Patricia Sands

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travel theme

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: Distance

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

As you know, photography and France are two of my favourite blogging topics and occasionally I have the opportunity to combine them. Like today!

“Distance” is the theme on Ailsa’s Where’s My Backpack  and this photo is one I took on an early May morning when my husband and I were on our way to the Nice airport to pick up visitors. The air was cool and crisp, offering us perfect visibility past the iconic Marina Baie Des Anges condos, over the city of Nice, across the lower hills of l’arriére pays and up to the summits of the Alpes-Maritimes that run into Italy.

Biot/Route de mer-PSandsPhotos
Biot/Route de mer-PSandsPhotos

Next is a morning sunrise shot with the overnight ferry from Corsica in the distance covering the last few kilometres to Nice .  I would pause to to take in this scene most mornings as I worked on my first draft of The Promise of Provence. Before I began writing I seldom saw a sunrise!

Antibes sunrise-PSandsPhotos
Antibes sunrise-PSandsPhotos

And then this classic shot taken from the castle ruins at the top of the Jardin Exotique in the perched village of Eze, which shows the beauty of the distance one sees along the Côte d’Azur. This same shot can probably be found in millions of photo albums around the world, taken by every tourist who has visited there. I smiled when I saw it on my friend, Susie Lindau’s blog after her recent trip overseas. (If you haven’t stopped by to wish Susie well with her recent surgery, now is the time!)  I know I’ve shown this photo to you before so thanks for indulging me one more time!

From Eze-PSandsPhotos
From Eze-PSandsPhotos

Part of the fun of these photo challenges, is visiting other blogs to see what has been posted. Here are couple of my favourites this week:

http://esengasvoice.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/travel-theme-distance/comment-page-1/#comment-9151

http://travel-monkey.me/2013/08/30/ailsas-travel-theme-distance/

http://vosperdruiter.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/distance-ailsas-weekly-travel-theme/comment-page-1/#comment-3795

You never know from where in the world the photos will be. It’s always a trip and so much fun!

And that, dear friends, is my segue to letting you know … speaking of trips … that The Promise of Provence is featured on the Travel Novels website this week. Click right here to stop by and have a look, leave a word, or share. Merci beaucoup!

If you have some favourite photos that would fit in with the “distance” theme, why not post them and join the challenge. The more the merrier!

Travel Theme: Sweet

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July has been busy! As a true Leo, I’ve loved every minute of all the action, sharing the good news, releases, reviews of other authors and friends as well as my own France Book Tour.

My special writing group, Her Books, pulled our resources together and published a FREE Book Club Picks sampler that features excerpts from some of our newest novels. If your book club is looking for suggestions, you can sample some of the work here first.

Then there was the fabulous RWA National Conference in Atlanta (see the effervescent Tameri Etherton’s equally fabulous post about it – she has photos!), followed by my own birthday celebrations last week ~ time with my family was the best gift of all!

Now it’s time to slow down, catch my breath and get comfy in my cosy writing den as my next book begins to take shape.

One thing that always grounds me is the good karma that wraps around me as I relive memories flipping through my photo albums. Today I’m responding to Ailsa’s Where’s My Backpack Travel Theme “Sweet”.

The sweet window of my favourite patisserie in Antibes ~

Antibes-PSandsPhotos
Antibes-PSandsPhotos

A sweet local young cat adopted us for a week in a hilltop village in Italy ~

Gingolo/Sermonetta-PSandsPhotos
Gingolo/Sermonetta-PSandsPhotos

The sweetest thing of all … grandchildren …

The Adorables-PSandsPhotos
The Adorables-PSandsPhotos

To see more photos about “sweet”, pop on over to Ailsa’s blog. Just click here.

Here are a couple of my favourite sites with this theme: Ese’s Voice , Picture Perfect Memories For Life,

ShootnGo,  The Urge to Wander,  My Sardinian Life

What are some of the sweetest things in your life?

Travel theme: Beaches

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I love the photo challenges … getting lost in memories …

The travel theme this week at Ailsa’s Where’s My Backpack is beaches and she has some enticing shots on her page. There was no question in my mind as to which beach I was going to invite you. Our favourite, bar none: Plage de La Gravette in … need I say … Antibes, France.

Plage de La Gravette-PSandsPhotos
Plage de La Gravette-PSandsPhotos

Even on a crowded day in August like this, it was a treat to be there, floating in the Mediterranean. Those boats in the background are privately owned by one person. One very wealthy person. Seriously.

Plage de La Gravette-PSandsPhotos
Plage de La Gravette-PSandsPhotos

We liked laying claim to our little patch of beach and staking our umbrella.

It’s not lined with swaying palm trees. There aren’t endless miles of golden sands.  In fact, although sand has been brought in to cover the pebble shore, as soon as you get to the water the flat rocks (galets) begin again which prevent any sort of graceful entrance or exit – at least on my part.

We kept meaning to buy beach shoes but never got around to it so I simply stumbled in and out each time.

les galets -PSandsPhotos
les galets -PSandsPhotos

The sand beaches begin immediately on the west side of Antibes and continue through Juan Les Pins and Cannes and all along the coast into the Var region … I still have to look up why that is …

This beach ‘restaurant’ is not exactly a gourmand’s delight … never mind, the baguette sandwiches are delicieux.

LeSnack-PSandsPhotos
LeSnack-PSandsPhotos

This little gem is tucked into an incredibly picturesque protected cove overlooked by the 500-year-old castle that houses the Picasso Museum and the remains of the original centuries-old ramparts. The atmosphere is fantastique. Only a ten-minute walk from where we were living, it was a siren call to us on the sultry summer days …

Plage de La Gravette-PSandsPhotos
Plage de La Gravette-PSandsPhotos

Oo-la-laaaa …

Where is your favourite beach? Do you like to swim or simply find a cool spot and soak in the atmosphere? Sunscreen and umbrellas are part of the drill these days but a day at the beach is still one of my favourite summer pastimes … especially when it’s in the south of France.