Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Houses and/or Barns
A great topic from Cee – again! Here is a couple of my favourite houses and – what is left of an old barn…
I fell in love with this little abandoned house in Riga.
And this painted house in Switzerland is rather spectacular.
This time of the year can be absolutely stunning in colours and fresh air- and this year it really was. Even if the wether has not been the best possible, my walks and hikings have truly lifted my spirits.
So, I too, will do some posts on Autumn Colours. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did posting them.
In a previous post I started off in the little village Vittsjö, here in Skåne. This old stone bridge is to be found there as well. Every year I take some photos of it, usually on my way home from work…But, as I do not work now, I do not drive along these roads anymore. Suddenly I felt the urge to see the Vittsjö autumn clothes this year too.
I stopped several times on the road further west, towards the coast. How long would the weather be with me? The promise was for the whole day…
Through the forest and westwards there is a very meandering little road that I love to drive. Maybe not in the winter months though…
If you follow my blog, you know how much I love trees and country roads and paths with grass in the middle. Totti agrees with me in this! We walked this road for half an hour – without reaching the end of it.
Even though I love the smell of newly cut wood, I feel sorry for the fallen trees. On the other hand, we still use much wood when building houses in Sweden – and who does not want a really beautiful floor?
As the evening light was upon us, I turned back and drove homewards. Still some favourite catches though – this stony meadow with its fallen trees and warm and cold colours in a mix.
A drizzling mist was making it even darker, but a stone fence is always a stone fence. I always think of all the hard work behind it. So many hours of heavy and tough gathering first and then also the elaborate work to put the stones together in a sustainable construction. If you tear down a stone fence in Sweden, you will have to rebuild it again. And pay for it yourself.
We spent an evening walking in Lerma, in Castile and León, Spain. A little village the size of my home town in Sweden, but Lerma has important monuments dating from the 17th century, which were built by the Duke of Lerma, the King’s favourite.
To me, the greatest attraction here was the two main streets. One of them in the header, and in the very old part, I found this remarkable house.
Its façade and its colours caught my eye – and held it there for longer than just a moment.
The unevenness was made even more beautiful in the stray rays of the setting sun.
And further on, down the road, I also found a little door into the unknown…maybe 45 cm wide and 1.50cm high – No key. A stray…uncomfortable bench in a dark alley and some dry thistles on a stone fence…
I do love these things…
…as I loved the stork nest on the church and the lonely dog in the lonely street…
…and the charming restaurant waiting for its bustling guests arriving by 9 p.m.
I do love odd places and odd things and – almost everything about Spain.
H2O – well, that is what is coming this autumn, and even more during winter.
Water, it is called. For WPC I have chosen three favourites, one of its thickest forms and two of its thinnest. In the header, the frozen, majestic waterfall Tännforsen in Jämtland, Sweden.
From Barcelona, a hidden castle in the water cascades and from New Zealand, hot springs’ vapour.
My Islands in the World – Azores. And this little Island, Corvo. Blue Hydrangeas in the blue ocean. My daughter as a young girl…Someday I hope we will return.
A gallery of pictures from the little village Ansó – isolated for many years, but rather recently opened up to the world.
On our way back to our hotel, we passed Foz de Arbaiun, a narrow gorge made by the river Salazar, 400 m down. As usual, click to enlarge. (Sometimes needed twice)
On the cliff sides, many vultures have found their homes. We saw at least a dozen coming in. Here they are free to live – nobody can touch them.
Unfortunately we had not brought any pair of binoculars – but the flight of the majestic vultures was still great to watch. We did not see any of the other species.
For Cee this week – a piece of the Atlas Range in Morocco. Maybe not complete circles, but indeed curves. A majestic landscape streching miles and miles away to the horizon.
And thank you for being featured last week!
We were driving along the road from Bilbao to visit Gernika this day, when suddenly, out of nowhere, without any road sign – we saw the pinnacles above the dense forest. A castle. This castle is located in Gatika, in the province of Biscay, in northern Spain
We turned left off the road and decided to have a closer look at it – and after some twists and turns of narrow roads – we found it.
The castle has a fairy-tale look about it, and as we started walking around it, we realised that the place was abandoned and nobody lived there. Further down the road we found pictures of knights and horses, together with a closed down, dilapidated café. The premises had probably been used for games or jousting.
A look at Wikipedia tells us that the present building was created as a hobby for its then owner and to create something visually spectacular rather than to produce something for people to live in. ” In fact it would be quite inconvenient as a home as the towers have little useful space and various parts of the castle have exterior connections which are not particularly apt for the wet Basque weather.”
The building is surrounded by an overgrown park which includes palms and exotic plants. We thought the forlorn castle must be totally unknown, but in fact it seems this is not the case…As any other little girl, Kate Middleton’s dream once was to get married in this fairy tale castle. (Said in a BBC interview with David Ferald.)
Back in Bilbao again in the evening, we learned from our host that the castle is named Castillo de Butrón . (He even had a painting of Butrón on the wall.) It dates originally from the Middle Ages, although it owes its present appearance to an almost complete rebuilding, inspired by Bavarian castle models, begun by Francisco de Cubas (also known as Marqués de Cubas) in 1878.
The castle fell into disuse, was later renovated and opened again, but the building was finally closed to visitors although the grounds remained open.
In November 2005 the building was purchased by INBISA (Grupo Empresarial) for about 1,6 million euros, but it remains under the general protection of Spanish law in respect of historic buildings in Spain.
For Sylvain Landry’s challenge this week, we should look at the world from a child’s position. And indeed, my Mille looks much bigger than he was. His height was 48 centimetres – and the mountains somewhat higher…
The Epic of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian story, The Odyssey by Homer, Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and of course The Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling.
In these stories, the protagonists set out to almost impossible tasks, leaving home and safety plunging into the unknown. So, where am I, a 21st century, middle aged woman, in all this? What is my Quest?
I guess in my little world there are no big ”saving the world”- quests – maybe saving myself quests only. I am constantly searching for and heading towards Inner Peace, being kind and compassionate along the road. I find peace in Nature and through doing good things, helping other fellow passengers on this route.
Hopefully, one day, I will be standing there, feeling that my quest is completed. I will be completely calm and at peace with myself and the world.
Leya 
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