Weekly Photo Challenge: More Hands
Still on an arty theme, I love the smooth skin on this sculpture’s oversized hands. I vaguely recognise the artist’s style but I’m afraid can’t put a name to this work, which was on display at the Lisbon Art Fair in 2011. If anyone can help me out with the artist’s name, please let me know.
It’s over there!
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For other people’s interpretations of this week’s photo challenge, click here.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands
Gnarled, with impractically long nails and ornate gold jewellery, the hands of ‘Madame Orba’ by Thomas Kuebler are definitely worthy of this week’s photo challenge.
I found this sculpture on a trip to Évora, Portugal, along with many other weird and wonderful things. To find out more about them, you can read my post Évora – Beyond Bones.
‘Madame Orba’ by Thomas Kuebler as seen in Évora, 2010
For more ‘Hands’ photos, check out the links at the Weekly Photo Challenge.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Blue
Since it was first established in 2003, the International Dixieland Jazz Festival has made quite a name for itself on the international jazz scene. The festival is usually held in June, with jazz and Dixie bands playing various venues in and around Cantanhede in the weeks leading up to the main event.
On the big day, crowds line the streets and gather on balconies in Cantanhede’s city centre to get caught up in the spirit of fun and celebration as the participating bands parade through the streets.
The bands with their tubas, drums and trumpets are interspersed with teams of dancers in flapper costumes from surrounding schools. Vintage cars and motorbikes join the procession, along with circus performers. And let’s not forget the beer trucks and donkey-drawn carts distributing food and drink to fuel the festivities. A great day out for all ages.
Unfortunately, due to the current economic crisis in Portugal, Cantanhede city council have been unable to justify the cost of running it for a couple of years now. Like many others, I’m hoping that the crisis will soon pass so we can get back to enjoying this kind of fun again. I’ll let you know when it’s back on.
In the meantime, to fit in with the theme of this week’s photo challenge, ‘blue’, here’s a taster of the festival:
To find out how other people have interpreted this week’s theme, or to take part in the challenge yourself, follow the links in the comments here.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocussed, Again
After posting my first set of photos for this week’s photo challenge, ‘Unfocussed’, I remembered this shot. I hadn’t planned it at all and was surprised, and pleased, by the blurred effect created by this passer-by as he walks past Lisbon’s iconic Chiado café, ‘A Brasileira’.
If you’d like to see other people’s interpretation of this week’s Photo Challenge, ‘Unfocussed’, follow the links in the comments here.
For more of my posts about Lisbon, click here.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocussed
I’ve never been able to bring myself to delete the only photos I’ve got from a visit to a bizarre museum in Tomar, central Portugal. Nestled within the old convent of Saint Francis (Convento do São Francisco), Europe’s largest collection of matchboxes is on display; all 43,000 of them!
I hadn’t expected to enjoy the matchbox museum (Museu dos Fosforos) but it was fascinating. So many colours and designs it made my head spin. Which is why I was so disappointed to find that none of the photos I took came out clearly.
I suppose I’ll just have to go back another time and be more careful! I’m looking forward to it already.
If you want to visit the matchbox museum, you’ll find it near the train station in Tomar, at Largo 5 de Outubro. It was free when I went but only open in the afternoon (2-5pm).
I found another ‘Unfocussed’ photo, this time in Lisbon. Click here to see it.
If you’d like to see other people’s interpretation of this week’s Photo Challenge, ‘Unfocussed’, follow the links in the comments here.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Together
For this week’s challenge, I found some wonderful examples of togetherness in the photos I took at an outdoor art exhibition in central Portugal. Every year, different artists are invited to display their work in the tiny mountain schist village of Cerdeira, near Lousã. To find out more about last year’s ‘Elementos à Solta / Art in the Wild’ event and how to get there, read my post about it here.
Otherwise, just relax and enjoy the mini slideshow.
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To check out my other Weekly Photo Challenge interpretations, click here.
To see what other people have done with this week’s theme, ‘Together’, follow the links in the comments here.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Sun
Yippee! A chance to use this photo, taken from my balcony as the sun came up one morning. I’m not usually up this early but I couldn’t sleep and decided to take some photos as dawn cracked.
To check out my other Weekly Photo Challenge interpretations, click here.
To see what other people have done with this week’s theme, ‘Sun’, follow the links in the comments here.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Through
It was difficult to choose which photo to use for ‘through’. So I picked three and decided to let you vote for your favourite.
1. A view of the splendid monument to Dom José in Lisbon’s Praça do Comércio through the archway on Rua Augusta.
2. Still in Lisbon, Mike walks through a piece of Jesús Soto’s kinesthetic art at a temporary exhibition in Museu do Chiado.
3. Beautiful coloured light bathes these church pews as the sun shines through the stained glass windows of the 16th century Igreja Nossa Senhora da Graça in Évora.
Decide which one you like best and vote for it by leaving me a comment.
For my previous interpretations of the Weekly Photo Challenge, click here.
For other people’s versions of ‘Unusual’, follow the links in the comments section of the Weekly Photo Challenge.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Even More Unusual
I’ve already posted one photo for this week’s challenge but then I remembered this and couldn’t resist posting it.
A ceramic dog in a dressing gown with a gun – it doesn’t get much more unusual than that! I found this figure in the window of Fabrica Sant’ Anna ceramics shop in the Chiado district of Lisbon which has been selling the company’s hand made tiles and pottery since 1741.
