Alison Wonderland

Return of the Fireflies

2015-06-03T17:41:00.001+02:00

The fireflies returned to the garden the other night, flying around like dancing sparks from a bonfire. Its always an amazing and unworldly sight to see living organisms glow and especially weird to see them appear and disappear as the bioluminescence switches on and off.

They aren't the easiest of things to photograph. Last year I made some attempts but wasn't very successful, and my attempt at a video was mainly a completely black screen with the sound of me crashing about through the jungly undergrowth after a pin prick of yellow light.

This year, I decided to try some long exposure shots and I managed to have a bit of success.

The garden being a bit more tamed, helped from the point of view of setting up the tripods and wasn't such a trip hazard when stumbling around in the pitch black. Fireflies will often stop glowing if there are other lights around , so switching on a torch needs to be kept to a minimum.

flitting about

I took a lot of shots, almost all of which either showed one yellow dot or nothing but darkness when the bugs decided to fly off in a different direction. But I managed to get a couple that show something kind of interesting . I will probably have another go over the next few nights using the lessons learned and maybe I will get some more.

des lucioles dansent devant mes yeux

They don't appear for very long - they just fly around glowing for a few nights in early summer, while they search for a suitable mate.

Apparently all fireflies glow as larvae, but in many species, only the adult males glow, the females stay in the dark , waiting.

I took a few macro shots of one of the fireflies lit up. Its pretty hard to focus in the pitch black for long exposures but I was quite pleased with this one as it shows the glow quite well.

I've read that before safety lamps were introduced, miners sometimes used to take jars of fireflies [and also somewhat peculiarly, dried fish skins which also produce bio luminance] into mines - I guess hundreds would produce a fair amount of light, but I'm not sure it would be ideal for working with tools in a dangerous environment.

The glowing bits

cloudbusting

2010-06-15T01:40:00.004+02:00

This evening , just before it got dark , there were interesting clouds in the sky above Nice.

A thunderstorm has been threatening all evening and the sky was full of thundery clouds. Not the usual thundery clouds, but Mammatus clouds - which are named because they resemble mammary glands or udders.

Of course, once I noticed I had to take a photo but by the time I got my camera, the cloud formation had softened and a few minutes later , it had disappeared altogether.

The mammatus clouds aren't very common but they usually signify heavy weather -unfortunately the storm hasn't started yet so its very clammy and headache-inducing weather.

Pretty Flamingo

2010-06-01T00:39:00.001+02:00

A few weeks back, I visited the Var estuary bird sanctuary with my new camera.
The area is called 'la petite camargue' since it is like a very tiny version of the Camargue , an area of river delta and salt marsh , further along the coast.

Its an odd little bird sanctuary, sandwiched between a huge shopping centre and the airport with the river in the middle , but its a very important stopping off point for migrating birds.

While I was there, I was quite privileged to see two Greater or European flamingoes flying in.
I didn't get any photos of the birds of the birds in flight but I was able to watch them land while I fumbled taking my camera out of my bag.

The flamingoes were slightly off course on their migration trip from North Africa back to the Camargue.
One immediately retreated into the reed beds, but the other stayed in the open.

They have such amazingly flexible necks - they manage to twizzle into snaky 's' shapes with ease.

I find it hard to see flamingoes and not think of Alice and Red Queen playing croquet -even though I know they are just quietly filtering plantkon out of the water with their peculiar-looking beaks.

The flamingo flew over to the reedbeds , nearer to its companion. The reeds grow to an amazing height and its really difficult to see anything once it has penetrated beyond the first layer.

The flamingo fluffed up briefly, showing off its bright pink feathers.
I'd love to go to the Camargue at some point and spend some time viewing [and photographing] the giant flocks of flamingoes . That is definitely something on my wish list.

Arranged

2010-05-30T19:06:00.005+02:00

A few weeks ago, the giant Marché d’Intérêt National de NICE. {MIN}, a kind of wholesale food and flower market for market traders and shops had an open weekend so that ordinary people see behind the scenes and buy merchandise.

I really admired this stall selling cacti and succluents. I thought the arrangment was really lovely but I wondered if people actually bought anything since the stall looked so much like a very ordered still life.

