CDP Monthly Theme Day: The Beauty of Simplicity

From the orchid show at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Lots more where this came from. To see all City Daily Photo members' simple images click here.

And I thought there would be some April fools.                         

Living the beauty of simplicity

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 Today and tomorrow we City Daily Photo bloggers are blogging about the theme "The beauty of simplicity." 
Karl suggested this theme, as it is his philosophy that a photo should be kept simple for maximum effect. His blog, Bolzano Daily Photo, has stunning pictures of South Tyrol.

This hermitage in the Jerusalem Hills was built in the 1400s.
It was added on to a house and chapel built by the Crusaders in the 12th century.

From June to October 2006 this hermitage (more like a monastic cell), was my beloved dwelling place.
I had just returned to Israel after eleven years of volunteer work abroad, with my backpack and duffle bag and two boxes of stuff and that was about all.

The water faucet was just outside the door (near Lara the cat, z"l).
Steep steps led to a little building with a shower and toilet. 

The simple wooden table was both desk and dinner table.
Afternoon sunshine streamed in.
In the evening families of jackals called back and forth across the Soreq Valley just below.
(Hear videos of their howls here.)

Olive trees, pines, and many other trees right outside in the woods.
Silence mostly.

Full of history and holy energy, each ancient stone in the walls and floor became my fast friend.
How very good it was to sleep and dream and to wake to a new dawn in my own land.
The hermitage was beautiful in its simplicity, and so was my life.
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As the old Shaker song affirms,

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

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April CDP Theme Day: the beauty of simplicity

April... First of the month and it's Theme Day in the City Daily Photo blogging community! There aren't all that many simple things in Versailles and that's a bit of an understatement. This building (it is actually composed of three buildings) once housed the repository of documents of the French National Library. It is to be sold next year. More pictures of the buildings can be seen here (by scrolling to the bottom of the page). Now VDP isn't sure that these façades are beautiful but they certainly are simple for Versailles standards...  To see all this month's Theme Day interpretations, click here! Happy April and of course, April fools day!!!

Nous voilà en avril... Premier du mois, jour de thème dans la communauté des blogueurs City Daily Photo et ce mois-ci, vous aurez compris que le thème était "la beauté de la simplicité". Quoique VDP ne soit pas sûre que ces bâtiments, rue Montbauron, soient beaux, ils sont en tout cas simples. Il s'agit de l'ancien dépôt d'archivage de la Bibliothèque Nationale, qui devrait être vendu en 2017. Plus de photos sont visibles en cliquant ici (tout en bas de page). Toutes les interprétations du thème de par le monde sont visible en cliquant là. Bon mois d'avril !

Signed by the Baird

A special glimpse for you today.   This piece of paper is the deed of a house sale dated 10 March 1613, purchased by William Shakespeare from Henry Walker (a musician).  Situated in the city of London near Blackfriars he paid the grand sum of £140.  Sadly it was lost in the Great Fire in 1666.

The deed is on display at the Guildhall, as part of the 400 year anniversary of Shakespeare's death.  Unfortunately today is the last day of the exhibition (I only discovered it myself yesterday).  What makes it extra special is that it is only one of six authenticated examples of his signature

Complimentary

The floral arrangers were apparently given a room in the art museum and told to design something that complimented its surroundings. Not blend in, I assume. That wouldn't be any fun. I think the bottom one is clever.

Sorry I didn't get any comments written yesterday. Out at an event last night with the family, then had to go grocery shopping, then prepare this post. And then my eyes closed. 

I believe tomorrow is CDP theme day. Got an idea.                          

Les fleurs en plastique

VDP has walked past these windows for years and always forgot to take pics of the plastic flowers... These windows are just barely visible on the right of this former post.

Cela fait des années que VDP passe et repasse devant ces fenêtres en se disant qu'il faudra les photographier... C'est chose faite. Les fenêtres sont tout juste visibles sur la droite de la photo de ce billet de 2013.

The Artist

Enjoying the garden on many levels.

Over The Shoulder

A self portrait of Max Beckmann glowers over a bursting vase. He taught at Washington University later in life and our art museum has the largest single collection of his work. There is a large room full of his paintings, which can be overpowering. The painting in the second shot is Portrait Of A Woman by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a painter I know nothing about.          

