Friday, August 28, 2009

Pairing Off . . .

While out in Brittany in August, over the space of just a few short days, I kept bumping into pairs of various sorts. This first pair of talkative horses made me think of all the good writing that is going on over at Where's My Effing Pony, whose kind hostess English Rider is a horse lover. I'm wondering if she could lip read a horse conversation and let us know what these two were gabbing about . . . talk about hearing it straight from the horse's mouth !
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But after an engaging conversation, they put their heads together for a meeting of the minds . . .
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At a Summer flea sale by the beach this pair of crochet 'paintings" was for sale . . . not sure I'd want them in my living room, but there is no accounting for taste . . .
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This pair of cats were mystified by the foreigner with a camera . . .
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A pair of Cavalier King Charles were at the market waiting to lick a camera lens . . .
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Another pair of dogs . . . if someone can help me with the breed name of these two ???
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There was even a pair of homo sapiens offspring out for a stroll. Note the orange shoes in the background. . . this is what millions of years of evolution has brought us to . . . :-D
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40 comments:

Lynne with an e said...

Brings to mind the old Doublemint Gum ads..."double your pleasure, double your fun"... The orange shoes are another pair, don't forget.

I must admit, those head to head horses have an undeniable "aaawwww" factor.

5 out of 5 cubes of sugar for the sweetness factor of today's blog! :D

Lydia said...

Looking at these shots put me in the best mood for the evening! Thanks for that. The one of the two horses head-to-head is priceless.
I think the dogs may be Whippets. See what your other readers think about the dogs (I know everyone will think the post is terrific!).

robert said...

That's why '2' is one of my favourite prime number. Would only be half as good, being '1'.

Catherine said...

what a wonderful collection of twins and pairs - great post!!

Patricia said...

Lovely images...something to make you think...compare and contrast...love the dogs and also the horses with their heads meeting. I believe that the dogs may be Italian Greyhounds which are smaller than the Greyhound...but they could also be Whippets... I cannot judge their scale.

Lynne with an e said...

Were any of these photos taken in Brest? If so, you could title them "The Lovely Pairs of Brest"!

Karen said...

Great post. I love the twosies and hey, what's wrong with orange shoes.. I love them and now I want a pair. I'm evolved.;=]

English Rider said...

The Equine conversation was about private matters; embarassing morning breath and then a make-up snuggle. All in French-Horse of course. The paintings seem like the French equivalent of Elvis on velvet. They have their place in the World. Dogs, Whippets would be my guess, as they are just over knee high to owner. Cavaliers and cats, great pairs. Keep the homosapiens away from me and for me it's green shoes I can't ever resist. Thanks for the mention. I'm not riding for a while, trying to heal a pulled something whilst putting in miles with the "temporary"extra dogs.

James said...

Reminds me of Noah's ark. I enjoyed your pairs. I can't stop picturing the horse's teeth soaking in a glass of effervescent bubbles. :-P

Anonymous said...

I love these shots-- especially the horses.

Amy said...

I think the dogs are Whippets too. The cavaliers are beautiful; they are such sweet dogs. This market seems to be much more lively than ones around. Thanks for sharing it with these photos. You really capture the movement of the place I think.

Jilly said...

Oh I love all these pairs. The horse photographs are perfection - not to mention the dogs. Yes, I'd go along with others - those two are Whippets. Italian Greyhounds are incredibly similar but much smaller and looking at these two in relation to the man's knee they are too big for an Italian Greyhound. So whippets is the answer. Obviously a relation of the greyhound who runs around race tracks!

@eloh said...

Beautiful post, as usual.

Laurie said...

I have been thinking about pairs, Owen. The pair that troubles me most is 'a pair of trousers'. It should, surely, be 'a trouser'?

OK. It has a pair of legs but, as an item of clothing, perhaps we should go into a shop and ask for a trouser in future!

By the way - Orange shoes [they come in pairs unless you have lost one and then it is a shoe. If you lose both, it is lost - the pair that is. Anyway, I once had a pair of orange baseball boots and a pair of purple, yellow and red suede boots. It was the 70s, so it will come as no surprise that I also had a bright yellow simulated leather jacket, purples flares and a tie and die grandad vest with a yellow sunburst on the chest.Evolution had a wobble back then, I guess.
I had better dash. I need to go into town and buy a new trouser . . . Laurie

Laurie said...

Sadly, I have another thought. What about a pair of knickers or underpants or pair of swimming trunks? I'll leave that with you!

Great whippets, by the way.
Laurie

jeff said...