I like the different shapes, colours and spiny arangements on the cacti.
This huge cactus had a hefty asking price. I wouldn't fancy lugging something like that home on the bus.

Nine Inch Nails

2010-05-03T07:40:00.002+02:00

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Tourettes-Levens Mediaeval fair.

One of the acts was a comedy strongman/ acrobat/juggler team who kept the crowd thoroughly entertained.

We ended up right at the front of the crowd, so we got to test the nails and check that they weren't blunt or fake. The strongman also dropped oranges on the nails to show they were quite sharp.

The piece of yellow paper was part of the humourous banter - it was intended to make the bed of nails ''more comfortable''.

The strongman's partner went into the crowd and chose a victim to help with the act. This guy had to stand on the strongman's chest whilst the strongman lay on the nails. I always find these things worrying in case the audience member does something unexpected and dangerous -but it passed without incident, thankfully.
When the strongman sat up, we could see the many indentations in his back from the tips of the nails -though no blood or broken skin.

The strongman was also a fire-eater, he managed to produce some huge plumes of smoke and fire.

I suppose he must be used to the taste but the smell of the fuel was really quite pungent.

Photo Friday -Sexy

2010-05-01T12:47:00.006+02:00

I must admit that i couldn't think of any of my photos that could be described as 'sexy'.

So, I made a conscious effort to find something for the topic yesterday , though I was a bit limited by being in a forest.

Maybe, most humans wouldn't find the following images sexy, but I expect the photos might make spiders blush..

These are some Long Jawed Orb weaver spiders mating by a lake.

There appeared to be a fly wrapped in spider silk at about 8 o'clock on the web. I suspect that was a mating gift from the male spider.

It turns out that these Long Jawed spiders have an unusual mating strategy. Unlike some other spiders which requires the male to mate first, before all the other rivals; the Long Jawed orb weavers have a last male priority . So , its advantageous for male spiders to be the last spider lover, which accounts for the the voyeur spiders that were hanging arround the web , watching the antics.

Sunshine

2010-04-23T15:59:00.002+02:00

Our cat , Gandalf, toasting his face in a patch of sunlight. I loved the dramatic light and the reflections in his eye.

Overcast -PhotoFriday

2010-04-10T16:23:00.004+02:00

Hotel Negresco's famous dome on an overcast day.

This was taken a few weeks back when we had snow in Nice - very unusual weather for the South of France. Normally, we have blue skies most days, even in winter.

Nice and the South of France were originally winter holiday resorts as the Victorians wanted to escape the dreary Northern winters.

The dome of the Negresco pictured here was supposedly designed by Gustav Eiffel but I'm not sure if that has ever been definitely proven. Edouard Niermans was the architect for the whole hotel.

The luxury hotel opened in 1912 but was requisitioned in 1914 and used as a war hospital for wounded WW1 soldiers . The lack of high paying guests during the war and the vast expenditure on the building work bankrupted the original owner, Henri Negresco.

The Negresco Hotel is now classed as a Historic monument .

Biot and the Templars

2010-04-08T00:02:00.000+02:00

In 1209 , the Count of Provence donated the village of Biot and some of the surrounding land to the local Knights Templar. Biot became the most important and rich Templar stronghold in the area for almost one hundred years , until various Papal and Royal decress excommunicated the Templars and confiscated their lands.

Biot village celebrates the Templars every year with a mediaeval fair and re-enactments of the donation of Biot and other events in local Templar history.
There are classical music and choral music concerts, lectures and discussions, and religious services as well as the usual craftsfolk, living history troupes, acrobats and street perfomers, etc

These are some modern Templars marching off the field of combat at the fair.The costuming and attention to detail is amazing.

One drummer drumming out the pace for the marching Templars.
The standrard bearer marching in the procession.

Some other knights-I can't remember their exact allegiance but they were the opponents of the Templars in the combat displays so intended to represent the King at the time of the consfication of land in 1308.

The chainmail and helmets must have been swelteringly hot to wear in the sunshine while walking, never mind when running about with a big sword and shield.

The smith hard at work at his portable forge.

