Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside

Posted on July 22, 2012 by The Retiring Sort

The theme for this week’s WordPress.com Weekly Photo Challenge is Inside. The topic made me think about things we usually admire from the outside, but normally don’t see on the inside.

When I was nine or ten, I went to the Statue of Liberty, and my mom and I climbed the winding staircase inside Eiffel’s framework. So cool. My dad was a civil engineer like his dad before him, and Gustave Eiffel was an inspiration to them both.  (At the end of WWI, my grandfather was actually able to stay in Europe to study briefly with Eiffel, who was then in his 80’s – an experience Grandpa always cherished.)

Of course, when we were last in Paris, my beloved and I went up inside the Eiffel Tower, and enjoyed walking down looking at the structure!

  

But the coolest statue/monument I’ve been inside is the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) of Kamakura in Japan. In 1998, we went to our first Olympic Games, in Nagano, Japan. We stayed for most of our trip with a friend and his family. They took us to see many wonderful sights during our trip, and on a rainy day, we traveled to see the Daibutsu, which is incredibly beautiful. The bronze statue was finished in 1252. It has survived earthquakes and floods, and has undergone repairs several times in the last century. It’s under 50 feet high, but knowing its historical and spiritual significance makes it larger than life.

.

The inside of the Great Buddha – the brown strips are repairs made in the 1960’s to support the neck:

That’s my “inside story.” To see what’s inside other bloggers’ entries for this challenge, click here.

Posted in Photo Challenges, Travelogues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 45 Comments

Maggie the Magnificent – Redux

Posted on July 16, 2012 by The Retiring Sort

On Mother’s Day, I posted an homage to my mom, Maggie, citing some of the reasons she has been a wonderful role model to my sister and me.  This week, she passed away with the same grace and thoughtfulness she displayed throughout her life. She was eighty-six years old.

She wanted only me and my sister with her; she wanted to be home; she wanted no exceptional intervention. Blessedly, with the wonderful assistance of our local hospice organization (and my niece the med student), we were able to follow her directions and wishes,  and provide some comfortable amenities for her as well.

As we have cared for her over the past few months, my sister and I have had some lovely opportunities to chat about Mummy, and some of the paradoxes in her life.

Although she trained in the biological sciences as a nurse, and those skills were never far away, her true calling was as a writer (and editor). She wrote everything from poetry to press releases, light humor pieces to editorials. Her checkbook was always balanced to the penny (a Scot to the core), but there was also  a bit of the Celtic faerie about her – she always had a twinkle in those blue-grey eyes, and she could see the humor and find the balance in almost any situation.

She was successful at work at a time when women really weren’t taken seriously (just watch Mad Men), spent many dedicated hours on her favorite charities (mostly involving children – often disadvantaged or disabled), and also loved being a mommy (and aunt, grandmother, and great-grandmother).

She enjoyed a drink (true to her heritage), and although she had an incredible imagination, she also had a canny sober view of life. She took her faith and responsibility to her family and community seriously, while always engaging her wit.  She held her own in a man’s world, and never lost her feminine identity.  She’s been a tough act to follow.

She really was brilliant, truly beautiful (inside and out), and the thing is, she never really got that. She never understood how mesmerized people were in the gaze of those big eyes, or how grateful they were for her friendship.

So, Mom, with thankful hearts for everything you’ve given us, here’s a send-off from the immortal Harry Lauder –  A Wee Deoch an’ Doris* – Godspeed.

*Gaelic – literally “a small drink at the door” – the equivalent of our current expression “one for the road.”  The expression is used when saying good-bye, and is the heart of the fun song above, which my grandfather loved.
Posted in Family, Ruminations | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 50 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge: Dreaming

Posted on July 14, 2012 by The Retiring Sort

The Daily Post at WordPress.com has posted its new weekly photo challenge: Dreaming.

What carries us into dreams? What prompted an inventor, poet, or artist to visualize a now realized dream? What inspires your dreams and daydreams?

When you see a castle, do you wonder who has lived there and imagine another  time? Do you see yourself inside those walls, looking out?

     

When you’re in a pristine environment, can you imagine being the first person to ever set foot there? Can you smell the warm dirt, hear the moving water, sense the wildlife hiding from view?

Or can you imagine being on the shores of Loch Ness, with its black peaty water, and seeing an unknown creature poke its head above the inky surface?

  

Photos and artwork can move us to wonderful dreamy imaginings.

For me, music is also a wonderful gateway to daydreams. I love so many kinds of music. I love thinking about what inspired a sonata,  indigenous folk music, or a popular song. I can be transported to the first place I heard a song, or to new places altogether.

