thursday thirteen [49]

James Taylor © ap/r. m. cornett

01. One of the highlights on May 1st was to watch part of a great concert on TV: James Taylor- Live at the Beacon Theatre, NY, 1998
02. singing the following :You can close your eyes ,How sweet it is ,Fire and rain You've got a friend , and many more .
03. This concert brought me back to the mid 70's when I was a teenager, that's loooooong time ago. I loved his songs, his voice, his long hair ... the long hair is gone, but I still love his music and his voice hasn't changed.

04. It's interesting how voices don't seem to age!

05. We are going to a wedding this weekend.

06. A friend in his early 40's who is ready to take a second chance. It's her first wedding.

07. The couple already has two kids together.

08. A Spanish festival takes place now in Córdoba(Andalucia) :The Concurso de Patios, or Patio Competition, which takes place every year during the second and third weeks of May, and the patios, many of which are privately owned, are open to the public throughout the event. Prizes are awarded in various categories, including the best balcony and the best wrought iron railing display.

09. I haven't been to this competition, therefore I have no pictures from an actual Cordoba patio.

10. But I have been to Seville, which is not far away and this is a private patio, they are beautiful! I was playing tourist and just went ahead and took this pic from the side walk...

11. Life in Southern Spain revolves around the patio, it's a meeting place, a venue for celebrations and parties, or simply somewhere for the children to play. It is a nice place to forget about the stress of city living and offers an inviting shelter from the fierce Southern Spain temperatures, reaching well over 40°C/105ºF in summer!

12. Here's another Seville patio. If I remember well, this one is a hotel.

13. I can't help it but think of a great Spanish poet, Antonio Machado, who wrote the following:


RETRATO (Portrait)

Mi infancia son recuerdos de un patio de Sevilla,
y un huerto claro donde madura el limonero;
mi juventud, veinte años en tierras de Castilla;
mi historia, algunos casos que recordar no quiero
(more)
My childhood is memories of a patio in Seville,
and a garden where sunlit lemons are growing yellow;
my youth twenty years on the earth of Castile;
what I lived a few things you'll forgive me for omitting.
Read the whole poem here


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