It seems a long time since I posted here. The principle reason for this is that blogging and builders don't go well together. We had builders, of one sort or another, in for most of 2105 and it felt like a year when art or artistic endeavours were constantly interrupted by life. Hopefully things should be calmer this year and I shall probably spend some time refreshing my blog and website - but for now I will just say 'Hola from Cuba' in what will almost certainly be the first of several posts as Cuba was a bit of a photographer's dream!

Cuba is a country of colour music and dance. It is also a country of poverty, hope and pride. I know a lot more about Cuba than before I went and from a different perspective. There is much that is good and much that is not so good. The country faces huge challenges in the immediate future as the old revolutionary leaders pass on and the US embraces the nation. I don't feel qualified to comment on any of this, though I am so hoping for a positive outcome for the Cuban people, so I am just going to share with you some of the colours and sights of what is a very special place.

In order to make some sense of what I saw I am going to theme the posts starting with transport. To start off with there are those wonderful classic cars, many of them used as taxis

Few have many of their original parts and most have been mended and remended over the years - but they still look stunning

Next come the vans and lorries - just as attractive in their own way

Next up is two wheeled transport, with cycle rickshaws much in evidence

as well as bikes for individual use

The further east you go in Cuba the more horses and mules you see. Horses pulling commercial vehicles, taxis and ridden by cowboys - we actually saw someone lasso a steer on the motorway between Havana and Santa Clara! there were also oxen and buffalo carts but unfortunately I didn't manage capture any of those.

Different sorts of horse drawn taxi abound

This picture also features our state owned tour bus of which there are hundreds whizzing round the Island

Here are plenty of more commercial horse drawn vehicles too

I'm not sure if these speakers work or if they are just painted on!

Then there are the cowboys

and after a run down of most, if not all, of the Cuba's methods of transport I will say adios for now!

Last weekend we went off to the Isle of Wight not expecting anything special or unusual to be going on in Mid-September. Wrong! We walked into the inaugural year of Festival of the Sea, which appeared to be pretty low key except for the Classic cars event where cars had come from all over Europe to take part. Sensing some photo opportunities we decide to go along.

When we arrived at Newport Quay there were literally hundreds of fascinating cars and bikes - many with gleaming engines and shining wheels

Looking at some of the emblems I was reminded of figureheads on old schooners - perhaps that was the connection between the cars and the Festival of the Sea?

And of course I couldn't resist having a go with the grunge techniques

I was really taken with some of the old motor bikes

This bus came in to service just before we left the Island in 1966 - it had an exciting new feature - doors! the conductor's uniform is the one I remember from childhood.

All of this doesn't really give a flavour of the event and the number of cars and people there - nor of the various curiosities and as true to form I didn't take any panoramic shots. I did shoot some video with my phone however, and have combined it with some of the stills to make a Treasure Chest. I haven't captioned it but the very last car you see is a Delorean - very rare and something we haven't seen before. As usual the Island lived up to it reputation of pulling rabbits out of hats with fun, interesting (and free) events!

Classic Cars from Barbara Evans on Vimeo.