Which happens to be a favorite color of self’s. She recently bought a rose with this color (Golden Opportunity). She bought it in January, bare root. She can hardly wait for it to start blooming. A bougainvillea she bought last year, from the Palo Alto (California Avenue) Farmers Market is this color. And her beautiful Moonlight Romantica rose (also bought last year, from Regan’s Nursry in Fremont) has blooms of this color.
The bougainvillea and Moonlight Romantica pictures are from last year; they’re still looking a bit bedraggled after weeks of nonstop rain.
Oooh, self loves this week’s CFFC prompt! She loves taking pictures of people. Thank you, Cee Neuner!
Walking past Ottolenghi, 7 Artillery Passage, East London
Train to London from Oxford was absolutely packed. These young people were having fun: the young man sat on his girlfriend’s lap. This was the last train I rode before the pandemic.
Finally, self has done it! After many, many failed attempts, she has succeeded in establishing a bougainvillea! The little itty bitty thing she bought from the Palo Alto Farmers Market in June has quadrupled in size and is covered with fiery orange flowers, which seem to blaze in the late afternoon sun.
Self undertook this walk last Sunday. It was a gorgeous day, lots of people were out and about, maybe because of the Columbia St. Flower Market? She had every intention of scoping out this world-famous Flower Market in East London, but was distracted by all the wee little boutiques and alleys and coffee shops along the way. So dear blog readers will have to settle for these:
Self woke up this morning in beautiful, calming Paso Robles and decided to explore the paths winding around the gardens of her Inn. It’s in a great location: right in the heart of downtown Paso Robles. Across the street is a public park. This morning, there was a wee farmers market and even though self was not in the least bit hungry, she couldn’t resist buying a few cookies after she found out they were mango-oatmeal cookies.
The footbridge crosses a narrow stream filled with some fat carp.
There is a short “reflexology path.” She would love to walk barefoot along the stones!
Self loves purple flowers, and you can find a gallery of them on the Travel with Intent blog, which hostsLife in Colour.
Here is her own gallery of purple:
Lavatera (in front yard). It’s never looked this bushy before.
A few more:
Displays at yesterday’s Palo Alto Farmers Market
Exhibit catalogue for the recent Frida Kahlo exhibit at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park (which self saw in April, just before it closed for good)
The Just One Person from Around the World Photo Challenge is hosted by ThatTravelLadyInHerShoes. Read more about the challenge, think about participating, and look at the wonderful contributions.
During the California primaries, early last year, self campaigned for Elizabeth Warren. While she was tabling for Warren at the San Mateo Farmers Market, a young girl stopped by the table to chat. She was carrying a book, one of self’s favorites. Self just had to take her picture.
Discovered another Photo Challenge! This one’s from Buddha Walks Into a Wine Bar, and it’s called Challenge Your Camera.
This week’s Challenge Your Camera (# 11) is STILL LIFE.
Here are a few pointers for the Challenge:
What is a Still Life? A still life is a work of art that focuses on inanimate objects. Usually commonplace objects which can include both man made objects (vases, items of clothing, and consumer products) and natural objects (plants, food, rocks, shells) as examples.
So, here are self’s still lifes, all of which she pulled from her archives. They’re mostly food-related.
Still Life # 1: Self loves farmers markets. The ones in her area are held on Sundays. She bought these mushrooms at the Menlo Park Farmers Market. This picture’s from a few weeks ago. The farmers markets stayed open throughout the pandemic, and self went regularly (of course masked). Her last COVID test was ten days ago, and that was negative.
Still Life # 2: Shoreditch, East London, November 2019. She doesn’t think she’ll be able to get back to London until late 2022, at the very soonest. In the meantime, she has a huge trove of photographs from her last visit. Someone with a sense of humor left this on a window ledge.
Still Life # 3: Her last visit home was September 2019. She spent her time in Dear Departed Dad’s hometown of Bacolod, and spent a few nights in a city close by: Silay. And ate herself into a food coma. All the variety of food made from rice! These are just two examples, and they’re from the public market.
Kanlaon 