Late I know, but I lost my copy of Photoshop Elements when my MacBook's HD broke, and although I've searched twice at my parents', I cannot find the disc. Very annoying, as I can't easily watermark without it. Gimp I didn't like, and Photobucket is a pain in the backside - I added text to all of last month's 12, but only one showed up, and this month it kept crashing every time I tried to add text to the first photo, let alone any others. So I'm just hoping the people who read this honour that these aren't photos to be taken (and certainly not without credit).
On that note, on to the 12!
Let me preface this (as I did in the placeholder text), by saying that it was not my favourite 12. Ever. It had the potential to be - I was on holiday in Italy, I'd planned a day on the island of Ischia (next to Capri), the weather was pretty good bar the end of my visit (including being mostly overcast on the 12th, naturally). But no sooner had I gotten off the boat at Ischia, than I lost my work Blackberry. I'm not sure how - believe me, I've tried reliving it, but all I know is that one second it was in my hand as I read an email, and the next thing it was splashing into the sea. I froze in one of those "oh SHIT, did that just happen? NOW what?!?!" moments, and half considered jumping in after it (before rightly remembering I had a rucksack with camera, wallet, money etc. in that I couldn't just leave on the quayside). So after sitting down and crying for a good 15-20 minutes (estimate, as I never wear a watch and my BB was the only timekeeping piece I used), I got up and figured I had to get on with the day - whatever problems replacing the BB might bring, I couldn't do anything until I got back to work.
So, here's the 12. I was going to put the extras in a separate post, but 1) I'm not sure who'd read that, 2) I'm tired of fighting with Photobucket and 3) this is already late being posted. So just ignore the counting, OK? Cheers ;-) I'm also not going to timestamp these as it's just a hassle after so long.
Ischia main harbour
Police boat and a snapshot of the weather. Then I lost my BB.
La Mortella Gardens, Ischia
Pretty much all the following were taken at La Mortella, a famous gardens on Ischia. Created by a British composer, William Walton, and his Argentinian wife, Susana, it really is somewhere you could lose yourself for hours.
Funky view through some palms:
View of a nice fountain and surrounding area:
Interesting plants:
Great little fountain as you head up to the Orchid House:
Giant lillies in the Orchid House. Apparently these change sex overnight? Go figure.
Can't remember what these are but they remind me of plants I associate with Grandad (Busy Lizzies, I think?).
Susana outlived William Walton, and each have an area of the garden for their memorial. I believe this little water feature (with pergola and seating around it, plus another little nook at the side) are Susana's area. William's you'll see in a minute.
View from beside Susana and William's memorial spots:
The rock with William's ashes I think:
Funky astrology thing on the floor:
The crocodile pond (including close up - and don't worry, these are fake!):
Lovely little bird house thing by the pagoda:
Pretty flowers near the pagoda I think:
Honestly forget what this was officially called, as it was the end of my visit and I'd seen a lot. But I liked the fake "lake":
Close up on the "lake" of blue pebbles or glass (I forget):
Close up of a pond, I liked the light:
Coastline of Ischia
Having left the gardens and started heading back to the harbour, I jumped off the bus to get some photos of a big of beach and coastline:
View down onto the beach from up high (using the auto fix feature in iPhoto, so it didn't look like this but I like the effect):
More beach:
Di Matteo's pizzeria, Naples
The pizza I had twice there, with a fried egg on. Very yummy, very cheap. One of the best pizzerias in Naples (the other being Gino Sorbillo's, but I preferred Di Matteo's).
Hotel Santa Chiara Meuble Suite, Naples
Watching "Qui Vuol'Essere Millionario?" (yeah, you guessed that one). But seriously, look at the price splits! In the UK you hold at £32,000 or I think £125,000? This gets you only up to 30,000 EUR by question 11 of 15!
So that's the overdue month. Thanks for reading and any comments you leave, and I assume you've all read the other 12s (full list here)? Thanks to Chad as always.
16 comments:
Of course I will wait ... and I've been bad at commenting on anyone's posts recently. Your pictures are always incredible, so I'll just sit here until they're ready ... :)
Well, now I don't feel so bad. I had some pics ready to put up this time - mediocre pics, but 12 of them all the same. I never had a chance to download and set them up, so I decided to just wait for next month. I'm looking forward to yours - will check back!
Just posted mine myself. I'm thinking about heading to Italy in March, so can't wait to see where you traveled. My friend and I are thinking about going a little off the beaten path.
Oh - you were in Italy, too ... looking forward to your pictures ... :-))
Yay, they're up! Despite the BB loss it looks like you managed to capture the beauty of the area on the day anyway xx
So sorry about losing the BB, it must be almost the end of the world. I still enjoy your pictures, the one with the view through the palms and the reflecting pond are fabulous.
Love the one through the palm leaf! And better late than never! :-)
Gorgeous 12!
love the pics. The palm one is really cool. And recently a friend ordered a pizza with an egg on it like that. We thought it was a quebeqois thing but obviously not!
They're all beautiful-whatever you think. Much yayness to the fact that you are now an 'egg on pizza' convert, and I really loved all the ponds and giant water lilies. How nice also that your 12 has a musical link for me-I loved William Walton's music-So full of ceremony and good old British Nationalistic pomp. And his wife was another Susanna too (although spelt differently!)
Well done, and see you on the 12th November.
Susannah x (mymusicallungs)
while i empathise with you about those calamities with your MAC and your BB, i must say i love your pics. i would indeed love to sit in that park and remain in a contemplative state for say, 5 minutes?... not much for standing/sitting still. but it looks beautiful. nice that you had a break from work. thanx 4 sharing!! t'was worth the wait!!
:)~
HUGZ
It's too bad that your bad associations of the day seem to have clouded how you think of this 12 of 12 - I think it's great! Strangely another blogger I follow was just at Ischia and liked the pizza at Di Matteo's.
Beautiful, as always.
The flowers in the fourth pic we call "Angel's Trumpet" - tropical, but Scott manages to grow them in pots here. :)
So sorry about your Blackberry, but it seems that you've survived. :)
Great Photos! The intersting plant is called Angel´s Trumpet. I like ist too. I´ve got a small one in my garden.
See you!
mmm, pizza in Naples. Putting that on the list! Nice beaches...I want to dive in :-)
I too, tell time with my bberry and use it for practically everything. It's my best friend. So I totally understand how dire the situation must have seemed at first - but maybe it was a blessing in disguise that you couldn't communicate with work while on vacation. At least, I hope youended up looking at it that way.
I'd love to see your other photos if you end up putting them up - just send me the link!
Sorry about your Blackberry, that sucks! I hope you got your new one sorted out.
I like the picture through the fern especially.
Fried egg on pizza? I've seen it before but never had it. I just have no conception of how it would taste... good, apparently!
See you next month!
I think the BB jumping into the sea was it's attempt at making you leave work and fully focus on your holiday. What beautiful shots, as always and such a lovely location.
My favorite shot was the palm-view... and those Lilies... GIANTS!
Post a Comment