Stone angel

S went to Perpignan today in order to visit a bookshop specialising in regional literature, so I tagged along for the blip potential. Perpignan is a beautiful and lively city, and we both regretted that we don't live nearer. An hour's drive is just a bit too far to go more than occasionally.

While he was shopping, I wandered the streets blipping. Tne feast of Sant Jordi (St George) lasts almost a month in Perpignan. In Catalonia it's traditional to give books and roses on St George's Day, and the banks of the canal were lined with bookstalls. Groups of people were dancing the sardane, which must be the most boring dance in existence. Honestly, you could do it sitting down. All the fountains in town had also been decorated with flowers; I'm not sure if this was related to Sant Jordi, but groups of people with maps were going round fountain-spotting.

I quickly whittled down my blip choice to three photos, but then just couldn't choose, and S was no help because he couldn't decide which he liked best either. This is one of the fountains, but I could equally have posted this alternative. And we liked the colours of this very typical Perpignan street -- rejected mainly because portrait format doesn't work very well on blip.

Speaking of stone angels reminds me of Margaret Laurence's excellent novel about a grumpy old lady, The Stone Angel. It's a really convincing portrait of old age ... but Laurence (1926-1987) was only 38 when she wrote it.