March 2014: Skies after a thunderstorm

these photos were taken after a huge thunderstorm and it cleared up amazingly.   

Dec 2013: Views of #London

here are some photographs of London with my little iphone :)

 

lol, nice name

view over the neighbouring building at work

i was down by the river.

poor school? awwww

 

Kannu’s college (St. Peter’s College) at Oxford at night.

its a misty day…as I leave for work

and the cloud covers London…

somebody felt the cold and decided to have a kip in the corner of the vestibule of the Gym…sad…

I met with this lovely boy…just look at the loving warm eyes.

 

good morning London.

 

tiny lettering on this lock, so took a photo and zoomed in…cool, eh? lol

lol, yes, please, can I have some of them?

leaves on the road…

 

nice card…

another beautiful sunset.

view from the cathedral bell tower.

 

boxes

 

hehehehehe, nice one.

 

what a great wall of books, at the British Museum

awwww

another exhibition

as it says

I think i was near Barbican…

 

A view of gold bars at the Bank of England Museum.

this is a cool set of pledges, I agree…

Sept 2013; London Evening Skies

So I noticed some lovely skies in the evening so grabbed the beast and hared off to Kannu’s room at the top and took these photographs…quite interesting colours and shapes.

Aug 2013: I will make him an offer he cannot refuse

So the penultimate day, we decided to go check out Corleone, a bus trip…strange shape, its almost like God took a giant golf swing through that rock.

the place is full of viaducts

the bus windows were not really very clean…

On the way to Corleone, we stopped by this Royal Hunting Lodge which is situated inside a nature reserve. A bit austere looking, but fairly well refurbished now…

a lovely statue of Mary on the right…quite beautiful when highlighted against the stark mountain.

  

A world war 1 memorial…with an old helmet on top

care for a drink? lol.

a little animal clinic is off the side.

fairly basic hospital…at least the tortoises are having fun.

we went back into the bus and drove off. the landscape had turned…more stark..less green…more rocky…more forbidding? or was it just the thought that we were approaching Corleone?

 

we reached Corleone and immediately stepped into the town gardens where this extraordinary sculpture is front and center. 

 

along one of the garden paths, you can see these plaques, beautifully cast in what looks like a bronze piece.

 

Another lovely fountain sculpture

 

This is a statue of Bernardino Verro, who was the mayor of Corleone in 1914. He was killed by the Mafia. There’s our guide, he was very good indeed.

And the police station.

 

we pass down the main street

and a lovely lovely box of plum tomatoes, just look at the colour…mmmm

We pass by these famous steps where a very large massacre was done by the Mafia

 

And we pass by this store, which is unoccupied, but was previously owned by a baker family, again which was murderously killed by the Mafia. Nobody then on wants to rent this store.

 

A plaque commemorating the celebration by Giuseppe Garibaldi who won over a Bourbon army near Corleone.

We come into the church on the left

  

the door on both sides are beautiful, truly remarkable work.

 

fairly severe bell tower. we move inside to see again a fairly austere church.

 

some excellent plaques on the all and some rather startlingly violent statues

 

as i mentioned fairly austere…the pulpit didnt have stairs..what happened?  

Nice ceiling although the paintings were too small

 

severe windows.

 

nice detailing through on the roof.

Another of those shrines…

 

more paintings and plaques, Christ Pantokrator on one…we saw this in Cefalu as well..

 

The patron of teeth / dentists. Please come take residence at my place…

Another shrine but surprisingly, this actually has transparent sections cut out of the mannequin of the saint so that you can actually see the bones. hmmmm

 

thank God it was quite sunny, although in a cloudy day, I would guess it would be very gloomy with the small windows high up.

we move to the Museum Ethnographica of Corleone. 

and then we move into the museum and this was a terrible terrible set of photographs. This museum is a photographic museum dedicated to the fight of magistrates like Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino who died fighting the Mafia. Here are some of the photos of the photos. Truly heart-wrenching and shows the bravery of these people, who fought against the Mafia knowing fully well that they will be killed, sooner or later.

 

  

the death of one of the Mafia victims.

a car bomb and another funeral.

 

peering out from one of the windows. I am overlooking a landscape which has Mafia members in there just at this moment. It is very highly recommended that you take a guide and he can guide you through the exhibits. Its truly breathtaking. Really brings it alive.

we went back outside after the show…bit subdued, so i decided to cheer up the family with some icecream. Doesnt fail, does it?

So popped into the Central Bar where there are loads of photos of the Godfather. Ummmmmm

interesting chimney pots.

 

streets of Corleone.

Couple of final views of Corleone

 

and then we head back to Cefalu…what a trip…very moving and very profound..the exhibition really impacted me..to think of those policemen and magistrates.

and since it was the last night, we went for a walk along the beach and clicked some of the photos shown below of the sunset.

 

 

 

 

that’s it…we went to sleep and then next day off to the airport and took off.

Mount Etna with her crown of clouds

strange looking man…

row of windmills

 

cloudy puffballs

there’s Cefalu rock

ah! the green green grass of England

And the parking lot of Gatwick :) and a lovely holiday in Sicily comes to an end…