This was one of the beggar and leper troupe. They had an encampment in the village and at time wandered around announcing their presence with clappers, wooden rattles [like old fashioned footbal rattles] and bells and begging for alms.
This guy was wandering around begging kisses from people.

The makeup was excellent and even though we all knew the sores etc were fake, there was still an automatic reflex to recoil away from the affiction. It was very odd to react like that as I am not a squeamish person at all.

A very colourful character with a tame crow and a tiny terrier peeking out of the bag.
Maybe its meant to be a mediaeval version of the portable miniature chihuahua.

The crow was really amazing -raised from very young but this one wasn't able to mimic human sp[eech.

Several members of the crow family [ crows, magpies, jackdaws etc] are better talkers/mimics than the more exotic 'talking' birds and they used to be kept as pets by poorer people -right back to the middle ages.

Some of the female camp followers in the Templar procession.

On the right -the open sides of the pinafore type dress [surcot] were initially called 'Hell's windows' because it was thought that men would tempted by the daring cut away sides , which revealed the womans shape and potentially lead to men's hands wandering. Side lacing makes the surcot slightly more chaste.

On rare occasions, an elf is seen in the crowd. I've noticed one or two turning up at medieval fairs here in recent years.

The singer here was an incredibly jolly Italian chap with a very infectious grin. He was singing Mediaeval and renaissance songs and encouraging audience participation with the choruses.
The musicians in the background were trying hard to keep their faces straight.

This guy was one of several who had birds of prey for hawking. Its an American hawk of some kind, rather than a European species.

A sundial , sunny coloured house and sun dried washing on the line.

Close-up you can see the gnomen is an arrow shot into the sun. The Provençal motto translates as 'the sun shines for everyone'.

This arrow piercing a heart was on the roof of a different house.
One of the cobbled streets -fairly typical for mediaeval villages in this area.

I liked this carving of a lion or cat embedded in one of the village walls. It looked like it had been firedamaged at some point in its history but it had presumably been rescued and re-used.

Up above the streets and houses...

2010-04-06T13:04:00.003+02:00

Some atmospheric shots of the Nice observatory wreathed in clouds with a rainbow stretched over it.

The full rainbow wasn't visible but the clouds and light were very dramatic.

The rainbow didn't last long - it just faded over a cuple of minutes . The clouds around the observatory dissipated quite quickly too.

I've had the Rainbow theme tune stuck in my head since I took these photos the other evening. Its always some madly annoying song , never something I actually like.Rainbow was the UK's answer to Sesame Street in the 70s and 80s and it now has a sort of cult following. There are lots of clips on YouTube of the puppets Zippy, Bungle and George and the very odd-seeming human presenters.

You can even find the infamous risqué 'twanger' sketch that was filmed as an in-house joke but never ever broadcast.

Frosty

2010-01-21T16:19:00.006+01:00

A lot has happened in the last few months , too much to sum up in a few words. Hopefully, the worst has passed.

This is a shot of York Racecourse in the snow at the end of December. I loved the shadows from the rails and the faded colours in the sky.

I couldn't resist taking some shots of the frost on the fence posts even though i didn't have a monopod or tripod with me. [All of the macro shots are all handheld with controlled breathing.]

Close-up, frost looks like anglar foliage or moss.

Closer still, the frost crystals show off their geometric shapes.

The crystals remind me of spun glass

Incredibly tiny , and far too small for human eyes to see without magnification , but breathtakingly lovely.

Speed Of Flight

2009-09-18T00:17:00.002+02:00

Hummingbird Hawk-moths , Macroglossum stellatarum, regularly get mistaken for humming birds despite the fact that humming birds are never found in the Old World.

The moths are quite unusual as they fly during the day, even in the rain and hover when feeding from flowers.

The moths migrate to northern Europe but only breed in the warm south.
Their wings beat fast enough to make a humming noise and this also makes them very difficult to photograph.

These are the best humming bird hawk moth photos i've managed to take so far. I'm pleased I managed to get the details of eyes and long tongue.

Fly me to the moon

2009-08-14T14:37:00.002+02:00

The moon was a very interesting colour last night so i grabbed a couple of shots.
I wasn't expecting them to come out very well because i was shooting through glass.
I was also leaning on something for balance rather than using a tripod .
I was amazed to discover that this photo turnmed out to be my best moon photo ever [so far?].