MDR ! Owen ! T'as dernière photo des jumeaux est géniale ! Disons que le commentaire va avec ! ! !
Ta série de deux est coquace ! Tu as fais une cure d'humour approfondie pendant ces vacances !...
Les deux chevaux sont pas mal non plus ! Colgate pourrait songer à embaucher le lus "denté" pour en faire la pub ! ! ! Génial !
Et côté tisane t'en est où ? Pour ma part, demain, j'arrête !
...;-)))
A + cher Owen ! Et bon... retour si je pui dire !
Ciao et arrivederci !

Adam said...

Great post Owen. Definitely Whippets I'd say, and it also looks like one horse has told the other a joke in the first photo!

Steve said...

Before I got spliced to my better half such a proliferation of pairings would have had me depressed and despairing (geddit) but now I can smugly look on and smile...

J said...

Perhaps the horses's breakfast wasn't up to much?
I particularly like the cats: they look extremley quizzical, like, I wonder how long it'd take to kill that black box?

nathalie in avignon said...

Great idea for a post, the pair thing!

My favourite photos are the two horse ones (both EXCELLENT)and the last because I remember pushing one of those twin strollers 21 years ago. I probably have a photo of me and my twins somewhere that is very similar to this one (with no orange shoes in the background though - evolution hadn't reached that level yet!)

Bilingual posts for Jeff - ha, that does take time!

And were you able to go and see the chateau de Brecy's artichoke-throwing children ceiling painting in the grand staircase?

Nathalie again said...

Louciao, lovely pair of Brest - LOL !!!!

Batteson.Ind said...

As suggested.. canus whippety whippitus.. the horses, I reckon the old "why the long face" joke just got told, which made the horse who told it laugh, he has the look of horse with a predictable sense of humour.. the picture (tapestrys?) are hideous, just the sort of thing I like in our kitchen, (I have a picture of John Waynes face in the sky with a sunset, on a piece of wood... Ron banished it to a corner..)... evolution happened purely for the moment you captured.. the joy of bright orange trainers! By taking that photo you may have inadvertantly caused the whole evolutionary process to unfold again.. our purpose was documented.. we are needed no more... (tangents.... I gets them!).. excellent pictures by the way!

Jean said...

Ces photos sont vraiment belles et étonnantes .
J'ai particulièrement aimé celles des chevaux .

Jean said...

Me permettez vous de la copier et de la mettre dans mon blog en mettant votre nom ?

cara said...

Those horse shots are fabulous. That first one had me and my daughter in hysterics. The second is just beautiful.

English Rider said...

I'm so rude, I didn't say how beautiful and warm your photos appear. I revise my opinion of the dogs. I vote for Egyptian Pharaoh Hound. That's why the face is not so pointy.

Blind Fly Theater said...

Laughter does bring people together, and it seems it does the same for horses... hope they weren't laughing at the photographer!
Great shots of pairs. Love the color in the cat photo, and the attitude of the King's... but, those homo sapiens are a bit strange-looking, don't you think? Especially hanging out with the evolved red shoe wearer!
David
;)
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Marguerite said...

Fabulous pairing photos, Owen! Double trouble in all cases. That horse is so hilarious. Hope you have a bon temps over the weekend, cher!
Cheers!

CiCi said...

For a photographer, taking a trip or vacation means a wealth of memories via photos taken on vacation. Great theme: Twins. Great post and photos.

Heather Ainsworth said...

Love the horse photos! beautiful!

ladydi said...

Looks like an entertaining and enjoyable place to spend part of your vacation. Like everyone else, I love the horse photos.

jeff said...

Owen ! Il y a 274 followers qui t'attendent ! Alors !... Qu'est-ce que tu fous ? Laisse tomber le maquillage et viens en scène le plus vite possible !
Tisane un peu moins... voilà tout !
...;-)

Loulou said...

Won't hold back I swear! (I will leave a comment, yes, I will)
Having said that, hello from Delhi my dear Owen, it is good to be back home (in a sense). I like the pair thing but my preferrence will for go for magic 3 still :-)
Your series of shots is funny
See you soon
Loulou

Sharon McPherson said...

Looking out for pairs ... Cool idea and great examples! I like the photo of the horses head butting. But my favourite is the pair of paintings ... so I must have bad taste then. lol.

Thanks for your comments on my blog. :)

Owen said...

