Just one window this week. Not far from my home in Cyprus, on a journey I take frequently, I pass an old house in the centre of the village. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Monday Window
Monday Window: 29/8/16
Monday Window: 22/8/16
Windows in Mirbat, Southern Oman.
These windows in the walls of the house are unique, so many tales to tell, but we will never know… Continue reading
Monday Window: 15/8/16
August the fifteenth is a Bank holiday in Cyprus. The Eastern Orthodox church celebrates the Feast of the Assumption. This day, dedicated to the Virgin Mary or Panayia as she is known here, is not a day of mourning for her loss, but a celebration of joy for the union of the mother with her beloved son, the blossoming of nature, the flood of emotions, and the return of people to their native land. Continue reading
Monday Window: 8/8/16
Windows on my worlds….. Continue reading
Monday Window: 1/8/16
From the city of Salalah in Southern Oman to the Yemen border, the road twists and turns through a series of hairpin bends, eventually climbing to the top of the escarpment, with towering cliffs plummeting down to the Indian ocean.
During monsoon a pervading mist hangs over the escarpment but every so often, when the road gets to about 1000 metres high, you pop out of the mist into bright, brilliant sunshine with incredible views and on this particular release into sunlight, even a small pink shelter perched on top of the mountain, with rather striking brickwork for the windows.
Such buildings and design are typical in Oman, used as shelters from the sun (sometimes rain, as this area receives a fair amount) with the air bricks allowing for cool air in the heat of the day, although it’s the first pink one I’ve ever seen….
Heading up through the mist….
To find brilliant sunshine above the clouds and a small pink house….
The pink house providing a nice window shot….
Sideways on, air brick windows, all different….
Stunning view through the bricks….
The ubiquitous stunted trees,so typical of this region, precariously growing out of the mountain-side….
and the very long drop down outside the window…..
The finishing touch provided by some little pink flowers, growing through the rock outside the pink house…..
Taking part in Monday Window, a weekly event, pop over and join in the challenge….
Monday Window Home
Monday Window: 23/7/16
A mix of windows and national dress this week…..
Omani male dress is referred to as Omani and women’s is called Omaniya. Continue reading
Monday Window: 18/7/16
Adjacent to Muscat harbour, Oman, lies the Muttrah Souk, perhaps one of the oldest marketplaces in the Arab world. Continue reading
Monday Window: 11/7/16
Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh and Wise Men feature in our earlier bible study memories……. this week I found Frankincense, sadly no Gold or any really Wise Men, but I suspect some Myrrh is around the region. Continue reading
Monday Window: 4/7/16
Traditional Cyprus stone village houses are so appealing to the eye, especially when there are blue skies and fluffy clouds to offset the background. Continue reading
Monday Window: Window to a shrine….
Off the beaten track in Cyprus, away from the tourist areas, out in the beautiful countryside, you often find small shrines on the road-side. Small religious icons inside, behind little glass windows with candles and melted wax from the years of lighting… Hints of religion playing an essential part in village life. Shot in the foothills of the Troodos mountains near Omodos a couple of days ago…. Continue reading
Monday Window: Windows at Wells….
A recent visit to Wells Cathedral in Somerset, Great Britain gave me the chance to see the magnificent stained glass windows around the cathedral. Continue reading
Monday Window: 13/6/16
For over five thousand years henna has been a symbol of good luck, health, and sensuality in the Arab world. The plant has been associated with positive magic and provides us with a link to an ancient age full of good and bad spirits, baraka and jnoun. Continue reading
Monday Window: Clifton, Bristol, UK….
Clifton is an inner suburb of the English port city of Bristol.Clifton is one of the oldest and most affluent areas of the city, much of it having been built with profits from tobacco and the slave trade. Continue reading
Monday Window: From a window, reflections….
Early morning in May in Dubai, from my window, the rising sun reflects off one building’s windows on the trunk of the artificial islands of Palm Jumeirah. Continue reading
Monday Window: Jumeirah Mosque
Jumeirah mosque was opened in 1979 when Dubai was a much smaller place than it is now. Built in white stone, the architecture is of the medieval Fatimid tradition (909-1171 AD). Continue reading
Monday Window: Philippines windows or not….
Palawan island in the Philippines, referred to as the last frontier, for a variety of reasons. A new island for me, with some very different windows….
Palawan officially the Province of Palawan, is an island province of the Philippines that is located in the Mimaropa region. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. Its capital is Puerto Princesa City, but it is governed independently from the province.
The islands of Palawan stretch between Mindoro in the northeast and Borneo in the southwest. It lies between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. The province is named after its largest island, Palawan Island , measuring 450 kilometres long, and 50 kilometres wide.
