Back, but memories of 2012 still run laps in my head. Summer has been endless road trips and sea salt, hair in my mouth from the wind ; incandescent like sunlight catching on M’s silhouette at the doorway. I would like to believe that nothing scares me anymore.
Wishing I knew more about architecture so I can bring its stories home – telling you I counted Ionic orders, Doric columns, pretended to hold up porticos in pictures and tumbled down a crepidoma (which I am standing on in this picture) into a ramshackle hypocaust, keystones, Byzantine arches, Gothic ornaments, waxing lyrical like a 8th century builder. It would be very good to understand, or would my head explode in rapture? Most of the time I am collecting memories of grandeur I fail to appropriate into mere words. I want you to see all that I have seen.
Along the Amalfi coast, en route Amalfi town from Positano. The blue SITA bus will shuttle you along the drive (7.2€ buys a 24hr pass), holding you captive to beauty and exhilaration because this journey is a mere foot away from a sheer plunge into the rocks and ocean. I ignored my screaming mind and leaned across Sheena to film.
See, the road is a lover of the mountains, hugging them with sinuous lines and meanders. Each concave turn reveals resorts hidden in unique rocky coves, nestled within the folds of the valley. As it curves out, the expanse of the Mediterranean is startling and wonderful to behold, waves hurtling themselves against the cliffs, crests flecked with froth. The sea is so deeply azure it feels viscous, like it’s got density and strength. If i were to hold it, it would stain my fingers blue. It is liquid sapphire.
Where I always feel belittled before nature’s magnificence, here I felt a delirious sense of possibility. The world is so pulsating and tremulous with beauty and I cannot wait to take in more. I have never seen anything like this.
Outside looking in.
Polignano A Mare, Italy, June 2011
This New Year’s Eve, I picked up a kitten which stumbled like a newborn fawn, all tabby and bones. 2011 began with my heart breaking, when I found out she didn’t have a cure, so all she gets is a bellyful of fish and a whole lotta loving.
Jeremy and I have been on a rampage for Russian folk tunes recently, him more so than me. Pretty melodies set in a foreign language are charming more often than not. Prekrasnoe Daleko (translated: Beautiful Future) is one of our favourites at the moment. It is the soundtrack to a five-part Russian telemovie, Gostya iz Budushchego (Guest from the Future) filmed in 1985. Isn’t this video spectacular? Isn’t the girl at 2:00 perfect? There is a fond place in my heart for mushroom bobs.`
Silas being his usual contortionist perfection on a lazy afternoon. His Chinese name is 林喜乐 – a phonetic translation of Silas in Mandarin, also directly translating into “happy joy”, which is exactly what he is. Silas 林喜乐, you are absolutely perfect to me!
This is really uncharacteristic but I spent the past weekend, happily, on a kungfu movie marathon.
Back from a curiously unpretty settlement nestled in the beautiful highlands. Hardly took the camera out so most memories are in my head.
– Watching on helplessly and in disbelief as roadkill happened
– Reading at Starbucks and looking up to discover that everything was white – we were in a passing cloud! Surreal.
– Witnessing Mum and Ah Ee Mummy, who are thrifty to a fault, place their bets at the casino with absolute nonchalance.
– Looking down upon toyland from my castle in the clouds.
Motionless is my one true love, waiting for birds by the window.