This week's PhotoHunt theme is "lazy."
Somewhere along the way, being lazy got an undeserved bad rap (busy=good, lazy=bad). I don't agree! Regular bouts of laziness are healthy, essential, and good for the soul.
Here’s one of my favorite places to be lazy:
Hope that everyone has a nice (and lazy) weekend!
Across the campo from the church of San Toma is the gothic Scuola dei Calegheri (Guild of the Cobblers or Shoe-makers). There’s another beautiful Madonna della Misericordia relief on the façade of the scuola and below that, a lunette over the door that shows San Marco healing the cobbler Anianus, who'd hurt his hand while making shoes and converted to Christianity after Mark healed him (and later became a saint himself). This Renaissance relief was sculpted by Pietro Lombardo, who may have copied a drawing by master painter Giovanni Bellini.
This is the scuola, with the Frari campanile behind it:
The Madonna della Misericordia on the facade:
"To America with Love..."
Last week, Maria I posted part one of "Gondoliers of Venice for Obama" and now, they continue their campaign and are joined by a chorus! Guaranteed to make you smile. Love the others floating by and cheering for them. If I run into Roberto when I'm in Venice this winter, I'll give him a high five. And maybe Maria and Anne will be able to join "Team Obama" in Venice next week!
This week's PhotoHunt theme is "sad."
Here's a sad but beautiful angel I found on San Michele in Isola, the cemetery island of Venice.
Are we all going to have the blues after this photo hunt?! Here's a Chinese proverb to keep in mind:
"You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent their making a nest in your hair." :)
Have a good weekend!
It's pretty common to see dolphins swimming by at Topsail although I didn't see any this time (and I didn't get to see the turtles either), but there were lots of nice birds. I don't have a photo of the best bird sighting...I was sitting on the upper deck of the house and a big group of pelicans flew over in formation, very cool!
There was a large flock of black birds hanging out on the beach - I don't remember ever seeing them there before. I think this guy is kinda cute:
The day before I went to Topsail, an unnamed storm blew through and even though it wasn’t powerful enough to have a name, it did quite a bit of damage. Virtually every ocean-front home had lost its stairs and/or walkways, and there was some debris laying around on the beach. All along the island, there are public access stairways that take you over the sand dunes and many of these stairs were gone, but luckily the ones closest to our house were intact. The ocean was still churned up when we arrived but it got calmer each day, and there were some beautiful bands of stormy clouds moving through. And the storm washed up some great shells!
Anne (andasamo) asked me where Topsail Island is, so here's the answer! It’s on the coast of North Carolina, about two and a half hours from where I live, so it’s a quick and easy trip to go down there for a long weekend like I did last week.
I love the beach. When I was a kid, that was always the destination for our family vacations – we would spend a week or two at either a North or South Carolina beach every summer.
North Carolina has a lot of nice beaches but Topsail is my favorite because it reminds me the most of how the beach was when I was young. It’s not over-developed and there are no ugly high-rise hotels, it’s mainly just cottages. And there’s not much to do except commune with the ocean, swim, walk, fish, or just lay around and read, so it’s very relaxing and renewing. I love the salty smell of the beach and the sound of the waves crashing, and I love to go for long walks and look for seashells. Fall is a perfect time to go because it’s still plenty warm, but vacation season is over so there aren’t a lot of people there.
No longer open to the public, this church is worth visiting anyway just because this neighborhood is so nice and also to see the beautiful relief of the Madonna on the outside of the church.
The church is dedicated to San Tommaso Apostolo (the apostle Thomas, famous for doubting). Originally built in the tenth century, the church has been restructured several times since, most recently in 1742. The façade designed by Longhena was added in 1660 and rebuilt a century later when it was on the verge of falling off.
On the right side of the church is the sarcophagus of Giovanni Priuli, a 14th century war hero and senator. Hard to photograph, but his feet are resting on a small dog. On the left side is one of the most beautiful Madonnas in town, a gothic relief of the Madonna della Misericordia. Gorgeous.
This week's PhotoHunt theme is "view."
LuLu's "Room with a View"
I'm posting early this week since I'm going to be unplugged for a couple of days. Will visit everyone's PhotoHunt posts when I get back on line. Happy weekend!
This is an episode of an A&E television series, filmed in 2005 and hosted by Leonard Nimoy, aka Spock. I rented it from Netflix.
Fascinating show – I recommend this one to anyone who loves Venice. Some beautiful scenery, of course, but also an excellent explanation of how such a magnificent city was built on what is essentially a big mucky swampy lagoon.
The show emphasizes how very improbable it is that a city was created in such a hostile environment with no fresh water, no building materials, and no place to grow food. The early Venetians fled into the lagoon around 400 AD to escape barbarians invading the mainland, and the seed of Venice’s eventual wealth was salt, the first product that the Venetians traded. At that time, salt was “edible gold” and much in demand not only for cooking but also for its ability to preserve food. And in order to sell their salt, the Venetians had to become expert boatsmen (and boat builders) and it all evolved from there.
Continue reading "Ancient Mysteries: The Miraculous Canals of Venice" »
