BOOKS, BOOKS AND BOOKS!

The place where I spend much of my time writing, reading and blogging!

I saw a while ago on some blog, the amazing idea about everyone posting a photo on their blog with the same subject matter. In my opinion one of the best ways to get to know someone is to look at their bookshelves. Indeed, the books on my shelves tell a lot of stories about me. So, the subject matter I would like to propose to you all is: .

"POST A PHOTO OF YOUR BOOKSHELF”

1. I invite you all to visit Gená Franco, from Entretantos... and see her bookshelves and her workplace. Thank you Gená for participate!

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2. You must come to visit Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods, from Norway and to read about her love for books! Thank you Britt-Arnhild for your participation!

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3. I bet you will enjoy the amazing post about Bookshelf at Imagine What I’m Leaving Out, Judy’s blog. Thank you Judy, you did a great job!

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4. I invite you all to see the bookshelves and many books all over the house of Freefalling. I want to thanks to Freefalling, a new friend from Melbourne, for her participation!

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5. You must come to see the bookshelves in the office of Geraldo, from 21st Century Grandpa and also the books in his sons' bedrooms. Thanks Geraldo, for your participation!

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6. You will enjoy the visit to PJ, another blog’s friend from Golden Oasis . She shows her books and bookshelves spread all around her house and also told us stories about them. Thanks PJ for joining us!

7. I invite you all to see the bookshelves and books spread all over the house and the atelier of the Brazilian painter and sculptor Eduardo Penteado Lunardelli, from the blog Varal de Idéias. You can see also his photos, art's objects, Cds and memories treasures. For the abroad people, Eduardo add a translator's tool you see at the right sidebar. Thanks Eduardo for joining us!

8. One more person in love with books! You must come to visite Belinha, from Palavras Cruzadas . She shows her bookshelves and tells us about her preferences in literature. Thanks Belinha, for your participation!

9. Another friend in love with books show his bookshelf! Valter Ferraz, from Perplexoinside tells us that his books are all around the house. He promises to post more photos. Valter has also a blog only about literature. Worth to visit Rodadas Literárias. Thanks Valter for joining us!

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10. If you enjoy books, you must to visit Beader Girl Jewels blog and appreciate her very tidy bookshelves. Her bookshelves are all around the house and she has catalogued all them with her very own system adapted to her special space. You can see the antique pictures of her mother, of her siblings and remembrance of her childhood. Thanks Beader Girl, for participate!

11. You need to go visit Patricia’s library! You will enjoy the photos of her bookshelves that holds a lot of books about books, cartoons, arts, publishing, writings and many books of her own hand-made books. Patricia is cartoonist, illustrator and has a blog about books, named BookLust. Thanks Patricia for joining us!

Some quotes I like:

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"The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you the knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination." - Elizabeth Hardwick , US writer (1916 - )

"Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered." W. H. Auden - US (English-born) critic & poet (1907 - 1973)

"The surest way to spot a non-reader: someone who comes into your house, looks at your books, and asks, 'Have you read all these?'" - Nick Hornby, English writer (1957 - )

"Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content. " - Paul Valery - French critic & poet (1871 - 1945)


"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." - Groucho Marx - US comedian with Marx Brothers (1890 - 1977)


"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention." - Sir Francis Bacon - English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 - 1626)

“If there's a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it” - Toni Morrison - American Writer, Teacher and Editor. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved; won Nobel Prize for Literature, 1993, b.1931. (1931 - )


“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while reading it.” - William Styron - American Writer and Novelist - Confessions of Nat Turner b.1925.(1925-2006)

PS: If you want to participate, post a bookshelf photo on your blog and please, send me your link.

Photos by Sonia A. Mascaro

SÃO PAULO IS MY COUNTRY

Today's Photo Friday theme is "The Country"

São Paulo is my city, is my country.

Copan Building (Edifício Copan) is on its own an important tourist attraction and one of the city's most famous postcards. Designed by Oscar Niemeyer, it is the city's largest armed concrete structure. It has 6 blocks with 1160 apartments and a mini-mall at the ground floor. About five thousand people living in this building.

Former Light Building



Tea Viaduct and Municipal Theatre. (Viaduto do Chá e Teatro Municipal) The first viaduct built in São Paulo, it was named Tea Viaduct because it was near a large tea crop. Built with metal structure brought from Germany, a great party was held in its opening, in 1892. It links Rua Direita (old downtown) with Rua do Chá, now Rua Barão de Itapetininga (new downtown).

