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Travel snapshots from Toonsarah

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  • Archive
  • Home
  • Destinations
    • England
      • London
      • Newcastle-upon-Tyne
    • Europe
      • Albania
      • Austria
      • Bulgaria
      • Estonia
      • France
        • Paris
      • Germany
      • Iceland
      • Italy
      • Jersey
      • Latvia
      • Norway
      • Portugal
      • Spain
        • Seville
      • Switzerland
      • Ukraine
    • Beyond
      • Africa
        • Botswana
        • Cape Verde
        • Gambia
        • Kenya
        • Morocco
        • Namibia
        • Senegal
        • Tanzania
        • Zimbabwe
      • Americas
        • Belize
        • Canada
        • Chile
          • Rapa Nui
        • Colombia
        • Costa Rica
        • Ecuador
          • Galapagos Islands
        • Guatemala
        • Jamaica
        • USA
          • Chicago
          • New Mexico
          • New York City
          • Washington State
      • Asia
        • DPRK
        • India
          • Kerala
          • Rajasthan
        • Indochina
          • Cambodia
          • Laos
          • Vietnam
        • Japan
        • Nepal
        • Oman
        • Syria
        • United Arab Emirates
        • Uzbekistan
  • Themes
    • Architecture
    • Art
      • Crafts
      • Street art
    • Colour
    • Dark tourism
    • Eco-tourism
    • Food & drink
    • Gardens
    • History
      • Ruins
      • War
    • Landscape
      • Coast & seascapes
      • Deserts
      • Mountains
      • Rivers
    • Nature and wildlife
      • Animals
      • Birds
      • Plants
        • Flowers
        • Trees, forests and woodland
    • People
      • Culture & tradition
      • Street photography
    • Travel in general
  • Photo galleries
    • Themed galleries
    • Travel galleries
  • Postcards from the road
  • Challenges
    • Photography challenges
      • Lens-Artists
      • Monochrome Madness
      • Nature Photo Challenge
      • One Word Sunday
      • Photographing Public Art
      • Pick a Word
      • Squares
      • Sunday Stills
      • The Changing Seasons
      • Cee’s challenges
        • CBWC
        • CFFC
        • CMMC
    • General challenges
      • Happy Place Happy Space
      • Monday walks
      • Words of Wisdom
      • Writers’ Quotes Wednesday
    • Challenges archive
      • Bird Weekly
      • Friendly Friday
        • The Friendly Friday Challenge: how to join in
      • Friday’s Foods of the World
      • Just One Person
      • Life in Colour
      • Mid-week Monochrome
      • One-to-Three
      • Ten photos
      • Thursday Trios
      • Thursday Doors
  • About me
    • Contact me
    • ‘Always Write’ interview
    • My love of travel
    • My photography
      • Photographic techniques
      • My photography journey
      • Video
    • Disclaimer & GDPR
  • Archive

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Topics I’ve touched on

africa animals architecture art birds black_&_white bulgaria cambodia chile cities colombia colour costa_rica dprk ealing england flowers france friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india landscape lens-artists Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks naturephotochallenge nepal new_mexico north_korea paris people photography photo_effects PPAC ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills thechangingseasons usa views village wildlife
  • Food & drink,  Sunday Stills,  Themed galleries

    Gallery: cosy coffee breaks around the world

    November 30, 2021 / 53 Comments
    Two cups of coffee

    Sometimes it seems as if Starbucks is taking over the world. Wherever we travel, apart from in North Korea of course, we come across branches of this ubiquitous chain. But we don't go in. Even at home it’s a place we choose to avoid, preferring to support our local independent coffee shops. And when we travel the same rule applies. Even in Seattle, the birthplace of Starbucks, we refused to visit the first ever branch in Pike Place.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Dark table with lots of small dishes

    Gallery: Dining in (Japanese) style ~ kaiseki

    March 6, 2021
    Elaborately decorated table

    Eating like honoured guests in North Korea

    December 30, 2021
    Man frying insects at a food stall

    Exploring the street food of Phnom Penh

    April 3, 2021
  • Dark tourism,  DPRK,  Lens-Artists

    Some short stories from the Hermit Kingdom

    November 28, 2021 / 33 Comments
    Factory gates with propaganda signs and various buildings

    We visited many strange and wonderful places on our tour of North Korea. But this is a short story about a place we didn’t visit. The Hungnam fertiliser factory was first established in Hungnam by the Japanese in 1927 and reopened by the Koreans after having been destroyed in the Korean War.

