PhotoHunt: Twelve (+1)

It was a French Christmas for me this year, that is French with touches of British and German. Multi-national, if very European! I hope you've all had as happy a time as I have.

Part of the traditional Provençal Christmas desserts. There are 13 desserts, representing the twelve apostles plus Christ . Twelve of the dishes should be regional produce and the thirteenth more special. Although the composition of the dishes varies, the dried fruits are an essential part - the "beggars", representing the monastic orders which have taken vows of poverty.

Twelve golden globes in the Christmas table decorations. You'll have to trust me on this, but I did count them carefully - six shiny ones and six matt.

By coincidence, it is also precisely three times twelve months since I started this blog.

If you'd like to join in and find other other players, pay a visit to TNchick's site where you can find out more.

On yer bike

Soon, maybe in a couple of days, the snow will melt, things will look brighter, and we will finish this house move.

PhotoHunt: fast

The fast way to cross the English Channel.  I'm scheduling this post because this is what I will have been doing yesterday, all being well.  And considering the weather forecast, I can't be certain.

The pictures were all taken from a moving car through a less than spotless windscreen, so the quality is not the best.

The approach to the Eurotunnel shuttle complex at Coquelles near Calais.  We were the only people there =  Fast check-in!

Down the ramps and towards the train.

The nearer entrance leads up to the upper deck, but I think it was unused this trip.

Passing along the interior of the train, and approaching the end of the compartment where the fireproof doors will close to seal the train into sections.  You can pass from one compartment to another during the crossing but the doors shut automatically after you.

Stationary and waiting to set off.  You are advised to remain inside your car for the duration of the crossing.  It was at this point the announcements said that no flash photography was allowed so that the fire detection systems weren't activated.

Then, after no time at all you are at the other end and emerging to see a new white horse carved into the hillside.   35 minutes in total = Fast crossing.

UPDATE:  We crossed over just in time so it remained a fast crossing, but our removal van is snowed in with no prospect of a thaw in the immediate future, and now we are snowed in at the hotel we sheltered in last night.  Unlikely to blog or comment again in the near future.

If you'd like to join in and find other other players, pay a visit to TNchick's site where you can find out more.

Fifty two names for snow.....

..... and not one of them polite.

Not the best day to be travelling north.  If only we were going south.  We will be, but not for a week.

Curiosity killed the cat.

A parcel arrived from Amazon the other day, not for me.  It was still in the same position a day later.  There was, I was told, no reason to open it because the contents were the books that had been ordered.

I can't do that.  I can't leave a parcel or letter unopened.  I was self appointed postwoman for our department at work just in case there was something important (or, let's be honest, just interesting) lurking the bundle which could otherwise be left for hours.  I can't let a telephone ring, even if I'm on the point leaving the house.  I must find out what it is.  This curiosity of mine has been useful too - it worked well in IT because I couldn't rest until I had found the root of a problem.  I see or hear something and wonder, "Why is that?".

According to psychologists, curiosity is defined as a need, thirst or desire for knowledge.  A cat wants to know what made that sound or caused that movement but humans can be curious about things that may not even exist (and many will make a decision on little or no evidence - also known as jumping to a conclusion).  These show two different types of curiosity behaviour - one is exploratory and the other could be called thinking.  There's another division between broad and deep curiosity. Some people want to know about all sorts of different things while others to know as much as they can find about a single topic and will keep on delving more and more deeply.

If something odd happens, or a difference shows up, some people will notice and accept it as just that, others won't notice at all, but the curious will want to know why.  I've seen curiosity described as being on the border between order and chaos, so you could think of it as an attempt to maintain a sense of order, to explain away the potential chaos.

Roget's Thesaurus says that the absence of curiosity is boredom.  I don't think I'll ever be bored.

P.S. no. 1
1885, Sir Francis Galton wrote a paper called “The Measurement of Fidget.” [Another good detour to explore here: he was the cousin of Charles Darwin and an early fingerprint specialist]. He noted that in an audience, people will fidget about once a minute.  The ones who are interested in the subject will fidget less often than those who are bored, and they will get their fidgeting over quickly. 

P.S. no. 2
Curiosity killed the cat
Information made him fat.
That was the rhyme I was told as a child, I suspect to keep me out of mischief.  Since looking up one or two things for this post, I've learnt another ending: "satisfaction brought him back" which I much prefer.

P.S. no. 3
I've read that curiosity is a predictor of happiness.  I don't know whether that's true or scientifically investigated, but I'm happy to hear it. :)

PhotoHunt: undesirable

Better late than never!

Last February we went to Rome where there is a super-abundance of superb architecture and statues, all of which have to endure the undesirable effects of attention from birds. There are pigeons on ledges...

... and pigeons on fountains ...

... and seagulls on saints' statues at the Vatican ....

... and seagulls riding horses at the Trevi Fountain ...

Unfortunately there is a lot of cleaning and restoration involved in keeping the statues looking as they should.

This is the statue of Neptune, sometimes known as Oceanus, at the centre of the Trevi Fountain.

If you'd like to join in and find other other players, pay a visit to TNchick's site where you can find out more.

PhotoHunt: curved

Curved. The word conjured up many pleasing images in my mind of roads, bridges and rivers, but I realised as I was looking through my photos that I am particularly fond of curved ceilings - the many different types of vaulted ceilings to be seen in old buildings in particular. But just to show I appreciate other curved things, something different as my final choice.

Medieval covered and vaulted alleys meet at a corner in Sainte Agnes, in the south of France.  A beautiful village with a fascinating history both medieval and from World War II.

Vaulted wine cellars in the Château de Valençay.

From the abbey church of Saint Pierre, Moissac.  This abbey was a stopping place on the pilgrimage routes of Santiago de Compostela through France to Spain.

The Château de Valençay again, this time a gallery opening on to the cour d'honneur.

And finally for something completely different, some gorgeous sculptures of curved, curvy, curvaceous people. 

If you'd like to join in and find other other players, pay a visit to TNchick's site where you can find out more.

Attack of the giant seed pods

We've been away from France a maximum of three weeks but in that time the garden has been occupied by giant seed pods.  They were covering the whole area, all from our (charming) neighbour's trees.  I say charming because he did apologise for his tree before we moved in - I had no idea what he meant.

These are GIANT seed pods.

How long is that?  18 inches?  45 cm or thereabouts?   Three sacks full today and still more biding their time up on the tree.  It's not so much the pods themselves because they are relatively easy to clear away, but miss one at your peril.  The seeds germinate easily and produce seedlings with the most vicious thorns imaginable, and roots that are determined not to let go.

I think it may be an acacia, but when I tried to look it up, it turns out there are something like 1300 varieties of acacia, many of which have been reclassified as other things since 2005, and others aren't acacias at all but false acacias.  My investigative instincts failed me at this point and I returned outside to gather more pods....