I was really pleased with the amount of crater detail.

Cascade de Gairaut

2009-08-11T02:26:00.000+02:00

This weird Austrian style building and artificial waterfall is sited on the Gairaut hill in Nice.
It was built to mark the inauguration of a canal which brings water from the Vésubie river into Nice.

Work on the canal started in 1878 and finished in 1883 with the building of the waterfall and chalet style 'Maison de Garde' at Gairaut.

The water flows underneath the building and the tunnel is decorated with concrete shaped like stalactites and stalagmites . This was a popular fashion at the end of the 19th century and there are the remains of a number of similar artifical 'grottoes' around the area , though most are in poor repair.

Its very strange to walk through the tunnel and look out through the 'cave' mouths
This is a close-up of the faux-Austrian woodwork - its kind of a cross between Austrian chal;e decoration and Victorian 'gingerbread' woodwork
This is a view from the front , showing some of the artificial waterfalls. Its quite a popular place to have wedding photos taken - we saw two bridal parties while we were visiting.

The view from the site is lovely . Nice is just a sea of terracotta roofs in the valley with the Mediterranean sparking in the distance.

A view over to mont Boron and Mont Alban on the left

The Cascade de Gairaut was a popular tourist attraction in Victorian times partly because of the lovely view and excentric building and partly because it was seen as an amazing engneering feat to be celebrated and admired.
The increased water supply from the canal allowed a huge expansion in flower growing in the Nice area in the late 19th C and obviously had a major impact on the fortunes of the city of Nice .

Greensleeves

2009-07-08T15:06:00.004+02:00

This summer we have had greenfinches [Carduelis chloris , Verdier d'Europe] , nesting in the trees in our street.
At dawn and dusk the male greenfinch sings at the top of the tree - he is really pretty loud.
I've been taking quite a few photos of him every evening but sometimes there just isn't enough light .

Luckily the greenfinch started singing earlier the other day so the photos turned out quite well.
I hope our neighbours across the street don't think I'm spying on them with my camera.

This particular greenfinch is a strong acid yellow-green colour- others are more green toned and females have a duller plumage.
He is quite a smart looking fellow and is looking more groomed and sleek now that the brood have left the nest. Birds often get very dishevelled when feeding you as they have less time for grooming and they also tend to eat less than usual.

He was peering up at some yellow legged gulls on a ledge here. He seems to be very wary of gulls , and for good reason as they are quite happy to snatch up a smaller bird to feed their own young.

This is a half grown baby greenfinch waiting to be fed. For a couple of weeks he spent quite a lot of time squeaking and calling to his parents at the top of the tree. Apparently the male greenfinches will continue to feed youngsters who have left the nest , even when the female is sitting on the nest with another brood .
Tags: greenfinch, Carduelis chloris, Verdier d'Europe, photos, bird

Morning has broken

2009-06-25T15:54:00.009+02:00

I've been living in 'interesting times ' recently and not had much time for blogging.
Hopefully things will calm down for a while at least.

For once I was up at dawn around the Summer Solstice and managed to take these photos.
The little round topped building on the hill is the Nice Observatory.

This reminded me of some sort of sci film special effects-the sky looked like it was on fire.
I loved the massive wedge shaped sunbeams lighting up the angry clouds.
Its hard to believe that these thick clouds all disappeared within an hour .

You shall have a fishy on a little dishy

2009-04-29T01:43:00.003+02:00

Juvenile gulls are really well camouflaged against the pebbles with their dappled brown and white feathers.
This pair had found a fish that an angler had left on the beach.

I initially thought the angler was intending to use the fish as bait or that he had given an unwanted the fish to the gulls.

However , when the fisherman waded back to shore and saw the gulls tucking in to the fish he was really angry and tried to scare the gulls away; shouting and waving his arms.
He calmed down quite quickly [maybe because he had an audience] and ended up giving the gulls the heads and guts of the other fish he had caught.

The gulls seemed quite happy with their al fresco sashimi lunch.

