Around their house

Love this corner in our York friends’ front room. I look forward to a day when we stop being such hoarders in our household so we have LESS STUFF, but I’m not sure we’ll ever get there.

Rae having a snooze. Which she did a lot, just like a cat. This is why I think a greyhound would be such an easy transition for us if we were ever to get a dog.

O getting the giggles whilst trying to keep her arms warm whilst eating an apple.

The little dudes in da house, in gaming heaven, playing Bomberman (love that game!).

This poster makes me smile every time I see it. Oh, the irony of it all.

Hello Mr Famapa! Hello funky hallway!

S and O trying to find some prints for us in the studio. This family are seriously talented.

S set himself a challenge during lockdown to make monoprints of every painting in the National Gallery, which of course lockdown wasn't long enough for. But maybe he’ll have a chance to continue come autumn, when it’ll all most probably kick off again.

His daughter O had a go at another Da Vinci work, and I so wish I remember now what this technique was. I’m reading a Leonardo Da Vinci biography at the moment, so it’s so cool to see these versions, made by our friends.

A couple of versions of the Portrait of a Man by Jan Van Eyck. Especially love the one on the right.

Who’s this crazy lady?! I realised there were (as usual) no pictures of me from this trip, so I quickly took this when everyone else were out of the room.

Had such a great time with these guys and I really hope we get to hang out again soon.

It's great up North

OMG, that heat wave we’ve just had was quite something! Have you guys also had it? It was insane here. Luckily we were away during most of it in the Cotswolds (and yes, pics to come from that little trip away too!), but our house was like a sauna when we got back on Tuesday afternoon, and it was only yesterday, after Thursday night’s thunderstorm and heavy rain, that I felt fully functioning. Let me tell you as a lady of a certain age that heatwaves and hot flushes combined is no joke. Much respect to my menopausal sistas living in hotter climes!

Anyway anyway anyway. Still have some Yorkshire pics to share with you. On our second day there we went to Dalby Forest for a walk, and this section of the walk reminded me so much of our summer hikes in the Alps, but it was like someone had just photoshopped out the mountains. You can also mountain bike your way around, but it wasn’t possible to rent any bikes, because, you know, Covid.

Everyone loves a walk in the woods, whether you’re young or old, whether it be your local one or a new one. This Carl Jung quote I read at Swiss Miss the other day really resonated with me: “Whenever we touch nature we get clean. People who have got dirty through too much civilisation take a walk in the woods, or a bath in the sea. Entering the unconscious, entering yourself through dreams, is touching nature from the inside, and this is the same thing, things are put right again.”

This brook looked so tempting to dip my feet in, but I didn’t.

In one section of the path we had to step carefully so we didn’t crush tiny little frogs to death.

Using tree roots to get up.

L waiting - and seeing what wearing a face mask upside down was like while he did.

On the way back to our friend’s house we took a detour so we could drive through the North York Moors. They didn’t disappoint. That vast expanse really felt planetary, if that makes sense. I also really loved the colours; the purple of the heather against the browns and greens looked amazing. All the colours below the sky in this picture would make such an opulent colour scheme for a room don’t you think?

My guys, framed.

I felt like I was in Andreas Gursky picture here.

And of course, lots of sheep.

And finally, on the way home, probably the best road sign I’ve ever seen. Shame I didn’t get a good pic of it.

Change of scenery

We were supposed to go to Amsterdam this summer for our summer holiday, but Covid 19 had other plans. So we drove up to Yorkshire last week to stay with our friends in the north for a few nights. Driving past Drax Power Station as we get close always is always eery but quite cool, but also scary because the environment.

The first thing we did after dropping off our bags was head to York and walk along the river Ouse.

We continued into Rowntree Park in the drizzle (aaaah, the joys of British summer holidays)…

… where we witnessed this surreal moment of a dog modelling on a bench. I wish I’d gotten closer (I guess this is what zoom lenses are for), but I’m sure the lady taking pictures would have seen me running closer and then the moment would be over.

The following day we drove up to Fraisthorpe Beach, and while we waited for our lunch we very much enjoyed this scene of a dad talking to his kids playing inside this bunker.

As I was packing my bag for this trip I took out my swimming costume, thinking there was no point in bringing it, but turns out there was. Never mind.

Our friends recently got their first dog, Rae (a greyhound rescue), and I fell for her big time. I walked with her on the lead the day before and I really felt her calm which made me feel calm, which probably in turn made her feel calmer, and then me calmer, and so on. I immediately started daydreaming about getting a greyhound, and was looking at rescue websites, but then realised that there’s no way I’d demote Buddy as king pet in the house, and so getting a dog might be something we’ll do in the future instead.

Did you know that the top speed of a greyhound is 72km/hr (45mph)?! We got to see Rae sprint up and down the beach and it was really impressive.

Time to hop back in the car and move on. And our friend S did not want his picture taken.

We drove 20 mins up the road to Flamborough Head. I’ve never seen chalky cliffs before and these didn't disappoint.

Ridiculously pretty.

Oomoo spotting seals swimming down below. A zoom lens would’ve been good here too :D

We made our way down to get a different view, and as I took this the tide was coming in fast, so a quick click and then a jump out of there.

One of my favourite feelings is to feel tiny in nature. It feels like a correction, like “Dear Human, you think you’re so important, well, check this out. Are you this big? Didn’t think so. Yours, Nature”.

Random randoms

These pics are from the same trip into town on opening day of the National Gallery. Walking around the streets did not feel good. Not living in central London to see what the reality is, it was quite a shock to see how empty and closed up it still was. Our government had been telling us that the shops, restaurants and pubs were back open again, but that was clearly not the case. As people have lost their jobs, or are still working from home, there is no actual reason to be there at all. To see Piccadilly Circus this empty in the middle of the day was so strange.

I was too weirded out to have my camera head on, so I ended up coming home with hardly any pictures. Somehow this bag of tortilla chips made it on to my camera though.

At one point we walked past the Harold Pinter Theatre where I’d seen ‘Uncle Vanya’ three weeks before lockdown in the cheap seats. It was now sealed off, and will be for a while yet.

The two Masketeers. Me and D at the Marian Goodman Gallery where we went to see the Rineke Dijkstra exhibition (trying to double up on the art in one go) after a very late lunch. We had to walk for ages until we found an open restaurant, and upon arrival we had a temperatures and phone numbers taken before we got seated outside.

Rineke Dijkstra is a Dutch photographer who has done quite a few series like this. Here she took portraits of three sisters over seven years. This was the first set.

And this the last. Fascinating, and as a parent… a bit terrifying.

Afterwards we fancied something sweet, and same again, we had to really hunt to find somewhere open. I’m not one to take pictures of what I eat, but this black sesame soft ice, the first non-homemade treat in four months, felt worth capturing. My mouth is watering as I type this.

And finally, the one thing me and D have become experts at in lockdown, spotting a really cool building, and crushing hard on the first floor window.

The whole experience was so interesting though; after feeling a bit fed up with always staying local I was gagging for a change of scenery but when I finally got it, I realised how grateful I was for my ‘hood, still full of life, and feeling almost like normal. The expression “You can’t see the wood for the trees” has never been been more true ;0)