I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly

The photo Friday topic 'Extreme Closeup' was appropriate because I have just got a raynox dcr-250 supermacro lens.

This red eyed fly was sunning itself on a dead leaf and I was very impressed with the rainbow shimmer to its wings.
Flies are maybe not the most attractive subjects but I find them fascinating in extreme closeup.


I was really pleased to capture the facets of the compound eyes and its quite jolly grey and black striped torso like some kind of sport referee.

Tags: macro, photos, fly, photo friday, raynox dcr-250

O'er the hills and o'er the main

A couple of weekends ago we went to Golfe-Juan for the re-enactment of Napoleon's escape from Elba.
Napoleon Bonaparte had been exiled to the island of Elba off the coats of Italy in 1814.
His exile lasted less than a year and he managed to escape with 1,200 men on the 26th February 1815 . The group landed in Golfe-Juan a couple of days later.

This is Napoleon about to set foot on French mainland once more. I thought 'Napoleon' looked as if he was contemplating his next step and wondering how he would be received by the French people - good acting .



After landing Napoleon was given a horse and insepcted the regiments.
The real Napoleon was welcomed back with open arms as the army refused to fire on the deposed Emperor.
However, the new reign only lasted until the Battle of Waterloo -a period called Napoleon's Hundred Days although it actually lasted 111.


Sappers from the Grenadier Guards - or in French sapeurs - the engineering corps who traditionally wore beards to distinguish themselves from other soldiers. They also wore leather aprons , gauntlets and carried axes.

The French fire service are called sapeurs-pompiers because Napoleon created the fire brigade from a military engineering division and, of course, firemen still carry axes like the original sappers.
Grenadier Guards tent insignia -they have little grenade insignias around Napoleon's eagle [the word for explosive grenade comes from the french word for pomegranante [grenade] because the early greandes looked very similar in shape]


I am not sure which regiment this standard bearing soldier was from but I liked his expression and the distant tiny soldiers across the sea in the background.

Some drummers drumming.
There are a lot of re-enactors in Golfe Juan for the Napoleonic weekend. They camp in Napoleonic era tents on the beach and everything looks very authentic.

These soldiers were just waiting to take part in the parades later in the afternoon but I thought they looked like a museum tableau or maybe a still from the tv series 'Sharpe'.

Tags: Napoleon's Hundred Days, re-enactment, Napoleon, Golfe-Juan, Grenadier Guards, sapeurs, sappers, sapeurs-pompiers, greande, photos

And it burns, burns, burns: the ring of fire, the ring of fire

Here are some photos of a fire spinner at the night carnaval in Nice.
I was playing around with long exposures to capture the trail of light.


They were taken hand held rather than on a tripod which would have helped the photos but wouldn't have been too good in the crowd.


She was using fire batons rather than poi.

Hopefully I'll manage to learn from these and get better photos next time but I liked the firey shapes that appeared.

Tags: fire spinning, fire juggling, Fire dancing, Nice carnaval

Nice carnaval- city life

Place Massena during the Nice carnaval - the sky was filled with confetti , streamers and thousands of spectators.
One of the statues in Place Massena

Lamp post and confetti
The carnval king - Roi des Masquerades. The cat mask in his hand is a reminder of last year's giant cat king. The king is ceremonially burned to mark the end of carnaval but tehre are often reminders of the previous king to symbolise the idea that 'the king is dead, long live the king'


The Queen float - towering above everyone in Place Massena. Her skirt was made up of a carnaval mask and underneath there were lots of teenagers dressed in venetian carnaval costimes. Its hard to appreciate how immense the float is , but the jester characters also attached to her skirts are much beigger than humans.
This band member's helmet is covered in silly string .

There have been some calls to ban silly string at the carnbaval since it makes such a mess , can stain costumes ,and not forgetting the chemical propellants and empty cans and lids.
I'm not sure if a ban is possible though i am not a great fan of the stuff.

A couple of bizarrely masked and costumed stilt walkers with the Queen in the background.
A traditional carnaval group playing strangely shaped natural gourd instruments.
Originally carnaval costumes were simple- a bag or stocking hat , a face blackened with soot and a gourd instrument to make a noise. Very different from the elabroate costumes today.
This balloon was controlled by people using ropes - it was raised and lowered while a woman dangled and spun above the crowd.
A closer view of the balloon woman acrobat. She posed in various gymnastic positions whilst dangling from the balloon.
The aftermath - tons of confetti, streamers and silly string containers cover the ground. You can seen part of the tram track is covered in debris. During the carnaval processions, the tram doesn't cross Place Massena.
The clean-up crew dressed in fluorescent yellow. Its amazing how quickly they get the carnaval route looking normal again .

Tags: Nice, carnaval, carnival, confetti, silly string

Temple of Love

This is the Temple of Love [Temple d'Amour] aka temple of Diana in Parc Chambrun, Nice.

The land was originally bought by Comte Caïs de Pierlas en 1837 and he had a botanic garden planted on the site. There are still some of the original olive trees on the site from before the botanic gardens.

