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Category: Travel Photo Essays

Travel tips, photos & travelogues from all over the world.

Bleeding Espresso’s Gita Italiana 2010

One of my favorite bloggers is Michelle Fabio of Bleeding Espresso. After getting her law degree in the USA, Michelle journeyed to the little Italian village where her relatives originally came from. Before long, she fell in love with the village, the Italian language, and a lovely Italian man, as well. Needless to say, she still lives there. Romantic enough for you? I believe the movie rights are still available, so move over “Eat, Pray, Love”! Seriously, though, check out her blog if you haven’t already. From August 16th – 31st, Bleeding Espresso is hosting a series of guest bloggers…

Consider the source

As you may have noticed, I haven’t updated Mental Mosaic for a while. Long story short, I’ve had some health problems, with fatigue being a major component. This frustrating weariness made it all I could do to keep up with paying gigs, such as writing for PlanetEye Traveler. As a result, I let this site falter. Tired of being tired, I finally sought medical help in May. Turns out that I was super anemic, so I’ve been eating spinach and rusty nails all summer long. By the way, if you ever find out you’re really low on iron, don’t expect…

Wippity, Pickity, Snickity

I’m starting to suspect that my new bird book was ghost-written by Monty Python. I simply can’t read the author’s description of the Painted Bunting’s various calls without hearing the droll delivery of John Cleese in my mind: tida day-da tida day teetayta tita witee wi witato wee sittee, wippity, pickity, snickity See what I mean? I’ve got a good imagination, but come on!I’m not going to argue with classics such as chick-a-dee-dee-dee, bob white, and caw, but wippity, pickity, snickity? Maybe there is fine print somewhere explaining that this is how a Painted Bunting sounds . . . after…

Eggs from Easter Hens

Happy Easter to you! I hope you are having a fun weekend wherever you may be. I’m sure that I am having fun, although I have no idea exactly what I’ll be doing when you read this. I am not here, you see. Well, I am here now, but I won’t be here when this is published. I set the blog to automatically publish on Easter. So by the time you read this, I will be visiting my family – or at least a big chunk of my family. (We couldn’t all make it, alas.) The above eggs are some…

Still Life with Toy Soldiers

There are battles being fought in my sister’s kitchen. There’s constant combat,  and heavy weaponry. Military strategy abounds. I never know what to expect when I visit – except some interesting new tableau on her counter. My sister loves to decorate for holidays. To the insurgents, of course, this merely creates advantageous cover.  Meanwhile, I have become a domestic wartime journalist documenting guerilla attacks in the midst of all this cheery decor. War is never simple, but there is a mastermind behind all this – my youngest nephew. The photo above is a counter tableau created by me explaining how…

The Church by The Diner next to The Porch

Not surprisingly, I see a lot of churches here in Texas, but I found this one quite intriguing. Did you notice the barely legible ‘no trespassing’ sign on it? Inside there were folding chairs in rows, a lot of cardboard boxes, and a chainsaw sitting on a crate. It smelled like a garage. Across from the church was a little place called The Diner where we grabbed some fried chicken. We got it to go because the tiny place was packed. There were 7 men in total, and 5 of them were wearing cowboy hats as they ate. Guess it’s…