Sticks for walking and pointing

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Nordic walking poles in the Negev.
At an archaeological site on the edge of Beer Sheva.
The sticks double as pointers.  :)
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Weidmann, la dernière exécution publique par guillotine

Recent press articles about the death penalty have caught VDP's attention regarding the last public execution by guillotine in France, on 17 June 1939. If you look closely at the doorway on the right... and compare it with the photo below which appeared on VDP on 13 January 2010 (click here to see the original post), you'll notice it's the same... The door is now the entrance of the assize court, where popular juries hear and judge crime cases, but was, at the time, Saint Pierre prison. Meet Eugen Weidmann, a German criminal who, along with two French cronies, specialised in kidnapping to rob and kill. His victim count amounted to six murders... From then on, executions ceased to be public and became private until the last one in 1977. The death penalty was abolished in 1981. Not for the fainthearted, you can see a video by clicking here, which actually shows interesting views of Versailles in 1939 (stop at 0:34 if you don't want to see the beheading!) One of France's most famous serial killers, Landru, who claimed eleven lives, was also executed here in 1922...

De récents articles dans la presse au sujet de la peine de mort ont attiré l'attention de VDP sur la dernière exécution publique par guillotine en France, le 17 juin 1939. Si vous regardez bien le portail sur la droite de la photo ci-dessus, vous reconnaîtrez l'entrée de l'actuelle Cour d'assises, qui était à l'époque la prison Saint Pierre. La photo ci-dessous, VDP vous la montrait à l'origine le 13 janvier 2010 sur ce blog (cliquez ici pour voir le billet). Le condamné à mort était Eugène Weidmann, un criminel allemand qui s'était fait une spécialité de kidnapper pour dérober puis tuer. A son actif ? Six meurtres. A partir de là, et sur décision de Daladier, les exécutions devinrent privées jusqu'à la dernière en 1977 et l'abolition de la peine de mort en 1981. Vous pouvez consulter une vidéo de l'exécution en cliquant ici, on y voit la rue Clémenceau... Landru, fut également exécuté ici en 1922...

Eugène Weidmann

Henri Désiré Landru

Wren Chapel Organ, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia

The College of William & Mary's Wren Chapel boasts this beautiful pipe organ.

Moonrise over pink clouds

Not long ago I spent a night at Angler and Antelope Guesthouse in Somerset East.  Coming out of the guesthouse on my way to dinner, the near full moon was rising in the east over clouds painted bright pink by the setting sun behind me.  I rushed back to my room to grab my car keys, dashed to the car to get my camera and by the time I got back to my view spot most of the pink had faded already.  I still just had to snap a pic to share with you.  Oh the beauty of the Karoo skies. #KarooHeartland

One of my Five a Day

Watching my diet, one of my five a day.

Art In Bloom

I'm sure I'll come back to shots made with the digital Holga soon but now it's time for a change of theme. A couple of weekends ago our art museum ran its Art In Bloom show, with elaborate floral displaced among the galleries and designed to reflect their surroundings. This one was my favorite but there are others.        

Sourires

At the flower market.

Illusion

Not what it seems, the majority of this image is reflections from the other side of the road.

Explorers

Urban, infant or otherwise. Shot with the Digital Holga on Olive Street in Midtown. No idea how it made the distortion on the wheels but I like it.                             

Bird High Rise, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

This lovely high rise stands at the rear of the Wythe house. Each unit has its own front perch.

Terrasses prises d'assaut

We've had a few lovely days mid-March... Though still cool, it was possible to sit outside to have a drink. These photos were taken Avenue Nepveu with the palace in the background of the first three shots, Saint-Louis cathedral in the fourth one. The last shot is the avenue.

VDP had shown you waiting for spring scenes from Avenue Nepveu here and there, this last one less than a month after VDP began...

Bon lundi de Pâques ! Mi-mars, quelques belles journées, quoique encore fraîches... Photos prises un samedi en fin de journée. VDP vous avait montré l'attente du printemps Avenue Nepveu ici et là...

Easter at the now-empty tomb

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From a (briefly) sunlit Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also know as Anastasis (Church of the Resurrection) -- greetings for a glorious Easter to Christians near and far!
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Ted eggs on a dinosaur ...

.... I was going to tell you all about Easter traditions and Easter eggs ... and then I thought why not let you all just feast with your eyes instead. Happy Easter from Ted.