Upper Town, Zagreb, 28/06/2012

It has been exactly a year now since I visited Zagreb, the place I was born and brought up in. It is a long long time to be away from such a place. I miss it very much, of course, and this year, due to circumstances to do with my new job, I am having to wait a little longer to go there again. I have been looking through the photos I took last time I visited, and this one seemed to hold my eye and thoughts the most. It was taken in the old Upper Town, my favourite place to photograph and wander around. It teems with the spirit of past times I have drawn so much inspiration from for the past few years, and it is always full of quaint surprises, this old horse drawn cart parked on the pavement of one of the most frequented streets being a great example. And how nice someone had thought of putting a few pots of pink petunia on top of it to mark summertime!

Still Life with Biscuit Barrel

I love my antique wooden biscuit barrel. It lives on top of one of my kitchen cupboards amongst other old kitchen/dining room objects. I have often looked at it longing to use it in a still life image and have racked my brains trying to come up with a good and interesting composition. I thought of so many props I could   possibly include from flowers to fruit to all sorts of other things but in the end I decided that simplicity is once again going to be the safest and most effective option. I just stuck to the obvious theme and went for nothing more than some biscuits themselves placed in one of my little vintage milk glass bowls.

Hawes, 30th-31st May, 2013

Hawes is a picturesque small market town in one of the most glorious Yorkshire Dales - Wensleydale. It is the home of the famous and delicious Wensleydale cheese. For me it has a personal meaning too as it lies in the middle of what is a prime example of my favourite English countryside. I just love the rolling hills and valleys dissected with dry stone walls and dotted with ancient barns and charming farms. The images below are from my first ever visit to Hawes.

It was a most beautiful morning in the town of Hawes. This is a typical scene of a Dales town with the hills visible behind the houses in the distance. Can any place be more inviting than this? Well, certainly not for me!

A lovely old stone bridge and houses in the centre of Hawes. I took this on the first day of my visit. It was a cloudy day but the diffused light was suited well for photography around the town.

I was totally smitten by this post office. To me it looked like it could be a perfect setting for one of, say, Beatrix Potter's illustrated storey books. It may look quiet but it was actually quite busy and I had to keep coming back trying to get a good view as there were cars, lorries etc. parked in front of it all the time. Love that red door that complements the post box and the sign.

A western view of the pretty St. Magaret's church taken from an uphill path leading to the village of Gayle. The church and the lovely rural scene look almost like a drawing taken on a late overcast afternoon.

Yorkshire Dales Barns, May 2013

Stone built barns as well as dry stone walls are prominent and most charming characteristics of Yorkshire Dales landscape, particularly Swaledale and Upper Wharfedale. Today most of them seem not to be in use, but in the past they served to house the cattle and store the hay from the surrounding fields over winter. I took these three photos around the small town of Hawes.

Cocketts Hotel, Hawes, Wenslydale, 30/5/2013

Last week G and I went to Hawes in Yorkshire Dales and spent a night there. We arrived at about noon, took a stroll around the picturesque town, had a pub lunch and then we checked into the hotel which was little more than a guest house really but very nice, my type of accommodation. We found that the room we booked was having some work done on it so the landlords kindly gave us an upgrade at no extra cost - a beautiful, airy and very clean deluxe room.  It was a rather grey but, luckily, dry day. The view from our window fascinated me with the stone outhouses, white towels on the washing line and above all the moody mist on the distant hills. When I woke up the next morning the view was completely different. It was a most glorious morning one could wish for with  blue cloudless skies and warm sunshine on now crystal clear hills. The washing had gone though, and although I loved looking at the beautiful weather and morning light I did not bother reaching for my camera again: I had already got my shot of the view!

A view of our hotel from an uphill path leading to a field. It was taken late in the afternoon while G was already resting in the room before our evening meal, and I could not rest - I had to take more pictures! Our car is the second one form the right. On arrival we had an inevitable chat about the weather with our landlady and she concluded the conversation by saying famously: "Yes, it does rain a lot but at least everything is beautifully green!"