Last Afternoon in the Atlas Mountains

I had a bit of time yesterday afternoon to pick up my trusty Nikon 3100 camera and head out to the river near the guest house I was staying in in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco to take some last photos before flying back to the UK today. So I did.

In the Atlas Mountains

I’ve been in the village of Ouzoud in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco for the past 3 weeks — staying in a lovely guest house where I’ve got a room with a view of the olive trees and mountains. There’s a terrace just outside my bedroom door where I’ve set up my computer and drawing board on a white plastic garden table  in the shade, and I shuffle over to a lounger every now and then and have a lie down with a good book (The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert). There’s a a pretty mountain river a 5 minute walk away for afternoon swims. Am back to England on Monday, so am making the most of my last few days here.

Have a look at my Ouzoud world:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Day in the Charleston House Gardens i

I recently spent an idyllic English summer day at Charleston House in the rolling countryside of East Sussex, England doing some research for some workshops I’m giving there in October. The 17th century farmhouse was the home of the artist Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf’s elder sister) and her lover the artist Duncan Grant, as well as a fluid group of husbands,friends, lovers and children for first part of the 20th century. It was the country home of many of the Bloomsbury Group members, and in honour of its literary heritage it holds a major international literary festival there every spring.

But the thing that interests me the most about Charleston House are the delightful interiors where were designed and decorated over the years by Vanessa and Duncan in what has become know as the “Charleston Style”.  It’s all still there, repaired, conserved and looking as if Vanessa or Duncan might walk into the Garden Room with a cup of tea and a good book at any moment.

But it was a lovely summer day, and after an afternoon exploring the house’s rooms and picture library, I headed out into the English garden to enjoy the warm sun, the chirps of the birds, and the scent of late summer flowers carried on the air by the warm breeze.

Charleston House, Firle, East Sussex BN8 6LL

http://www.charleston.org.uk

Poking about in Cowtown

The last stop on our trip to Alberta was Calgary — a modern city spreading out over the prairie before you hit the foothills of the Rockies. Locals call it Cowtown — a name which Jamjarjude has told me the powers that be in City Hall are trying to dampen down in a rebranding exercise. But Cowtown sticks, so Cowtown it is. Imagine it a bit like the Dallas of the North — all cowboys and oil men and women with big hair. That’s not far off.

Alberta Snapshots Part 2

Continuing on from yesterday’s post. here are some more travel photos from my recent trip to beautiful Alberta. Canada. I’m already counting the days till I can return.

 

 

Ahhh, lovely.

Snapshots of Alberta Part 1

Alberta is such a photogenic place that I took to carrying my trusting Nikon (including an extra zoom lens) with me wherever Jamjarjude and I went. Here’s a taster of some pictures of our recent trip from Mile 0 of the Alaska HIghway at Dawson Creek, BC down through the Rocky Moutains to the Badlands of Drumheller and Cowtown Calgary.

Am I tempting you?

Canadian Critters

I was in the breathtaking Rocky Mountains of Alberta in August and I can’t eulogise enough about the beauty, the wide-ranging space, the forests, the turquoise — yes! turquoise — lakes and, oh, all the animals JamjarJude and I saw in the wild during our travels. Here’s a taster of what we saw in just one week.

 

That’ll be a grizzly, mountain goats, deer, Canada geese, ducks, birds of many feathers, a red squirrel, a curious prairie dog, beavers, and a coyote slinking through a field outside of Jasper. All in their natural habitats.  Also saw a black bear but missed a photo of it. And lots of evidence of wolves and cougars…

Get back to nature. Visit the Rocky Mountains of Alberta.

 

I’m Back / Ralphie Haiku

I know I’ve gone missing for a few months. Sometimes that happens. But now I’m back.

Much has happened since my last post in May. But before I pick up with new blogs, I pay tribute to Ralphie, my loyal canine companion of my year in Nanaimo who passed away to doggie heaven in June. So I’m now a girl without a dog and good shoes. Ralphie, you will be missed.

Ralphie

May your path weave through

forests green-scented — a loyal

friend at your heel.