Saturday, November 24, 2007

Why do we love technology?

Because it is how you keep transatlantic friendships going ...

Well, I promised you a Rowan post, but this isn't it. This is a bit of a montage ... sort of. Her stravaig to Aberdour is on the way, but I thought I would just get these up because I liked them.

When Rowan and I first began talking to each other, it was via email. She sent me one of her signature e-mails. She writes in a rapid-fire manner, and I was immediately charmed by her writing. It was dense, deft, and funny. Really funny.

It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Unfortunately, she lives in Scotland and I live in Southern California. So, we have to use the Internetz to communicate. We often email pictures back and forth. Well, she emails more pictures than I do, but that is because my husband is a camera-hog. Sending pictures back and forth is like being pen-pals (Rowan would say pen-friends), but better.


While we were stravaigin aboot London, Rowan began to mourn the fact that her old camera was defunct. We looked for one while we were down near the Tower of London, and when we went to Asda in Dundee, but she did not find one to her liking. After I came home, she found one that is acceptable and sends me pictures now and again.


So, I thought I would put up some of the pictures that Rowan has sent me since our stravaig, as I think you will like them too. If I was better organized, I would find a couple that I really like and seem to have misplaced. Sigh.

And I am not sure that these are in chronological order. But here goes.

Rowan went to the beach and took a picture of this fabulous jellyfish, because she knows that I love them.



This cracks me up, because when I first met her, she had lost her cellphone and was sort of dismissive of the whole notion. She got a new Vario and is clearly enamored with it. This is a great picture.


This is the stained glass from Ninewells Hospital. Hospitals in the US don't generally have great stained glass.



She took pictures while out and about one day and liked this dog. She was a little anxious that the owner take it amiss that she took a picture of the dog. However, it is a great dog, is it not?



Rowan and I both love rhyming slang. She is much better at it. I just like the idea.

From Wikipedia ...
Traditional Cockney rhyming slang works by taking two words that are related through a short phrase and using the first word to stand for a word that rhymes with the second. For instance, the most popular of these rhyming slang phrases used nationwide is probably "telling porkies" meaning "lies" as "pork pies" rhymes with lies. Also "boat" meaning "face" as "boat race" rhymes with face. Similarly "plates" meaning "feet" ("plates of meat"), and bread means "money" (bread and honey).

So she sent me this picture of an optical shop, which is pretty funny.



She also sends me Lena Art, which is excellent and well-worth viewing. It's a virtual refrigerator!



Great detail, isn't it?



This is a pie shop in Dundee, which is just the kind of picture that I like. Great picture, no? Mmmmm ... pies.



A picture in the country ... In Scotland, they don't have wooden fences, remember?




A walk on the wild side.



A day at the beach this summer. I like this picture a lot. Do you remember Broughty Ferry? This is what it looked like this summer. Note the lack of gale-force winds and predatory swans.



This is another beach. I think it was Easthaven. But I don't know where that is.



I think this is where Rowan was playing with her zoom, I think.



A day at the garden center ... very pretty. She knows that I like pictures of flowers.









And a day in Dundee at an outdoor market. I think she called it a German market, like the Christmas ones. Rowan, are German markets specifically for outdoor markets around Christmas or anytime?



All I could think is that you probably would not see this in the US.



She got a nice picture of a wedding, with the groom on a white horse. The colors are great. I liked the fact that I recognized the locale, as well.



Not a common sight in Southern California, but weddings are nice. It made me wish I could see the whole ceremony.



And just because it would make me laugh, this headline.

8 comments:

Rowan said...

Bob, thanks so much for posting these! It was lovely to see them again. Very glad you liked them. Woo hoo to transatlantic friendship, and the technology which makes it possible.

