Watching the sun set over southern Israel

There remains something very powerful about watching the sun set, and in a  way it doesn’t matter much if it is over a tenement in Glasgow, across the emptiness of the Aegean or in this case the hills of southern Israel.

You watch as the sun sinks lower and finally disappears leaving you to ponder on the night ahead.

And out on the hills of southern Israel it looks particularly striking, as the barren landscape slowly becomes indistinct.








Location; southern Israel

Pictures; sunset, 2017 from the collection of Saul Simpson and Emilka Cholewicka

In the hills near Eilat ...... 2017

Location Eliat, Israel










Picture; In the hills near Eilat, 2017,Emilka Cholewicka 

In the hills of southern Israel

Now I am fascinated by other people’s holiday pictures.

It’s partly about seeing places for free but is also an insight into what other’s see as interesting and significant.

And it has an added attraction when the photographs are from our Saul and Emilka who were in Eilat in southern Israel at the weekend.

They were there for a short break from autumnal Warsaw and I have yet to ask them how they judge that sniffy review from one travel guide that “the Red Sea resort of Eilat is brash, ugly and almost inevitably crowded, a place where being scantily clad and sunburned is the rule rather than the exception”.*

We have yet to go but it is a place I grew up with through the stories of the Exodus in the Old Testament.

Having made the crossing out of Egypt at the Red Sea the Israelites camped close to Eilat.

Later the place became a prosperous trading port and more recently the Romans built a road to connect it with Petra that “red rose city, half as old as time.”**

A city which “seems no work of Man's creative hand,
by labour wrought as wavering fancy planned;

But from the rock as if by magic grown,
eternal, silent, beautiful, alone!”.**

Well I can’t better the poet John Burgon who wrote those lines but these pictures pretty much offer up the idea of that “eternal, silent and beautiful” place.

Location Eilat, 2017






Pictures; Eilat, 2017 from the collection of Saul Simpson and Emilka Cholewicka

* Eilat, lonely planet

**Petra, John Burgon, 1845

Changing Florence ............... over one day

So, the exercise is to stand at almost the same spot and record Florence in the course of one day.

Location; Florence











Pictures; Florene, 2019 from the collection of  Saul Simpson and Emilka Cholewicka

Florentine shapes

When in Florence always look up.

Location; Florence

Picture; Florence, from the collection of Saul Simpson and Emilka Cholewicka

Florentine shapes ............... no. 2

When in Florence always look up.

Location; Florence

Picture; Florence, from the collection of Saul Simpson and Emilka Cholewicka

Florentine shapes .............. no. 1

When in Florence ....... always look up

Location; Florence

Picture; Florence, from the collection of Saul Simpson and Emilka Cholewicka

When in Florence …………. always look up

What you come across in Florence.

Location; Florence

Picture; Florence, from the collection of Saul Simpson and Emilka Cholewicka

Dinner in Florence ……………….

When you are taking in Florence, with all it has to offer, sometimes sparing the time to find a restaurant and spend a leisurely two hours over a meal can seem a diversion from discovering the treasures of the city.

Location; Florence

Pictures; Florence; 2019, from the collection of Saul Simpson and Emilka Cholewicka

Far from Florence ….

Now, if you can’t get back to Florence for a while, then the next best thing is to know that some of your kids are there taking in the history, the sights and the feel of the place.

We only managed a day trip, but our Saul and Emilka are there for the week, giving them plenty of time to record what they see and send it back to us.

I hope they take the tourist bus.

I have always been sniffy of doing this and as a result missed out on lots, which had to be filled in using a guide book and lots of hours wandering side streets on hot days.

And so I now do use those buses when we are in an unfamiliar city as a starting point to our own adventures, enjoying the experience of mixing with people from all over the globe, while looking down on the streets, the statues and the buildings.

After which we plan our own route, and on the way get lost, blame each other for missing the figure of David, and fall back on an expensive meal in a tourist trap.

That said because Tina is Italian and takes no prisoners, we usually end up in one of those restaurants which most tourist never visit, where the food is excellent and cheap, but which you will never find again.

Location; Florence







Pictures; Florence, 2019, from the collection of Saul Simpson and Emilka Cholewicka

A bit of outrageous self promotion

Now everyone should have their fifteen minutes of fame …………. And Emilka gave me mine.

On a visit to the British Library in London and with an odd few minutes to spare, Emilka searched for me, and there,  top of the list was my book on Manchester and the Great War.*

Somewhere lurking in the database will be the others, including the one on Chorlton-cum-Hardy in the  first half of the 19th century,  and Didsbury Through Time.

And in due course there will be the  five I have written with Peter Topping on Hough End Hall, Manchester and Chorlton pubs, the Quirky history of Chorlton-cum-Hardy and the places of worship in Chorlton and Didsbury.

“The British Library (BL) is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world’s largest libraries. 

Its collections include more than 150 million items, in over 400 languages including books, magazines, manuscripts, maps, music scores, newspapers, patents, databases, philatelic items, prints and drawings and sound recordings”.**

Leaving me just to return to the book, which was Manchester Remembering 1914-18, which told the story of the city and the Great War through" the voices of those who lived and is vividly illustrated with evocative images", most of which were supplied from the collection of David Harrop.

And allows me to offer up another fifteen minutes of fame to David, who many will know for his his excellent collections of memorabilia from both world wars and the history of the Post Office.

Location; British Library

Picture, from the collection of Emilka Cholewicka, 2019

*A new book on Manchester and the Great War, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2017/03/reflecting-on-anniversaries.html

**The British Library, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/british-library