Blue Monday: Painting of Venice

Happy Blue Monday

This day of sharing blue is brought to you by Smiling Sally.

You can join in by visiting her blog and signing in on the list of participants.

You can have so much fun visiting these sites of blue.

This is a beautiful oil painting I have hanging in my dining room. I bought it at an antique store, and there is not even a signature on it. For all I know the person who painted it isn't even a "real" artist, but I believe the painter had talent, and I love the picture. The blues are so vibrant. It reminds me of Venice and the wonderful time I had there. The person who sold me the painting didn't know anything about it, but I liked it, and I bought it, and there it hangs.

Enough said.

Pink Saturday: Roses From Taormina

Welcome to Pink Saturday! We are going to have such a good time today visiting all the blogs sharing their pinkness. To find the list of participants just click

Beverly's blog, "How Sweet the Sound."

In 2005, while on a Meditteranean cruise we had the opportunity to visit Taormina on the Island of Sicily. We had a wonderful day there. We saw so many beautiful places I went back through our pictures and found a few to share for Pink Saturday.

This picture has two pink apartment buildings. I think the little trees growing out of the chimneys are the cat's meow.

This is a shot of Taormina's 10,000-seat ancient Greek amphitheater, Teatro Greco, which was erected in the third century BC and expanded by the Romans. The view of Mount Etna and the sea beyond is absolutely superb from here. I think the bricks are a lovely shade of pink.

Of course, I had to have something to remember this great city and the day of fun we had here. There were so many shops and so little time, but I found exactly what I wanted. It even has the most beautiful pink flowers with real gold highlights. It wasn't easy getting it back home, but it was worth all the trouble. Thank goodness it was wood, not ceramic. It has the perfect place in my home. It complements the window in my front door. Best of all, it reminds me of the wonderful time I had with my family.

Have a Happy Pink Saturday!

"Cowdolier" Brings Back Memories

Cow Parade (Kansas City, 2001) presents "Cowdolier." In the summer of 2005 when we cruised the Mediterranean we actually got to spend the night in Venice. We had so much fun exploring the city, but the must-do-tourist-thing is, of course, the gondola ride. I have soooo many pictures of the sights in Italy. I get a big kick out of looking back at them. I will call this shot, The Token of All the Venice Canal Photos.

The gondola ride was nice. Bob and I rode with Larry, Nancy, and Colton. Our gondolier didn't sing, but he did have a fellow gondolier who sang loudly enough for us to hear. He just steered our gondola right up beside the others and one guy sang to everybody. It's efficient, if it isn't romantic. A gondolier's got to do what a gondolier's got to do!

It was a wonderful night in Venice.

Coliseum in Rome

"Gladiator Cow" from Cow Parade (Kansas City, 2001) reminds me of a day in the summer of 2005. We all visited the Coliseum in Rome, Italy.

There were some actors dressed up as gladiators. They were taking this young lady away. I don't know who on earth she was, but I hope she learned her lesson: Don't go wearing a thong to the Coliseum if you don't want to attract attention!

Kellie and Macie had a wonderful time walking around the ruins. There was a lot of work in progress to help preserve the old structures.

Lawrence and Tim enjoyed looking at everything there was to see.

Of course, I had a magnificent time site-seeing with Bob.

Bob had a great time taking pictures of art and buildings and sculptures and hundreds of other things that he thought were remarkable (like the girl in the thong.)