Patricia Sands

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photo challenge

Travel theme ~ AUTUMN

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The beauty of autumn is too tempting for my shutter to resist. The blends of reds, rusts, golds and browns remind me of the ochre shades of the village of Roussillon that I love to visit and photograph.

The colours, patterns and textures of the pumpkins, squashes and gourds are magnets to my eye. They are cucurbits. Who knew? And sometimes they ride like this through small towns.

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But I’m not in France right now and spending the autumn months in and around Toronto was a pleasure this year. The colours were among the best I’ve seen in a while.

By chance I happened to visit The Artful Garden just outside Bracebridge, ON, on a lovely fall day a few weeks ago. Not only is this a magical setting of inspired plantings, it is also the pottery studio of the talented and visionary property owners, Jon and Suzann Partridge.

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The images all around us were irresistible and Suzann was gracious in allowing me to indulge my photo fetish.

You know photo challenge sites are favourites of mine and Ailsa’s travel theme of “Autumn” this week is the perfect opportunity to share a few of these images. Enjoy … and if you are visiting Muskoka, drop by this welcoming property. It’s an easy 3-hour drive north of Toronto.

Stroll  … erm … scroll with me now.

 

 

When you have some time, visit Where’s My Backpack to see other photographers’ expressions of autumn.  How do you feel about this season?

Travel theme: EDGE

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

The photo challenge travel theme , “edge”, this week on Ailsa’s Where’s My Backpack struck a note with me! Click right here, to check out some of the fabulous photos posted on other blogs.

I’ve been on edge all week with the excitement of releasing Promises To Keep, thePTK_final_lg second book in what is now the Love In Provence series. When a novel is published, it’s a very exhilarating, exhausting and … to be honest … slightly nerve-wracking time. We go over everything with a fine tooth comb because we want it to be perfect for you … every little detail!

So, this is it: the OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT THAT PROMISES TO KEEP is now available as an ebook on Amazon, Kobo, Nook, and iTunes at a special price through the long weekend. Print copies should be ready by October.

Had it not been for all the enthusiastic emails I received from readers of The Promise of Provence asking “What happened next?” I might have moved on to write an entirely different story .

But all the questions and the way readers cared about Katherine, pulled me back into her journey and the rest is history! Promises To Keep is Book Two of what will now be the Love In Provence series and that has me very excited … and already working on Book Three. See what you started? I can’t thank you enough.

And now to the other part of this post.

Since I love to participate in photo challenges … and particularly ones that give me another chance to share photos from France … the word “edge” instantly brought to mind these photos taken on the spectacular Route des Crêtes between La Ciotat and Cassis. If you are visiting that part of the Var, be sure to take this breathtaking drive!

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Route des Cretes, La Ciotat, Cassis

That’s our nephew hanging over the edge. I wasn’t quite so keen. Hello vertigo!

How are you doing? Has anything got you on edge?  You know, just looking at these photos has brought back such good memories that I’m already feeling more relaxed.

Now back to working on the next book!

Life is a travelling to the edge of knowledge, then a leap taken.
D. H. Lawrence

 

Travel theme: PURPLE

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Ailsa’s Where’s My Backpack Travel Theme is a favourite blog stop of mine. The theme this week is “Purple”. Click right here to check out the amazing diversity of photos others have posted on the theme.

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Knowing where I’ve been hanging out recently, is there any question what kind of purple I’ll be posting? Thanks for your patience while I get PURPLE out of my system!

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These are some of the shots I took when we visited some lavender fields in the Luberon area of France, on the two tours I just completed with the Womens Travel Network. What a fabulous time we had and I’m sure you can imagine how many photos like these we all took! Too irresistible!

Have you visited fields like these in other places? Do you grow lavender in your own garden?

Apart from the visual beauty and fragrance of these plants, lavender’s essential oil has a great variety of important uses that can uplift your life (and mood), heal and entice in a variety of ways. Visit this website for more details and add a little drop of purple into your life!

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CBBH Photo Challenge: Across The Rooftops

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love photo challenges. It’s great fun to spend time reliving memories as I linger in my albums finding the shots I want to use.

Every month Marianne … oh wait! … first I want to congratulate her as she  recently won first prize in a photo contest for this entry …  *YAY! WOOHOO!*  … okay, back on track …

On Marianne’s fabulous East of Malaga website, she has a photo challenge once a month and February’s topic is Across The Rooftops.

That challenge took me back to one of my visits with my (no exaggeration)

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Spain-PSandsPhotos

beautiful, wonderful, hilarious, one-in-a-million, sister-in-law, Ofra, who lives in a tiny village a half-hour south of Granada, Spain. She went there for a one-week visit 25 years ago and hasn’t left! I love her story!

I’ve spent many hours on her rooftop terrace snapping photos and getting caught up in the sheer beauty of this picturesque part of Andalucia; a half-hour from the Alpujarra mountains to the north and 20 minutes south to the Mediterranean beaches. The first time I won a writing award was for a piece I wrote about doing just that. I’ve never lost my fascination for the colours and textures of those terra cotta tiles, the vistas beyond, and the stories they might hold.

Rooftops like these exist in many countries around the world but the ones I’m sharing here are from the Valle de Lecrin in the south of Spain. I hope you see the attraction!

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Spanish rooftops-PSandsPhotos
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Spanish Rooftops-PSandsPhotos
Ancient rooftops of 11thC Alhambra-PSandsPhotos
Ancient rooftops of 11thC Alhambra-PSandsPhotos

As much as I love the rooftops in Spain, it wouldn’t be moi if I didn’t finish with a rooftop shot from France. Looking down on the vieille ville of Nice is a view I love.

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Vieille Ville~Nice~PSandsPhotos

Where are your favourite rooftops? One of the rules of Marianne’s challenges is that you must visit other blogs from her comments and refer back to two of them here.

If you can, take a minute to see the photos they have posted and please tell them I sent you. Enjoy!  

I love the variety here, from Prague to San Diego on http://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/cbbh-across-the-rooftops/ 

And Pat’s photography here on every subject is inspiring: http://imissmetoo.me