Inspired by the liquid air she’s experiencing in Seattle just now, Ailsa has challenged us with “Liquid” this week.
My mind is full of images from Kola Kanda and other liquid foods to Venice and the Backwaters, our recent monsoon rains. But I thought, while I think about a suitably liquid post, I’d show you a photograph of Albi, before a storm, when the pressure and the clouds seem to have turned the Tarn into liquid jade, upstream of the weir.
The Wanderlust Gene 
What a magnificent shot. Love it. 🙂
So glad you like it too – it’s always been a favourite.
From calm,placid, jade waters to a sea of foam. Great composition. I can only imagine what this must look like after a storm.
Unfortunately we didn’t hang around to find out! By the time the storm had passed, we were way downstream trying to find a dryish place to camp for the night!
Amazing color, isn’t it.
Stunning. So glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Marvelous! Love the transition from glassy tranquility to that turbulent state. Hadn’t heard of Albi by the way. Googling for more info. 🙂
I know I should probably have put a post script about Albi, but I also knew travellers who didn’t know the name would grab the atlas or better still, Google it – Albi wasn’t the point, though it’s red brick construction was the contrast that made the photo – the whole city – zing! 🙂
What a beautiful photo, and I am equally enjoying your description of “liquid jade” – it really does sum it up!
It does, doesn’t it – though the description didn’t sit well, when it first came to mind. Somehow the brittleness of jade kept over-riding the image, and yet, the more I closed my eyes and tried to remember the scene – it was 40 odd years ago – I kept seeing this Daliesque melting jade …
I agree, very beautiful photo, love it!
Thank you! 🙂
When I saw the title “Liquid Jade” I immediately thought of “Liquid Gold”. For me that would have been a glass of scotch. Good thing I didn’t have any in the house! 😉
I see what you mean about the Scotch (on the rocks, right?) though I’d not have pictured liquid gold quit that way! 🙂
Yes, indeed, on the rocks. You know me too well. 😉
A lucky guess based on the colour descriptive, Michelle 🙂
I love the contrast not only between the colors but also between calm and rushing. Sometimes it’s best to take cover before those storms hit!
It was very dramatic – with the thunder rolling and reverberating from hilltop to hilltop and we, in the river valley, under the drum’s skin, so to speak!
Feeling heartened that Madhu hadn’t heard of Albi either, Meredith, but it’s a beautiful spot.
I’m sorry about that Jo 🙂 I did toy with an explanatory note, but I thought those of you who were interested enough to know more than “France”, “Tarn”, would look it up – I would! – and find out much more than I would have been prepared to give by way of explanation 🙂
Toulouse Lautrec’s hometown wasn’t exactly a destination, more a cross road on our journey from France into Spain – though we did in fact spend a most interesting and joyous day admiring his ‘posters’, wandering the city’s streets and wondering about it’s strange red-brick construction (even the cathedral was made from red bricks, with just the smallest touches of gothic stone tracery for windows and things. I guess that porous chalky stone of the Tarn river valley wasn’t an ideal building material.)
I agree,Meredith. Explanations are cumbersome, though ignoramus that I am, I’ve only recently discovered that WordPress supply you with “related” links, which I think is quite cool. How long it is now since Wikipedia replaced encyclopedias!
Well, in my case, not long because I’m still a bit distrustful about the veracity of Wikipedia information, but my goodness, how much more information is available to us at the end of a simple question in the Google box – way more than even the Britannica ever gave us – a real revolution.
You have it exactly. I have a jade bracelet that colour… I’d never thought of it in the context of water 🙂
I wouldn’t normally, either – but I think there was some mineral component to the water in the Tarn, I remember every sighting of it, it seemed to be greener, rather than brownish, as it rushed through its gorges.
Gorgeous!
Bless you 🙂
Love it! The water flow, bridge, bushes, and the building made such a remarkable photo.
Strange how some days remain in your memory banks forever, it seems, and just thinking about this picture brings back that day in Albi so clearly – well, parts of it, anyway. It’s a red brick town – strange in itself, and this high contrast to the normal grey/cream stone of France, was intensified by the neon filter you get before a storm, you know, that weird light?
Now talk about an overflow of liquid… that looks like trouble there… 🙂
Unfortunately i can’t report on the ‘after’ effects of the storm.