Mon 16.Dec.2013
Rhodes, Greece
Interesting images do not depend on beautiful surroundings. This pampas grass
stands in a tacky neighborhoood of multi-story concrete box apartments and shops,
outside the Saturday market, which is several times the size of its Thursday
counterpart, as well as a mile or more further away.
A bit of a hike - I don't make the effort often.
It proved worth it though. A vendor of mandarins picked me out and greeted me.
He turned out to be the mandarin man from Kalymnos island, who used to sell from
his pickup truck outside the Marine Gate, by the main harbor. I was a regular
customer of his until he vanished last year. I was pleased to find him again, and got
a kilo of his mandarinia to boot.
This beautifully carved littlle minaret sits outside the small mosque at the
Muslim cemetary near Mandraki harbor.
After five years now, it still feels like a wonder sometimes that I negotiate a
maze of medieval alleys and battlements, just to go about my daily business.
Stormy Weather
A ferocious wind blew in from the north all day last Wednesday. I had to delete photos
because the wind blew my aim so badly. The best I managed, I wrapped an arm around a
light pole, and propped my body against it.
A Rhodian landmark: Mandraki Harbor entrance on a normal day.
A calm moment on "Windy Wednesday". The air is beautifully clear. You can see
the mountains in Turkey just fine, snowy peaks and all. But those whitecaps inside
the harbor are definitely out of the ordinary.
The outer harbor was not its usual glassy self. This splash of spray was taller than
I. It landed where I would otherwise have been walking.
Stand back! Sometimes mother nature is just too big to be worth messing with.
A welcome shelter on the lee side of an ornamental Italian building.
Isn't that light beautiful? The wind or the moisture it carried must have
washed every speck of dust from the air. Or maybe this was just cold clean air
from those mountain tops across the water, a bit out of its element here.
This metal sculpture must Commemorate Something, but I have never learned what.
Privately, I paraphrase the Firesign Theatre, and think of it as the Monument
to the Struggle of the Little Guys to Finish the Monument.
Windy Wednesday was a poor day for ripple pictures.
Fortunately, I am up at
Mandraki more days than not. These ripples are from my niece's birthday last
Saturday. Hope she had a good one!
With about an hour and a half left before midnight, I wish everybody a
happy Beethoven's birthday, whether you want it or not.
Cheers!