Anhangabaú Valley (Vale do Anhangabaú) is between downtown's two main viaducts: Viaduto do Chá and Viaduto Santa Efigênia.

Municipal Theatre (Teatro Municipal) The theater was built in 1903, when the coffee boom was at its peak and São Paulo at its most confident and inaugurated in 1911.



City Hall (Prefeitura Municipal)



Panoramic view from the top of Italia Building



View from the top of Banespa Bank Building



General Carneiro Street



Ipiranga Avenue



Republic Square

Garden of Luz Railway Station (Jardim da Luz)

Square of Sé (Praça da Sé) The city's Marco Zero ("zero milestone") is located at Praça da Sé, indicating the directions of the states that share boundaries with São Paulo and from where the distance of any point in the state starts being counted. Catedral Metropolitana da Sé (Sé Metropolitan Cathedral) is located there. The square has a gothic style, started being built in 1913 and it was completed only four decades later.

Sé Metropolitan Cathedral (Catedral Metropolitana da Sé)



The Pátio do Colégio marks the place where the city of São Paulo was founded.



Barão de Itapetininga Street



São Luis Avenue

Conjunto Nacional Building at Paulista Avenue

Conjunto Nacional Building view from Alameda Santos

Augusta Street



Paulista Avenue Brazil’s best-known business area.



Paulista Avenue with Augusta Street

Near the Barra Funda Terminal at São Paulo's West Side

View to buildings behind to the Clube Pinheiros, at South Side of the city.

Faria Lima Avenue is home to many of the headquarters of foreign investment banks.

Dacon Building at Faria Lima Avenue

Cidade Jardim Avenue and Faria Lima Avenue. Photo taken from the top of Dacon's Building.

Photos taken by Carlos Mascaro

You can see another photos of São Paulo here and here.

IPÊ AMARELO - GOLDEN TRUMPET TREES

Photos taken by Carlos Mascaro

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Ipê-amarelo (Yellow Ipê), in English known as Golden Trumpet Tree. Scientific name, Tabebuia chrysotricha and Tabebuia Alba is a neotropical genus of about 100 species of large shrubs and trees in the tribe Tecomeae of the family Bignoniaceae, original from Brazil. This beautiful tree can arrive to 25 feet of height. During the winter, the leaves of the "Ipê Amarelo" fall and the tree becomes completely naked. Species in this genus are important as ornamentals plant in parks and gardens, as well as in the lining of streets, because of their showy flowers.

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Other photos you can see here and here

This is the Yellow-Ipê (Tabebuia) lush with leaves.

TREES: I WANT THESE IMAGES TODAY

I'm posting this photo from my fence, so today I wanted an image that would say "shadow and freshness" to me.

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I'm posting this photo from my garden, so today I wanted an image that would say "cool and green" to me.

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These trees are totally beautiful. Pictures can not give the feeling! You have to seat under these trees, smell and feel the perfume and the freshness of the place.
, from Ash Lane Farm’s

I want to thanks to Connie Peterson, from Ash Lane Farm and Mary, from Mary's View for teaching me to download huge photos as you can see on this post. I also want to thanks to Cris, from Country Patch and to Geraldo, from 21st Century Grandpa, for teaching me many tools about blogging. Last but not least, thanks to Judith Polakoff for the inspiration.

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Thanks, as always, for looking and visiting!

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Photos taken by Sonia Mascaro, in her garden.

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Update: I just switch the layout of Leaves of Grass to add news tools on my page and also to download huge photos. This work is in progress.

NOMINATION FOR THE THINKING BLOGGERS AWARD

"Hello Sonia, I have nominated you for a Thinking Bloggers Award... cheers Gisela, from Guildwood Village on the Lake ".

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Gisela, what an amazing surprise! Thank you so much for your kindness! I am very honored and grateful that you have nominating me for Thinking Bloggers Award!

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Now I must pass it on to 5 others blogs. It was not easy nominating only 5 blogs … so many wonderful blogs I love and enjoy to visit often! Believe me, I spent all day long to come up with 5 nominations for the Thinking Bloggers Award. You just can look at my links on the side bar and you can figure how difficult this task was! I truly enjoy ALL of my links. YOU ALL have many things I love and enjoy, many issues interesting and intelligent to read about. So I am nominating the following 5 blogs I visit quite often (in no particular order), but I really would like to choose many more blogs for this Award...