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    Or what about ...?

    Looking down on faded yellow-painted buildings

    Campo da Morte Lenta: Camp of the Slow Death

    March 31, 2021
    Large poster depicting man waving red flag

    Gallery: the art of the propaganda poster in North Korea

    July 17, 2021
    Large modern Oriental style building surrounded by trees

    International friendships in North Korea

    June 30, 2022
  • Crafts,  Culture & tradition,  Photographing Public Art,  Seville

    Gallery: Majolica, the ceramic tiles of Seville

    November 27, 2021 / 40 Comments
    Tiles painted with a bull's head

    Spain, along with its neighbour Portugal, is home to some of the most beautiful tilework in the world, and much of it originates in Seville. Or more accurately, in the Seville barrio of Triana. Known as Majolica, or sometimes Talavera, after the ceramic centre of Talavera de la Reina in Castilla, these tiles have been produced in this country for hundred of years. Made initially for churches and palaces, the art later spread to homes, adorning floors and walls.

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    Or what about ...?

    Man's hands working with tin

    Using our hands: handicrafts around the world

    April 27, 2021
    Half-finished relief carving of people in ancient dress

    Works in progress around the world

    August 6, 2023
    Sign saying Tinkertown

    ‘While you were watching TV’

    May 20, 2022
  • Friendly Friday,  People,  Travel in general

    Friendly Friday: meet some amazing guides (part two)

    November 26, 2021 / 17 Comments
    Banner with photo of a man in black and white football top

    As I said last week, this is the last in this series of Friendly Friday: meet … challenges, as I’m planning a shake-up for the New Year. So I’m finishing the series by introducing you to some of the most amazing, wonderful, helpful and knowledgeable guides I’ve met on my travels.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Red and black igiana

    The ‘Christmas’ marine iguanas of Española Island

    December 6, 2020
    Edited image of Ankor Wat, with reflection added

    Smoke and mirrors

    October 25, 2020
    Two men in a rowing boat

    Keeping North Korea clean and beautiful

    March 13, 2021
  • Lens-Artists,  Seville

    The bliss of returning to the air

    November 24, 2021 / 46 Comments
    Cityscape with river in the distance

    I believe I’ve mentioned once or twice in this blog that I love travelling! It’s the thing I’ve most missed during the past two years, when the world has been turned upside-down. Yes, I know that sadly worse things have happened to very many people than a few missed trips abroad. But the fact remains, I’ve missed travelling, and I know many others have felt the same.

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    Or what about ...?

    Reflection of setting sun on a river

    Gallery: last chance to see (or possibly not!)

    December 18, 2022
    Sculpture of a man seated on a bench with a magnifying glass superimposed

    Gallery: getting closer and closer

    March 13, 2022
    Bright coloured bracts on a stone path

    Gallery: things overlooked or unseen

    July 31, 2023
  • Colour,  Sunday Stills,  Themed galleries

    Gallery: what’s in a name? Burgundy / Beaujolais / Ruby reds

    November 23, 2021 / 30 Comments
    Dark red hollyhock with raindrops

    A brief extract from one of my favourite poems by one of my favourite poets to introduce a gallery of burgundy-red images. Of course this colour takes its name from a red wine, the French Burgundy, but we might just as well use the name of any other red wine to describe it. Indeed, according to Wikipedia, the French themselves tend to instead call the colour Bordeaux!

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    Large pink flower

    Gallery: in the pink in Colombia

    March 8, 2023
    Monks in orange robes seated on the floor

    Tak Bat in Luang Prabang

    August 27, 2023
    Blue and white twirl effect image

    Gallery: twirling away with a new photo effect!

    May 14, 2021
  • Friendly Friday,  Oman,  People,  Travel in general

    Friendly Friday: meet some amazing guides

    November 19, 2021 / 30 Comments
    Banner with photo of a man in Arab dress

    A local guide can make or break the travel experience. A good one will not only smooth the path and tell you about the sights you are seeing, they will also share something of themselves. Spending time together you will get to know each other and learn more about the country than you ever would from reading guidebooks, from the perspective of someone who lives there. They will be able to introduce you to some insider secrets: a little-known site; a café or bar frequented only by locals; a short…

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    Snow scene with pine trees and mountain

    Gallery: a snowy walk in Paradise

    November 21, 2020
    Squirrel with a conker in his mouth

    A neighbourhood walk

    October 31, 2020
    Cobbled pavement with black stones depicting a castle

    Gallery: underfoot in the Algarve

    April 12, 2022
  • Architecture,  CFFC,  Culture & tradition,  DPRK

    A look inside the Grand People’s Study House

    November 18, 2021 / 20 Comments
    Large building with green oriental roof

    Nearly all the great buildings and monuments of Pyongyang were built to mark a significant event linked to the Great Leaders, usually a birthday; and Kim Il Sung was especially fortunate on his 70th to be honoured with three such gifts. This special event was marked with a grand library, a triumphal arch and a tower.

