Lakeside Terrace lawn

Here's Kim gazing at her beloved daughter, Ella. Peter cuts the grass long, so it's very inviting and comfortable.

The Divine Ella

I got down on my belly to catch pictures of the kids against the light.

Cooper in his anti-uv gear playing with his brand new tractor and trailer.

Here he is with his mom, Lisa.

Cooper

Ella

Lakeside Terrace beach

At the bottom of the lawn a tiny gate under the Tamerack tree leads to the beach of Lake Huron.

Bill's portrait of Ella

and of the proud mums enjoying the waves with their kids.

Clockwise, from upper left, Linda, me, Lisa and Caitlin

Cooper, who is just this side of walking, uses his dad's beer as a prop to stay on his feet.

to the amusement of my nephew, James, sitting nearby.

Back at Lisa and Dave's

Ella with the bubble wand.

It was fun watching Ella chase the bubbles.

The backyard life.

Bill and Peter in the shade.

Kincardine is famous for its Canada Day marching pipe band. After dinner, we joined the rest of the town on the main street for the parade.

Caitlin and Lisa

Kincardine Lighthouse mascot.

Toby and my brother,Tom, seated comfortably, attracted lots of interest from the curious crowd.

Another day in paradise

The next morning, we drove over to see Lisa and Dave's new house. They served up Eggs Benedict for eleven. Such good hosts! Here's Caitlin in profile.

Kim came to me as I was munching my eggs. "Can you come and take a picture? Ella's in the toy box!" 

Then we headed back to Lakeside Terrace for more time on the beach. It was an enchanted afternoon. Here, for example, is Cooper looking wonderfully wizard-like, with his colourful pails and his portable lair, confronting Phinnegan, who, in vain, just wants him to throw the ball.

Kim and Ella -- begin as you mean to go on.

Peter and Linda claim ownership of the babies.

 Nice hats.

Rome bookstores

Bill and I were staying right around the corner from Herder, a wonderfully scholarly German/English/Italian bookstore.

We loved this shop, with it's second floor mezzanine.

We found a book illustrating and describing all the Caravagios in Rome. Yes, those are Loeb Classical Library books in the green spines on the back wall (books in Latin and Greek). I've always loved those.

Bill captured these stairs in Libreria Amore e Psiche, near the Pantheon. Ten years ago I bought a copy of Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems, in facing English and Italian versions, so it was like visiting an old friend.

We discovered a wonderful antiquarian bookstore,  Il Museo del Louvre, in our first walk to the Jewish Ghetto. I took this picture, then thanked the owner. He responded, in English, that the time to thank him should be after he had given his permission to take the picture. I agreed with him and showed him this picture and asked him if he would like me to delete it. He gave me permission to keep it. After that I started asking for permission before taking pictures. I think that this brought me closer to my subjects, so I thank him.

Vapour trails

Vapour trails over the Malting Plant at the foot of Bathurst Street this week, at Queen's Quay in Toronto. This is the view from our balcony.

Trajan's Market

John and I fully enjoyed our visit to Trajan's Market built by Emperor Trajan from 100-110 AD. He had his favourite architect, Apollodorus of Damascus, design the huge shopping complex which was one of the wonders of the Ancient World. Here I've captured a self-portrait while shooting through the glass protecting the main hall of the market.

When we visited the market at Via Quattro Novembre, 94, there was a wonderful exhibition of 60 large prints of the William Klein's fabulous ROMA series , taken between 1956-1962. It's on til July 25th, 2010 and not to be missed. 

The main hall of the market originally had the offices for distribution of free wheat to Romans, one of the ways Roman emperors calmed the poorer citizenry. 

The rooms off the hall now contain pieces of masonry that decorated the original building.

John always enjoys photographing the way modern hardware fits into old structures.

Outside and bisecting the Market is Via Biberatica, which was once lined with drinking inns. The well-preserved ruins are very evocative, making me want to continue reading the detective tales of Lindsay Davis, set in Augustan Rome and featuring a Roman gumshoe, Falco, and his upper-class girlfriend, Helena Justina.

Glimpses of cleaning staff just reinforce that evocative quality to the site. Probably the fact that the Market is visited by far fewer fellow tourists than the Imperial Forums across the street allows the imagination to blossom here.

Here's the huge curved front of the lower part of the market, once facing Trajan's Forum and now facing the tourist magnet, Via dei Fori Imperiali.

Giolitti

Every evening around 7 p.m., Bill and I would go for a stroll, joining the Romans in their passegiatta. When we wandered over to the via Condotti and the Spanish Steps our path would take us past Giolitti, who have been serving some of Rome's most highly regarded gelato since 1900.

 It's on a narrow, cobblestone, completely pedestrian street.

On weekends, it's packed with satisfied customers wandering off with their cones, or sitting or standing out the front, watching the world go by.

That's my cone on the left, chocolate fondant gelato, with a dash of whipped cream. Bill's already half-eaten cone has the same kind of chocolate paired with a scoop of orange gelato. Chocolate Fondant is the darkest of the dark chocolates, unbelievably delicious.

These shoppers are walking toward Giolitti. We pass them on our way to the Spanish Steps, against the light, casting our own long shadows.

De Chirico House-Museum

Since 1998, the Giorgio and Isa De Chirico Foundation has opened De Chirico's apartment and studio at Piazza di Spagna, 31 to the public. The apartment and studio have been preserved exactly as they were when De Chirico died in 1978. The house-museum is open to the public the first Sunday of every month or by appointment. John and I managed to visit the fascinating apartment on the day before we left Rome and highly recommend it to fellow art-lovers.

We visited when the museum opened at 11am and had a tour in Italian with about 7 other visitors. The 2-floor apartment has an eerily untouched feel and is filled with a wonderful personal collection of Giorgio De Chirico's paintings and sculptures. The first floor incorporates the kitchen, dining room and sitting rooms and most of the artwork.

The upper floor has the bedrooms and De Chirico's wonderfully evocative studio. A visit to the museum-house can be a perfect personal insight into the artist for people who take in the large retrospective of his work, La Natura Secondo de Chirico presently on show at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni at Via Nazionale, 194. If you're a fan of De Chirico's work, do take them both in if possible.