Bamboo is the construction basis for all housebuilding outside main towns. Palm fronds are also put into use too. Shops selling every conceivable part of bamboo, from stems to woven panels line the road outside Puerto Princesa. Tricycles and jeepneys laden with bamboo and palm fronds were not an uncommon sight.
The climate is hot and humid. In small remote settlements, electricity is not part of everyday life, fans and air-conditioning seem a luxury confined to towns, so window openings are a necessity rather than a design function.
I checked the Oxford dictionary for window definition whilst writing this post as I’m not sure some of these “windows” can be defined as windows.
An opening in the wall or roof of a building or vehicle, fitted with glass in a frame to admit light or air and allow people to see out.
You can decide for yourself….
Palm fronds on the ubitiquous jeepney…. interesting window too…not much line of sight….
Ingenious transportation of bamboo…. this is a motorbike with a tricycle conversion, used as a taxi and family transport…a motorbike with windows…
Fancy bamboo fretwork for privacy and decoration….
It is rare to see glass used in windows outside a town…
Bamboo decoration used for air and light….
A remote church in a jungle settlement, the windows were the only windows with glass for many a mile………
A jeepney stop, fretwork decoration and election posters decorating these “windows”….
Just a piece of bamboo to close the window at night….
No windows at all , just a makeshift baby gate to stop this little one wandering…..
Window frames and curtains only….
A roadside church on the Southern highway, colourful and with windows….
The Bamboo Bar at Honda Bay, stylish bamboo windows…
Beautiful eyes through a window…..
Come and join into Monday Window blogging… find some windows every week….
Monday Window: Blue Souk, Sharjah…
I found a plethora of windows at the Blue Souk, Sharjah, UAE on Saturday, so for once my post has more than one window! I think you will like them, the Islamic style of the Souk is eye-catching with the beautiful blue sky above, setting off the tiles and architecture perfectly. Continue reading
Monday Window: Angkor Wat
What sights were seen through this window?
Participating in Ludwig’s Monday Windows challenge… come and join in the fun, find a new window each week..it’s certainly a challenge!
Monday Windows: All gold in this window….
Traditional 22carat gold jewellery in the Gold souk, Dubai. Bedazzling!
Participating in Ludwig’s Monday Windows challenge… come and join in the fun, find a new window each week..it’s certainly a challenge!
Monday Window: Traditionally styled windows in Shindaga, Dubai…
Alongside Dubai creek, Al Shindaga is an area that has been renovated and traditionally styled. Continue reading
Monday Windows: Bank window, Dubai creek….
A stylised window and entrance into a bank on Dubai Creek…
Participating in Monday Windows challenge…
Monday Windows: Whitby Abbey
The empty and atmospheric windows of Whitby Abbey.
The original monastery was founded in the Anglo-Saxon reign of King Oswy in 657 AD. Work on the ruins still standing, probably began around 1200 AD as a Benedictine monastery, disestablished during the reign of Henry V111, as part of the dissolution of monasteries in 1539 AD. In later years, the haunting ruin was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula.
I visited on a moody Yorkshire day, the Abbey perched high on the cliff above Whitby harbour, a graveyard below; the scene was set for swirling mists, howling dogs, black cloaked men and nefarious deeds…
Here are the links to Wikipedia and English Heritage who now run and care for the historic site.
History of the Abbey can also be found at http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/churches/abbey.shtml
Note to potential visitors: Avoid visiting on English Bank holidays, Whitby is popular on the Yorkshire tourist trail and most of the visitors had arrived before me and taken all the parking!
Monday Window:#6 When is a window not a window?
When it’s taxed… Avoiding 
Monday Window:#5 Dubai high rise windows
Dubai’s new centres are the high-rise city. Home life and office working hours are invariably carried out many floors up. Windows are important in this aerial city, the only link between you and the outside world. Modern buildings here, windows form an important part of the building design. Not so many traditional windows in this city, mostly bland and featureless but somehow complementing the modern architecture. I often photograph the buildings marvelling at the construction and extravagance…
Monday window: #4 Panayia Chryseleoussis, Emba, Cyprus
The old church in Emba village…
Small barred windows at the ancient Byzantine church of Panayia Chryseleoussis, small circular windows in the dome too.
Monday Window #3 : in Bristol, UK.
It’s a Banksy window.
In June 2006, Banksy created an image of a naked man hanging out of a bedroom window on a wall visible from Park Street in central Bristol. The image sparked “a heated debate”, with the Bristol City Council leaving it up to the public to decide whether it should stay or go.After an internet discussion in which 97% of the 500 people surveyed supported the stencil, the city council decided it would be left on the building.The mural was later defaced with blue paint. (Wikipedia)
( Photo Vicky, April 2015 on a Bristol city visit)
Monday Window #2
Windows in an old Omani house in Mirbat, Southern Oman, still occupied.
Travels in the Middle East and beyond 