Almería

We also visited Almería and the beaches of Cabo de Gata. I collected some images of the desert/coastal flowers that grow there. They're already going to seed after the amazingly green, but short spring.

La Alhambra

I've neglected my blog over the last three weeks as mum and dad have been here with us in Spain. Together we've been exploring Madrid, but also traveling a little bit in the south of Spain and Morocco.
On this trip we visited La Alhambra in Granada. I'd never been inside before and though I'd seen many photos of the interior spaces I wasn't prepared for the overwhelming beauty of the Palacios Nazaríes. The spaces are so calm and meditational, your eyes are drawn both inward and upward solely by the design ... amazing! By the end of the visit I was completely converted to Islam, architecturally speaking anyway.

I was also looking forward to seeing the painted tiles,which inspired the designs of M. C. Escher, the repeat patterns in which there are no empty spaces.

Scotland

Kate Anderson. Lizzie Farey. Adam Booth
Silvana McLean. Janet O'Donnell.

Last weekend we went to a wedding near Dumfries in Scotland. In the house we were staying in I found a program for the 'Spring Fling', which is an annual art and craft open studios event.
It made me so happy to see such great support from the local council for their artists.

Unfortunately I missed out as it doesn't start until the end of May, so I've had to make do checking out the artists web pages (click on their names and you can see too).

Above are some of my favorites.