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Gallery: pick a word (September 2023)
I think we all hope our words will mean something, and many of us hope that our photographs will too. Paula’s Pick a Word challenge gives us a chance each month to consider her words and pair them with our photos.
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Nothing to crow about
If it is the case that crows eat slugs and snails, then surely I should be glad we have so many in our neighbourhood. Our garden is plagued by snails in particular. But on the other hand, if crows do eat snails, why then that plague?!
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Gallery: pick a word (July 2023)
The writer, the painter and the photographer have the power to ‘shake up a familiar scene’. Through their eyes we often discover something anew even though we may have seen a similar scene many times before.
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Travellers’ tales: it’s all about the birds
When you come back from a trip you have tales to tell. You may start by describing the big stuff, the famous sights you saw: the Taj Mahal perhaps or the Eiffel Tower. But what often remains in the memory long afterwards are the small happenings that punctuate a trip. Those are the stories that you will return to again and again …
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Gallery: intriguingly incomparable India
Picture India, and you are quite likely picturing Rajasthan. A land of ruined fortresses and long-abandoned palaces whose stones speak evocatively of past maharajas. A desert land where rural life is tough and little-changed over the centuries, yet vibrant and full of colour. A land whose people know how to celebrate and how to welcome strangers.
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Gallery: pick a word (April 2023)
Surely our photographs help to bring words to life, and help them to live on? As always, Paula’s monthly Pick a Word challenge prompts us to match a photo to a single word and bring it to life.
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Udaipur, Rajasthan’s city of lakes
Udaipur’s setting in the Aravalli Mountains, and around a string of man-made lakes, gives it a unique character among Rajasthan’s cities. Arriving here it is immediately obvious why it is so often called the ‘city of lakes’.
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Gallery: the friendly people of Khimsar
Around a 450 year old fort on the edge of the Thar Desert a small town has grown up, consisting of little more than a market, some shops and a bus station. These serve the surrounding rural community and those who work in the fort, which is today is both home to the Thakurs, former rulers of the Kingdom of Khimsar, who built it, and also a heritage hotel.
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Gallery: a walk in a tea plantation
Kerala can be regarded as consisting of three parallel environments, running north to south down the state. There is the coastal strip and backwaters, where the emphasis is on fishing and trade; the slightly higher agricultural strip where pineapples, bananas and a variety of other crops are grown; and the so-called High Range, part of the Western Ghat, where tea, coffee and spices predominate.
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The charms of travelling by train
I think I have always liked travelling by train. As a child I lived and grew up in London, so journeys on the Underground were regular occurrences. My childhood bedroom looked out across a playing field to Ruislip Gardens station in the depths of so-called Metroland. Of course there were also childhood journeys on ‘real’ trains. Before my father learned to drive and bought our first car we would take an annual trip to the seaside by train, usually to Westgate on Sea in Kent.