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    Half-timbered building seen above a hedge

    A misty morning visit to Stokesay Castle

    July 14, 2021
    White painted cathedral

    A city shaped by earthquakes

    October 27, 2021
    Black and white photo of adobe church

    Gallery: San Francisco de Asis, Ranchos de Taos

    January 8, 2021
  • England,  History,  People

    Looking for Thomas Hardy in Dorset

    November 17, 2021 / 22 Comments
    Bronze statue of a seated man holding a hat

    It would be hard to visit Dorset without at some point coming across the name of novelist and poet Thomas Hardy. He is inexplicably linked to the county, so many places in which featured in his novels. On a recent visit to the county I found links to Hardy everywhere.

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    Fierce-looking owl

    Gallery: owl portraits, striped and speckled

    June 12, 2021
    Black and white photo of a river with bridges and city buildings

    Following the River Tyne to Ouseburn

    April 20, 2021
    Large building with turrets and ornamental details

    More Cambridge colleges and other sights

    August 1, 2022
  • History,  London,  Sunday Stills

    Ruislip Woods: ancient woodland in suburbia

    November 15, 2021 / 39 Comments
    Path through green woodland

    When the Domesday Book was written, in 1086, what is now the pleasant London suburb of Ruislip was known as Rislepe, ‘leaping place on the river where rushes grow’. The book also tells us that it had more pigs than human inhabitants. These pigs roamed the extensive woodlands; and Ruislip Woods remain to this day, although smaller than they once were.

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    Low chairs around a table, dark wood wall units

    Welcome to the 1980s in Bulgaria

    October 20, 2022
    Fountain in a small park with elegant houses around

    A stroll through more of the Marais

    September 18, 2023
    Half-timbered building seen above a hedge

    A misty morning visit to Stokesay Castle

    July 14, 2021
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Read my featured blogger interview

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By Marsha of 'Always Write'

And my answers to Bren’s ‘five at five’ questions

Lady in a hat and red top sitting on rocks

Some favourite photos

Man in a turban with fishing nets
Fisherman in Fort Kochi, Kerala
Two elephants in long grass
Okavango elephants
Blue glacier edge
Glacier Grey, Torres del Paine, Chile
Elderly woman in black hat and sunglasses
In Santiago, Chile
Very large statues of North Korean Leaders
Statues of the Great Leaders on Mansudae Hill, Pyongyang
Water reflecting the sky with clouds and low sun
Approaching sunset in the Okavango Delta
Feet of huge metal sculpture, with man standing beside
The feet of the Angel
Large moai with row of more behind
The ‘travelling moai’ and Ahu Tongariki
Man in knitted hat by water, black and white photo
Waiting for the ferry, Banjul
Mountain reflected in a lake
On the road to Dyrholaey
Sunset at Wahiba Sands, Oman
Squirrel with a conker in his mouth
In Walpole Park, Ealing
Silhouette of a man in a gateway
Looking out from Bundi Palace
Blue and pink bird on a dead tree
Lilac-breasted Roller, Chobe NP, Botswana
Buddhist monk in orange robes with mobile phone
Monk at Wat Nong Sikhounmuang, Luang Prabang
Man sleeping in a tuk tuk by a carved stone wall
Tuk tuk driver by the Terrace of the Leper King
Close up of flamingo with head tucked under
Flamingo (Jersey Zoo)
Lady with baskets of fruit sitting by a canal
In Hoi An, Vietnam
Small fishing boat with a man in it, on a large lake
Lake Atitlan
Wet street and two people with bright pink umbrella
Street in Lucca, rainy day – edited

Some topics I’ve touched on

africa animals architecture art birds black_&_white bulgaria cambodia chile cities colombia colour costa_rica dprk ealing england flowers france friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india landscape lens-artists Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks naturephotochallenge nepal new_mexico north_korea paris people photography photo_effects PPAC ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills thechangingseasons usa views village wildlife

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  • Gallery: a world of British wildlife

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All images and texts copyright Sarah Wilkie - 2023 ©
 

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