Back and Front

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Front

Preparing for a show in the Fall at Paxton Gate's kid store, sort of contemplating the technology/nature intersect. I will just note that Michael's has a sale on embroidery thread, 35 cents a skein, right now - thank you, craft gods.

Fear of Little Men

Up the airy mountain
     Down the rushy glen,
 We daren't go a-hunting,
     For fear of little men
         - From The Fairies, by William Allingham

And also beware on Warfield Street in Oakland. In this case, though, the little men themselves look full of fear, possibly because their buddies the trees got made into telephone poles (to the bottom of wich the little men are themselves attached - quite a number of them, in fact). Made my day, as you might imagine. As a thank you I wrote the Allingham quote on a little piece of paper which I bound with a gold tassel, then planted at the epicenter of the elfin infestation.

Caspar David Friedrich's Dream

Fontane de Vaucluse is a little village which is home to mysterious spring at the base of a cliff, it springs in part from an underground aquifer although not everything about its source is known (Jacques Cousteau investigated at one point). Also of interest is the intensely green vegetation growing at the bottom of the Sorgue River which flows out from the Spring, which gives the water an intensely green look. The presenter in the top photo is my travelling companion, Jenny.

There is an ancient fort you can climb up to

I hope Caspar David Friedrich saw this place.

Cranky

I need to get back to posting vacation shots, but let me just say...My father objects to the new format of KQED's Nightly Business Report (NBR for short), which has developed Las Vegas style animated graphics and stirring musical cues. He sent them the following email:


Your new format stinks. Loud music and rocket take off effects.


That's it - no "While I enjoy the actual content of the program" or anything to soften the blow. A man of few words, my father.

Marvellous City

Marseille is a yeasty city with new construction going up alongside buildings centuries of years old. The city was selected as the European Capital of culture fro 2013, which the Marsellais find hysterically funny. It has been a seaport for many centuries, first colonized by the Greeks and Romans - it developed a culture apart, and was the seat of the troubadours and courtly love. it was not actually part of France until the 17th century. It's also the gateway to Provence.

The first two lines on the mosaic plaque say:

Merveilleuse cité
Ancrée en Mediterranée

Marvellous City
Anchored in the Mediterranean

Crunchy

Marseille, she is a crunchy town. We don't know what happened to the "S" because we forgot to ask.