Come away with the raggle taggle gypsy-o
Jakes theme for the Sunday post this week is solid. I’m posting a picture of a granite boulder in the North Teign river, called a Tolmen stone. Legend says that fertility is guaranteed, if the rock is climbed through nine times, at the right time of the Lunar cycle.
So my ‘solid’ rock has a metre wide hole in it!
Visit Jake’s Printer, check out his animated graphics and the other entries this week.
http://jakesprinters.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/sunday-post-solid/
The lovely Madhu over at http://theurgetowander.com/ chose me for the http://blog.hostelbookers.com/travel/7-super-shots/ and gosh was it difficult. I have 20-25 thousand photos to choose from, how do you decide which are good and which you just like? So mine are possibly a mix of both.
The first was in India a few years ago when I had a point and shoot, to date it is the only photo of mine I have framed. It takes me right back to how I felt that day. It was taken close to the top of Ratnagiri hill in Pushkar which has a temple to the goddess Savitri at the summit. We got up before dawn to climb up for the sunrise as suggested by our driver the venerable Magan Singh. What he didn’t know – until now maybe – was that we didn’t actually quite reach the top, but didn’t have the heart to tell him as he was so sure that we would love it! The problem was that we had been so ill for a few days before and were still incredibly weak. He was right, the view was beautiful. I remember every moment, every laboured step, and most of all, the tiny, bent old ladies climbing to the temple as they do each day for prayer. This one literally took my breath away, I couldn’t breathe as I struggled upwards!
Next, a little closer to home, this is close to the finishing line of last October’s Commando Challenge on Yettington common in East Devon. I love this photo because it shows the determination of these women to complete a really gruelling and hideously muddy course. They ran 10 kilometres through water and mud filled tunnels and tracks that is part of a marines endurance training course. This particular group were so supportive of each other, and it makes me think, isn’t it wonderful what can be achieved when you work together? 
Over in Malaysian Borneo this time, at Kota Kinabalu. There had to be at least one sunset! These are two of the islands of Tunku Abdul Rahman park taken from Jesselton Point. This the photo that makes me dream!
At the village of Baobeng-Fiema the story goes that the monkeys are considered special. The locals give them all names and they are buried in a graves when they die. It wasn’t the monkeys that I found special in this Ghanaian village, it was the children. This is the shot that makes me smile
This young woman’s backpack must have weighed as much as she did. I couldn’t help wondering where she was headed, I suspect a local youth hostel. More interesting still, where had she been? For me, this photo tells a story.
In Western Anatolia breakfast was early one day last June. We had a lot of miles to cover that day so we had to skip the hotel meal but were promised a treat instead. Delicious local yoghurt and honey, sprinkled with poppy seeds, it worked for me and made my mouth water, I’m not sure about the carnivores though. 
Now, I don’t know if anyone else will ‘get’ this photo, what I see in it. Again its a shot that conjures up atmosphere for me. I love the quality of light, I love the activity, the between time. It was taken in Marrakech from a rooftop cafe at a time when the work of the day was ending, and the evening’s entertainment and culinary delights had not yet begun. So this is my photo that I am most proud of , aka my worth of National Geographic shot. 
So there we are, all seven, I hope you like them. Is there one in particular that you think is good? or terrible?
As always there are rules! I have to nomnate five bloggers to take part, but only if you want to. My five are,
http://sophomorejinx.wordpress.com/
http://jobryantnz.wordpress.com/
http://catbirdinoman.wordpress.com/
http://adinparadise.wordpress.com/
http://flickrcomments.wordpress.com/
The RNLI ( Royal National Lifeboat Institution for those outside the UK) has been rescuing people at sea since 1824 and in that time has saved more than 139,000 lives. They currently have 330 boats in 23 stations around the country of various sizes and classes. A registered charity, all of its funding comes from donations and it is manned by volunteers. We all know that they rescue people from stricken vessels. You may know that their lifeguards patrol beaches and perform first aid. Did you know they have a flood rescue team? Also volunteers, specially trained in swift water rescue techniques and ready to travel anywhere in the world.