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Addenda: Here in Brazil we say that to choose someone in some contest is to dress a "saia justa", (tight skirt), that means a really difficult task. So, I really must to say that in such contest maybe someone is going to feel left out but with this nominating I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I truly enjoy ALL of my links. I LOVE YOU ALL and YOU ALL have something enjoyable, interesting and intelligent to read about.

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1) HERE IN THE HILLS - Location: Los Angeles, California, USA. I love to visit Naomi’s blog everyday. Here in the Hills was one of the first blog I visited when I was new to the blogosphere. Her blog is very beautiful, intelligent and touchy. Naomi is a great composer, lyricist, singer, painter and she also writes plays. Her photos are always beautiful and Naomi shares with us her amazing memories and stories, wonderful photos of her lovely family and friends, her adorable kitty named Sweetie and her amazing cactus garden.

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2) IMAGINE WHAT I’M LEAVING OUT – Location: North Carolina, USA. Judy, aka Kenju, had another great blog, JUSTASKJUDY, now deactivated, but you can enjoy it's archives. I enjoy so much to visit Judy’s blog. Judy is a talented florist and she has a wonderful taste for flowers and arrangements. Her photos are just beautiful, too. Judy's blog is very witty, funny and also touchy. Her creativity never ceases to amaze me!

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3) GOLDEN OASIS - Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. I love to visit PJ’s Golden Oasis. Her blog was also one of the first blog I was introduced. PJ is a talented knitter and she has a great taste for colors and shapes. PJ shares with us her beautiful photos, focusing her lovely family, her creative knitting, her adorable Golden Retriever named Nugget and also the wonderful photos of her former city, San Diego. Now I am looking forward to see the photos of her current city, Colorado Springs.

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4) VARAL DE IDÉIAS - (Clothesline of Ideas) - Location: Imbituba, Santa Catarina, Brasil. Eduardo Penteado Lunardelli is a very talented and well known Brazilian’s painter, sculptor and drawing artist. Eduardo lives in a beautiful home studio named Piacaba. Even if you could not to read and understand the Portuguese language, I am sure you can appreciate and enjoy his wonderful paintings and sculptures. I love to visit Varal de Idéias every morning and reading his witty and up to date issues.

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SUSIE’S SPACE - Location: California, USA. Her motto is “Sharing What I've Done and Always Mindful of the Blessings in My Life....” It has been a pleasure visiting Susie’s blog. Her blog is very inspiring and Susie shares with us her lovely and touchy memories. Susie has many thoughts and feelings to share about being a wife, a grandmother and about her life. Susie also shares wonderful photos of her family, her charming home and garden, her city and amazing voyages.

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Now all of you nominated, - if you want to participate in this contest, of course, - have to copy the Award button to your post and sidebar, choose 5 blogs and post them on your blog. Congratulations my friends! I truly can say that I found many nice and lovely friends on blogosphere and I am enchanted with this delightful community of blog’s friends!

FOOTWEAR - WALKING AS ART

Reading the article Walking as Art – Footwear, I was introduced to this amazing Bata Shoe Museum, in Toronto, founded in 1995 by Sonja Bata. Shoes hold the key to human identity, wrote Sonja Bata. All those photos, except the tricycle's photo, were found through this article. So I hope you enjoy this post.

Tricycle Shoe

By Tsubasa

By Tsubasa

Blue Glass Shoe, by Jeff Yojeff Mercer

In the site of the sculptor Bruce Gray you can see amazing Metal Sculpture, Wood Sculpture, Kinetic Art, Art Furniture, Mobiles, Abstract Paintings and Graphic Design.

Model Lisa Ligon with Bruce's giant shoe sculpture

Australian Aboriginal sandals made from Emu feathers. The Emu is Australia's tallest native bird.

You can read in this site, The History of Footwear, by Cameron Kippen, from Curtin University of Technology, Perth WA.

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Update: A friend of mine, Eduardo Penteado Lunardelli, post on his great and always up to date blog, Varal de Idéias (Clothesline of Idea) a photo of the fashionable shoe Crocs. Worth a visit to see it!

JURUMIRIM DAM

Jurumirim's Dam, Enseada Azul

Photos by Sonia Mascaro