The Wonderful Riches of Oz - And I Do Mean, Australia!

Some highlights for you all......

I'm still recovering.  Soaking it all in.  Remembering.  Regretting.

How little time I had to wander Melbourne's pretty little neighborhoods.

The meals I missed in cozy, authentique, gemutlich bars.

I'm still marvelling over the exuberant creativity.

And wishing I could experience more of the artistic energy.

 I'm still gobsmacked by the creatures and the features.......

The plethora of neighborhoods with history and charm.

The best of the new world and the delights of some older ones......

The food of uniformly high standard, and freshness.

The mix of the exotic and the mundane.

A cheeky insouciance.

And did I mention the food!!!?????  O.M.G.!

Did you know that OZ would look like this?  I did not.  Oh the wonder, the wonder......!

(Peoples got it allllll going on!!!!)

Ramin Nasibov - Color Photography!

Too rainy, cold and gloomy where you are already?

Even in Los Angeles, we're getting ready for our second

rainstorm this week.  Very unusual!

Here's your antidote to the gloom.

And if you're American.....and "woke" as they're saying here -

your antidote to the "doom" of our upcoming election.

Find out more about Ramin Nasibov here and here and here and...think about something else cheerier for at least 15 minutes.  

Try to:    havea wonderful weekend!!!! 

The Rain in Spain......Gives It a Somber Beauty

Even Ernest Hemingway in "The Sun Also Rises", describing events and places

of 90 years ago in precisely this area of the world

said that France seemed more "suburban" than Spain.  I've seen pictures of the Costa de Sol and I know that "suburban" definitely applies there.

But here in this part of Navarre widespread commercial development has still not hit.

There are a few extremely new shops on the border selling goods that the French

come to purchase at cheaper prices than in their own country.

But you will not find the big-box stores, the hyper-marches, billboards, music blaring

out of speakers everywhere, vast parking lots, CCTV cameras, generic Chinese-made goods.

Instead, life is lived closer to the earth, as it has been for centuries.

Things are still made by hand, or very nearly so.

Roads are not straight, but they meander - according to the contours of the mountains or following the turnings of a stream.

Everything is still mostly made "for the ages".

The structures seem to be deeply rooted in the earth and immoveable.

Indifferent to change's buffeting winds.

 This is a good thing for any visitor who craves tranquility, a sense of life lived in common

with others, and continuity....the sense of knowing where you've been - and the reassurance that 

where you're going might look quite similar to what you've left behind.

It's a place to move gently and quietly through.  Almost reverentially.

To sit often and look around oneself.

A place to seek comfort or simply, rest.

To be fed generously - as Hemingway describes, the Spanish dine copiously compared to

the French.

To breathe in lots of clean air.  And plan a long walk.  For when the rain stops.  There will be calories to walk off.

A Mews You Can Use - South Kensington, London

If you spend any time wandering around London

you are likely to stumble into one these......

Or poke your nose around a corner and wonder what, exactly goes on

  

down there.  Many mews in London are being bought up, done up, and then sit empty

when the posh folk who own them go flitting off to homes elsewhere.

But here is a mews that retains its whiff of home.  Of villagey-ness.

Of the vital, the immediate, the promising.  With life all around you and plenty of company

to welcome you home.  This is a mews with groovy surroundings to pop into at lunch.

Art and culture just steps from your front door.

(The Royal British Society of Sculptors)

And neighbors who will brighten your outlook

on the grayest of London days.  This.

Is a Mews You Can Use.  I'd say it's worth the detour.