Oh my goodness, what alot of wonderful comments from you all...
:-D

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Sharon, a pleasure, your blog is lots of fun to read :-D

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Hey Loulou ! So you got back safely to India after the wilds of vacation in France... Now you'll just have to find more examples of 3's out there, and maybe some pairs two... errr... two... Can't wait to see Indiaphragme back on line again. But if 3 is magic, are you going to start a third blog to share photos from France on ? You're going to need a full time blogging assistant soon... I could be interested, if the salary is right... :-D LOL !

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Ah sacré Jeff, toujours aussi exigeant je vois... difficile à plaire à tout le monde tout le temps. Les vacances prennent fin, mais encore un jour ou deux en famille, demain j'amene la petite au Parc Asterix, promis depuis longtemps, peut-etre qqs photos à faire là dedans, à voir... bref, en fait, oui, la tisant coule, un beau-frère nous à amener du vin de noix... ooh là là, c'est plus fort que mes tisanes d'habitude...
:-D

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Hi Di ! Very enjoyable vacationing spot indeed, hard to tear ourselves away to return to real life and work...

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Hi Heather, great to hear from you ! I've been on vacation, so haven't been out much, need to get over and see what sort of beautiful stuff you've been up to in August, as I'm sure you haven't been slacking like some of us...

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TechnoB, Indeed, the photos taken during vacations lately fill entire hard drives, the challenge is keeping them organized, and getting back to them all to pull out a few deemed worthy of appearing in public in these pages... all in good time... but time seems to go faster and faster these days ! Sigh... :-)

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Hi Marguerite, double trouble for sure. And thanks so much again for the award you passed on ! I haven't gotten around to doing a post and picking it up, but very shortly now I will, I've got a food piece in the works about a restaurant out in Brittany, just need to clear up a few more things first... like answering all these lovely comments for starters !

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Hey David ! I'm fairly certain the horses were in fact laughing at me, they were quietly grazing until I walked over to the fence, and then they started cutting up and horsing around. Indeed the homo sapiens are the strangest of the lot ! What odd animals we are, walking around taking pictures of each other's orange shoes ! Great to hear from you, hope you had a terrific summer, will be by soon to see what you've been up to...

Owen said...

Dear English Rider, you rude ??? Perish the thought... Loin de là, no, no, if you want to see "rude", just head over to the Sagittarian's place, or to Louciao Mad Lynne's blogs, and read the goings on in the comment boxes there !!! No, in fact, "rude" is not the right word, I think "raucous" is closer, or "falling down drunk laughing" perhaps, or "saucy, spicy, and plenty of hilarious good times against of backdrop of fine conversation, arts, and international culture bridging New Zealand, Canada, France, and wherever else" might be an even closer description... yes indeed, do pay those lovely gals a visit, something tells me you'd get along just fine. Funny, I like green shoes too, just picked up a pair of forest green Convers low top sneakers while on vacation... and thanks for the word on Whippets.

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Ciao Fernades, many thanks !!!

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Cara, so glad the photos produced some smiles ! Does your daughter do some riding ? Hope all is well in Brisbane as you head into Spring and we head into Fall...

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Jean, ce serait un plaisir de te donner le feu vert de les copier sur ton blog, merci de m'avoir demandé... et merci pour ces mots plus que gentils... suis content si tu aimes bien ces images...

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Ah Vicky Watercats... so you are prone to getting the tangents on certain days ? Well better the tangents than the delirium tremens. Ah those awful needlepoinut paintings, god only knows where they come from, if I had them in my kitchen it would probably be to use them to lay the washed dishes out on to dry or as cleaning rags perhaps, talk about kitsch for the kitchen... loved that last song you posted...

(NOTE TO ALL READERS : If you haven't already, do head over to the Watercats' place, and check out the fine music and writing going on there ! That's an order !!! :-D )

Owen said...

Hi Nathalie, Yes indeed, I did see the post on artichokes over at Cergie's place, many thanks for the link (in comment on below post). So glad you enjoyed the horses, I was amazed too at the little show they put on for me when I walked over to their fence, which was just behind the Chateau de Kerouzeré, Sibiril, Brittany. Ah yes, so you too had two twins to stroll about, can't wait to see... what a surprise that must be for expectant parents to learn that they are going to get two for the price of one, and thus embark on twice as much fun, not to mention twice the food, clothing, and education costs to absorb, while parents of single children can spread those costs out a bit... was just reading about a town in Brazil where there are a large number of twins born for some reason. So, you're not rushing out to get some orange shoes like that ? :-D

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Hi J, yeah, I was wondering how close I could get before I became cat breakfast...

