Birds Real and Unreal

Assisi afternoon

Siena dusk

Figures in Black

Duenna, near Monastiraki, Greece, 2005

Dubiety, near Delphi, Greece 2005

Spectre, Dorsoduro, Venice, 2004

Country

I've missed a few Theme Thursdays and Black and White Weekends, but back into the fray with this rustic offering.

Carrowholly, Country Mayo, Ireland, 2009

Jervaulx Abbey, Yorkshire, 2005

Castleton, Yorkshire, 2005

Theme: Brick

A sampling of Tuscan brick for Theme Thursday...

The Vatican in B&W

Quasi rebroadcast of my April 2010 post, for Weekend in Black and White.

Going up! At the Vatican Museum...

And back down.

It was a rainy day. Our tour of middle- and high-school students had just missed, for better or worse, the spectacle of hordes of mourners from around the world saying goodbye to the dead Pope

The Vatican tours were still crowded but the streets seemed quite subdued. An occasional distressed Roman could be seen in out of the way places.

Athens Scenes (2005)

2005 was a busy summer. Before heading to England for three weeks I accompanied my 6th-grade son on a trip to Italy and Greece with his class and some high-schoolers. As is my wont I typically took off on my own and hunted photo subjects. Athens in particular is spectacular even without the mind-blowing antiquities and architecture.

Trip

Street Backgammon

Ruins, corralled

Fashion statement

En Vacanza

A few evocative corners of a place we like to stay, an 18th-century mill in the Umbrian hills.

The main room in morning light

Door to the mill room

View from the laundry room

Il Molino, with Piper in the window

Ran out of doors and windows but here's another square.

After the swim in the creek

BritRail Abstract

York 2009

Urbino Interiors

In February 2007 we visited the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino, Umbria. We were there in the off season, so it was fairly deserted, and the huge, silent, empty rooms were terrific studies in form and relationship. I could nearly feel the ghosts following us around.

Can't resist leaving this one in color, it's so nicely subtle.

Space

Brought up on the West Coast I have always loved being at the very edge of things. There's just so much space around you when you're at the sea. Plus, can never forget that as I stare out at the horizon I am really looking out into Space - and my head is sticking out into it!

Sunset over Carrowholly, County Mayo

Between Belfast and Glasgow

Vesuvius from Sorrento

Grey Day at Bolton Abbey

Ah to be a teenager again!  It was a misty day in Yorkshire but the boys had no worries about getting wet.

No fears about getting stepped on by a cow, either.