Rijksmuseum time

Yo! Thought it was time for a design refresh here. Lately I just wasn’t feeling the blog, and so I thought that maybe, if I went back on Instagram for a bit (after a 4 & 1/2 year hiatus), it would make me want to blog again - and it worked! I only lasted five days on IG before I deleted it again, and came away from it knowing that I needed to change the look of the blog a bit - just like how painting a room a new colour makes you see it with new eyes. So funny that I knew exactly what I had to do to trick myself into blogging again. Anyway, back to the post…

Just being in Amsterdam for three days meant that I had to strip down the visit to the essentials, and with there being a dearth of good exhibitions on, I decided that our cultural outing had to be a visit to the Rijksmuseum. We got there first thing in the morning when they opened (the only way to get in without having to face a long queue), and started our visit with breakfast in the museum café, where we admired this tulipiere in the picture above, which is how tulips were displayed in the 17th century. If you’d like to buy one this size today it would set you back about €18 000! My friend A really wanted to buy one, but a smaller sized one in the gift shop was €400, so my picture of it had to do instead.

This painting by Vermeer is one that I always have to seek out when I go, I love it so. I have a postcard of it on my fridge so I get to see it every day, but seeing it in person can’t be beat.

These stars, in the ceiling in an atrium part of the museum, were added in the 10-year controversially long refurbishment of the museum, and each one was hand painted in situ. I bet the people painting them dreamt about stars for the duration it took them to finish the project.

The museum library is a beautiful space that you can peek your head into from a mezzanine level; I’ll take better pictures next time I promise. Most of the time when I take pictures I don’t think of shooting it in a way that makes sense on the blog. In fact I don’t really take pictures for the blog, I just take pictures that I want to take and then post whatever I think I can make sense of - in blog form. It’s only afterwards that I think ‘Oh you idiot, why didn’t you take a wider shot, or why didn’t you get a shot of the outside of the building?!’ etc. But you know what? It doesn’t actually matter. I’m me, and this is my corner of the internets, and this is how I blog. S’all good.

Back to the aaaaarrrrttt then. I have never seen portrait tiles before. Have you? I likes it.

And the details on this late 17th century wooden cabinet - mijn god!

I didn’t get any good wide pictures as it was quite dark, but you can see the whole thing here. Can’t even imagine the amount of hours this would’ve taken to make. But if you do this, with this much skill, you surely must be in heaven making it.

These two! They were quite small, which I reckon made them even more special. The highlights on the gooseberries! The fuzzy peaches! Mind blown.

Next time I go to Amsterdam (which won’t be too long from now - woohoo!) I want to go to this spot of Herengracht and see how different it looks now - with my own eyes.

I think this was my favourite painting this visit. It just looked so contemporary. Must have been quite an unusual depiction back in 1645-50 when it was painted. I also quite want her hat.

A having a rest in between all the looking and walking. That little rest on a bench in a museum/exhibition is one of my favourite moments. Both your legs and your brain needs a breather after a while, but then, just few minutes later, you’re ready to go again, refreshed.

This guy… just amazing. Like an olden day angry emoji, no?

Loved this cabinet - so modern, yet so clearly very old.

Can’t remember exactly what era this sealed off replica room was from, but it was very grand and atmospheric. Shame I didn’t get a better pic of it (enough with the complaining).

I just can’t believe how lucky I am to be able to look at things that excite me so much so easily. So grateful to all the artists everywhere that create such amazing pieces of art, and have done for hundreds and hundreds of years, and that there are museums where I can go and see it up close for myself. These two paintings of two people not doing anything special were also some of my favourites this time round.

The night before going to Amsterdam, when I said goodnight to Oomoo, we talked about how cool/strange it is that patterns in nature repeats itself so much, and on different scales. Like how a tree, vein, plant root, lightning bolt, sea coral and lots of other things basically all have the same shape. In Rijks I came across these two old German x-rays of a child’s hands and feet, and straight away thought about that conversation, and how we walk around with what essentially looks like winter trees inside our bodies.

Crazy.

Loved these linocuts too, but sadly I don’t remember the name of the artist. All I know is that the man in the left hand picture was the one who made them, and that the man on the right was his son, and the woman below his wife. He was a Jewish artist who tried to flee with his family in WW2, but they got caught and sent to be a concentration camp, and did not survive.

Just before we called it a day I spotted this stunning landscape

and this little domestic scene. So there you go, a little snapshot of my version of the Rijks spring 2022. If you want to have more of a dig around the collection you can do so here. It’s really well put together.

Amsterdam - again

A few weeks ago me, and my friends D & A hopped on an early Saturday morning train to Amsterdam, to spend four excellent days with our beloved Z (we all worked together as graphic designers on a magazine a verrrrrry long time ago), in my home city from home. Neither D or A had been there properly, so the first thing on the list was to get them used to riding bikes, which they did quickly, in the quiet Noord neighbourhood.

