Photography
Underskiddaw’s annual bonfire and firework display is one of the largest of many erupting just after sunset in the Vale of Keswick. It draws an appreciative crowd of a couple of hundred people; the impressive bonfire and fireworks can be seen for miles around as well as by the locals, protected by a hawthorne hedge which has been trimmed recently. Tonight’s clear skies and full moon lighting the background skyline of the western fells, still peppered with flickering head-torch lights as the last hikers come down home from Grisedale Pike (791 m.)
Autumn in Annecy-le-Vieux. Leaves in the lake. And the ole time festival “Ancilevienne” celebrating the return of the animals from the alpages, the high pastures. Displays of old time farming, old tractors for the kids to play on and farriers showing skills with fire and iron. A quartet of Alphorns playing a lumbering tune in harmony, a rare musical treat amongst the accordions and singers of traditional Savoyard folk songs.
Sunrise, the unique moment at the start of each day. It happens daily, should be commonplace to us all but so often we miss it in urban life, maybe seeing just a faint hint of dawn on the daily commute.
You awake in the pre-dawn grey murk; the clouds stay dark but the colour increases, you think it may not happen. Then suddenly, gloriously, the red disc appears through the gloom, night is over and a new day dawns. The animals stir as the warming rays of sunshine radiate on the world.
This view is from our balcony in Menton
I love and hate Marseille in almost equal measure. I love the camaraderie, the architecture, the relatively open society but I hate the squalor and the mindless hooliganism.... and the high taxes. I feel no less safe than in Shepherds Bush, West London. There’s been a strike for more than a week by the rubbish collectors, the tourist places are still clean enough but the residential neighbourhoods are covered in rubbish and at night you can see rats. So in this one picture you have creative Marseille with imaginative street art and its music, also the shiny motorcycles and the hundred year-old plane trees under the famous blue sky. But also the bins overflowing and the old paint on the dirty buildings.
Note the shop behind the bin, it’s selling “Home Hygiene”. Poubelles la Vie is a pun on Plus Belle la Vie, the primetime soap on French TV3 about life in Marseille; poubelles = rubbish.
Faces blurred - this is France
See also « Plus Belle la Vie »
I spoke with these five, they are all delivery riders updating their accounts, ie time-sheets. Actually, they are quite a strong social group. So not a picture about people in a bar all on social media and not talking to each other.
