Rocky outcrop in a green landscape with a stone wall running up the hill
Pick a Word,  Themed galleries

Gallery: pick a word (April 2023)

May 1, 2023 / 19 Comments

A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

Emily Dickinson

Surely our photographs help to bring words to life, and help them to live on? As always, Paula’s monthly Pick a Word challenge prompts us to match a photo to a single word and bring it to life.

My selection this month will take you from the north of England to Iceland, Colombia, Uzbekistan and India. And as usual I haven’t stuck only to Paula’s five words, as I like to tell you a little bit about each photo. However I do try to be more succinct for this challenge than for most of my posts!

AZURE

Blue mosaic tiles on a ridged roof

A detail of the roof of the Gur-Emir Mausoleum in Samarkand, Uzbekistan

This is the burial place of Amir Timur, also known as Tamerlane. He had built it to house the tomb of his beloved grandson, Muhammad Sultan, but died before it was finished. Another grandson, Ulug Beg, had the mausoleum completed and buried his grandfather there alongside Muhammad Sultan. Later Ulug Beg himself was buried there as well as several other family members.

BOVINE

Bison with curved horns looking at camera

Wild bison in Periyar National Park in Kerala, India

This is one of a small group of wild bison which we encountered on an early morning walk in the park. I kept my distance and used a long zoom to capture some shots!

CRAG

Rocky outcrop in a green landscape with a stone wall running up the hill

Hadrian’s Wall at Peel Crags, Northumberland

Here in Northumberland, England’s border county with Scotland, the remains of Hadrian’s Wall can be seen running up the ridge of Peel Crags. This is part of the Whin Sill which formed 295 million years ago. Movement in the Earth’s crust caused molten rock to rise up from deep within. It didn’t reach the surface but was injected between layers of other rock. This magma cooled and solidified underground to form a vast sheet of rock up to 80 metres thick, which lies beneath much of north-east England. After millions of years of erosion the Whin Sill is now partly exposed at the surface, as here at Peel Crags.

Note the people in the bottom right corner for scale.

PENINSULAR

House with red roof surrounded by grass with mountains behind

Farm near Ytri Tunga on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Iceland

The Snæfellsnes Peninsula is situated on the west coast of Iceland, north of Reykjavik. It has stunning scenery that encompasses mountains, volcanoes, waterfalls and dramatic coastal formations. This scene is a more peaceful one however, of a farm near the beach of Ytri Tunga.

PREHISTORIC

Coiled dark blue fossil in cobbled paving

An ammonite embedded in the cobbled courtyard of our hotel in Villa de Leyva, Colombia

The valley in which this town is situated is rich in fossils from the Cretaceous era. Everywhere you go in town you can see them in the foundations of old houses and in courtyards such as this one, although using them in building is today forbidden for conservation reasons.

19 Comments

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