Daily Post prompt for photographers: unconventional
It is quite common for girls to box in Thailand but it may seem unconventional in other parts of the world.
Girls boxing against each other in Thailand
Thailand has the highest number of “lady boys” in the world and you come across them in all walks of life. Lily works as a cabaret artiste as does her friend
Lily
Lily and friend
For those to whom the winter seems overlong, here are some of my Spring photos:
Spring always means primroses and wood anemones (also known as wind flowers) for me
a carpet of bluebells
apple blossom
Cee’s post has lots of links to other Spring images
PATTERN is the subject of the Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge
carpet in Singapore airport
a printing block for batik making
Singapore batik
dress fabric for sale in Singapore’s Arab Street
stencilled pattern on an antique Thai door
wormcasts on a Thai beach
Sand dollars I picked up on the beach
food wrappers at a Thai market
reflection of trees
Thai carved wood panel
mosaic glass lamps seen in Thailand but I think they’re Turkish
dress fabric
abstract patterns made by mangrove roots against the sunset
purple spotted green orchid
Angel Wing leaf patterns
Ailsa’s challenge this week was BEACHES
My favourite beach
different views of the beach at Lynmouth, UK
view of distant Porlock bay, UK
Some beaches further afield
evening on the beach at Seminyak, Bali
a vendor of kites on the beach in Bali
a Balinese fishing boat
boats on the beach at Amed, Bali
children’s festival on the beach in Bali
The door to your house/flat/apartment/abode has come unstuck in time. The next time you walk through it, you find yourself in the same place, but a different time entirely. Where are you, and what happens next?
I left my parents’ house early that morning, carefully locking the door behind me as they are elderly and I do not like to leave the front door unlocked. I was off to try and find the Café des rêves (the Dream Café or Café of Dreams), a very special café my sister had told me about. When I eventually found it, it was all that it promised with its shabby chic décor and vintage clothing. I was transported into another world. I enjoyed drinking a decent cup of coffee from a one-off antique cup and saucer. I was so contented, sitting in the corner by the window watching the world go by, that I didn’t realise how fast my self-allotted time had passed and I had to hurry to get back home in time for lunch.
As I went through the front gate and up the path to the front door I thought that the garden had changed, there were plants and trees in it that weren’t there when I left. Even the colour of the front door was different and the door knocker wasn’t the brass dolphin I was accustomed to seeing. On each side of the door was a door bell. Under one, on an embossed brass plate was inscribed ‘night bell’ and over the other ‘day bell’. Paint was peeling on the frame round the door; which surprised me because usually my father was meticulous about the upkeep of the house.
I opened the door with the key I’d borrowed from my mother and stepped into the hall. Gone was the Venetian pendant glass lamp, the prints depicting the city of my birth a century ago, and the vase of daffodils on a small occasional table. Instead there was an old brown carpet with an indistinct pattern on it. The house was quiet but then the house was always quiet so that didn’t bother me but at least the house usually felt lived in.
I went down the short flight of stairs to the living room and almost bumped into the door, which no longer had glass panels in it. Inside the room was bare. A yellowish floor covering marked out in cracked and lifting tiles greeted my eyes. The large glass-fronted dresser containing my parents’ prized collection of Spode china was empty and was painted in a dull red paint. My father had spent hours with a blow torch and a paint scraper painstakingly scraping off the accumulated layers of paint and grime to reveal the surface of the plain wood underneath.
The adjoining kitchen was bereft of life and furniture too. I climbed the back stairs to what I knew as the guest bathroom only to find another bare room. It was the same in the other rooms in the house the higher I climbed until at last I reached the top floor where my parents slept. In the middle bedroom there was a bed, a chest of drawers and a chair. Next to the window there dangled a long tube made of fabric-covered metal mesh with a sort of funnel at the end. The house had formerly belonged to a doctor and she had used the speaking tube, for this is what it was, to communicate with patients who might pitch up late at night, hence the night bell for there was a funnel above that too.
On the floor was a large Moses basket. I knew where and when I was then. I was in the house when we moved in. I was only 6 months old and still small enough to sleep in one of the drawers from the chest. I would sleep in the Moses basket in a couple of month’s time.
It was strange to be in the house with almost no furniture in it. In the present day my parents were slowly divesting themselves of unnecessary clutter with a view to having to downsize at some point in the future if their state of health so dictated. The circle could soon be completed.
Read what other people discovered through the door
Jakesprinters subject for his Sunday post is Mothers Day
All mothers, human or animal, need a little love …..
Once a week Skinnywench’s dictionary falls open at a word. The word this week is MOUNTAIN
Mount Batur in Bali
Mount Agung in Bali
mountains around St Ours in south eastern France near the Italian border
Swiss mountain scenery
mountain pastures
Switzerland, Lake Maloja
McLeodanj, home to the Dalai Lama in exile in northern India
the Dalai Lama’s monastery is right in the centre of the photo with what looks like tents on the top of it
mountain scenery in the Himanchal, India
en route to Kumbalgarh, Rajasthan
views from the top of Kumbalgarh fort
flying from the UK to Turkey over snow covered mountains
You can climb some more (virtual) mountains here
On our recent trip to Sri Lanka and India we were able to watch lots of dances.
With the exception of the fire dancers all the other dancers in Sri Lanka wore traditional masks
this dancer is one of the many demons in Sri Lanka’s pantheon
At the end of each Kolam performance, Gera Yakka comes to dispel all evil influences resulting from “evil eye” and “evil mouth”
Dancers in a cultural show in Kajuraho, India
Dancers in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
One dance involved balancing on the dancer’s head one pot, then two, then three, then four and
finally five pots as well as standing on two upturned metal beakers (which must have been very uncomfortable)
This theme was chosen by Ailsa. Why not tiptoe through the tulips (you’ll see why I say this) on Ailsa’s blog to see some other dances and dancers
This week Skinnywench’s dictionary fell open at the word ORANGE. Orange is the colour of the robes worn by monks in many Asian countries.
It is considered bad manners to talk directly to a monk, if you are a woman, unless you are addressed by one. The one on the left greeted me as I was looking around a temple in Luang Prabang, Laos. Although his English was a bit limited we managed to conduct a conversation for half an hour or so and, at the end, he agreed to my taking a photo of him and his friend. I don’t think his friend was quite so happy about this as you can see from the expression on his face.
young monks in Vat Sop Sickharam
every morning the monks stream out of their temples and walk along the main street in Luang Prabang to collect their daily food
Unfortunately the procession has become something of a tourist attraction with loads of tourists pitching up very early in the morning to photograph them, often going disrespectfully close to the monks in order to get the perfect photo
votive offering
orange sellers
predominantly orange coloured ethnic clothing on sale
orange flowers on a tree in the garden of our hotel
I’m also sharing this post with Jake’s Sunday Post, whose theme is “attraction” (tourist) and Mandarin Orange Mondayno. 40
When we take photos most of the time we look straight ahead or maybe upwards but how often do we look down? This was the challenge set for us by WordPress: to take a photo from above. Here are some photos from above, taken in Thailand
my birthday cake
the wishing well in the white temple at Chiang Rai
leaf on the beach
heart-shaped piece of coral on the beach
found on the beach on Valentine’s day
abandoned fishing nets
weathered wood on the beach
flowers strewn on the beach for a Thai-style beach wedding
spider lily
pink lotus flower
