About a dog I loved ...

I left her behind when I left New Zealand 10 years ago.

She had a really good home, the 'mum' of her doggy mum.

Diana thought she might survive until I returned in December but Ellie-dog died last night ...

The Story of Being Interviewed for TV ...

This wasn't the first time, I've been interviewed for television before ...

I'm not sure if you read through the various blog pages I have on this website but I wrote the story of my recent interview experience over on my Antwerp blog page so ... just in case you missed it, it's there and not here, where I had originally intended to tell the story.

Dorianne Laux, Antilamentation

Regret none of it, not one
of the wasted days you wanted to know nothing,
when the lights from the carnival rides
were the only stars you believed in, loving them
for their uselessness, not wanting to be saved.
You’ve traveled this far on the back of every mistake,
ridden in dark-eyed and morose but calm as a house
after the TV set has been pitched out the upstairs
window. Harmless as a broken ax. Emptied
of expectation. Relax. Don’t bother remembering any of it.
Let’s stop here, under the lit sign
on the corner, and watch all the people walk by.

Dorianne Laux, an extract from her poem, Antilamentation .

It has been a truly insane week ... involving 5 intense hours with a camera crew filming me, a corporate photo-shoot and life.

Blog post to follow soon.


A new portrait series ...

Yesterday I spent some hours over at the Radiant Light Yoga Studio here in Antwerp.  These last few weeks have seen me working on a new project that involves creating a series of yoga portraits.  It's probably clear in the portrait below but I am absolutely loving this attempt of capturing the truly lovely yoga folk I find there.

Today was the day when I could no longer resist dipping my toes in the 'water' of this discipline that was causing me to relax even while I was photographing the classes.  Today I attended my first yoga class. 

My body has suffered quite some damage over the years and I was slightly concerned about how it would go, this desire to make the stiff and unbendy bits of me supple again.

I loved it and I can barely wait to return although the next few days are busy and I'll have to be patient ... so patient.

Huge thanks go to Yogalates Instructor, Lama (pictured below), for being so patient with me as she worked her way through a series of moves from her yoga practice and for permission to post her image here.

Happiness is ...

I suspect happy is a feeling that sneaks up on you just as you notice it's missing ... sometimes anyway.

It's been a rough ride of late, with much to be learnt, but good things keep happening.

And I've been invited into the world of Fans of Flanders.  Lots of nice things happening there ... although let's see if I'm still saying that after the interview is filmed.  But seriously, I'm looking forward to it.

I'm also writing a weekly blogpost over on their website.

The trip home is coming closely ... slowly.

I've been offered a couple of very interesting photography projects too.

My life is a little bit up and down and all over the place but that's normal, isn't it?

So yes, happiness is all kinds of everything perhaps.

The Bird, Zeeland

You can’t give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they’re strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree.
Then a taller tree. Then the sky.
That’s how you’ll end up … If you let yourself love a wild thing.
You’ll end up looking at the sky.
Truman Capote.

We were over in Holland today, in Zeeland, on a couple of their emptier beaches.

I love photographing birds in flight.  And so I did.

More That Makes Me Happy...

Kathleen put out the challenge and here I am, still blogging those things that make me happy ...

This is our dining room/lounge area - taken a few moments ago.  There's a lot of happy here.

I love the colours Gert painted it, partially inspired by Monet's kitchen in France.  We loved the yellow there.  Then you can see Amedeo's painting resting between my two photographs taken in Istanbul.  I adore that painting because it was gift from Amedeo, because he's hugely talented and because he painted me a photography shop there in the city of Genova.

Most of the furniture you see in the photograph is secondhand.  Gert and I are divorce orphans.  Our divorces pretty much took everything we had accrued over our 12 and 14 years of marriage and voila, later, when we met each other, we had to begin again.   

Children, stay married, or get pre-nups because divorce can be a vicious beast if you end up on the wrong side.

Anyway, I love the oak table pictured, found for 70 euro at our favourite secondhand shop here in the city.  I introduced Gert to secondhand treasures and he quickly succumbed to its curious charm.  The chairs were 65 euro for the lot and the red couch in the background ... it was something very reasonable that I fell for too, writes this woman who is easily made happy with treasure found secondhand.