Freebirds

2009-04-20T14:33:00.008+02:00

There is a very unlikely bird sanctuary in Nice - its on the River Var estuary between Nice Airport and Cap 3000 shopping centre in St Laurent du Var. Its called La Petite Camargue after the huge river delta marsh area of the Camargue far to the west.

Strangely the birds don't seem to notice the planes taking off and landing and the folk visiting the shopping centre don't seem to realise there is a river and marshy estuary right next door.

This is a little egret [Egretta garzetta] -I was lucky to grab a few photos as the egrets took off. You can just about see that it has long black legs and yellow feet.
Another little egret taking off.

Here are two little egrets walking around -they stopped every so often to hunt for fish and amphbians.
I didn't notice the cormorant until I got home- it was so well camouflaged and most of the time has its head pointed towards the reeds.
Cormorants [ Phalacrocorax carbo] spend a lot of time with their wings outstretched. Apparently their feathers are not well waterproofed and this means they need to carefully dry them off between hunting sessions.
The immature gulls in the foreground are one year old yellow legged gulls .

There are supposed to be about 270 species of birds in the sanctuary- though some are just passing through on the way north or south. There are three different species in this picture- grey herons, moor hens and black winged stilts [Himantopus himantopus] .

The male black winged stilts has a black patch on his head [ left of the heron] and the female has a mainly white head [far left of the photo].

These birds are called stilts because of their exceedingly long red legs.

The two moorhens are in between the stilts.

A grey heron [Ardea cinerea] stalking majestically across the pebbles. Grey herons are very large birds with a huge wingspan . They mainly hunt for amphibians [esp frogs] and fish but they will also eat small mammals and birds.

Ugly bug ball

2009-04-07T00:38:00.005+02:00

In spring, some of the pine trees in Portugal, Spain and the south of Franceand other parts of Europs start to acquire fluffy tufts of white similar to candy floss.

These innocuous-looking fluff balls are actually the nests of Pine processionary caterpillars Thaumatopoea pityocampa [Processionnaire du pin /chenilles processionaires in french.]

It still sounds quite harmless until you see that the trees containing the nests are less healthy looking with missing and yellowing pine needles.

The caterpillars are voracious eaters and weaken the trees by stripping the branches and reducing its growth cycle ands this in turn makes the tree more susceptible to plant disesases.
In fact, its easy to see the yellow needles and bare twigs in this photo.

As the caterpillars grow, the nest gets filled with rubbish. There is no entrance or exit to the nest, the caterpillars just push their way through the fibres. You can see one of the mature caterpillars on the outside here.
This is the final stage of caterpillar developement

I did not take any extreme close ups because these caterpillars are very dangerous.
The caterpillar hairs are extemely toxic and easily released as a defence against predators , causing terrible rashes , swelling and breathing problems [especially in the children, asthmatics and the elderly] and eye problems such as conjuntivitis and in extreme cases, galucoma and cataracts.
Even empty nests contain a lot of hairs which continue to be dangerous - some folk have reported problems from wearing clothes that are being aired in gardens next to the empty nests.

This was another ball of caterpillars perched on the edge of a kerb.

The caterpillars are also a huge problems for pet and horse owners -I've read that eating one caterpillar can kill a cat and 3 will kill a dog.

Dogs, horses [ and seemingly to a lesser degree, cats] are attracted to the pheromone trail and pick up the irritant hairs on their tongues and this can lead to necrosis and gangrene of the tongue or death if the animal isn't treated quickly enough.
Many animals every year require partial ampuataton of the tongue or have to be put to sleep after licking or eating these caterpillars.
This is straggler trying to catch up with the rest of the caterpillars on top of the kerb. The caterpillars follow a pheromone trail and are often found walking in long lines nose to tail, which is why they were given the name processionary caterpillar.
In experiments, these caterpillars can be made to wander round and round in circles endlessly following the pheromone trail.

After all the havoc of the processional stage , the caterpillars burrow into the soil and make a cocoon/crysalis. Over time they eventually hatch out as nondescript moths , who lay eggs on the pine needles and start the cycle over again.
The caterpillars have a few natural predators - cuckoos and great crested tits will eat the caterpillars untill they are covered in the irritant hairs and the hoopoes eats the cocoons when they are buried in the ground.

