Sunday Selections #536

 

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.

 

Huge thanks to Cie who gave me this wonderful Sunday Selections image.

 

The meme was then continued by River at Drifting through life.  Sadly she has now stepped aside (though she will join us some weeks), and I have accepted the mantle. 

 

The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to me. Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.

 

I usually run with a theme. This week I am (mostly) reverting to type.  I adore skyscapes and clouds and am not going to admit just how many folders of similar photos I have stored on the PC.

 

As usual most of these photos were taken shortly after dawn.

 

 

I wandered into the back garden on that foggy morning and was delighted by spider webs festooned with dew.

I loathe shopping centres and go to them as rarely as possible.  Just the same, looking up can have benefits in those largely soulless places as well.

 

 

I really liked this mobile and wonder just how many times I have wandered under it and missed seeing it.

The final photo was taken on a wet, chilly and grey day.  I was waiting for a bus and was amazed at how well the very last of the autumnal colours 'popped'.

 

I hope your week to come is packed with beauty (expected and unexpected).

 

Where are the Words for Wednesday?

 

Huge thanks to  Messymimi is providing the prompts on her blog last month.

June 2021:  River is providing the prompts on her blog.

July 2021:  Lissa is providing the prompts on her blog.

August 2021:  David M. Gascoigne will be providing the prompts but they will be here.

September 2021:  Cindi is providing the prompts.

October 2021:  I am providing the prompts here.   

November 2021:  Margaret Adamson and her friends will be providing the prompts, but they will appear here.

 
December 2021:  Me again.

Given that the prompts are provided from both the Northern and the Southern hemispheres the prompts can appear from as early as Tuesday your time until Thursday your time. 

This meme definitely falls into the 'more the merrier' category.  I hope that lots of you will visit whoever is providing the prompts and play - or applaud.  Commenting on other people's creations -whether they post them on the host's blog or their own, is hugely important.  We ALL need encouragement.  So please, take a few extra minutes to comment on the participant's creations.

 

Sunday Selections #535

 

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.

 

Huge thanks to Cie who gave me this wonderful Sunday Selections image.

 

The meme was then continued by River at Drifting through life.  Sadly she has now stepped aside (though she will join us some weeks), and I have accepted the mantle. 

 

The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to me. Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.

 

I usually run with a theme. We had not only a 'super moon' but a lunar eclipse this week.  For a change it wasn't cloudy on the night.  So naturally I was out there with my camera.  I struggle taking photographs of the moon and most of my shots were abject failures.  I don't know whether light pollution or a screw loose in the operator was at fault (I am leaning towards the latter reason).  So I came inside again.  Some of the 'better failure' photographs follow.

 My father told me that I was more stubborn than stains.  He may have been right.  The next morning (eclipse over) I headed out again a little before and a little after dawn.  And was much happier with the shots I took.

Wasn't that a lucky shot?

 

It was cool outside.  We definitely had a frost.

It isn't cold enough to freeze bubbles though.  Yet.

I hope your week is filled with beauty and success.

 

Sunday Selections #534

 

 

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.

 

Huge thanks to Cie who gave me this wonderful Sunday Selections image.

 

The meme was then continued by River at Drifting through life.  Sadly she has now stepped aside (though she will join us some weeks), and I have accepted the mantle. 

 

The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to me. Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.

 

I usually run with a theme. I am taking you on another outing this week.  Our National Gallery is free - unless you want to go to a special exhibition.  Last week we went back to the gallery for the first time in far too long.

We went to see an exhibition brought to us from the National Gallery in London - Botticelli to Van Gogh.  Covid 19 meant that it was a ticketed, time and numbers limited event.  So we booked in and headed off.

Mary Magdalene by Giovanni Girolamo Savoidi.  How I admire the skill with which he depicted that flowing robe...

The Annunciation with Saint Emidus by Carlo Crivelli.  My ignorant self had not heard of the painter, and knows nothing about the Annunciation or Saint Emidus.

 

Portrait of a woman with a fan - by Frans Hals.  She looks very comfortably off doesn't she?

 

 Still life with lobster by Willem Claesz Heda.  Another artist I didn't know - and that is one BIG lobster.

Venice:  A regatta on the Grand Canal by Canaletto

 

The Infant Saint John with the lamb by Bartolome Esteban Murillo.  You can just about feel the softness of the lamb's wool can't you?

A peasant boy leaning on a sill by Bartolome Esteban Murillo.  My picky self thought that he was perhaps cleaner (though picturesquely ragged) than reality.

Ballet dancers by Edgar Degas.  This is not one of his works I can remember seeing before, but I didn't need the plaque to tell me whose work it was.

La Premiere sortie (At the theatre) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Hillside in Provence by Paul Cezanne.  Another which was new to me.

 

And this was the ONLY Vincent Van Gogh in the exhibition.  He apparently painted four versions of this now famous work - and this was the only one that he liked enough to sign. 

A vase of flowers by Paul Gaugin.  Yet another I cannot remember seeing before.  I am so grateful for the generosity of the London National Gallery in sharing these works.

 

The water lily pond by Claude Monet.  One of my sisters in law has visited his garden - which fills me with envy.

Some of the paintings I loved and others were not to my taste.  It isn't the best exhibition I have seen at the National Gallery but I am very, very glad we went.

I was tired and brain dead by the time we had gone through this small area of the gallery but I am also going to show you some of the works we caught sight of on our way in.

 

These were part of a display which focused on Remembering.  Kathy Temin's memories might be soft, cuddly and comforting but some of mine are not.

I found this one really interesting - and have shown you the wall plaque as well.  Next visit, when I am hopefully less tired I will pay it more attention.

Finishing with a charming advertisement for the exhibition we went to see.

As always I picked up some bookmarks and a couple of cards in the gift shop as we went through it.  If you would like any of them let me know (and which one you would like).  First in, best dressed, and please send me your address if I don't already have it.