POTD - Pussy Willows

POTD - Pussy Willows

©2010 Kristin Corlett

There were pussy willows in the backyard of the house where I grew up.  If I had known that I would rarely see pussy willows again after I left that house, I would have paid more attention to them!  I found these beauties at the market in Rome.

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Religious Articles

POTD - Religious Articles

©2010 Kristin Corlett

I found this shop to be so very interesting.  It was located in a fairly small alley in Rome, near the Trevi Fountain.  The words are in a grand style, but looks like it's been nearly painted over in a few spots.  The entrance to the store was small and unadorned.  I never did go by this during the day, when it might be opened. 

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Stage

POTD - Stage

©2010 Kristin Corlett

A very cool stage set up inside of a Gypsy Caravan on the streets in Rome.  I saw the performers out on the street, but we weren't around when I'm assuming they used this stage.  They were just getting set up when our group moved on.

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Street Lamps

POTD - Street Lamps

©2010 Kristin Corlett

There were so many interesting things right here on this street in Rome.  I really liked the street lights, the way they curve around the corner, yet I can still see them clearly.  I liked the two toned building on the left and then the cool chimney on the building in the middle.  Below the chimney is the tile roofed building with the thick columns.  I even got some people in the shot :)

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Mail in Rome

POTD - Mail in Rome

Every day I passed by the mailbox center for the residents in the apartment building where we were staying in Rome. I noticed the mail was just shoved in there any old way and several pieces hung out along the top and one piece out of the back. I'm sure that's due to small size of the mail cubbies. The photo is just a tad out of focus, which gives an interesting feel to the piece.

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Caesar's Skirt

POTD - Caesar's Skirt

I was intrigued by the decorations on the statue of Caesar at the forum in Rome. It looks like there is a sheep's head, a lion's head and even a human head on the skirt.  Is it called a skirt?   I tried to look up information on this statue and I couldn't find a thing.  There were actually several statues along this roadway, near the Forum.  I'm sure if I researched hard enough I could find out all I needed to know - but Googling Caesars Skirt didn't reveal much. :)

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Twenty

POTD - Twenty

by Kristin Corlett

When I went to Rome I had this idea that among other things, I wanted to photograph numbers.  I assumed that the numbers would be all different shapes and sizes and interesting forms considering the age of the city.  Turns out that most of the numbers I saw were in this Latin style.  It wasn't as exciting and interesting as I had hoped...however, this image was fabulous!  The number was so perfect in the midst of all of this destruction.   

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Lucy and Ethel

POTD - Lucy and Ethel

by Kristin Corlett

Ethel Mertz: There's lots of things you're good at.
Lucy Ricardo: Like what?
Ethel Mertz: Well, you're awfully good at... uh... You've always been great at...
Lucy Ricardo: Those are the same ones Ricky came up with.

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Swiss Guard

POTD - Swiss Guard

The Swiss Guard protect the Pope and watch over Vatican City.  Their ceremonial dress is such an incredible sight to see that one might think the men are just a decoration in the city but they are indeed guards and are trained as such.   I really liked the view of the guard in this doorway with the green lights all along the hall.

Enjoy!
Kristin

The Rome Reunion

We had our Rome reunion last night and almost everyone brought their photos so we could see them.   I flipped through a scrapbook and a few photo albums while I watched a photo DVD with a soundtrack.  There were several stacks of photos, another photo DVD as well as the photos that I took.

It was so much fun to relive the trip and see the different photographic views that everyone got of the same subject.   A couple of times I thought "That's my photo!" because it looked exactly like mine and other times you'd hear the whole room buzz, "How did you get that shot!" or "When did you go there?."  Two of the girls climbed up the several hundred steps to the top of St. Peter's Basilica and got the most amazing pictures.   I know the whole room collectively gasp when those photos came up on the TV screen.  They were gorgeous.