Humans have a variety of ways of dealing with the caterpillars - from releasing bacteria [Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki ] and chemical insecticides - to removing the beginning nests by crudely blasting them with shotguns [the spread of hairs is still possiblity though] or carefully cutting off the branches whilst wearing protective clothing, face masks and gloves and then incinerating the nest , branch and all.

Grandmother of Europe

2009-04-05T15:25:00.001+02:00

Queen Victoria was once described as the Grandmother of Europe since her many children and grandchildren married into so many of the Royal families of Europe - Spanish, Prussian, Russian etc.
Unfortunately Queen Victoria was a carrier of haemophilia and this was passed on to her descendants and played a part in the collapse of the European monarchies.

This statue of Queen Victoria and her daughters is in the Cimiez district of Nice. It was placed there in 1912 to commemorate the Queen's visits to Nice.
During the Occupation of Nice during WWII , the Queen's head was knocked off the statue but the damage was repaired after the war ended.

Queen Victoria spent several holidays in Nice , exploring the arera by carriage and train and she adored the battle of the flowers and othe rlocal festivals.
On her deathbed she is reported as syaing, "Oh, if only I were at Nice, I should recover."

This is Victoria's hotel in Cimiez - the Excelsior Hotel Regina. It was deliberately built to attract the Queen's businesss and was built in front of the hotel she had stayed in previously, destroying the view.

The building is enormous and at the time it was built many people thought it was ugly and out of place in the Cimiez since it is right beside the Roman amphitheatre.

It is a totally over the top confection , like a wedding cake gone wild.

This is the part of the builiding reserved for Queen Victoria and her party. The tower has a little crown on top to show off the Royal connections.

The west wing of the Regina building with the crown on top of the domed roof of the turret. It resembles the small crown that Queen Victoria wore after her husband, Albert, died , although the real one was made of silver to signify mourning.

A gate into the private gardens of the Regina building. The little crown is part of the decorative ironwork. Initially the garden paths were laid out for easy access by the Queen's wheelchair. The gardens were quite elaborate and had croquet lawns, tennis courts, cycle paths and a tropical green house.

The Excelsior Hotel Regina closed in 1937 and Queen Victori'as coat of arms was removed from the private chapel and placed in the Holy Trnity Chrich in Nice where she worshipped once .

The former hotel is now subdivided into chic apartments and offices.

I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly

2009-03-30T20:32:00.006+02:00

The photo Friday topic 'Extreme Closeup' was appropriate because I have just got a raynox dcr-250 supermacro lens.

This red eyed fly was sunning itself on a dead leaf and I was very impressed with the rainbow shimmer to its wings.
Flies are maybe not the most attractive subjects but I find them fascinating in extreme closeup.

I was really pleased to capture the facets of the compound eyes and its quite jolly grey and black striped torso like some kind of sport referee.

O'er the hills and o'er the main

2009-03-25T01:32:00.001+01:00

A couple of weekends ago we went to Golfe-Juan for the re-enactment of Napoleon's escape from Elba.
Napoleon Bonaparte had been exiled to the island of Elba off the coats of Italy in 1814.
His exile lasted less than a year and he managed to escape with 1,200 men on the 26th February 1815 . The group landed in Golfe-Juan a couple of days later.

This is Napoleon about to set foot on French mainland once more. I thought 'Napoleon' looked as if he was contemplating his next step and wondering how he would be received by the French people - good acting .

After landing Napoleon was given a horse and insepcted the regiments.
The real Napoleon was welcomed back with open arms as the army refused to fire on the deposed Emperor.
However, the new reign only lasted until the Battle of Waterloo -a period called Napoleon's Hundred Days although it actually lasted 111.

Sappers from the Grenadier Guards - or in French sapeurs - the engineering corps who traditionally wore beards to distinguish themselves from other soldiers. They also wore leather aprons , gauntlets and carried axes.

The French fire service are called sapeurs-pompiers because Napoleon created the fire brigade from a military engineering division and, of course, firemen still carry axes like the original sappers.
Grenadier Guards tent insignia -they have little grenade insignias around Napoleon's eagle [the word for explosive grenade comes from the french word for pomegranante [grenade] because the early greandes looked very similar in shape]

I am not sure which regiment this standard bearing soldier was from but I liked his expression and the distant tiny soldiers across the sea in the background.

