U is for Up On A Roof

For Mrs Matlock's "U" assignment and Alphabe-Thursday this week, some shots taken during our whirlwind 4 day visit to NYC last year.

New York City Rooftop, April 2009.


View from the Empire State Building, April 2009.

Up on A Roof a classic 60's song written by the then husband-and-wife team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King.


Click on the link to enjoy an iconic performance by The Drifters, before handing in your assignments.
See you in class.

7:15 a.m. Wednesday View from my bedroom window.

It's Wednesday and there's a whole lot going around here as usual so I'm a little late in linking these early morning shots to Susan's Outdoor Wednesday #74 @ A Southern Daydreamer. Yikes ! I'm # 82!

Susan has some fabulous photos of Harry Potter's Wizarding World in Florida.

You have to go over there and see Hogsmeade, Mr Weasley's Flying Car sitting high up in the Whomping Willow and lots, lots more.

A Rose by any other name...........

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

Juliet's speech from Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare.

Linking this post to two of my favourite Monday Meme's:
Mary's Pondside Mosaic Monday @ thelittleredhouse and Tracey's Weekly Words to Live By @ Notes from A Cottage Industry where you'll find some excellent quotes to make you ponder on the way life is.

T is for Tribute to D Day Veterans.

This coming weekend sees the 66th Anniversary of the D Day Allied landings in Normandy.
Therefore my T assignment for Mrs Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday this week is about some of the Tributes that ex- servicemen and women, and the families of the fallen will be attending here in my area.
Click here to read about the official tributes taking place.
However, not all of the Tributes this weekend will be on such a grand scale.
Throughout Normandy small towns and villages will be holding their own services of remembrance, I thought you might like to know about some of those. If the name of the town is highlighted you can click on the link to learn more.
On 4th Friday, 4th June, in Villers sur Mer, a bench will be unveiled by Mr & Mrs Don White from Australia to the memory of Private George WHITE, 9th Para, whose name is Commemorated on the Memorial close by the church.
The next day June 5th in Bavent (Le Mesnil)at 10:30hrs.there wil be a Service of Remembrance and Wreath laying at 3rd Para Brigade & 1st Canadian Para Battalion Memorials.
On the same day at 15:00 hrs in St Vaast en Auge a service will be held to commemorate the men who died after a navigational error when Horsa Glider LH324 crashed into the wood of the Manor Farm near the village.
In Gonneville en Auge at 16:00hrs there will be a ceremony at 9th Para Battalion Memorial and in Breville les Monts also at 16:00hrs a Commemoration and wreath laying at the crossroads Memorial and a vin d'honneur afterwards on the green opposite the Mairie (Town Hall).
Later that afternoon at 17:30 hrs Bures sur Dives a Wreath laying at the Captain Juckes RE Memorial and at the same time at the Merville Battery, Veterans of the 9th Para Battalion will march to the Official Ceremony.
Whilst at the Mairie (Town Hall) in the commune of Bénouville the Mayor Alain Lepareau will welcome the veterans, their families and friends at the Salle Polyvalente (Community centre) for a Band Concert and afterwards, an aperitif.
Perhaps the most poignat Tribute of all will take place in the small village of Colleville-Montgomery, when 86 year old Glaswegian Bill Millin, the Scots piper who led Allied troops on D-Day, will unveil a statue of himself.
In a quote from the Daily Record newspaper Glaswegian Bill, who previously saw a model of the statue, said: "It is very good of the French to do this for me. It is a good likeness, I was 21 then, very young."

Amongst the first to land at Sword Beach on June 6th 1944 Bill was ordered by Lord Lovat to play the pipes to rally troop morale.

Some other interesting web sites:
http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/no.php
http://www.memorial-caen.fr/portailgb/
http://www.travelsignposts.com/France/sightseeing/normandy-landings-pointe-du-hoc

Remember to stop by Jenny's blog Off On My Tangent for other T posts

Normandie Impressionniste Festival begins 1st June 2010.

Inside Rouen Cathedral The major cultural event of the summer here in Normandy promises to be The Impressionist Normandy Festival which begins 1st June 2010, continuing throughout the summer until September 2010.
Horse Drawn carriage in Rouen.
The Festival's website is rightly very proud of the event:
Initiated under Laurent Fabius and numerous governmental authorities, including the Regional governments of Upper and Lower Normandy, the counties of Seine-Maritime and Eure, the Cities of Rouen and Caen, with the support of major businesses, this multidisciplinary celebration is on an unprecedented scale for France. For the public, it will be the perfect opportunity to discover exceptional cultural heritage and all the creative talent of Normandy, homeland of the Impressionist movement.La Dame au Balcon. Henri Ottmann.
One of the special exhibitions is to be held in the Fine Arts Museum in Rouen.

It is entitled "A City for Impressionism" and will include paintings by Monet, Pissarro and Gauguin, many of which will be on show to the public for the first time.

The streets in Rouen's historic district are lined with ancient half timbered buildings, and here you will find many excellent small cafes and restaurants.

Click here to read my Monet's Garden at Giverney post

Champ de Coquelicots, Environs de Giverny. Claude Monet.

Nearer to home, I'll be able to visit the Corot exhibition at the Saint-Lô Fine Arts Museum and the Millet exhibition at the Thomas Henry Museum in Cherbourg.

Hopefully we'll get a chance to visit Rouen once again to see the light shows and illuminations at the Cathedral.
Rouen Cathedral by Claude Monet.

More from the Festival website:
Impressionist Normandy encompasses the entire territory of two separate regions (Upper and Lower Normandy) and as such, is an unprecedented initiative in France. The event will take place simultaneously in dozens of cities, towns, and villages. The main Norman institutions, as well as numerous other public and private partners, will be associated with the festival. In addition to the desire to bring together an entire geographical area, the fact of multiple locations also illustrates the precedent established by the painters’ own penchant to wander through the countryside in search of new subjects to paint. Certain exhibitions will be sent to other countries and thus will act as "ambassadors” for Normandy. As an unofficial & unpaid ambassador of Normandy I'm very happy to be able to promote our adopted region of France in with my blog.

If you are planning on visiting France this summer do try and see one of the amazing exhibitions going on throughout the region, and let me know if you'd like some company!

I'm linking this post to Frenchy's wonderful, 1st June French Obsession meme

@Le Château des Fleurs.

I have been lucky enough to have visited the Fine Arts Museum twice now and these photographs were taken during one of my visits.

Weekly Words to Live By # 170

My body is the garden of my soul, of my soul.

My body is the garden of my soul.

Soul of Healing Affirmations - Deepak Chopra

Please visit Tracey @Notes From A Cottage Industry for more interesting quotes & ideas.

Fête des Mères

Tomorrow, the last Sunday in May, France celebrates the Fête des Mères or Mother's Day, two weeks later than other countries around the world.
A lovely tradition here in Normandy (maybe in other parts of France too, although I can't be sure) is for local shopkeepers to present their female customers with a single long stemmed rose.
This morning at my local boulangerie I came away not only with a wonderfully fresh pain paysan for lunch but a beautiful red rose shyly presented to me by Madame's young son.

Wishing you all a lovely Fête des Mères wherever you are.