ASSEENBYSUSAN BLOG: 2017 REBOOT

I began this blog AsSeenBySusan nearly two years ago in March of 2015. At that time, I was looking for a way to share my travel photos and experiences with an online audience of friends, family, and anyone else who wanted an armchair view of the places I visited. With this blog, my intention was to go more in depth with my descriptions and photos than I was able to do on my Facebook page which I pretty much limit to travel posts in real time while I am traveling.

At the same time in 2015, I started a second blog, Walla Walla Daily Photo-AsSeenBySusan, as part of a worldwide photo blogging community known as City Daily Photo. Here I post photos and commentary exclusively of my beloved home town and the surrounding Walla Walla Valley. Readers may access that blog by subscribing to it, by going directly to the City Daily Photo website and/or Facebook page, or by opening the links that I post on my personal Facebook page.

Although not "daily" I continue to actively post to my Walla Walla Daily Photo blog as often as my time and my spirit move me. I enjoy the regular challenge of photographing both the unique and the common aspects of our valley and sharing my photographs and commentary with an audience. However, I have not been a very regular steward of my AsSeenBySusan blog for a host of reasons that I'll refrain from listing here, other than to announce that as of today, I am setting out to change my ways. It's not really a New Year's resolution despite being suspiciously close to the turn of a new year. In fact, it's something I have been thinking about for a long time. It's just that now I am finally ready.

After changing computers from a PC to a Mac nearly a year ago, I thought organizing my growing photo collection would be a snap. It wasn't. In truth, it has taken me months and plenty of frustrated tears to export my 61,000+ photos that are in the iCloud, and hence on all of my iDevices, to permanent storage on a dedicated hard drive. In doing so I was reminded of all the wonderful places I have had the good fortune to see and experience and that I would like to share with an audience. 

So in the spirit of adventure, I re-dedicate this blog to the armchair dreamer and traveler as you experience the world As Seen By Susan. 

AN ADDENDUM

When Will They Stop?

Stupid is as stupid does. Great parental role models, NOT!

Both photos are courtesy of No Love Locks which you may "like" on Facebook or visit on their website: http://www.nolovelocks.com/

STREET ART, GRAFFITI OR VANDALISM?

Which view do you prefer?

This . . .

The Pont des Arts as it looks today sans locks as seen by Wazim Photos.

 or this?

Love Locks. People either love them or hate them. But everyone seems to have an opinion. I admit, before my first trip to Paris in 2013, seeing pictures of the Pont des Arts bridge adorned with thousands of padlocks was on my list of "to sees" along with the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the quaint outdoor cafes as seen in every movie or tourist promotion. Yes, all the typical tourist stuff.

While I remember crossing the Pont des Arts, I think it was on a bus, so I wasn't able to take a picture of the locks that lined both sides. But I did walk over the passerelle Leopold-Sedar-Senghor (formerly the passerelle Solferino) and took this picture of a growing collection of locks. The pattern and repetition of the parallel rows of colorful locks pleased my photographic eye, not giving a thought to any potential harm or danger. And I easily passed the vendors hawking their cheap locks to those passers-by who came unprepared with a sturdier lock of their own and resisted any temptation to affix a lock myself, as my fascination was more visual than romantic. 

Passerelle Leopold-Sedar-Senghor is a footbridge that links the Musee d'Orsay and the Jardin des Tuileries on opposite sides of the River Seine.

According to several internet sources, this ritual did not originate in Paris, contrary to Paris being nicknamed the "City of Love." Rather, it started in Rome after the 2006 publication of the book I Want You by Italian author Federico Moccia. Inspired by the book, couples inscribed their names on padlocks then attached them to the Ponte Milvio while tossing the key into the Tiber River below. By 2008 the practice moved to Paris.

However, in the spring of 2015, the City of Paris began removing the thousands of pounds of locks that were beginning to damage the physical structure of the bridges. That, and the potential catastrophe if a lock-laden panel fell on a passing  boat or pedestrian meant the final death knell for the locks.

But removing them was no easy task.

As an interim measure, the city commissioned street art "love" panels to replace the padlock panels. Whether that was a visual improvement is debatable, and made many people ponder the difference between street art, graffiti and vandalism.