Count Joseph de Chambrun then bought the land in 1876 and brought in the famous Swiss brothers, Denis et Eugène Bühler, to do further landscaping.
At one point there was an artificial waterfall - probably similar to the one on the top of Colline de Chateau in Nice centre.
The neo-classical temple was designed by the architect Philippe Randon and dedicated to Countess of Chambrun , who wanted a sort of bandstand for classical music recitals.
Winter concerts were given here in winter from 1885 - Nice was originally a winter desination rather than a summer one, due to the very mild climate.

These are the steps that lead up to the temple. Kids [and some adults slide down the sloping edges] and the marble is now polished from thousands of bottoms sliding down.

The interior ceiling is beautifully decorated with gilded rosettes. Its still in very good repair considering its age.The tops of the columns are highly decorated with bull heads and foliate decorations. The pigeons like to use them as perches -this one started to fly away at the moment i took the photo.

The 12 columns are beautiful white fluted marble. The top of the roof is 19 metres from the ground The city of Nice bought the 'temple' and a small amount of surrounding land in 1920.

Since then , the Temple of Love has become a popular and very romantic place for local people have their wedding photos taken.

Tags: parc de chambrun, temple of love, temple of Diana, Nice, photos

He's a lumberjack and he's ok

This isn't spiderman -though the colours are nearly right. In January and February we see lots of folk with chainsaws dangling from trees all over Nice.

Thankfully they are firmly attached with harnesses and ropes.

I don't think I could be a tree surgeon since I hate heights. I guess tree surgeons have different phobias.
This is the end result. The plane trees end up looking gnarled and impossibly bald but they soon sprout new shoots and branchlets.

In a few weeks the trees in the boulevard will be leafy and green again-which is really hard to imagine when the trees look so lifeless.

The palm trees get pruned too.


The huge spikes on the feet help with climbing and hanging on to the tree.

Even with the ropes and harnesses and other precautions, its still a bit creepy to watch the tree surgeons at work. I worry about people falling -even when I don't know them.

Tags: tree surgeons, photos, palm tree, plane tree, tree climbing spikes

Pretty Flamingoes- happy valentine's day

I thought some cute kissing flamingoes were appropriate for Valentine's day. I liked the almost heart shape made where their beaks touch.


These flamingoes live in PARC Phoenix in Nice.
I have been lucky enough to see a wild flamingo flying and landing on a beach in Antibes but I wasn't fast enough to take its photo. I think it had been blown off course and was really heading for the nearby Camargue.

Tags: flamingo. valentine

Groundhog day

These are actually black tailed prairie dogs Cynomys ludovicianus rather than groundhogs- but they look a little bit similar to me.

These prairie dogs live in Parc Phoenix in Nice


Prairie dogs dig elaborate burrows with separate toilet areas, a listening area near the entrance where they can listen for predators, nurseries and sleeping chambers .
Prairie dogs are very social animals -and they often 'kiss' each other - a bonding and family strengthening behaviour. After they 'kiss' the prairie dogs groom each other and generally snuggle up.
I was lucky enough to catch a couple in the act.
The name, black tailed prairie dogs, comes from the black tip on the tail -just visible in this photo.

Tags: Cynomys ludovicianus, Parc Phoenix. prairie dog

meditation

Gandalf the cat spends a lot of time appearing to meditate - especially when the window is open. He stares off into the distance without seeing anything but he is really listening very hard for the scary pigeons and seagulls.

The star shaped catchlight in his eye might have a mundane explanation like camera optics and the sunlight or maybe its a sign of cat enlightenment .

Tags: gandalf, cat. photos

white

I think a lot modern people forget that street lighting is a modern innovation so it was interesting to see how the Romans dealt with the problem of low light levels.

This is a road surface in Pompeii. The white stones were deliberately inset between the large slabs in order to help people see their way around at dusk or to catch the light from torches or lamps . Quite an ingenious solution to a problem.



As well as in the roadways, Roman people also made use of white and light coloured stones inside their houses.
In this peristyle [a covered walkway in the middle of the house surrounding a garden or courtyard] there are large pieces of geometrically shaped marble as well as a circle and cross stud pattern made up of small pieces.
This meant that people were able to walk around in the evening or night and make use of the open space and fresh air without the risk of falling into the plants or ponds.



This is some of the mosaic edging from a differnet house entrance way to light the path of any guests.
This is the imposing gateway of the House of the Faun-so called because of a dancing faun statue found there.
The greeting 'HAVE' means 'Hail' so it acted a bit like the modern doormats that say 'welcome' and with the added advantage of really impressing the neighbours.
The white lettering would have also helped the greeting stand out when guests arrived for a dinner party.


This is the faun that gives the house the name. Its actually a copy , the original is in the archaeological museum in Naples. The pond the faun is dancing in is actually an impluvium which collected and stored away rainwater. The white surrounding and the multicoloured slate tiles also make it stand out in low light.

We were there in November and by 5pm when the site closed, visibility was very poor so we were quite thankful for the Roman ingenuity that allowed us to see the last few things.

Tags: pompeii, mosaic, house of the faun, road, peristyle