A ceramic workshop near Fez. Photo: ©mtc

For all who has not made the transition to my new blog yet, here is a teaser from Morocco, taken by my uncle with his Nokia phone of all things.

This blog will soon not self-destruct, rather come full circle and lay silent, but hopefully not dusty.

Come see the dunes and more over here:
https://manjameximovie.wordpress.com/2016/05/24/morocco-part-1/.

Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Tail-tongued

It’s been a while since I joined any of Cee’s challenges and it’s time to amend this. I guess I can’t resist a tail and a tongue.

A tail

Talamone

A tongue

Talamone

All together

Piran, Slovenia

Photo: a © signature mmm production

Another pair of tail and tongue on my new blog.

For:

SL-WEEK 44: The Reflex

Five instances of seeing something where there is nothing.

In order of appearance: Roma, Pitigliano, Capalbio beach, Porto Ercole, and back to Roma.

Roma

Pitigliano

Capalbio beach

Porto Ercole

Roma

Photo: a © signature mmm production

For Sylvain Landry’s SL-WEEK 44: Reflection

Ves najboljoš

I’m afraid this post will be rather untranslatable, but I’ll do my best.

First Pooh:

This is a page from the original copy of Winnie-the-Pooh as “improved” by me as a child before I convinced myself that I sucked artistically (here you can find another example of my Pooh art). The language is Slovenian since I tend to swing that way. For everybody else here is a part of it in English:

 So Owl wrote…and this is what he wrote:

HIPY PAPY BTHETHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY

Pooh looked on admiringly.

“I’m just saying ‘A Happy Birthday’,” said Owl carelessly.

“It’s a nice long one,” said Pooh, very much impressed by it.

I was very impressed too when two days ago on my bthuthdy (when I gave myself gelato) special presents came rolling in. Well, the messenger brought them, but they got opened live via Skype.

The messenger’s present were the original Pooh copy and a brand new one, and browsing through the old one I remembered EXACTLY how it felt to hold the book so many years ago and colour it in. Rather impatiently, I recall.

Here is a collection of other gifts, so dear to my heart.

Sister found an online offer of a book necklace with a key. The books are real!

This bag was amore’s gift, not bestia’s, but the feeling is mutual. (The other side of the bag in the featured photo above.)

Father’s own handiwork, a (n)jam made of home-grown žižole (Ziziphus jujuba, commonly called jujube, red date, Chinese date, Korean date, or Indian date).

The envelope bearing this photo of me on my 5th birthday (if not mistaken), together with both my grandmothers and my beautiful and VERY young mother (taken by father)…

…contained this poem written by mom. Even though the last line says: “Manči, translate!” I shall not do it, only reveal that it mentions Thursday Doors, and includes Pearl Jam and Kurt Cobain in the same line, hilariously written in the Serbian write-as-you-speak style as “Prl Đem” and “Krt Kbejn”.

Thank you all for all the lovely things, memories and wishes, and for bringing us together even when we are apart. ❤

Photo: a © signature mmm production

WPC: Fakeless faces

Some posted already, some new, some human, some animal, some artistic.

Il giardino dei tarocchi, by Niki de Saint Phalle

La luna, by Niki

Photo: a © signature mmm production

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: Face

Happy birthday, tiček Lako!

Today celebrates my uncle Rajko. May the First be with you, like every year! And let’s exchange the views soon again, your Maribor (above) for our Tuscany (below). Cin cin and buon appetito!

View from the Etruscan museum in Ansedonia.

In Sovana.

With bestia and Niki’s Nana in Capalbio.

Photo: a © signature mmm production

Since I’ve only taken two panoramas in my life, I call my sister to the rescue. She has at least three, and they rock. I’m not sure if they are supposed to be so… tiny. Anyway, Sylvain wants them for his challenge and here they are. First both of mine:

Largo di Santa Susanna in Roma

Il giardino dei tarocchi.

Photo: a © signature mmm production

And these are my sister’s:

Vatican

Inside the Pantheon, Roma

Porto Ercole

Photo: Klu

For Sylvain Landry’s SL-WEEK 40: Panorama

WPC: Dinnertime, children

There was the subject of cook for another challenge not so long ago, so today let me concentrate on the places where we also eat when we don’t eat at home, even though there are some photos from there as well. More info in the captions. Buon appetito!

First Slovenia: a fish canteen in Portorož.

Bosnian restaurant in Piran named after the Olympic Games 1984.

The restaurant at the beach in Piran.

The best restaurant in Piran. Above the stove there is magnet saying “My family tree is full of nuts”. I bought it.

Here we eat in Piran if it’s not too hot (ok, or too cold).

Another restaurant by the sea in Piran.

This fish restaurant is in Ljubljana with the view of the greatest Slovenian poet and his muse.

Croatia follows: This is al fresco in camp Škrila, island Krk, Croatia.

Here we didn’t eat, looks lovely, Grožnjan, Croatia.