Today I was in Beer, a lovely east Devon village with a Lifeboat shop raising vital funds to keep the service afloat. I learnt that it costs £75 for a rescue tube, bright yellow and made of plastic foam, with enough buoyancy to get an adult back on dry land. This is a small necessity, a tamar class lifeboat costs £2.7 million. I don’t know why there is no government funding for lifeboats, but I guess that if a charity works why would they bother?
Today it worked like this.
A duck race! It’s lifeboat week in Beer, this is one of their fund raisers and a great success with the little ones that also raises awareness.
Ailsa was expecting a photo of my city for her travel theme challenge so I’m back with a second post and I hope this doesn’t disappoint!
Mols coffee house was built in the sixteenth century and on the left, The Royal Clarence, is reputedly the first hotel in England and of course its haunted! It’s a lovely rambling place that I have been to for conferences and has a Michael Caines restaurant. The Cathedral is across the green behind me.
Ailsa is here and there are some stunning photos this week.
If you’re a regular visitor to my blog you may think I’ve been rude this week not replying to your lovely comments! Apologies, I’ve been in Suffolk for a few days so I hope you will forgive me. I will try to catch up but I probably won’t make it for a while – I’d been doing so well recently too! Anyway at least I’ve taken around five hundred photos and I think the ones below fit this weeks challenge.
This funky clock captures a fleeting moment of the pier at Southwold.
A little closer.
The explanation, do you agree that it’s a fleeting moment?
To see some more entries or to join in visit http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/weekly-photo-challenge-fleeting-moment/
The Red Ball Project is street art at its best. It stimulates the imagination of the ordinary person, whether or not they would usually stop to look at art or visit a gallery. So just what is the appeal of a giant rubber beach ball? Its colour? the most passionate, symbolizing love, danger, power, fire and a beneficial sunset. I love to catch the red eye, the overnight coach to an airport. Red is the colour of heat, the fingernails of a confident woman and a woman who wore red shoes wore no knickers! What does red mean to you?
The shape of a ball? A wholeness, as of the earth and the planets surrounding us. Any one of numerous games from the humble marble to the posher polo. Something to reach for, we dance at a ball, maybe on the ball of a foot. A sphere with no beginning or end, tactile and smooth to roll between palms. What image springs to your mind?
RedBall has been travelling the world, Sydney, Barcelona and Taipei and before heading to London it made a brief stop in Exeter. It was seen outside the Guildhall, on the quay and on Saturday I saw it at St Catherines Almshouse, a fifteenth century ruin in the heart of the city. The building, which was bombed in 1942, already has its own urban art, Marking Time, comprising pieces of medieval pottery and glass along with a coke tin that have been enclosed in glass panels is a permanent feature on the site.
When I saw the Big Red Ball I was entranced – but you’ve already guessed that! The artist, Kurt Perschke from Chicago created it to ‘invite you to look afresh at your own surroundings’, I hope you get to see it and look afresh at yours.
You can see the glass panels to the right of the building and behind is the thousand year old tower of St Stephens.
Jake this is so hard this week!
You haven’t quite beat me though, my photo was taken on the Cobb at Lyme Regis in Dorset where in the film, The French Lieutenants Woman, played by Meryl Streep is seen standing in her cloak. I love Lyme but I’m afraid my photo doesn’t have the same romance.
Jake requested an article about the chosen film so here is quite an amusing one. Sharon if you haven’t read the book you might enjoy!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/04/french-lieutenant-s-woman-john-fowles
Do visit http://jakesprinters.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/sunday-post-famous-movies/ for some more interpretations of his challenge.
Sunday is Jakes day! Water is the theme for this weeks photos and mine are five miles and eight thousand miles from home.
Near, the Exe from the Goat Walk at Topsham
Far, beside the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur
And back to the Exe, it never fails me even with a phone camera.
My photos are a bit predictable, I love where I live and Kuala Lumpur is probably my all time favourite city to visit. For some more original work visit Jake and check out his amazing animations as well as the other entrants.
http://jakesprinters.wordpress.com/2012/06/09/sunday-post-water-h2o/
Lucid Gypsy 