One carving, three angles

Stone carving – side

Stone carving – front

Stone carving – top

I bought this carving at the Teotihuacan site in Mexico in 1996, and it has moved with me from country to country since. I think it’s obsidian, or maybe onyx. (If any reader knows, please tell me.) It’s only a tourist souvenir, but I like it, and I’m fascinated by how very different it appears when viewed from every angle. It also reminds of a good holiday, and of the extraordinary site of Teotihuacan and the culture that built the city and the society.

This post is also part of the Travel Trinket and Memories Challenge, which I was invited to join by leannenz whose challenge it is. If you have a momento of your own travels, why not take part?

Random Fridays: Bee and flower

Bee caught in mid air while feeding from this flower.

This flowering hedge was very popular with bees when I walked by. The flower is the New Zealand Christmas Bush (Metrosideros thomasii). Don’t be fooled by the name; I took the photo on the shores of Botany Bay, Australia.

The BBC has an interesting story about trackers being attached to honey bees in an attempt to learn more about the factors that are causing worrying declines in honey bee numbers globally. Click here to read the article.

A day with a master winemaker

The end result: a red wine called Vieux Chateau du Roi.

While visiting my parents this May, I spent a day with my father making wine. To say that I helped would be a gross exaggeration, as Dad is an old hand at this. I mostly got in his way taking photos! The grape juice comes in a large (heavy!) box, along with a few other things. One distributor describes this red wine thus: “This popular French red wine is full-bodied yet surprisingly soft and quick to mature. Deep red and aggressive with complex flavours resulting from a blend of grape varieties which layer flavours and aromas of ripe fruit, berries, plum, spice oak.”

In the afternoon, we also made a batch of white wine. In the early evening, my parents and I moved onto the patio to enjoy cheese, fruit and a bottle of last year’s Vieux Chateau du Roi (the photo above). It was a good day. (WPC is looking for Mesh galleries, but I don’t have the Mesh app, nor indeed a smartphone, so I will approximate that gallery style with a slideshow. There are 11 photos and I suggest starting with 1, as the photos tell a story.)

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Here are a few other photos of Dad’s Wines:

Amarone is another red from the same supplier. It’s a soft, very drinkable Italian.

Did I mention that Dad makes his own sparkling wine?

Bubbly resting in the cellar.

The cellar.

The cellar.

The cellar. The large glass containers are called “carboys”.

Empty carboys.

Look how clear this wine is!

Here’s the secret to clear wine: this filter forces the wine under pressure through a series of pads.

A bag of corks.

Four boxes of grape juice, waiting to turn into wine.

Bench Series: Mosaic (maybe)

Mosaic bench

Keeping with the August theme of Colourful Benches, I found this mosaic bench not two blocks from my new apartment. But I fear I may be pushing the definition of “mosaic bench” here — certainly there is a seating area, and there are mosaics, but is this really a bench? Maybe!

Mosaic bench

Random Fridays: Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin bust on a street in Philadelphia.

Walking along a street in Philadelphia, my eye was caught by this bust of Benjamin Franklin on the other side of the street. In the photo it looks like a sheltered, quiet spot, but it’s really just a space between businesses on a busy street, with traffic whizzing past and (when I took the shot) roadworks blocking most of my view. I think those three tubs of bright red geraniums are a wonderful touch.

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Caterpillar close-up

Cabbage looper caterpillar

Sunday Stills this week is Going Buggy. Do larvae count? Maybe they are baby bugs? I don’t know if this voracious green caterpillar made it to the moth stage, because after I took its photo as it munched its way among my plants, I tossed it over the side of the balcony.

Cabbage looper caterpillar

Bench Series: Blue

Blue bench

I wasn’t sure I would be able to join in with the August bench theme of colourful, as I had no appropriate bench photos. Jude reminded me of the blue benches she had seen in Sydney, and indeed while out walking this afternoon I spotted over a dozen of them. This one, however, has seen better days!

I don’t fancy sitting here!

Post boxes

Post box, Gran Hotel Ancira, Monterrey Mexico

Post box, Gran Hotel Ancira, Monterrey Mexico

An interesting post on Travel Words gives us the history of the famous English post box, with photos of a remarkable number of examples. Jude invites us to share our own images, so here are a few I have.

Post boxes, old GPO, Sydney

London pillar box in the snow

The next photo is not so much a post box as an entire post office. This is the “Galapagos Post Office” on the island of Floreana. Originally the barrel was used by whalers and other sailors, who would leave letters for people at home; the letters would be picked up and delivered by other sailors heading in that direction. Nowadays, the post office is used only by tourists.

Not so much a post box as an entire post office!

Random Fridays: Starfish

Basket of starfish ornaments.

I saw this basket of starfish ornaments in a shop in Ettalong Beach, north of Sydney. I liked how the light slanted in to spotlight just a few.

Either these tiles go, or I do.

Bathroom tiles, the height of fashion circa 1970.

I moved into a new apartment two weeks ago. It has its good points, and its bad points. These bathroom tiles are definitely on the “bad” side. I’ll spare you a view of the tiles on the walls, which are equally hideous but in a different way. Every time I see and feel these tiles beneath my feet, I think only one thing: “Gotta get carpet”.

(The post heading is a paraphrase of Oscar Wilde’s deathbed remark.)