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When I first saw this statue, two things really stood out...I'll wait...got it?
Breasts aside, this statue was carved in the 2nd C CE, just as yesterday's was, but look at how the marble looks like carved wax drippings rather than layers of cloth. Same era, both are wives of Roman patricians, but this one looks more raw, more sexual, while yesterday's looks stately.
Also, it looks like this one was the winner of the wet toga contest, doesn't she? Spring break, Roman style.
1800 years ago, in the 2nd C CE, some dude using hand tools carved marble so carefully, with such love, that the toga looks like cloth. Even close up. That is some serious skill. Come back tomorrow to compare this with another statue carved around the same time.
Until the early 400's BCE, this temple was home to one of the wonders of the ancient world, a gold and ivory statue of Zeus some 12.5 meters high. It was moved to Byzantium (now Istanbul), where it was destroyed in a fire just a few years later.
The trees, particularly the oaks, the plane maples and these flowering trees, were all abuzz. Greece has had a phenomenal amount of rain this year, making everything lush and green, and the bees are going crazy for all the pollen. I imagine this will be a great year to buy honey, as the market should be glutted.
Anyway, so I'm walking through the site at Ancient Olympia and I decide to spend a few minutes shooting the bees and the flowers. Turns out I'm much better at shooting flowers than bees, as this is a 640x480 crop from a 3240x2592 image. But still, look at all those bees.
One of the best archaeological sites we've been to is Ancient Olympia. The site has been in continuous use in one way or other since neolithic times, more than 6000 years ago. The first athletic events were held there in the 11th C BCE, with quadrennial games associated with religious festivals starting in 776 BCE and running until 394 CE, when they were banned on religious grounds.
The site is gorgeous in spring, with flowers and trees and bees and temperatures cool enough that you can spend all day walking around. And on Easter weekend, it's free! Kind of ironic - the religion that killed the Olympics gives them an excuse to open the site at no charge.
Somewhere on the way to Papingo and the Vikos Gorge, we stopped in a field of wildflowers.
There's a modern Mini parked near this original Morris Cooper that shows just how monstrous the Mini is. But what I really like is that the hood closure is a leather belt. A leather belt.
I'm not sure what to say about Penelope. If she were emotionally damaged, and I were a predator and connected in Hollywood, she could be my Marilyn Monroe. She is attractive enough to make you look twice in real life, but her espresso-dark eyes and perfect facial structure make her ridiculously photogenic. This is the sort of simple portrait that you can't stop looking at because of those eyes.
This is some sort of decorative flowering tree. How's that for deep knowledge?
For now, the usually dominant smells of a big city have been displaced by the delicate, but surprisingly robust aroma of orange & jasmine blossoms, with an occasional almond note. Sadly, this will end soon and we'll go back to the robust, but surprisingly delicate aroma (yeah, "delicate") of exhaust & cigarette smoke, with an occasional dog poop note. Aaaaahhhhh, city life.
A couple weeks ago, an onion sprouted before we could use it. I thought I'd let it go for a while to see what would happen with it. It just kept growing. It was joined by another. I promised Anne I'd shoot it before the weekend. Here you are. A photo so good you could cry. (Imagine having to put up with humor like that all the time.)
I've been going through some older photos, and I stumbled across this beautiful view of a bucolic road running along the southern shore of Tinos Island, in the Cycladic Islands of the Aegean that I shot last year.
This sweet shop in Ioannina had not one single item I could eat. The air coming out the door was laced with a sickening aroma. But then, I'm allergic to nuts. Since nuts have an odious flavor to me, usually desserts like this don't look appetizing in the least (I have never looked at baklava and thought, 'oh yeah, I need some of that toxic sludge'). For some reason, though, on this day, I cried a little for my defect. Even the horrifying creations with walnuts and hazelnuts and pistachios looked delicious.
As soon as I walked onto the grounds of the fortress by the lakeshore in Ioannina, I saw this vision from the Vietnam War protests. It was beautiful, man.
I had gone out hoping to catch some nice sunset shots of the craggy camel back ridge that looms over Papingo. The shadows would have been spectacular. Unfortunately, our perfectly clear day had developed enough hazy clouds to the west that the sky became a giant softbox, erasing all the lines. Great for shooting beautiful women, terrible for shooting mountains. So I looked for other stuff.
O bittersweet Nectar that is such a good Metaphor for all that is contained in Life, thank you for this post-hike Repast.
Was that too much? A little over the top perhaps? Blame Kaldi, the Ethiopian goatherd for tasting the cherry that gave his goats so much energy, then telling his village about it, so they could make a power bar of ground coffee seed with butter, then sell the secret to Arab traders who created a beverage they called "kawhe" or "wine of the desert."
One of my favorite things is drinking from the village fountain in Greek mountain villages. Anne shakes her head and assumes that sooner or later I'm going to get cholera or the plague or leaping deer sickness or something bad. It tastes so fresh, so clean, though. I can't help myself.
This was a multiple exposure shot. I forgot my cable remote, so I couldn't set the shutter to Bulb (ironic that we're several generations removed from a time when shutters were opened with a puff of air, so by squeezing a bulb and holding it, you could leave your shutter open for as long as you wanted, and yet we still have the bulb setting). I tried to balance that with a 5 x 30-second shot. I didn't get what I was looking for, but I like what I found, all the same.
Megalo Papingo (Big Papingo) is a village of about 40-50 buildings, including several inns, tavernas, a church and a school. Mikro Papingo (Small Papingo) is about 2km away and even smaller, though it does have a WWF office.
I realize, given what day it is, you might think I'm pulling your leg. I'm not.
