Tag: pen

The Not Taken Vacation: Rock of Gibraltar

So . . . we continue at sea, bypassing A Coruna and visiting Lisbon and Porto (oops! I forgot my sketches of Lisbon!) before heading east into the Strait of Gibraltar and heading into the Mediterranean. If I recall my geography and geology, Africa and Europe were once connected here, which is why the famous monkeys of the Rock of Gibraltar exist today. And the Rock of Gibraltar, an English outpost on the tip of southern Spain, dominates the scenery as you sail through. Cruise ships land here, and while we did not, let us pretend we did (since this whole Not Taken Vacation is imaginary) to climb the rock and see the sites.

From the sea, the Rock of Gibraltar rises up, formidable, stately. At times it is shrouded in clouds, other times sharp and crisp against the sky, or softened by moist sea air. Beneath, at the water’s edge, is where people live. Apartments and houses are expensive. Spaniards cross the border daily to work for higher wages but not getting the social benefits such as pensions (my understanding) that they would pay into if working in Spain. English and Spanish are spoken here, and while English is the dominant language, Spanish is not a bad thing to know.

There is a lot of history and a lot to see in Gibraltar. I chose to climb upward to see what I could see. Africa to the south. Coastlines to the east, mountains to the north. And monkeys! Really, Barbary Macaques, which are protected and the unofficial national animal of Gibraltar. They are friendly – but they do bite!

I sat here awhile, visiting with and ignoring the macaques, watching the world below and above, basking in the sun, and thinking up a song of “basking with macaques” which will soon make it to the Top 10 list of rock-n-roll songs.

The Not Taken Vacation: Torre de Hercules, A Coruna, Galicia, Spain

I am typing with two hands, ten fingers, no toes! It is so exciting to be able to return to a relatively normal life even though it was extremely difficult for a few days. My arm is nowhere near as strong as it once was – not that it ever was – but at least I am getting some skills back. Two-fingered typing was getting efficient, but two-handed is much better.

So, where are we today on my untaken vacation? We have sailed from Liverpool south, down the coast of France, perhaps watching the coast as we cruise past Normandy and down through the Bay of Biscay – or further out to sea to meet up with the western bit of the Iberian Peninsula as we head to A Coruna. But! Alas! We could not make it into port in A Coruna – probably the same sucky weather that prevented our mooring in Ireland.

What do we miss? An old city. What do we see as we bypass this port? The one thing that struck me as most-likely-to-be-seen was the lighthouse known as the Tower of Hercules – formerly Farum Brigantium. A bit of research shows a genuinely amazing bit of history as it is the oldest known extant lighthouse, one dating from the 2nd century AD (CE if you want!), and possibly erected by a Roman emperor. For me, one who lives in a SoCal suburb, such history is hard to consider, much less a building of such age.

Read the blurb on Wikipedia – when I looked it up, the Torre de Hercules was astonishing. My humble sketch does not do it justice.

The Not Taken Vacation: Come Walk With Me

Knowing that we would be visiting the Ness Botanic Gardens while moored in Liverpool (the Land of the Scousers), I decided to go into town in Liverpool in search of another set of pan paints. We went to Cass Art (see above!) and found a lovely set made by Rosa, an artist supply manufacturer in the Ukraine. I chose the “botanical set” that has colors found obviously in nature, and flowers in particular. It includes the reds and pinks and violets that I couldn’t make in my other little set with its 12 colors. While those 12 colors are good for mixing almost anything, there was absolutely nothing that would provide a lovely violet of any shade or any pinks. So, if you’re in a garden, what are you going to do? Well I know what I would do: Go shopping!

As you can see, this botanical set has some really beautiful colors in it as well as multiple greens. A lot of artists like to mix their greens, and while I find mixing greens is fun, having a few pre-made ones from which you can make even more greens is even better. Yes, I am breaking all those artistic rules someone has determined, but so what?!

The first thing I did during this non-taken vacation fantasy was to just look at the different flowers that are available throughout the year at the Ness Gardens. They have lots of flowers, trees, open space, buildings, and just about anything you could think of, as well as walkways and paths and places you can wander in. A good botanical garden is always a pleasure, and one needs color to do it justice in paint.

So, since I was griping about a lack of pinks and lavenders or purples, why not do hydrangeas? White, pink, lavender, and blue. The color depends on the acidic or basic qualities of the soil. I just mixed these vaunted colors together and had a good time.

Sadly, I could not find any map online of the Ness Botanic Gardens, but I can assure you there are buildings to go into as well as pathways to follow. One such building is this one, whose purpose remains a mystery me (shown above), but I thought rather lovely as it had woods behind, and colorful trees and flowers in front of it.

And, relying on photos for my fantasy walk, I took this pathway into the woods beyond. You can see just how beautiful it is with layers of colorful flowers, shrubs, trees, and everything in between.

The Ness Botanic Gardens was going to be one of my high points of our voyage – that and being driven on the left hand side of the roadways! I always enjoy going to botanical gardens because it’s so much fun to learn about plants, see plantings both formal and informal, as well as the variety of trees, flowers, birds and insects. It is all too easy to forget the abundance and beauty of Mother Nature.

Next stop: A Coruña, Spain.

The Not Taken Vacation: Icelandic Moss

Iceland Moss is really not a moss, but a symbiotic association between algae and fungus. It grows to be about 10 centimeters tall or about four inches , and is found in alpine and cold climates such as Iceland from which its name is derived. It can be used as an herbal remedy for a variety of complaints, such as pulmonary problems or digestive upsets and so on, although there is not a popular need for it apparently. The terrain and latitude of Iceland makes tall trees not very common, but Alpine plants and low-growing seasonal flowers, lichens, moss, and other such things make for a lovely landscape.

By no means am I trying to be a scientific illustrator, but looking at these plants, such as this lichen, just really fill me with delight because they’re so beautiful and so tiny.

Tomorrow I’m going to look at some of the photos I took before my tumble in Reykjavik, and hope to put in some drawings of buildings and historical landmarks before we move on to Ireland and Dublin where our next stop was supposed to be.