Away from the here and now

This seems as good a time as any to start catching up on 2019, as I stopped blogging on the old blog when I realised how awful pictures looked on it (ooh boohoo, blurry pictures on my blog - talk about pre-coronavirus problems!), and therefore creating a backlog. Back in July we went with friends to my mother-in-law’s house in France for a couple of weeks.

My friend A and her family came from Stockholm, and from the off we imposed a screen ban, which was was a breeze for the kids as they’re bonafide bookworms. Ha! You can’t actually see their books here, but they are reading :)

The parents did pretty well too.

Of course the pool helped. There were epic water fights and general keeping cool in the heat. We also learned that you can make your own very effective wave machines with a couple of lilos.

There I go again with my love of windows.

No screens meant other ways to have fun.

And sometimes you’d try something new, like cutting hair.

One day A went for a walk in the garden and came back with enough flowers to make a huge bouquet. I begged her to reconsider her career choice in life, and to become a flower arranger. There’s still time.

Taco night! A & D are excellent cooks, and we enjoyed A’s salmon tacos with fresh mango. Such a tasty combination. Must remember to make some myself.

D and little C after dinner in the garden one evening. Extension leads rule.

Looked out the window one day to find the boys taking shelter in the shade, chatting away. Sweeeeeet. More France pics to come.

How are you guys holding up out there? It’s so surreal isn’t it? I read this interview on Dezeen with Li Edelkoort over the weekend, and if you like me and many others feel that this crisis might be Mother Nature’s way of correcting our irresponsible behaviours, Li’s words brings us hope for a better future. <3

Keep on dancing

Gosh, what a week’s it’s been. Rewind a couple of months and I was feeling excited and good about 2020, but the Covid-19 virus clearly has other plans. I hope you and yours are well, and that you’re not feeling too anxious… It’s crazy how one has sometimes had the thought (I have - have you?) that surely one day there will be a virus that will wipe humanity out, or something else, just like with the dinosaurs? I think we can assume that this bug isn’t the one that will, but it’s certainly given us in the West a taster of what living with a pandemic is like, and food for thought. So today I’m posting this pic from last year; it always makes me smile when I see it, and I hope it’ll do the same for you. Z and Oomoo were playing Just Dance on the Nintendo Switch, and if schools are shut here any time soon, this is going to be a fun and good way to stay in shape - and keeping up morale. Elbow bumps to you all ><

My random eye

Wanna see how random my eye is when I’m out and about? OK, I’ll show you - in the order I shot these. I saw those alarms on a building as I was walking from the tube towards the Spilliaert exhibition on Piccadilly. People had to duck as they walked past me taking this. I thought they must think I was taking such a weird picture. Maybe I was.

I walked past this lady with her woolly hat greeting me, and I circled back as I thought it was so funny I had to get the shot. I feel quite shy taking pictures of strangers up and close, and when I walked past her the second time I took the picture blindly with the camera at my hip, hoping that I’d get her in the frame. But you know, one great thing about people being so engrossed in their phones, is that you actually can just shoot the pic however you want, without them ever knowing.

See what I mean? Phones are gooooood. This lady’s green dress was just too fabulous darling to ignore.

Something about this empty street corner drew my eye. I think it was all that black.

With all the rain we’ve been having there’s some pretty big puddles out there. I liked how the red of the no entry sign popped.

Orange and burgundy together - who would’ve thunk it? Such a 60’s colour combo, non? And the name of the street makes me wonder what the history of it is. Quack quack?

I know I keep saying it, but I’m eternally grateful to my old art director boss who said that one must always look up. You never know what you’ll see, and seeing as so much of London is so generic at eye level, there are usually more interesting details above your eye line.

Like people making little gardens wherever they can.

Ahh, Bedford Square. You so pretty.

And finally, this building number on Tottenham Court Rd, before I got back on the tube to go home. Nice colours will always draw my (random) eye.

Last week's art outing

Last week I went to see the Léon Spilliaert exhibition at the Royal Academy, and rather brilliant it was too. He was a Belgian artist who lived and painted at the turn of the 20th century, who unfortunately suffered from insomnia, and so would wander the streets of Ostend at night when he couldn’t sleep. Many of his artworks reflect the eery night, and I love his unconventional framin and the unfamiliar dark and empty street and seascapes. There’s something about the art from this period that feels so modern and appealing, and it’s amazing how contemporary they feel even now - over a hundred years later. I’m so grateful to the curator at the RA, as I also saw amazing exhibitions there last year by two unknown to me European artists from roughly the same period; the Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck, and Swiss painter Félix Vallotton (who’s exhibition I went to three times - a record for me!). I promise I’ll post my pictures from those soon. This Spillieart exhibition also travels on to Musée d’Orsay later this spring, if you can’t make it to the Royal Academy before the 25th of May.