We all laughed at the people shots of all of us girls making goofy faces at the camera, but the funniest thing was when after watching the first DVD for about 20 minutes there was finally a photo of me.  Everyone started cheering and clapping.  I didn't realize that I wasn't in any of their photos either!  I didn't mean to be MIA, I was just busy enjoying the city and taking my own photos.

One of my travelmates brought this photo of me, in a frame for me.  This was taken at a castle in Rome that we toured and I guess she got me!  I love it.

I even brought my red jacket with me to the reunion last night and put it over my chair.   The very first day of the trip I wore a black jacket, but the next several days I wore this red windbreaker over my black one - it was quite chilly those days so I needed the extra warmth.  Then I wore the black jacket all by itself again and one of the ladies, Laura, told me that she couldn't find me being dressed in black so I simply must put the red one back on.  I happened to have the red one in my bag, so switched out right then and there.  I never again went out into the streets of Rome without my red windbreaker.  I guess Laura thought I was a flight risk, so I needed to be seen :)




Here's a little slideshow from my latest batch of edited Rome photos.

The slideshow starts off with a few pictures from the hand drawn map in our apartment. The highlighted building is the where we were staying. 

A unique church was just up the road from our apartment and I included a bunch of photos from there.  This church was literally put together from pieces of other buildings and columns.  Truly fascinating.

Then there are a lot of shots of the Coliseum and a picture of the three girls that went on the walking tour with me that particular day. I like mailboxes, so there's three different ones - the red and blue will be postmarked Rome and the yellow mailbox is for Vatican City.

The four photos of the map of Europe shows the Roman Empire. In the beginning it was just Rome - You can barely see the small white circle in Italy. Then some years later the empire has grown and then again and the last photo is of the Roman Empire at it's largest. I was so happy to have walked by these so I could photograph them. They are on a busy busy roadway so you can't stop to take a picture, the only way to do so is to find yourself walking by them...and we did :)

Have a wonderful week!
Kristin

Mums the word

I've had to keep a secret.

I don't know if I'm actually a secret teller, but I do know that it just kills me to have to keep a secret and on Thursday night I stumbled onto something that required me to keep a secret

I went to my dinner with my transplant support group friends at a place called Mimi's.  We were meeting there at 6pm and I walked in right about that time.  One of the group members walked me to the table and as I was about ready to sit down, I hear "Hi Kristin!"  There, at the table right next to ours was my friend Lori.  I hugged her and said hello and something else I'm sure, and then I looked up to see the rest of the people sitting at her table when I see Aunt Jean!  (shown in the photo above)

I yelled out (I'm afraid I did not use my inside voice)  Aunt Jean!! and in order to get to her I had make a little lap around the dining room because our tables were too close together.  I was absoluetly thrilled to see her.  

You see, she lives in Ohio.  She came on our Rome trip and when I met her in Philadelphia for our flight to Rome, I instantly loved her.  She's Lori's Aunt Jean but she was "our" Aunt Jean the whole trip.  We all said "Hi Aunt Jean!" probably more times than she cared to hear and when Lori started saying "I love you, Aunt Jean,"  well, I started saying it too. 

These days, when Lori calls me on the phone she says "Hi Aunt Jean" to me and I say it to her.  It's become jokey and fun and keeps Aunt Jean in our hearts.   (although I have to admit I just typed out hearse!  Oh my goodness what a hoot.  ...keeps Aunt Jean in our hearse... I can hardly type I'm laughing so hard!)

OK - so back the story!

Because I was such an Aunt Jean fan, Lori and Jean were anticipating my reaction at the Rome party when Aunt Jean comes walking in - I was sure to cause a scene and become far too excited!  Well it all happened just a few days early when I stumbled upon them at the restaurant.  Of all people to run into, I run into them. 

I love it.

