Church Bells

North County is a lovely part of San Diego to experience. It's about an hour's drive north from the city.
Nestled inland from Oceanside, California is a famous landmark, the San Louis Rey Mission. For more information, visit http://www.sanluisrey.org/ I took this picture over the summer and how the blue and white reminds me of Greece. Photo for Skywatch Friday

One of my friends just returned from a culinary school trip to Italy. She had shared a few camera shots and I decided to spruce them up and make a collage to share with you. (Review posted) There is such a charm with winding roads and cobble streets that Italy has to offer. Not to mention the ringing of the church bells every 15 minutes to remind the folks of heaven.

The 17th century church of San Giovanni Battista houses one of the most famous baroque pipe organs in Italy, dating back to the late 1600's. More info at http://www.abruzzocibus.com/carunchio.php

                             ( Photo credit: James Barker)  The magnificent duomo in Florence.

• Picture Collage Maker 3 

Picture Collage Maker 3 for Mac (Normally $29.90), a powerful yet easy-to-use app enables you to create photo collages, scrapbooks, greeting cards, photo calendars, photo books and posters on Mac OS X.

Key features include:

• New template categories and 140+ revamped templates.
• Photo add options: iPhoto, Aperture, Lightroom, etc.
• Create multiple pages within the same window.
• Lots of photo effects, fonts and backgrounds, clipart, frames, masks, etc.
• Free to add text, zoom in/out on collage, crop photo, adjust border of round corners, etc.
• Multiple export ways: Image, PDF, Email, Desktop wallpaper, Facebook, iPhoto, Print out, etc. 

• Review

I'm very impressed with the photo software because there are tons more options to choose from and the editing process is simple to use. With exciting, creative templates to use, the experience of saving photos creatively is countless and fun! My favorite to assemble are the layouts where you can choose the background color. Another memorable style are the templates with text about family, nature, etc. After completing your work, you can email to a friend or share on Facebook. There's so much more to explore, like Comic templates and CD covers. It's a great tool for creating and capturing your favorite memories. I rate this top application with 5/5 stars and highly recommend. Here's some information,  http://www.prweb.com/releases

• The Friday 56

This is what I'm reading, a Kindle book with my grandchildren. I doubt that it's page 56 since it's only 40 pages! I was thinking of church bells when I came across the illustration in the book. I'm sure they have cats in Italy!

• Amazon Snippet

Charles Buckles (sometimes misspelled Buckels) Falls (1874 - 1960) wrote and created the illustrations in the ABC Book. He also illustrated books of other authors, mainly for children, and designed posters, advertisements, invitations, book bindings, stage sets, fabric and furniture in a career that spanned from the late 1890s through 1960. He produced some of his best-known work for the Victory book campaigns of the Division of Pictorial Publicity during World War I. Falls executed much of his work for paying clients, including Masonic publications such as The Shrine Magazine and The New York Masonic Outlook. In 1927 editors at The New York Masonic Outlook described Falls as “one of the distinguished artists of the day.”

It is believed that Falls made nine paintings for The Shrine Magazine. At least five of the paintings eventually graced the cover of the publication, all in 1927. This February cover and Falls’ related painting offer an opportunity to compare the artist’s original artwork against the magazine that arrived in subscribers’ mailboxes. 

                                                          "C is for Cat."

You may be interested in seeing,

Rick Steves' Italy 2014
Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
ABC Book (Books of Wonder)

 I hope you enjoy hearing the ringing of the church bells, whether local or afar.
Happy weekend!



Best,






“You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me." C. S. Lewis