We stopped for a delicious vegan lunch at Liever Hier in Nieuwendammerdijk, where we hands down had the best chocolate brownie either one of us had ever had. The view wasn’t bad either. Looking back at these pics I can see that we were very lucky with the weather (I’m typing this wearing heat tech and a thick fleece - in June).

The street that the café is on is almost 2km long, with a lovely mix of architecture. I think I’ll have to come back and walk it next time, so I can take more pictures of it.

Z had the smallest ladybird I’ve ever seen on her shoulder. I’m sure it’ll still give her lots of luck, despite it’s size.

Slowly making our way into town; you see a lot of this in Amsterdam, various ways of fitting your kids on a bike. I once saw someone cycle while holding a small baby in one arm, no sling or anything. Scary/skillz.

Pretty. Or ‘mooi’ - in Dutch.

Still in Noord, getting closer to the trendy end of it. Love the block of flats on the left. Why new builds in the UK can’t be this nice is beyond me. There’s just no inherent good taste in British architecture these days. I think it might have peaked in the Georgian era.

And these floating houses! Swoon. There’s a little neighbourhood of them, just in front of the block of flats in the previous pictures. Seeing the ladders going into the water makes my heart beat a bit faster.

When I go travelling I like to have a loose plan of what to do/see/eat, a bit of sketch if you like, with areas to visit but then keeping it flexible. It’s mainly to avoid the panic trying to find somewhere to eat when you’re dead tired and hungry, or making sure to not miss out on seeing a special place. Well, one of those special places for me in Noord is Van Dijk & Ko, a massive warehouse stuffed with second hand furniture, books and trinkets. The prices are ridiculous cheap too; some of the massive beautiful cupboards, including antique kitchen ones would cost up to six times as much in London. I hadn’t planned that we should cycle to it, but as it was on the way, we popped in.

D has a thing for antique linen and picked out some good ones.

There are also some weird stuff amongst all the goodness. Where do we think this would have been originally (minus the wig of course)?

I’ve been thinking recently how there are a whole generation of kids who mostly don’t know what a cuckoo clock is or what it does (these are the sort of things I think about - haha!). There would always be someone who had one when I was a kid. I was a tiny bit tempted to get one, but these were actually not that cheap, and who’s to say they still work?

If I had a different house style I would have got a few of these. Or if we had a second home.

Instead I got two old Hungarian ceramic bowls with crazy glazing on them.

Stop! Ferry time. Time to cross the IJ and cycle towards our dinner.

Love the mixture of the architecture here + the balustrade shadows.

Dinner at De Japanner has become a regular thing on the last few trips to Amsterdam. Incredible Japanese food that’s delicious in your mouth and kind on your wallet .

The street it’s on, Albert Cuypstraat, is a market street in the day time, and once it’s shut it’s quite a mess, which these herons have figured out, so they have quite a feast where the fishmonger trades.

And finally, catching some evening light on the ferry back home to Noord. Such a great first day of the trip.

Me me me

17/4/21

I fell into a bit of a picture taking funk last year, but was then inspired by an episode of Elizabeth Gilbert’s old podcast ‘Magic Lessons with Elizabeth Gilbert’ (ep.208 if you want to know), where she spoke to a woman who didn’t feel able to call herself a poet. I can 100% relate as I’ve never felt comfortable with saying that I’m a photographer, because you know, real photographers have their work published, and therefor I don’t qualify (I’m not so hung up about that now, as I don’t really care about it as a label anymore; if someone asks I say I’m a photographer, and then the conversation just moves on). Anyway, Gilbert suggested a couple of ideas to the poet (see - I call her that!), one of which was that she should embark on a secret year-long project, which she wasn’t to show anyone until it was finished. The whole point was to create, without any input from anyone else, for your own pleasure, and away from any validation that social media gives you. I immediately knew what my secret project should be. A year’s worth of self portraits, using the self-timer on the camera, and only having three goes to get it ‘right’. I’ve said this so many times, but as I’m always behind the camera there are hardly any photos of me, so it really was a no-brainer. In the end I missed two days, as I had completely forgotten to take a pic on those days, but you know, whatever. I’m going to make a book of it, for myself, so there’s also a physical record of me between 16/4/21 and 16/4/22, and I’m naming it ‘Me me me’.

The picture above is from day 2, on what looks like a nice sunny day, in the garden, with me reading the paper. There’s a LOT of pictures of me reading, which feels good to see.

22/4/21
I didn’t use a tripod, apart from one pic I think, so I had to make use of the floor, shelves, tables - basically any flat surface I could find. I love this picture. That light was just a frickin’ gift!

30/4/21

Me and O reading our books next to each other before his bedtime. Most of the pictures are from home and my everyday life. I very rarely remembered to take a self portrait when I was out and about. A good creative challenge if there ever was one.

2/5/21

A lot of the time I’d forget to take a picture until I was about to go to bed (and a few times I’d remember with a jolt, as I was about to fall asleep).