For me, I've had a reversal of my original fascination with love locks. What clearly started as an innocent, almost cute idea for couples to "lock" their love to a bridge, be it in Paris or Rome or the umpteen other similarly adorned bridges and monuments around the world, has gone too far. I agree that the locks detract from the artistic aesthetic of the bridges which is part of the architectural heritage of a city. And the accumulated weight poses an immediate danger to people. 

Plus one look at the gorgeous photo by Wazim of the unobstructed view of the River Seine along the Pont des Arts speaks for itself. Au revoir, love locks. Bon debarras!

HELLO-O-O-O, I'M BACK!

Yes, it's been a very long time since I wrote and posted on this blog. What was meant to be a short hiatus while I traveled in May, became weeks and then months as I traveled again in October and then faced the task of sorting through thousands of accumulated photos (i.e. 20K+) of scenes from Turkey, France, Italy, Morocco, Germany and Iceland. How do I even start? 

When I chose the title for this blog about a year ago, my intention was to leave it broad enough to allow me to grow or expand or even bird walk from time to time about topics that interested me, with traveling and photography being at the top of my list. And so I began by posting photos along with my commentary about places I traveled and things that I saw. And unlike my Facebook travel posts in which I would post my reactions in real time, my objective for this blog was to be after-the-fact and more in depth. Sounded easy, or so I thought.

Then along about March I was enticed to join an online photo community--City Daily Photo--to begin a second blog about my own hometown, thus WallaWallaDailyPhoto.blogspot.com was born. And that has been a commitment. Posting a daily photo challenged me to see my town in new ways. I started off strong, but admittedly, 'daily' eventually became weekly with spurts of daily photos when I found a particularly interesting topic. And it did dilute my creative energy with this blog taking the biggest hit.

But like the paperwhite narcissus that stores its energy inside itself only to grow and blossom when given light, with the increasing light of this new year, I am ready to blossom again. 

*     *     *     *     *

PALOUSE FALLS STATE PARK, WASHINGTON STATE

Palouse Falls is always a beautiful sight, no matter the season. But with a dusting of snow and freezing temperatures, the falls and the surrounding stark landscape is even more stunning and very worthy of an afternoon drive to see it.

The falls, a part of Washington's Palouse Falls State Park, lies on the Palouse River which is a tributary of the Snake River in southeast Washington which in turn is a tributary of the Columbia River.Thus, the Palouse River and its falls are a part of the Columbia River Basin.

On February 12, 2014, the Washington State House of Representatives passed HB 2119 unanimously to make Palouse Falls the official state waterfall in Washington State. The proposal for the bill originated when a group of elementary schools students in the nearby town of Washtucna lobbied the state legislature.

The canyon at the falls is 377 feet deep, exposing a large cross-section of the Columbia River Basalt Group. 

 The Palouse Falls and surrounding canyons were carved out during the catastrophic Missoula Floods of the previous ice age known as the Pleistocene Epoch. But early in the 20th century, this was not a given. In fact, J. Harlen Bretz sparked one of the biggest debates in geologic history when he proposed his Ice Age floods theory in 1923.

Bretz spent decades meticulously documenting evidence to support his theory that massive Ice Age floods carved the Channeled Scabland of Eastern Washington. But the geologic community only ridiculed and scorned his work, that is, until they saw the evidence themselves.

As a curious aside, on April 21, 2009, Tyler Brandt ran the falls in a kayak setting an unofficial world record for the highest waterfall run.

MONET'S GARDEN, ENCORE

My what a difference the season makes

The photo above was taken by me in the first week of April, the opening weekend for the 2013 season of Monet's garden.

The photo below is of the lily pond and garden in the summer, courtesy of Paris du Jour. 

A return trip is most definitely in order, n'est-ce pas?

MONET'S WATER GARDEN

I was already smitten after seeing Monet's house and flower garden, but there was more in store on the other side of the road that bisects the property--the Jardin d'Eau or Water Garden. Signs pointed the way via an underground passage.

Claude Monet wanted to extend his gardens at Giverny beyond the walls of his flower garden, Clos Normand. In the 1890s he purchased the adjacent property across the road along a stream to create his now well-known and often painted pond and water garden.





Monet's bamboo garden is surrounded on one side by the meandering Ru, a small brook which is a diversion of the river Epte, which itself is a tributary of the Seine River.

The Ru winds its way around the bamboo eventually emptying into a pond where Monet planted his famous water lilies. 