Some drummers drumming.
There are a lot of re-enactors in Golfe Juan for the Napoleonic weekend. They camp in Napoleonic era tents on the beach and everything looks very authentic.

These soldiers were just waiting to take part in the parades later in the afternoon but I thought they looked like a museum tableau or maybe a still from the tv series 'Sharpe'.

And it burns, burns, burns: the ring of fire, the ring of fire

2009-03-02T12:00:00.004+01:00

Here are some photos of a fire spinner at the night carnaval in Nice.
I was playing around with long exposures to capture the trail of light.

They were taken hand held rather than on a tripod which would have helped the photos but wouldn't have been too good in the crowd.

She was using fire batons rather than poi.

Hopefully I'll manage to learn from these and get better photos next time but I liked the firey shapes that appeared.

Nice carnaval- city life

2009-03-01T18:25:00.001+01:00

Place Massena during the Nice carnaval - the sky was filled with confetti , streamers and thousands of spectators.
One of the statues in Place Massena

Lamp post and confetti
The carnval king - Roi des Masquerades. The cat mask in his hand is a reminder of last year's giant cat king. The king is ceremonially burned to mark the end of carnaval but tehre are often reminders of the previous king to symbolise the idea that 'the king is dead, long live the king'

The Queen float - towering above everyone in Place Massena. Her skirt was made up of a carnaval mask and underneath there were lots of teenagers dressed in venetian carnaval costimes. Its hard to appreciate how immense the float is , but the jester characters also attached to her skirts are much beigger than humans.
This band member's helmet is covered in silly string .

There have been some calls to ban silly string at the carnbaval since it makes such a mess , can stain costumes ,and not forgetting the chemical propellants and empty cans and lids.
I'm not sure if a ban is possible though i am not a great fan of the stuff.

A couple of bizarrely masked and costumed stilt walkers with the Queen in the background.
A traditional carnaval group playing strangely shaped natural gourd instruments.
Originally carnaval costumes were simple- a bag or stocking hat , a face blackened with soot and a gourd instrument to make a noise. Very different from the elabroate costumes today.
This balloon was controlled by people using ropes - it was raised and lowered while a woman dangled and spun above the crowd.
A closer view of the balloon woman acrobat. She posed in various gymnastic positions whilst dangling from the balloon.
The aftermath - tons of confetti, streamers and silly string containers cover the ground. You can seen part of the tram track is covered in debris. During the carnaval processions, the tram doesn't cross Place Massena.
The clean-up crew dressed in fluorescent yellow. Its amazing how quickly they get the carnaval route looking normal again .

Temple of Love

2009-02-24T20:35:00.000+01:00

This is the Temple of Love [Temple d'Amour] aka temple of Diana in Parc Chambrun, Nice.

The land was originally bought by Comte Caïs de Pierlas en 1837 and he had a botanic garden planted on the site. There are still some of the original olive trees on the site from before the botanic gardens.

Count Joseph de Chambrun then bought the land in 1876 and brought in the famous Swiss brothers, Denis et Eugène Bühler, to do further landscaping.
At one point there was an artificial waterfall - probably similar to the one on the top of Colline de Chateau in Nice centre.
The neo-classical temple was designed by the architect Philippe Randon and dedicated to Countess of Chambrun , who wanted a sort of bandstand for classical music recitals.
Winter concerts were given here in winter from 1885 - Nice was originally a winter desination rather than a summer one, due to the very mild climate.

These are the steps that lead up to the temple. Kids [and some adults slide down the sloping edges] and the marble is now polished from thousands of bottoms sliding down.

The interior ceiling is beautifully decorated with gilded rosettes. Its still in very good repair considering its age.The tops of the columns are highly decorated with bull heads and foliate decorations. The pigeons like to use them as perches -this one started to fly away at the moment i took the photo.

The 12 columns are beautiful white fluted marble. The top of the roof is 19 metres from the ground The city of Nice bought the 'temple' and a small amount of surrounding land in 1920.

Since then , the Temple of Love has become a popular and very romantic place for local people have their wedding photos taken.