For my previous interpretations of the Weekly Photo Challenge, click here.
For other people’s versions of ‘Unusual’, follow the links in the comments section of the Weekly Photo Challenge.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Unusual
I spotted this unusual life form in the woods near my house back in November. It’s some form of fungus but I’ve never seen anything like it. It seems to begin life as a clear, jelly-like blob, which gradually darkens and becomes more solid. I think this is the finished version; bright yellow with bulging folds of flesh. if anyone knows what it is, please let me know.
For my previous interpretations of the Weekly Photo Challenge, click here.
For other people’s versions of ‘Unusual’, follow the links in the comments section of the Weekly Photo Challenge.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Contrast
This week’s theme reminded me instantly of the ‘before and after’ nature of these two houses in Santa Comba Dão, central Portugal.
Many of the old buildings in the town have been restored and the gaps between the granite stones are filled in with bright white cement. The contrast of the dark stone against the toothpaste quality of the cement creates a lacy effect on the walls.
For my previous interpretations of the Weekly Photo Challenge, click here.
For other people’s versions of ‘Contrast’, follow the links in the comments section of the Weekly Photo Challenge.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Distorted
I’m very happy that this week’s them, ‘distorted’, gives me a chance to use these photos.
Some mornings, when the sun hits the shutters at a certain angle, the light gets distorted as it reflects on my bedroom walls. I love lying in bed, watching the patterns dance around with a life of their own.
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For my previous interpretations of the Weekly Photo Challenge, click here.
For other people’s versions of ‘Distorted’, follow the links in the comments section of the Weekly Photo Challenge.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Indulge
I managed to remember to take a photo of this sumptuous breakfast at Casa de Sezim, a gorgeous hotel near Guimarães, before I indulged. All this was for just me and doesn’t include the scrambled eggs and bacon that came later! I didn’t eat all of it, by the way.
If you’d like to see my other attempts at the Weekly Photo Challlenges, click here.
For other people’s versions of ‘indulge’, follow the links in the comments at the Daily Post.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Down
This week’s theme reminded me of this boy’s dilemma in Ponte da Lima, a beautiful medieval city in northern Portugal. Surrounded by a group of friends, he contemplates jumping off the ancient Roman bridge into the river Lima.
Do I have to?
It really doesn’t look deep enough and I worry whether or not he will be brave enough to step down off the wall and say no to the dare or stupid enough to jump.
Pretty, but not deep enough to jump into from a bridge!
Just in case you’re wondering, here’s the bridge and the drop he’s considering.
It’s a long way down!
If you’d like to see what I made of previous Weekly Photo Challenges, click here.
For other interpretations of this week’s theme of ‘Down’, check out the links in the comments of the Weekly Photo Challenge.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Regret
This is the Fountain of Tears (Fonte das Lágrimas), which symbolises the never-ending regret that Prince Pedro experienced when his lover, Inês de Castro, was executed. What made it worse was that it was his own father, King Afonso of Portugal, who had sent Pedro away from the royal palace on a pretence so that he could have Inês killed.
The water symbolises Pedro’s endless tears over her death while the strands of grass swaying in the water represent her hair and the red stones are said to have been stained by her blood.
For the full story, read Eternal Love, Portuguese Style.
For my previous Weekly Photo Challenge posts, click here.
For other interpretations of ‘Regret’, follow the links in the Weekly Photo Challenge comments. Or add your own.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Ready
This photo, taken in Portugal’s capital city in November, seems to me doubly representative of ‘ready’. This Lisbon tram is ready to take its passengers up one of the city’s seven hills. Below it, these street vendors have got chestnuts ready and waiting to sell to passers-by.
For more photographic interpretations of ‘Ready’, visit the Weekly Photo Challenge and follow the links in the comments.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Hope
Hope. It’s what this sailor’s wife is clinging on to as she waits by the harbour in Vila do Conde near Porto. She clutches the last letter she got from her husband, not knowing if or when he’ll return.
For other posts inspired by the word ‘Hope’, see the comments at the Weekly Photo Challenge.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Simple
I’ve had a thing for geckos ever since the first time I saw one in Australia. I think it’s their cute feet that does it for me; the way each toe is rounded at the end. It’s as simple as that.
Luckily, I found this baby gecko before Daisy did and was able to save it from her clutches. She may be cute but she isn’t kind to lizards.
For more Weekly Photo Challenge posts, check out the comments here.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Peaceful
One of the side effects of living in a valley is that it can take a while for the morning mist to burn off. Mornings in Moura Morta are often cloaked in white fog until lunchtime but when the mist does start to shift, the effects can be stunning. To me, they emphasise the peace and beauty of where I live in central Portugal.
View from my garden as the sun gradually burns through the mist over the eucalyptus forest.
For more peaceful photos visit: Weekly Photo Challenge – Peaceful
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Winter
It doesn’t often get really cold where I live in central Portugal, but I like to keep my dog warm in winter!
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Hi, I'm Julie, a British expat living in central Portugal. I blog about my experiences of living in Portugal and travelling around this diverse and beautiful country. Whether you're thinking about moving to Portugal, looking for some out-of-the-ordinary trips within Portugal or just fancy a spot of armchair travelling, read on and enjoy.