The water lilies are dormant now in early April, but you can see the submerged rings from where they will grow. Can't you just imagine Claude Monet rowing about his pond surrounded by the magnificent water lilies he made so famous in his paintings? 

Walking around the pond the signs of early spring are evident. Yellow narcissus and violets are in bloom, while the tulips and other later flowering bulbs and flowers await their turn to show off their colors.

Despite the lack of flowers and colorful blooms, however, the reflection of the sky in the pond is a grand show in itself.

So grand, in fact, that two young artists show off their own impressions of Monet's water garden.

For another view of Monet's Garden, watch this short video of the delightful book Linnea in Monet's Garden:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj56NGwjdlc

AU PRINTEMPS à GIVERNY

If Springtime in Paris is lovely, spring is even lovelier in the countryside for this Walla Walla girl. And after a week of navigating crowded Metros, museums, and churches, a day trip to the small village of Giverny is a perfect antidote to city-fatigue. But why Giverny? It's the home of one of my favorite Impressionist artists Claude Monet. 

Getting there is easy. From Gare St. Lazare, take the train to Vernon. From there take a bus, rent a bike, or walk the last few miles to the village of Giverny.

Monet lived in this house with its famous pink crushed brick facade from 1883 until his death
 in 1926. Can't you just imagine the leafy Virginia creeper and fragrant roses all in bloom? 

ABOUT THE HOUSE

According to stories, Claude Monet noticed the village of Giverny while looking out of a train window. He made up his mind to move there and rented a house in the area surrounding it. In 1890 he had enough money to buy the house and land outright and set out to create a house big enough to accommodate his large family as well as the magnificent gardens he wanted to paint.

The pink color of the exterior walls and the green of the shutters was chosen by Monet. In those times, shutters were traditionally painted grey. Monet added a gallery in front of the house, a pergola covered with climbing roses, and grew the vine Virginia creeper on the facade as he wanted the house to blend in with the garden. The green color is also used on all of the benches, trellises, and fences throughout the estate.

At one end of the house, Monet added a room for his studio including this multi-paned north facing window which is noticeably of a different size and shape than the windows of the central, original part of the house.

At the opposite end, Monet designed a large kitchen with sleeping rooms for his four step-daughters above. Including these two additions, the house now measures 132 feet long by only 16 feet deep.

Some of Monet's most famous paintings were of his garden in Giverny famous for its rectangular Clos Normand (walled garden) with archways. This central path is known as the alley and is completely covered in late summer with colorful nasturtiums  under a canopy of climbing roses that grow across the iron arches. Note the green chain in the foreground preventing people from walking down the alley.

Because it was only the first week of April when I visited the garden, there were few blooms to be seen. Nevertheless, I was enamored by the bare bones architecture of the gardens themselves. And I appreciated being able to stroll about the grounds listening to the crunch-crunch of the gravel paths underfoot and the birds singing in the trees, all the while taking photos unhindered by crowds of people.

  

Early springtime allows for peek-a-boo
shots like this of the house as seen
from within the garden

RESTORATION & RECONSTRUCTION

When Monet and his family settled in Giverny in 1883, the piece of land sloping gently down from the house to the road was planted with an orchard and enclosed by high stone walls. Here Monet divided the nearly one hectare into flowerbeds where he married flower clumps of different heights to create volume. Fruit trees and ornamental trees rise above the assorted climbing roses, long-stemmed hollyhocks, and the waves of colorful annuals.

After Monet's death in 1926, his son Michel inherited the house and garden. He did not live there, and it was Monet's step-daughter Blanche who took care of the property. Unfortunately after WWII, the house and garden were neglected, and it was not until 1977 that a team of curators were appointed to not only restore but reconstruct the garden just as it was during Monet's life.

It took almost 10 years to restore the garden and the house since not much was left after the war. The greenhouse panes and windows in the house were reduced to shards as a result of the bombings. Floors and ceiling beams had rotted away, and a staircase had collapsed. Three trees were even growing in Monet's big studio.

In the Clos Normand (walled garden), soil was removed to find the original ground level. Then the same flower species as those of Monet were planted.

Thanks to generous donors the house underwent complete restoration. The antique furniture and Monet's collection of Japanese prints were restored, and public areas were created to accommodate visitors. Since September 1980, the property has been open to the public every year beginning April 1 through October 31. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giverny