window detail at Christchurch, Ilkley

Let Every Thing That Has Breath Praise The Lord

Stained glass window at All Saints Church, Ilkley.

Closed Market Stalls Amsterdam

Sea View From Dunstanburgh Castle

Alnmouth Beach

This was back in August. Meg took me on a day trip to show me some of the places that her parents used to take her as a child.  Alnmouth beach is lovely, hard flat sand and lots of interesting rock pools, and a golf course on which you almost tee off from the sand.

VILLAGE AND ELSEWHERE (2011, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, A+++++)

One thing that I think is very interesting in this exhibition is its censorship. If I understand it correctly, in one of the two videos shown in this exhibition, the real story about a female killer in the village is censored from the video. But I'm not entirely sure about this.

In one of the two videos, a monk is trying to teach some moral lessons to the villagers by using a photo of Jeff Koons and the painting JUDITH BEHEADING HOLOFERNES by Artemisia Gentileschi as his teaching props. It seems that the brutal killing done by women in JUDITH BEHEADING HOLOFERNES reminds the monk of some real murders in the village happening a long time ago. But when the monk starts talking to the villagers about this real murder, the scene stops. Then we see what seems to happen after a few minutes have passed and after the story of the real murder case has already been told. If I remember it correctly, the monk said something like this to the children, "You can ask Aunt Da about this. She will not chop your heads off."

I have seen this video only once, so I'm not sure if I understand it correctly or remember it correctly. But I guess the monk may have talked about a female killer in the village, but the story is censored from the video to avoid some troubles with some living persons. I find it very interesting. It seems reality has triumphed over fiction again. The painting JUDITH BEHEADING HOLOFERNES may look extremely horrifying, but it may be less horrifying than the real story about a female killer in that Thai village.

Maybe I just misunderstand it. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I also like it very much that this video makes me realize that many ancient Thai paintings on the walls of many Thai temples are "comparable" to these works of Jeff Koons and Artemisia, because the ancient Thai paintings talk about immoral things, too.

THE REFLECTION OF WISDOM (2011, Vlad & Alina Turco, photo, A+++++++++++++++)

Bonnie and Clyde and her other brother Clyde: The 'Dougherty Gang'

Yes, I think I'll have a Sick day today.

those Crazy Kids

What's your excuse?

tumbler
  offers nice
        photo palates for captioning.

not feeling so well today.

 I'll just wait for him to show he loves me

So, smoking actually is cool?

sometimes those kids at the k-state women's center give me stress.

the moment the tsunami hits japan

I said i need to stay home and relax.

one day off.

Fu'Cryin' Out loud.

Joe and Ellie at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Walking Yorkshire - Lovely Seat, Great Shunner Fell

This is great, a day's walking in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and good company in the shape of Godson Joseph. We parked the car above Butter Tubs and set off up Lovely Seat as a warm up to the main hill of Great Shunner Fell, Jo was already leaving me behind on the steep sections and I had an inkling that I might spend much of the day watching him vanish into the distance ahead of me.

Jo sat in the seat at Lovely Seat

A fast half hour saw us on the top, "Is that it ?" says wonder boy.  "Yes that's it" I replied, well, as soon as I got my breath back I replied. We set off back down and then started the longer slog up the splendidly named Grimy Gutter Hags to Little Shunner Fell and then up again to Great Shunner Fell.  This bit was the only section of the day where I could reasonably keep pace with the boy, in soft boggy sections having longer legs has a distinct advantage.  As soon as we began the steeper and drier climb to the top of the fell I was back panting at the rear though.

Field barn in Stock Dale

Lunch was had at the shelter atop Great Shunner, then came down the Pennine Way into Thwaite, returning to the car up Cliff Gate Road, and what an epic bit of walking this was to be. Jo set the pace on the way back up, and like Alberto Contador he excels on the hills.  The pace was brutal, we passed two other groups of hikers on the way, Jo flying past, me trailing in his wake with every movement of my head loosing drops of sweat, panting and gasping for breath.  Almost three miles of 1 in 4 uphill walking and he doesn't slow down once except for a quick peek into the scary drops of the Butter Tubs themselves.

Jo enjoying a pint at the Farmer's Arms, Muker

We drove into Muker for a pint of Muker Silver at the Farmer's Arms, but they were not serving food until later so we drove back down to Grassington and had a nice dinner at the Devonshire Hotel.  A nice day's walking, but it is obvious we shall have to do a longer route next time, at the end of the day I collapsed onto the couch and fell asleep, Jo went off for an hour's badminton to run off the excess energy he had.

Tree and Road