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Ah Steve, despairing, despairing, and comparing your past to your present, you haven't spared us the pain of a pun well placed, fortunately only one pun, not a pair of puns to respond to this paradise of pairs... am off to eat a pear now !

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Hey Adam, yes, those horses were taking the micky I think of the photographer who was gaping at them and clucking his tongue stupidly, as humans are prone to do in the presence of horses...

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Cher Jeff, il fallait que je demande à mes filles de m'expliquer le MDR, ahhh, donc c'est le LOL version française. Il semble que je dois voir le film LOL, apparemment c'est super, d'après mes filles encore, un truc d'ouf... Et sinon, oui, un peu d'humour fait du bien de temps en temps, pour me sortir des cimetières et autres sujets lugubres... Mais par contre, j'ai vu qqs belles choses en cimetière ces derniers jours, qui vont pas tarder à apparaître... le retour est dur je trouve, ça ira mieux peut-être une fois avoir plongé dans le boulout la semaine prochaine... a+

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Ahhh Laurie, I'm floundering in a sea of pairs, be it pants, knickers, trousers, whatever, although isn't it odd that we refer to certain singular undergarments as a pair, yet for the famous bra, or brassiere, we don't say a pair of bras, or a pair of brassieres, despite their plural supporting function... well, I better shut up now, I can hear the murmurs and catcalls growing to a crescendo in the upper gallery, which incidentally, was where the "enfants de paradis" were seated in the old theatres, if I'm not mistaken... in any case, I hope your shopping trip was successful for a trouser, and hopefully also we'll get to see at some point a photo of you in your tie-dyed vest and purple and yellow boots, the pair of them...
:-D

Owen said...

@eloh, hmmm, I may just have to slip in some exquisitely ugly posts in order to break up the routine, wouldn't want to get into a rut now... :-)

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Jilly, thanks so much for weighing in, I figured if anyone would know, it would be you ! Hope all is well in the South as Summer winds to an end...

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Hey Amy, my daughters are completely convinced that Cavaliers are the sweetest dogs of all... they are cuddly looking. The Thursday market in the Summer at Carantec is always a pleasure, a great place to socialize, as nearly the entire town turns out...

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Tricia, many many thanks, glad you enjoyed...

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James, that's terrible, now I have this mental image of the horse standing on his back legs in front of a bathroom sink, using his front hooves to remove his false teeth ! Larson should have done a cartoon like that.
;-D

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Ah Karen, what's there not to love about bright orange shoes ? Though god only knows what you could wear them with ! :-D

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Chère Lynne Louciao !
Doublemint, double pleasure, double fun, that's what we get when you drop in, accompanied by the Saj, (where is she, I wonder anyway ??? probably been out carousing around again !), all in all, double trouble !!! :-D

Thanks too for the sugar cubes... hmmm seems to me there was a time when sugar cubes were passed around for other purposes... now on the count of three, we're going to all say "aaaaawwwwwwww" together... ok, here goes : one, two, three ... ...

And then you come back with an encore about pairs in Brest ! You are bad !!! Even Nathalie was laughing about that one ! You better hope the Saj doesn't see it, or she's going to be off on a bender to end all benders !!! Well, my wife was born in Brest, so you might say I'm a Brest man. However, none of these fine pairs were actually in Brest, they were about 50 kms away, so in the neighborhood of Brest you might say. I did however spend a great day in Brest wandering around its hills and valleys, taking quite a few photos in the process... more to come. Ahh, one sees why they called you Mad Lynne. It's funny, my wife's nickname when she was an adolescent was "la folle de Chaillot"...

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Hi Patricia, seems like the most votes go to the Whippet, in any case, many thanks !

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Catherine, many thanks, this one was plenty of fun to put together, was looking through the photos from a few days worth of shooting when I started noticing the pairs there...

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Hi Robert, so, you are a fan of prime numbers ? There is a wealth of mystery to explore in primes, and one and two are only the jumping off point, but undeniably, two is twice the fun of one...
Hope all is well in your new place...

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Hey Lydia, so glad an evening's pleasure was procured, that is the goal I guess, to spread the pleasure, to share the wealth, to let a little poetry shine out into the world...

The Sagittarian said...

I'm just posting a comment because it looks like I'm the only one who hasn't so far!! Thanks for your remarks about "raucous"...I'm flattered of course.
Great pix here, oddly enough I took some pix at the weekend of two cows banging heads actually! If you're a good boy I may even remember to post it!

Ann said...

Owen..such a wonderful post..I so enjoyed every photo...the cats were my favorite.
Thanks for the smile I'll be having for the rest of the day!