Journey to Egypt, Part 8: Luxor Temple

December 26, 2018 Luxor Temple, in the heart of Luxor city center, is much smaller than Karnak, making it easier to see and digest. We visited after dark, around 6:00 pm. Mohamed said it is more striking at night and he was right. Luxor Temple was almost right across the street from our hotel, Sofitel […]

A Photo a Week: Contrasting Colors in Nature and by Design

Nancy Merrill’s A Photo a Week challenge this week is about contrasting colors, using a color wheel which shows which colors contrast with each other. In art, we often see paintings with colors that seem to pop out of the image. An artist may use what are called “complementary colors” (contrasting colors) to emphasize something […]

RDP: Panoply of Animals

I didn’t set out to collect little animals, but in truth I love collecting little things from different cultures, and animals are universally loved. I have collected small animal figures from Mexico, Brazil, Tanzania and others that I have either acquired or inherited. I tried to fit most of them on one shelf for this […]

Treehouse: Oddball Thursday Doors

When I saw this tree, I thought of the stories of my childhood, where families of rabbits or squirrels wearing human clothing, lived. I discovered it on one of my walks on a local walking path, which passes a couple of private homes. Someone has used the contours and scars of this tree trunk to […]

RDP #82-83: Peru 2008

Ragtag Daily Prompt #82 (yesterday) was yarn. RDP #83 (today) is remember. I decided to combine them in these photos, remembering our trip to Peru ten years ago! We visited a place outside of Cuzco that had wonderful woven things for sale, but was also a cooperative, where artisans did their weaving. If you look […]

Artful Photos Debut! – Haitian Art

Artful Photos is a new feature that I am starting in 2018. I am going to publish a photo (or more than one) of artwork from museums that I have visited. I go to a lot of art museums when I travel, plus I am a member of the Art Institute of Chicago (which means […]

Hand Made in Guatemala and Peru

I’m sure many of the beautiful, colorful clothes and other items that one can buy in Guatemala are made in factories these days. But you can usually tell when something is made by hand. For Nancy Merrill’s Photo a Week theme “Hand Made,” this is a quilt I saw for sale during my day trip […]

Curitiba: Feira do Largo da Ordem

Curitiba, November 13, 2016 Another cool day. Eliane drove us to the Feira do Largo da Ordem downtown – Carlos didn’t go with us because he hates crowds. And crowded it was! This feira is a crafts market which takes place every Sunday from 9 am to 2 pm, with well-made craft items, some beautiful, […]

Curitiba’s Historic District

November 12, 2016 Our plan today was to walk around the Setor Histórico downtown. Although it was cool, rain was no longer in the forecast. First we stopped at Clube Curitibano, which I wrote about in another post. Leaving the Clube Curitibano property, we walked through a plaza of white and black mosaic tiles, lined […]

Alaska 2016: Skagway and Haines

When we woke up this morning, the ship didn’t appear to be moving. I went out on the verandah to see where we were. In front of me, instead of a dock with some sort of city visible around it, there was a sheer rock face! On the rock face were advertisements for cruise ships […]