Away

Taking a break, enjoy the summer.

Philly

An attempt at a Slackie style photo, which to me have an Andy Warhol feel about them. This was an old building somewhere in Philadelphia.

The Tower

Closer to home, another sunny day in England yesterday, in the middle of a field near Forward Point in Devon a navigation tower built in the 19th Century.

Mosaics mad

Ok so another Gaudi post, these two are from the seats in the previous post.

The mosaic below is in the ceiling underneath the main terrace, the ceiling is covered in mosaics and supported by a set of columns .

At the entrance of the Parc is a magnificent, huge Gecko, if you want to tale a picture of it without another person in the way you have about one and half seconds before the next person who wants to have their photo taken by the Gecko comes along and stands in the way.

Parc Guell

Last post on Gaudi architecture, this is part of the mosaic seats on the main terrace in Parc Guell, a park made a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1984. The architecture in the park is stunning, as can be seen at this site where the photographer has had access to the park without being surrounded by the numbers of people you are likely to find there.

Casa Mila

On the rooftop of Casa Mila, another of Gaudi's architectural masterpieces.

La Sagrada Familia

The cathedral has eight spires, two sets of four. This is the view from one of the towers looking at the other set of four, with Barcelona in the background. Not a good idea to wear a hat as it's a long way down if it is blown off.

Door

Sagrada Familia is possibly one of the most beautiful and interesting cathedrals in the World (but then perhaps you know better). The entrance doors are decorated with three dimensional writing, many of the huge number of visitors are so keen to do a quick tour of the building that they walk straight past these doors without stopping to take a look. The phenomenon of creating instant crowds can be demonstrated by taking a photograph of the door, suddenly eveyone stops and is interested in what the subject is, it must be important as someone is taking a photo of it. The building started in 1882 and it has yet to be finished, work continues today.

Three

Three birds at the Hampton Court show, I name them Layla, Hayley and Annika. Ha!...am I going to be in trouble for that :-)

Hampton Court

Actually it is a show garden at the Hampton Court Palace Flower show, the palace is a little different .

Home

Bananas

The humble banana, tasty and full of goodness.

The saying "Travel broadens the mind" is very true....I never really thought about where bananas come from or what significance they play in some peoples lives, until seeing them growing in the Caribbean and learning how important they can be the local population.






The banana market is controlled by five large corporations - Chiquita, Dole, Del Monte, Noboa and Fyffes. These corporations control huge banana plantations, the remaining banana production is from small banana producers - family owned farms in places like the Windward Islands in the Caribbean.

We take for granted the foods we buy in our Supermarkets without giving much though to where it comes from. Did you know that bananas are amongst the top five most important food commodities in world trade ?










For the workers in the corporate controlled plantations this can mean very low wages, job insecurity and very long working hours. For the Caribbean banana growers this can mean competing against low prices.

Some people (like Fair Trade and Banana Link) are trying to improve the situation. So next time you chose some produce from another country... choose wisely.












Meet the farmers
Story of a banana from grower to shop

Glassy sweepers

A group of Glassy Sweepers that hang around inside the Bajan Queen wreck, an old tug boat that was sunk in 2002.