The German markets are outdoor markets from the EU which come over here from time to time. Am assuming the stalls are mostly from Germany, as I have sort of snuck up and eavesdropped on the vendors' accents! I do like these markets, mostly just for the spectacle they provide. Nevertheless, the sweets are giving me the urge to go all-night dancing, and I am feeling my cheeks flush, just by looking at the E124 on offer here. My daughter insisted on cadging red bootlaces and jelly sharks from her grandma, whilst i wandered about e-number disassociating, and bumped into the Indian wedding.

My camera is sort of posessed, and shuts down just as I have framed a groovy pic. The bridegroom's horse had a wonderful headdress, and my zoom froze, stopping me pulling back for the full frame shot. Grr. This is my second such camera - the first one came with pictures of an old lady with gimlety eyes already on the memory, which disconcerted me just a whimsy. Got the camera swapped, as it was bought as new. Nevertheless, methinks the old wifey is a camera gremlin, and she just hopped into the new SD card, wreaking zoom havoc whenever the notion takes her.

Bob, the jellyfish is edgy, isn't he? Well, as edgy as an invertebrate can be. Love the violet bows tying him together. Imagine being that drifty...just a flicker of consciousness perhaps: an awareness of hunger, maybe, or a hankering after the screenprint indigo and azure of depths and shallows. Just drifting. I wonder if there are jellyfish philosophers, plotting the patterns of the tides which move them to their destinies. I will never gain an insight into their pulsing umbrella essences. Creation is boundless and abounding, and a joy to wonder at.

Thank you for posting Lena's artwork! She is visiting her grandma, but will be thrilled to see her drawings online, when she comes home. :)

Anonymous said...

it was cool to see my drawings. thank you. :)

Dr. Bob said...

Lena!!

So glad that you liked seeing your art up. I think that you are a fine artist.

Anonymous said...

I love Lena's artwork! Being that she is such a fascinating little girl, I like imagining Lena, grown up, in various glamorous professions. Besides actress, author, or pirate, I think she might be a fabulous artist. Not of the starving variety either...she will be hugely popular and famous and will dote on her adoring mummy!

P.S. I lurve those candies that are licorice with the colorful mushy, gummy stuff around it. Do you know which I'm talking about? They're featured prominently towards the front of the second candy pic. Yummy!

Rowan said...

Bama, yeah, those candies are fab! they are a major player in the cornucopia of Liquorice Allsorts. They have a sort of coconutty coat, in yellow or pink. Or wait a minute...do you mean the square ones with the softer sort of fondanty covering, rather than the round ones? My faves in that collection are the liquorice tubes with the white filling, and the sort of aniseedy jellies covered in wee sugar balls, in pink and blue. EE-tastic, but worth it. Any ee number speediness is always a boon, in my case. It might just possibly galvanise me to do the washing-up, if I am not otherwise in a sedentary swoon of, "Whoops I've done ir again" sweetie scoffage guilt.

Lena is very pleased y'all liked her pictures! Am not getting the sign in as "other" Blogger box up today, so am going to set her reply within my post.

LENA says:

It is lovely that you all like my drawings. I would like to go to Art school. I used to want to be a volcanologist cos I like volcanoes, but sometimes volcanologists get covered up by pyroclastic flows, like the man at Mount st Helens.

Anonymous said...

Dear Lena:

We have been to Mt. Saint Helens, which you would love; it is truly awesome. The man has a lookout point named after him now, and let me tell you he was just too close at the wrong time. I am sure that no other volcanologists have been killed since probably Pompeii, or Krakatoa at the latest. I will have Dr. Bob remember for us to send you some pictures of Mt. St. Helens (which is still erupting, as you will see -- although much more slowly nowadays).

Cheers,

Dr. Bob's B&C

Rowan said...

LENA says:

Thank you! I think this is very interesting!!! I would loove to see the pictures. I would love to see Mount St Helens one day.Is it really still errupting?

I have a volcano in my town.It is called the Law Hill, but it is extinct. The magma is all dried up. I see it on my way to school. It still has a great volcano shape!

Rowan said...

LENA says:

I wanted to send you a picture of the Law Hill! We looked at a lot, and I liked this one.