At the carnival in Venice the 2 ‘ladies’ below appeared on at least 2 occasions dressed in the most beautiful ball gowns. Each time I saw them they were wearing different dresses. They were both loving the attention and loved being photographed.

photograph of man in drag at Venice carnival

photograph of man in drag at Venice carnival

A couple of years ago I went to Venice during their carnival week, this is always in the winter either late January or early to middle February, the dates change each year. Their carnival is not like most other towns carnivals with processions through the streets (too narrow, the ones that aren’t canals!). People go along in the most elaborate costumes you can imagine and stand and pose to be photographed or walk slowly through the streets. They are all masked and sometimes you would never recognise the wearer, even if you know them. Men as well as women dress in the most beautiful dresses and pose.  I arrived on the Grande Canal front at 7.30am on 2 occassions and the place was already busy with models and photographers making the most of the beautiful early morning light. Over the coming weeks I will post some photographs from that week to show the sort of thing that goes on. Here is the 1st one of the models by the Grand Canal.

photograph of masked person at Venice Carnival

One of the most amazing sites left on Orkney is the stone age dwellings at Skara Brae. They were revealled after a mammoth storm in the 1930s and are now available for viewing. There is a reconstruction of one of the dwellings which you can go into and see the things that were found in the huts, all were identical. All had the dresser opposite the enterance and what were probably beds to either side. At the site is also a large house from Edwardian times which can be visited on the same ticket. It was quite awe inspiring to think that the dwellings I was looking at wer built before the Egptian perimids and Stone Henge!! I must admit there is not a lot to see but the displays that have been set up to show how life was then are very good and the reconstructed house is very authentic (I think, then what do I know?). Here are a couple of pics I took from there, I hope you all like them.

photograph of the inside of the re-construction of a stone age dwelling

photograph of stone age dwellings at skara brae

Just to note for scale sake the opening isthe doorway and it is only 2 foot square, so I guess they crawled in on hands and knees.

For more information on Skara Brae go to

http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae

Back to the Orkney Islands: one of the main tourist attractions in the Orkneys are the ship wrecks that litter the coast line. Some are visible from dry land but most have to be seen by Scuba diving. Both my husband and I scuba dive but I like staying above 30m and looking at fish and he likes diving deep and dark to see ship wrecks. So on this trip, whilst I travelled around the islands on dry land and boats he travelled round scapa flow on a boat which he then leapt off to dive under the water. You can still see some of the boats that were wrecked off Scapa Flow to block the channels and keep the German submarines out, below are 2 photogrpahs I took of the bits of boats left sticking out above the water line when a sea fret had rolled in and obscured what I had set the camera up for (these fogs roll in very quickly). If you want to know more about the historyof Scapa Flow and the Germon high Fleet scuttled in WW1 click on the link here:

http://www.scapaflow.co.uk/

photograph of ship wreck of the coast of Orkney

photograph of engine block of ship wrecked off the coast of Orkney

Stromness Shopping week!!! It’s really an excuse for a week long carnival, with a carnival queen, pipe bands, games and on the Thursday night a parade through the town, which in 2008 included a Viking boat and 2 Viking armies(!) and a big bonfire at the Stromness Point. There were a couple of thousand spectators all trying to squeeze along the main street behind the boat. There were about 10-15 men in each of the armies, all beautifully dressed in Viking replica clothing. Below are just a couple of the photographs I took of the parade and and the bonfire.

photograph of the boat in the main square before the parade

Before the parade the Island photgrapher for the local Gazette took lots of photographs of the guys in their costumes with the boat which started its route through town in the main square.

Photograph of a Viking on Orkney

And then finally the boat is set on fire after some posturing and brandishing of the fire brands infront of the boat, all the vikings threw their fire brands in to the boat and watched it burn until it got so hot they had to move away.

Photograph of a Viking in front of the burning boat.

I just love the light round the rim of the hat in this photograph.

This is a beautiful little chapel made from old nissan huts and concrete! During WW1 the Italian Prisoners of War (PoW) were used to create the Churchill barricades (to stop the submarines getting into Scapa Flow) but because the Geneva convention prevents use of POWs for war activities they also built roads across the barricades and said they were building permanent roads for the locals to use!!! (There is always a round these things), the Italians being quite religious wanted somewhere to pray so they used left over concrete and created the front of the chapel and lined the inside with plaster and concrete and painted it to look like it was tiled and had paintings hanging. It is stunning, as with all things Orkney small but beautifully formed and well worth a trip if you are in Orkney.

Photograph of the outside of the Italian Chapel

Photograph of the Italian Chapel inside showing the roof and pulpit area

Photograph of the Italian Chapel detail of pulpit

One of the best days on the holiday was the day I went to Westray Island to photograph the Puffins. There were hundreds of them on the cliff with a large lump of rock slightly away from the cliff edge which meant you could see them full on without having to get near the edge of the cliff and peer down. They are so cute and so funny. They stand around posturing and squeaking at each other and then suddenly one leaps of the cliff and flaps like furry until they get out to sea where they settle to catch fish. Once one has gone another goes and then 2, then 4 then 10 then 20 and finally the stragglers leave until the colony appears to be empty. The slowly they return in the order they left bringing fish for the young ones and before you know it the colony is teaming again.

Photograph of Puffin Landing

Photograph of a Puffin

Photograph of Puffins coming into land

Photograph of Puffins on a ledge

One of the most stunning visual parts to Orkney (besides the breath-taking cliffs) is the ring of Brodgar, a set of standing stones about 50m in diameter (the entire ring not each stone) of which about 20 stones are still standing and the remains of many more can still be seen. It is a neolothic creation for which we still do not know the use or reason for it’s creation. One theory is, it was a show of strength and power of that clan as the bigger the circle the more hours were required to create it and therefore the more people that were probably required so the larger the clan. At sunset and sun rise on a cloudless day the light cast onto the stones is almost transluscent being so far north and the feeling of spirituality is quite awe inspiring, wow this is deep and meaning full! I hope you  like the photographs and comments posted are appreciated.

RIng of Brodgar by sunset

Still standing stones in the ring of Brodgar

Ring of Brodgar

Have just returned from Orkney where I took nearly 1000 photographs of the island its people and the wildlife, Puffins are such fun. I will post a few photographs in the near future just to whet your appetite for the place.