Quiet Sunday

A silent whiteness everywhere

Sky and soil of the same shade

Pale and grey in the early morning light

A palpable coldness through the window

A curtain that softens the wintery touch

Snow on a  quiet Sunday morning.

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Autumn

What is my Autumn like ? The first sign of my favourite Season  is the light haze over the horizon. It is not a fog, just a slight mist, a hazy look that tells you for sure that Fall is there.Autumn brings  a most colourful change in nature. In the mountains the larch trees needles turn into a bright yellow-orange shade before falling down into a soft carpet.

Soft and natural carpets everywhere. The kind of carpet I enjoy walking on because of its rustling sound and ever changing colours.Autumn is a Season of celebrations in my canton (state). A family tradition is the meal where everyone, young and less so, meet around a convivial table to eat roasted chestnuts. We usually eat those with various sorts of mountain cheese, “viande des Grisons” (air-dried meat, beef, produced in the canton of Grisons), rye bread and butter, grapes, apples, all local food. On this occasion we drink must (grape). Every year we so look  forward to meeting and eating this rather simple and tasty meal in good company.Autumn is also a time for grape harvest in this particularly warm area.  Vineyards have been planted for centuries on the side of the mountains and down in the valley. Never do the vineyards look as beautiful as now ! A patchwork of hard work almost all year round. What a reward and a pleasure when the vintage is a good one !This is an ancient cellar no longer in use  but I remember that “my grand-father-from-the-mountains” (as I used to call him)  had a similar one under his house in a small village. He would take my hand, bring me to his cellar and show me proudly his  yearly harvest. What a work it meant !And what a delight to savor the grapes from one’s own vineyard !Grapes and apples, the two kinds of fruits that Autumn gives in abundance over here.Gratefulness for these many gifts of nature in this wonderful Season.

Many thanks also to Scott Thomas for having brought up this new photography challenge.

http://stphoto.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/assignment-10-autumn-2010/

There is still time to participate ! Your photos have to be posted before Wednesday, November 24.

Looking up and down

Walking through the streets of my town and looking up to its roofs makes me forget to look down and it happens sometimes that I twist my ankles. I keep telling myself “be careful today !” and yet I do it again. Painful !How could you resist taking a picture of  those three old chimneys dancing on a roof ?Or being attracted by the close encounter of the moon with the sun ? Or even as you walk you might witness  a strange meeting in the sky  ?

Now,  if you could look down on some of those streets I walk on, you may understand better what I mean…

Uneven paved footpaths or ancient lanes covered with moss  can be quite a challenge while you are looking at special sights in the sky 😉

You may have to look in all directions if you feel like participating in Scott Thomas Photography’s challenge though. And it is well worth taking part in his November assignment : Fall 2010. For all information, please click here : http://stphoto.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/assignment-10-autumn-2010/

Pieces of a quilt – 2

It is Summertime, the sun is blazing over the small Southern town. Three boys are running out in the streets, turning the water hose on and playing in the water.Their  grandmother smiles as she is watching over the  three  brothers full of enthusiasm and energy. Her  black hair is combed   in a long braid on her back as Mexican women do sometimes.    Often  she thinks that the boys stay outside too much but how can she keep them inside a two-bedroom  home ? The old woman has trouble walking and when the boys ignore her demands, she tries to grab them around the neck with her cane !

In attempting to keep the younger one  (but not the quietest)  longer  at home, the abuela (granny) tells him once that at midday, when the church rings its bells, the devil is let loose so that he can get all the bad kids who are  still outside…

So one day when the youngest boy was still playing at the elementary school playground, he heard the church bell ringing out. He dropped everything and ran home as fast as his small legs could carry him. He spotted some bushes and as he thought the devil would see him running,  he hid behind them until the bells quit ringing. Soon he poked his head out and not seeing the devil about, he ran all the way home dancing happily and raising his little fist as he arrived safely. A happy moment in a kid’s life. A child like any other.

A dear friend’s childhood memories  shared in a letter and sewed in my own way.

A hint of Winter

It was around 5.30pm and  I was driving to town. The sun was highlighting the pasture and the cows, the last rays of a beautiful but chilly autumnal day. I just had to stop and take a picture of two Seasons that were overlapping. Snow had fallen on the Prealpes mountains and the sight was enchanting. Could it be that Winter is at the door ? A bit too soon for me…

“Winter is an etching,  Spring a watercolor,  Summer an oil painting and Autumn a mosaic of them all”.

Stanley Horowitz