Wednesday, July 4, 2012



Doris, you have surely taken a photograph of an Australian Shepherd in the gondola. In Europe, there is a law no longer allowing the docking of tails on this breed. You can't see the butt-ends of Annie or Hope here in the photo but you also don't see their tails because they've been docked. This breed, I believe, began docking tails because they are a herding and working breed and the hair on their backsides gets so thick that it picks up burrs and twigs and so on. Plus, the sheep they would be herding could have had maggots and the dogs would have picked these up as well. This is my speculation but I loved the photograph of the tailed Australian Shepherd, my first glimpse of such and it's a very nice tail. I won't mind quite so much when these laws hit the North American continent seeing this dog in your photo. I've enjoyed my trip to Italy, Doris, it's saved me a lot of money and I feel that my horizons have expanded because of your trip and photos. Thanks for taking the time to share them with us.

Rosey

more Venice

Oops,  my instructions to click on any photo again to return to the chat page were wrong.  My bad.  Sorry.  Click your <--- browser button instead.    Y'all know I am technologically challenged....

Here is St. Mark's Square, very early in the morning before other tourists have arrived by train and cruise ship:



I noticed a shoe store where everyone was stopping to look at the display in the window.  All the shoes were "over the top" but these were really quite confounding, between the height of the stilletos, the spikes in back, and the fur in the front.   I would love for a psychologist to interpret the subliminal message these might convey, but I probably don't really want to know the answer.   LOL


For our dog lovers.... you'll be interested to know that many of the gondolas had a mascot dog on the boat.  They probably belong to the gondolier, but  it was a lot of fun to see them.    



And at The Doge's Palace,   this is probably one of the original Suggestion Boxes.   Citizens wrote down their suggestions to the government (I think they had to be signed with the person's name)  and the government considered their ideas.   He has a very "Venetian" look, doesn't he?
 The mouth is the slot...

So that concludes the photologue/travelogue.   We have 800 pics between us, which you really don't want to see unless you are suffering a severe case of insomnia.    Have a good weekend!




Happy 4th of July

... to my fellow USA quilters.   It is still hot and dry here.   Fireworks are banned except for professional displays.  We're on mild water restrictions until there is some measurable (or any) rain.   All the lawns in our area are the color of straw.   I set out hummingbird feeders and have a little bit of traffic.

Here are the final pics from Venice.    (click on any  photo for a larger image, then click on it again to return to this page.) 


The  gondola ride:

Sadly, Venice is sinking.  It also suffers a lot of floods during the winter season.   One of my travel books says that the few permanent residents have vacated their first floor and live upstairs.


DH and I went to St. Mark's Square on Saturday morning, around 8:15 a.m., so that he could see it without all the day-visitors (those who visit for  several hours via cruise ships, trains, etc.)   Apparently the "upload" feature is being balky, so I'll add it on a separate post.