Back to Italy: Here Niki de Saint Phalle was making her barbecues. Il giardino dei tarocchi.

This is in Lucca and we didn’t stop and eat no matter how lovely it was.

This was the wedding on the beach in Ostia.

And this was Oktoberfest in Tuscany. Pub “Porta gialla”, Borgo Carige.

For my birthday they + dad took me to Orbetello and we had a great time.

And when you stroll around Pienza, this surprises you. Slow Food for Burkina Faso. Something sounds off here.

To return home: Did you know that in Italy it’s believed that one person eats 125 g of pasta? Slippers by UrsaNina.si

This happens when I ‘cook’ for myself.

I love eating on our terrace, whereas some others are afraid of flying bestias.

His father brought this. Five kilos of lamb. It fed us (and Bestia) for weeks.

His daughter made this: apple cake. Takes after father.

Ooops, this is not us. But they have dinner too. Buon appetito!

Photo: a © signature mmm production

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: Dinnertime

SL-WEEK 38: Yellow WordPress

Sylvain said that he would be gone and we had two weeks to deliver our yellow pages. And I thought, ahh, that’s a long time.

Alas, just like in school, even the longest time passes. He is back with a new theme, and I’m stuck with so many yellow photos gathered! Let me post them anyway, even if late.

I think this is the longest gallery on my blog. Yellow is my blog’s background colour, after all, and the colour of the wall in my bedroom. Location info is in the captions.

Burano Lake

Burano Lake

Orbetello

The Pantheon, Rome

Capalbio

Nika’s colour scheme

Piran, Slovenia

Piran, Slovenia

Piran, Slovenia

SRC SAZU, Ljubljana, Slovenia

In archaeological park Vulci

Oktoberfest in Tuscany

Roma

Local volcano (nah)

Roma

Roma

Portorož, Slovenia

By Lake Burano

Il giardino dei tarocchi

Il giardino dei tarocchi

Orbetello

Orbetello

Roma

Golden light off Capalbio

Photo: a © signature mmm production

For Sylvain Landry’s SL-WEEK 38: Yellow

WPC: Future wave

Today marks one year since I joined my first photo challenge. It was Weekly Photo Challenge and the subject was Afloat. After that, and joining some other challenges, my blog was much less lonely. Today is a good day then to see what the future brings.

It was a lovely if a bit windy day in south Tuscany. Visitors were clearly plotting and gathering evidence.

Ninja half has just assumed position, possibly to consider future actions.

Until the moment when…

The only thing one can really be sure of is the 7th wave.

Photo: a © signature mmm production

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: Future

MM 2-52: Second Year Anniversary

This week Leanne Cole celebrated two years of her Monochrome Madness challenge. Congratulations!

The themes this week were close up and two. This is my contribution.

Even though my photo is not a close-up technically, the game of chess is almost as close up and one on one as two persons can get. I’ll always take things semantically rather than technically.

Below is the same uncropped photo in colour (I see now that the crop was maybe not the best idea) and some others from that hot summer day. This was an open-air chess tournament in Piran on Slovenian coast. Even though I can’t play chess myself, I know many who do. What can I say… I was very pleased to be just a photographer. And to have mom hold the dog while I take photos – priceless.

There is a story about the man in red, from another kind of tournament. I planned to tell it but I don’t hold grudges now, do I.

Photo: a © signature mmm production

For Leanne Cole’s MM 2-52: Second Year Anniversary

Three years of bestia

Our companion Fonzie a.k.a bestia celebrates his third birthday today! It has become the tradition that for each his birthday the past year is presented calendar-style, one photo of him for each month, starting with last April.

Yes, he is named after Fonzie from “Happy Days” which, however, I was never able to watch as it didn’t air on Slovenian television. But Italians all seem to know who he is and agree that they look a bit similar. Well done, G., for naming him!

Today he will meet his ‘friend’ Angie-the-cat again. Maybe she will even play with him just a little, as a present.

Live long and prosper, bestia!

Dog park in Orbetello. April.

Orbetello with ‘grandparents’. May.

Relax at home with the leader of the pack. June.

At his first Italian wedding (mine first too). July.

In Mengeš, Slovenia, door-hunting. August.

Goofing with uncle. September.

I like him seeing like this the most. October.

On the beach. November.

With a ‘relative’ for Christmas.

Keeping warm – nah, just posing – in snowy Slovenia. January.

By the Orbetello lagoon, bravely walking on wobbly pier. February.

On the bike ride. March.

Photo: a © signature mmm production

What really happened on April 6

Well, there was that chicken attack on Yugoslavia 75 years ago. But what I mean occurred 50 years ago and concerns these two. And something tells me we will never know.

In Talamone. Photo: a © signature mmm production

It’s lovely to feel the truth of this:

Walking, I am listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.
—Linda Hogan, Native American writer

I mean, look at them all – first mom’s parents, then dad’s parents, and then mine:

Top featured photo: In Pitigliano, with mom’s cousin. Photo: LS