Introduction to Places that Speak
Places can tell us their joys and their sorrows, their experiences and their heritage. A special place can reach inside each of us and find our soul, no matter how hidden or shattered it may be. Finding the soul, a place can help to heal it. Places can speak. We have only to listen.
Places have vital qualities that reach out and speak to us, if we are lucky. At the most basic level, they communicate their essence. Some years ago, I wanted a catch phrase to describe this extra-sensory and sensory relationship humans can have with places and coined Places that Speak, acquiring this website name at the same time. After some time contemplating this concept, placesthatspeak.com now pulls together photographs, sights and emoted reactions. Most of the places are on the positive side of the emotion scale, although even the most charming of places may have pockets of bad feelings stashed away that can range from watchful to sorrowful to angry and even to a foreboding of evil.
Places that Speak is about taking some moments to slow down, look and search inside yourself. Here you may discover new places and find things to learn. Places and moments are captured in a way that I hope viewers and readers will find enjoyable to follow, and perhaps even rewarding.
Each new blog entry will be complemented by a series of photographs and will include a link to their webpage. Each one will center on personal reactions that a place evoked, be it a region, a village, a building, a nook, a shop or individual artifacts. Some places may span reactions; some reactions span places. For example beakheads, those evil-looking faces of birds on the entryways of medieval churches thought to ward off evil spirits, on a sunny day seem simply whimsical. On the other hand, run into them on a foggy morning with a deserted cemetery behind you and no one in sight in a village and they can seem fiendishly protective as if they want to keep you away from whatever treasures the church may contain.
It should be noted that a single topic may be covered several times in different blog entries, looking at different aspects. Whimsy,the topic of the third blog, can cover a range of reactions from funny to eccentric to eclectic to odd to outright absurd. The first entry on each topic will try to cover all of those aspects.
I hope you will enjoy reading the blog and seeing the photographs as you slow down and let your senses open.
Jayne
Please note that all text and photographs on placesthatspeak.com are the creations of Jayne Menard and may not be borrowed, reused or otherwise appropriated. Photographs are available for purchase. You may use the contact page to inquire.