Columns and Rows - Thematic Photography

I was surprised by just how many of my photos could be interpreted as meeting the 'Columns and Rows' theme Carmi has set us this week.

For quiet contemplation where better to start than in the ruins of an abbey.

Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire - 2008

"Eureka! I've got it."

Archimedes Screws on the Tees Barrage - 2012

The four screws lift columns of water up the white water rafting course adjacent to the River Tees at Stockton.

There are other ways to get a lift.

"Up, Up and Away in my Beautiful Balloon" - Michigan 2012

In Cornwall's city it's peaceful to admire the- 

High Altar and Reredos, in Truro Cathedral -2011

Where you sit in rows and contemplate the columns of - 

The Nave, Truro Cathedral - 2011

If I have recycled some pictures from recent years this week a calendar for the future arrived.

Recycling Calendar

A magnet holds it to the side of the filing cabinet in my office.

Behind me a bookcase is made up of rows of books, the columns are the books themselves.

"Your face, my thane, is a book where men may read strange matters."  - Macbeth

For more strange matters link up with Carmi and others at Thematic-Photographic-318.

Classic Thematic Photography

Carmi's classic theme gave me problems for a while until I remembered that I am taking part in the Dickens Journals Online Project. I received a copy of  his 'Pickwick Papers' as a prize when I was at school. This sent me to my bookcase to look for it.

Classic Top Shelf

You may not be able to read the titles of the books on the top shelf at the left. There are no banned titles and none obscured so let's take a closer look.

Classic Book Selection

From left to right we have tucked in the corner a once banned book, 'Lady Chaterley's Lover' (D H Lawrence); 'The Return of the Native' (Thomas Hardy); Villette (Charlotte Bronte); Mansfield Park and Emma (Jane Austen); The Canterbury Tales (Chaucer); The Pilgrim's Progress (John Bunyan) and, the thin green book, The Thirty-nine Steps (John Buchan)

Daphne Du Maurier's 'Rebecca' is next before my prize copy of 'Pickwick Papers' and Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein.'

More Classic Books

I think you can make out the titles of the five at the right but from the left after Frankenstein is Mrs Gaskell's 'Cranford', 'The Moonstone' (Wilkie Collins), Barchester Towers ( Anthony Trollope), 'Wuthering Heights' (Emily Bronte), 'Jane Eyre' (Charlotte Bronte) and before 'The Works of Robert Burns' is 'The Diary of Ann' Frank').

I hope you like the classic collection which we have assembled over the years. But before I sign off my attention was drawn to ornaments on the walls and on top of my 'classic' bookcase.

'Real' copy of figure from the Classical Period 530 BC

This plate and the one that follows came from a holiday we took in Crete about 30 years ago.

Plate from Crete

Any voulnteers to translate the inscription?

Any my final classic piece is this:

Vase - Museum Corinth 560 BC Exact Copy

This vase (or jug) is about 6 inches tall.

For other classic collections you need to visit Carmi's Thematic Photographic 171