5/5/21

This makes me laugh. My New Year’s resolution last year was to be able to do three pull ups. I totally failed. A few months before the end of the year my elbow joints gave out, so I couldn’t do any weights for a while, let alone pull ups exercises. Needless to say, I gave up, and this year I realised that New Year’s resolutions are silly, and that I naturally do lots of new things in a year anyway. I also now know that I’ll never be able to do a pull up, and I’m fine with that.

27/5/21

I think this was my only tripod shot. And here I am, getting a blog post together.

10/6/21

I have no shame. Yep. that’s me on the loo.

14/6/21

It’s funny to see how my clothes change as the seasons do too. Buddy is in a lot of the shots. I’m sure he’s looking at me here thinking “She’s so… weird.”

25/7/21

Well, I am. A bit.

2/8/21

But you love me Buddy, and newsflash, we’re all weird. Even you, my furry friend.

7/8/21

And yeah, even away, in our friends’ house, I had to get my weird on. Sometimes I’d do a last millisecond pose, just to change things up.

10/8/21

This ones also makes me laugh. I’ll call it ‘Life at the edge of the sun’.

27/8/21

In the house in the Cotswolds. I like the tones in this one.

14/9/21

So strange to see this room when it was white. I have no idea why we left it so long before we changed the colour in there. It looks so boring and cold compared to how it is now. And yes, Buddy is allowed on the table, because who’s to say he wouldn’t be up there when we’re not in anyway? I draw the line if he’s just been to the loo, but going by my logic, he probably goes up there when he has, when we’re not in - ha!

21/9/21

Me and the moon. Howling at it? Turning into a werewolf? Joking aside, it was a stunning full moon.

I’ll post more of these soon. Hey - that rhymes! Noice.

26 hours in Suffolk

Last weekend we drove to the Suffolk coast (Walberswick to be exact) to meet our friends SA & Y for some fish & chips by the sea. We lucked out with the weather, just like last time we went.

After lunch we went for a little walk to see what else was around, and saw these weather worn fishermen huts along the way.

And through this restaurant window I spotted these two, perfectly colour coordinated with the chairs 💙💙

To get from the car park to the fish & chips place you had to cross the water on the blue boat you can see to the right here. Thought it quite a racket as it cost us £20 for six people to cross back and forth. We’re clearly in the wrong business. For this weekend trip I thought I’d switch out my lens on the camera to a 50mm, and after having been shooting on a wider lens for years, I immediately regretted my decision. The pics I took on the boat are too tight, and there was no room for me to simply take a few steps back. What a fool.

Never mind. On land I can always take a step backwards to fit everything in.

Y looking through an abandoned house; pretty amazing huh? We couldn’t quite figure out if it had been just used for storage or lived in. Looking through the windows I couldn’t see a kitchen or any fireplaces, so I doubt that it was ever residential (or at least not in winter).

Time to say hello to the sea.

Hello sea 👋🏽

O did his usual thing of dipping his toes in. Good attitude to have in life.

Back at SA & Y’s house. Such a great one.

Ruby the dog needed a walk (or run rather) when we got back, so me and SA went out for a late afternoon walk in the surrounding fields, just us ladies. Everything is so green at the moment; that special intense new green that only exists when everything is freshly sprouted, but eventually grows less bright as summer takes hold. I love how nature just does it’s thing, like magic, every season.

Hey Rubes, how goes it? You’re very cute, aren’t you?

Nice bit of evening light on some painted poppies.

After dinner we played Syringe. Such a brilliant game - I recommend it wholeheartedly. Basically you write down a category of something and then something within it that you don’t show anyone (for example: countries - France, cars - Ford, fruit - passion fruit) and then you walk round the table with a syringe filled with water. If anyone guesses what you wrote down, they get squirted with water, and if no one does you have to squirt yourself in the face. So simple, and

so

much

fun.

SA and I used to work on interior design projects together years ago, and her and Y’s house is full of nice stuff. I seriously need to know where this lamp shade is from (she couldn’t remember - doh).

Ruby supervising the breakfast chefs.

Another lampshade shot, just because.

On Sunday morning we drove to Framlingham Castle to have a wander in the gardens.

It’s medieval innit

and built in the 1200’s. Crazy.

It’s also the only castle I’ve ever seen giving you the finger. With both towers. Do we think that it was a way of saying eff you to unwanted intruders (I know they’re chimneys but let’s pretend, as it’s funnier than the truth)?

We didn’t go inside the castle (but I kind of wish we had now, as my inner pensioner would have loved it); instead we walked around the lake. This dude was just setting up - not a bad spot either.

Window shopping in Framlingham. Lovely building too.

And finally, right before we left, a Polaroid being taken for O’s wall of friends and family that he’s got up in his room. A sweet ending to what felt like much longer than 26 hours, and I mean that in the best possible way.