Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts

Monday, August 23, 2010

XI Calico Cat Contest Entry

across the pond
to an unknown friend
fond kisses

© Gerald England

was my entry for the recent Calico Cat Contest where authors were asked to compose a haiku to complement Origa's sumi-e "Sympathy. Orang-utan and Lizard".


Rice paper 'Double Shuen', Japanese sumi ink, Chinese watercolours, Copyright © Origa .


is the Russian translation of my haiku.

The contest attracted 134 poems by 58 poets from 20 countries and mine didn't make the last 28 selected for the final.

The winning poem and comments on the winner and runners-up can be found at Results of the XI Calico Cat International bilingual haiku contest.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Shadow Sunday: St Petersburg


This week's shadow shot is from St Petersburg in Russia.

It was taken through a window in the Hermitage. You can see the original photograph from which this was composed on my photoblog sithenah.

For more shadow shots visit Hey Harriet.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

The Sons of Camus Writers International Journal #6


Laboratooriumi --
grass in cracks under wooden doors
so quiet



Russia's Venice
from this one bridge
eight to be seen



fish market
next to the herring stall
second-hand books


These are just three of my contributions to the latest issue of this journal for writers over 55. You'll find in it nine "charcoals" based on photographs of Tallinn, Saint Petersburg and Helsinki.

John Light contributes a story which he says is extracted from a novel under construction. It is an enthralling piece and I enjoyed
I distrust experts. They see everything with a trained eye and the trained eye sees only what it has been trained to see ...
Raymond Humphreys has an essay on Poetry in Translation whilst Herbert Williams asks Who are the British?.

There is more artwork with a series of collages by Alan Perry as well as short stories, reviews and poetry to be found in the journal's 200 pages.

Editor, Ann J Davidson, is currently considering submissions for the next issue by email at scwijournal@gmail.com

Read the review of issue #5

Read reviews of issues ##1-4 on NHI Review
The Sons of Camus Writers International Journal
Rubini Publications
Gropious St #30
Limassol 3706
Cyprus
ISSN 1705-429X
CY£5 [€9; UK£6; US$10; CAN$15 including shipping]

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

ABC Wednesday - T is for Travel

I could have gone T for Tallinn but you can see my photos and account of that lovely city here and here.

I could have gone T for Trondheim but you can see my photos and account of that lovely city here.

I could have gone T for Tenerife but you can see my photos and account of that island here.

People seem to have the impression that I am well-travelled but I have only visited 13% of the world.



This map and the others you can compile on the net are bit misleading but interesting nonetheless. For the first 50-odd years of my life apart from a week in Amsterdam in 1980 [which included a day-trip to Brussels] and one holiday in Denmark, I never left the UK. However we saw an awful lot of the UK from St Agnes in the Scillies to Unst in Shetland. Very few areas of the British Isles are unvisited.

We didn't start world-travelling until 1999 when we ventured across the sea to Ireland. Later that year we flew via Amsterdam to Los Angeles. On the visited countries map that is enough to colour in the whole of the USA from New York westwards including Alaska.

In 2001 we had our tremendous holiday of a lifetime spending a month travelling around New Zealand which puts some colour in the bottom right-hand corner. The dot representing Singapore, our only stopover in Asia barely shows up.

The following year, having had to give up driving, we took a coach holiday through Europe visiting 9 countries in 9 days. There were some highlights but, in some respects it was possibly one of our grimmest holidays. It certainly colours the map though.

It was three years before we ventured abroad again on a fabulous cruise to Ireland, Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In 2006 we went quite mad (and why not?). Firstly we had a holiday in February to Tenerife, which adds Spain to the map even though we've never seen its mainland. June saw us on our second cruise, this time to the Baltics. Although we only visit St. Petersburg, the map covers in the whole of Russia all the way to Siberia! Finally at the end of September we went to Crete, which adds Greece to the map even though we've never seen its mainland.

Our only holiday this year was a week in Southport. We have enjoyed a few day-trips to various places. The likelihood is that we won't be doing very much physical travelling in the future except for short journeys. Any regrets? Absolutely none. I travel Around the World everyday without leaving home.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

ABC Wednesday - R is for Roller-skating in Russia

ABC Wednesday - R is for Roller-skating in Russia


We saw this girl on her skates as we approached a junction. Our vehicle turned into the same road and I took this picture as we passed.


R is also for Rolls of Rolled Steel which were lined up on the dock where we berthed in Saint-Petersburg. There were also Rows of excursion buses, as it isn't feasible to visit the city independently. The dock entrance is some three miles away and there is no public transport inside the docks.


To put the skater in perspective, here is a reduced version of the original photograph from which the first one was cropped.

I started a Baltic Cruise blog but what with everything else I've still only completed half of it. You will however find 24 photographs from our first day in Saint-Petersburg on http://www.geraldengland.co.uk/cr2/crp.htm. Eventually I hope to post more.

Monday, August 20, 2007

daybreak


Saint Petersburg docks
to the sound of a brass band
morning breaks


words & photo © gerald england, 2007

in response to the "daybreak" theme at One Deep Breath.

More photos can be seen at Cruise 2006 and at Baltic 2006

Thursday, August 16, 2007

The Horse Tamer


I came across a picture of The Horse Tamer on Saint Petersburg DP. On the Anichkov Bridge there are four dynamic bronze statues of rearing horses and their tamers designed in the 1840s by Pyotr Klodt.

As I remarked there
it is almost impossible to photograph without those wires showing.
My own photograph of one of the statues is on my [as yet incomplete] account of our 2006 Cruise.

In the charcoal version above I've attempted to remove the offending wires.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Another Place To Go



Well as if I don't spend enough time on the computer with my blogs and my websites, I've just created another blog.

Another Place To Go is a window on the world. Whilst Around the World is a guide to daily photo blogs, this new one highlights photographic sites that present their pictures in albums. There are links so far to Newcastle, St Petersburg, Venice. Qaqortoq and other far flung places.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Matrushka Dolls


Yesterday we finally got around to separating the Matrushka Dolls we bought on our Baltic Cruise in June.

We bought them, not in Russia, but from a stall in Tallinn, Estonia. The stall-holder's son looks just like Rodney out of "Fools & Horses".