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Saturday 13 July 2013

Picture This #208 ~ Holidays, Vacations, Trips

Such a great theme! 

Thank you Marianne for allowing me to look at pictures going back to 1969 and remember delightful times traveling. Joanne, I love your banner photograph of the lovely little cemetery, congrats!

Rostral Columns, Peterburg, 1969

This picture was taken at midnight, 21 June, 1969, St. Peterburg (then Leningrad).  The sun doesn't go down but dips low enough that it is like very late afternoon. Just as the sun does not set for days in the summer, it does not rise for days in the winter. Tzar Peter needed a way to light up his warm-water port so he built these columns. This little picture started as a slide which was made into a print and then digitalized. You can see I have always been interested in light and water.

Pukaskwa

High on a hilltop above Lake Superior is this old river bed and a stone-lined hollow known as a pukaskwa. Over a thousand years old, it was used by the Ojibwa people to meditate. This one is relatively shallow but I used to hike up to it whenever we were in Canada.

Door into Summer

Robert Heinlein, the science fiction writer, wrote a book called "The Door Into Summer". When Tom and I leave the cold of Michigan for Florida, I feel we have found that door.

11 comments:

  1. Hi Benni !! I think that first shot is the oldest photo posted for one of the PT challenges. When I think if the 'midnight sun', I tend to think of Scandinavia, I forgot St Petersburg is on the same line. I can almost imagine the sound of the river flowing over those rocks, so long before. I like your interpretation of "The Door Into Summer".

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  2. Beautiful shot of the fall of dusk over the skyline.

    Love the contrast between rocks and greenery.

    Indeed so it does look. :)

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  3. I really enjoy your interpretations here, Benni. Wow for St Pitersburg, what an adventure and I would love to go to Canada, too. YOu are lucky to be able to travel from summer to summer, wish I could escape from here from May to August. I hate the cold with a passion, the only good thing is the sun is always shining, but boy do I battle to get out of bed in the dark at 6am these days. I try to prolong it, just 10min and just 10 min and so on, until Monster Dog just about leaps up on the bed and pounces on me in frustration I am not heeding her "wake up call"

    My favorite if I have to chooose, is "door into summer" Hugs

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  4. I visited Leningrad in 1964 and still have a few b/w photos. I also remember the sun being up all night, more or less. Would that be the Ermitage on the right? Those old photos must bring back some good memories. The old river bed looks good and I like the view you captured in the last photo.

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    1. Why, yes, that is the Ermitage. Good eye! I am heartbroken that all my slides from that trip were lost. This is the only one I have, because I made it into a print.

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  5. hi benni, nice set of pics

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  6. Thank you everyone for your kind comments.

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  7. Three wonderful Takes on the theme my friend;)

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  8. Love the midnight sun, reminds me of Fairbanks. Well the light anyway. The buildings for sure a world apart from there. The door sure does open into a nice and warm place to warm the souls.

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  9. Benni, thanks for sharing that photo of St. Petersburg. I didn't realize that it was on the same latitude with the rest of the northern hemisphere that never sees it go completely dark at night. You included an interesting face of history from the days of Peter the Great.
    The last image is my favorite. What works for me is the sunlight on the opened door. I can see a spot of sunlight in the right corner. It's the first thing my mind is drawn to and that does make it the Door to Summer.

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  10. Thank you all so very much. St. Petersburg celebrates three "White Nights" during which people stay up all night and walk. As Randall says, the light has a special quality.

    I am so glad you enjoy my door into summer; that house has pieces of sunlight all over. My cat found them all.

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