And there are some great songs about dreaming – like Dream a Little Dream of Me, California Dreamin‘, Disney’s A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes, The Everly Brothers’ (All I Have to do is) Dream, and my personal favorite – Johnny Mercer’s Dream (When You’re Feeling Blue).   There have been so many covers of this one – everyone from Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, and Linda Ronstadt, to Michael Buble and the Captain and Tenille (actually a nice recording).  My favorite, though, is Roy Orbison’s poignant rendition.  Some of you may recognize this from the movie You’ve Got Mail….

So what inspires your dreams? To see what dreamy photos and thoughts other bloggers have posted, click here. And dream, dream, dream…

Posted in Photo Challenges, Recreation, Ruminations | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 59 Comments

Travel Theme: Food

Posted on July 14, 2012 by The Retiring Sort

Ailsa at wheresmyback posted her Travel theme for this week: Food.

This one makes me wish I were at home where I have some other great photos – but since I’m not, I will make do with files I have with me!  I have some fun food photos from our trip to California and China a few years back.

On our way to the Beijing Olympics, we decided to stop and visit some of our old haunts in California.  As we headed north out of Santa Barbara, we stopped at Pea Soup Andersen’s – for  a crock of their legendary pea soup!

On our last day in California, we went to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco for lunch, and had a wonderful fresh Crab Louis with warm sourdough bread at Fisherman’s Grotto – which we chose, because it was the first SF restaurant we ate at together in the 1970’s!

Because neither of us speaks Chinese, we opted to book with a tour company for our reservations in China.  We used Cartan Tours, who had been involved with a number of Olympic tours.  They had a hotel hospitality suite with assistance for various arrangements, and on our first night there, as part of our reservations, they took a group of us out for Peking Duck at a local restaurant!

Our server carved our individual servings  in  a lovely presentation. Our hosts had selected a wonderful number of side dishes for us as well.

A couple of days later, we took their tour to the Great Wall at Badaling and a few other sites. That day, they took us to another restaurant that served food appealing to Western travelers:

However, on days when we toured Beijing on our own, we saw more of the local color in foods available in the markets for the locals….

We weren’t so brave there!!  To see what yummy selections other bloggers have posted, click here.

Posted in Photo Challenges, Travelogues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

Travel Theme: Night

Posted on July 7, 2012 by The Retiring Sort

Ailsa at wheresmyback posted her Travel theme for this week: Night.

I love night shots – and I’m not sure why I don’t take more of them.  This photo was taken from one of the piers west of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, looking back at the city. The lit spire is Ghirardelli Square, and to its left a bit you may faintly make out the pale silhouette of Coit Tower.

There’s something peaceful and hypnotizing about nightscapes.

Aside from the man-made glows that light up our nights, nature contributes her share of “nightlights” as well.

I recently shared this one in my “Parks” post as well – it’s the glow of lava on steam at the Halema’uma’u Crater of Kiluaea on Hawaii.  During the day, the steam appears mostly white. At night, it comes alive with color.

This was my iffy attempt to capture a haloed winter moon above the trees in our front yard last year. It reminded me of the poem The Highwayman, “The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas…”

No doubt about it, the night can be a magical time.  To see Night posts by other bloggers, click here.

Posted in Photo Challenges, Travelogues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 35 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge: Movement

Posted on July 7, 2012 by The Retiring Sort

The WordPress Photo Challenge for the week is Movement  We’re asked to show a photo or photos that exhibit or convey motion.

For me, the most illustrative image of motion is the sea.  The constant ebb and flow of the tides, the beauty of the waves. Mankind has ridden those waves since we first figured out how to create vessels to carry us on them.  I love oceans.

These two shots were taken on different parts of Oahu – one at Waikiki, and one on the North Shore, famous for its surf.

The movements of the seas also connect to other waterways, and create opportunities for a variety of animal and plant life. The water is always moving, always recreating the landscape around it.

These two pelicans are moving across the water, searching for food on the San Francisco Bay off the Pacific Ocean, while the kayaks are navigating the churning waters of the Delaware River just before it becomes tidal, moving toward the Delaware Bay, and finally pouring itself into the Atlantic Ocean.

Of course, we humans create a certain amount of movement as well.  Nowhere is that more evident than in our sporting events. My last two entries were taken at the Beijing Olympics four years ago:

In the first, a synchronized swimming team energetically dives into the pool. In the other the basketball moves toward the basket, and the players rush to position themselves for what follows.

Movement surrounds us everywhere – nothing stays the same, in nature or in the human domain.  Where do you see it?  To see how other bloggers showed Movement, click here.

Click on any of the photos above to see them full size.

Posted in Blogging, Photo Challenges | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 34 Comments