I hung out with my Rome group tonight and saw some awesome photos from the other members of our group, we ate some delicious food that our host, Ann, made for us.  Goodness it was delicious.  It was called the Taste of Italy Dinner - spaghetti, meatballs, homemade sauce, salad and bruschetta.  Two other girls made up the dessert that was similar to the one we loved so much in Rome.  The rest of the evening was spent by seeing the wonderful photos that everyone brought, laughing at the fun times we had and telling stories. 

Aunt Jean doesn't leave until Monday so I've invited myself over to Lori's Sunday afternoon.  :)

What a great surprise.  I'm so happy that I didn't have to keep that secret for more than two days because I nearly burst from excitement.

I love you Aunt Jean!  Thanks for coming to Florida to the reunion dinner.  What a treat to have you here.

Have a great day!
Kristin

POTD - Spades and Arrows

POTD - Spades and Arrows

The entrance gate to the St. Sebastian Catacombs was so interesting to me.  They looked like they had been around forever and yet they didn't look pitted or damaged.  I'm not sure I can date it.  Actually I'm not sure if this gate would make a good date.  I don't think he goes off the property much at all :) 

That was such a groaner :)

Enjoy the gate detail!
Kristin

POTD - Italian house with pots

POTD - Italian house with pots

On our trip along the Appian Way we stopped long enough for me to take this photo of this interesting cluster of homes with pots on the ledges.  Beautiful, decayed, ancient and modern.

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Arm

POTD -Arm

This photo was taken in Rome. We walked by this business nearly every day and I didn't notice this arm until the very last full day. It was kind of a scary sight because that arm is just hanging in amongst the other items in the window. It wasn't your typical window display that's for sure.

Enjoy (if you can!)
Kristin

POTD - Unused

POTD - Unused

I don't think this passageway is used any more, but it sure does look interesting all boarded up like this.  Taken in Rome.

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Ceiling

POTD - Ceiling

The ceiling of the auditorium in Rome where I was a part of the Papal Audience.  Each one of the little rectangles held at least one light and yet it didn't seem like I was blinded by the light.  The symmetry was beautiful.  The entire place was beautiful.

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Arches

POTD - Arches

While everyone else went one direction to see the original stones that made up a Roman Road back in the days of Caesar (I think that's how far back they went) I went another direction. There was this building/castle we had just passed that intrigued me to no end! So I ran up the road a few hundred feet and snapped as many photos that I could until I saw everyone returning to the bus. I have no idea what the name of this place was called nor do I know how far away from the city we were. So this building, castle, church, home, whatever it is, will remain a mystery - unless someone knows and tells me :)

Enjoy!
Kristin

Rome in a Slideshow

Day Two of Rome was a very long day and we saw a lot of good stuff :) Seriously, we went all over town and even to one of the hilltops to get a better view of the city. There are a series of 4 or 5 photos from the hilltop - it's the panorama view of Rome. We rode on a bus from place to place this day and I snapped photos from the bus as we were cruising by interesting places and of course at the places where we stopped.

This slideshow contains some moving pictures (from the bus), photos from the memorial park where we had that awesome overlook of the city, the nighttime walk to Hardrock Rome and a few of us posing at our tables in the restaurant.

Good times!
Kristin

POTD - Golden Light

POTD - Golden Light

I took this picture of the electric candlelight at one of the Papal Churches called St. Paul Outside the Wall. It got it's name because it was literally outside of the ancient walls of Rome.   One of my favorite things to photograph in all of the churches we visted were the candles.  Some were real flames and some were electric and these were some of the largest electric candles that I saw on our trip.

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Castle Wall

POTD - Castle Wall

The Museo Nazional Di Castel Sant'Angelo --  in English it is the Saint Angelo Castle which is now a National Museum.   After walking the five story ramp that circled in the castle, I was very pleased to find gorgeous views of the city.  Saint Angelo's contained some very interesting architecture, too, like this one.  Look at that gorgeous brick and I love the way the keyhole cutout looks from the outside.

Enjoy!
Kristin