Oh! And, there on the big wooden cabinet, are flowers by Dieter.  We really like Dieter because he's a lovely man and makes the best flowers arrangements.  I changed this one a little because I was rushing but, truly, his arrangements are beautiful artworks.

 

Something else that makes me happy ...

Whenever I leave Genova, I go through a withdrawal as I leave the source of some truly superb coffee, found at Caffè degli Specchi.

I know there's a shift to make ... from the sublime back to the-best-I-can-find-here.

This was my answer to the spotty quality of coffee found outside of Genova.  A small machine, the most I could afford and yes, it makes me happy.

The small cup is just the perfect size.  An exquisite gift from the mother of my first husband, given to me when she came over and spent a couple of weeks with us last summer.  Thank you, Valda :-)

What people say about working with me ... and some of my work

 

Any time I raise anything on stage, I ask Di Mackey to join the project. Her photographic work is magnificent and I love her presence: her portraits are stunning, they expose intimacy, humor, and pensiveness; her photographs capture the space, the movement, human interaction deliciously, in a way that one feels invited to an event long after it disappeared from the public scene.

In all her unobtrusiveness when working with the camera, Di is great fun to hang out with, the artists, scholars, thinkers, curators of our big Berlin exhibition highly appreciated her, and when working together in Cairo, Istanbul, Berlin, or wherever else, I enjoy her kindness, humor, and delightful presence. 

I miss her at the time when we are “in between projects.”  One of the first things I will do when starting a huge new project is to ask Di whether she wants to do the photographic work.  I hope she will. 

Shulamit Bruckstein, curator, director of TASWIR projects / ha’atelier.

 

That Desire for Home ...

The desire to go home is a desire to be whole, to know where you are, to be the point of intersection of all the lines drawn through all the stars, to be the constellation-maker and the center of the world, that center called love. To awaken from sleep, to rest from awakening, to tame the animal, to let the soul go wild, to shelter in darkness and blaze with light, to cease to speak and be perfectly understood.

Rebecca Solnit.

I used to sit there, near the top of the hill, at the edge.  Located on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, it was a great place to sit and dream about the world ... 6,000kms away from my east coast they told me.

I'm beginning to believe that I'm finally going home ... after 8 years away.  I never imagined, not even for a second, that I would ever spend longer than a year away from this landscape that owns my soul.

But I've looked around while I've been gone ... fallen for Genova, loved Istanbul, live in Flanders, wandered in Cairo and Paris and Amsterdam, Barcelona and Salamanca, Madrid too.  Adored and was awed by Rome, smiled in Naples, survived Berlin.  Enjoyed Ireland and England, France.

But going home ... it's as the quote says, I suspect. 

 

Happiness is ...

The other day my lovely friend, the talented soprano Kathleen Berger, had this idea over on facebook ... she was going to post a photograph of something that made her happy, every day.

I liked the idea.  There's been so much doom and gloom lately, so much chaos. 

I have spent this year following the poet, Amy Turn Sharp, as she creates a poem every day through 2012.  I love her poetry.  I love those daily poems.

To begin ... one of my favourite things is surely my deep red bookshelves, the ones that hang next to me, here at my desk.  They are loaded with my treasured books and dvds.  And there are little gifts too.

The painting from and by artist, Karla Verdugo, the red cardinal from the lovely Lisa Ferreira.  The beautiful tile with the perfect message, from Raquel. 

The worst summer ever ...

But perhaps that's only how it feels at the moment however the last few months have been horrible, and this 'horrible' looks set to continue a while, until I work out how to process it all.

If I told you the story of it all, you wouldn't believe me but it's been surreal ... so surreal.

Mostly I'm living very quietly while wishing I was off wandering. 

Here's to autumn being a better season, and to trams being 'enough' for the moment.

 

Wandering again ...

it was just a little wander but one that confirmed that I am happiest when catching a train or a plane, a bus or a car to someplace else ...

It was a short journey, maybe an hour and a quarter across Belgium, into French-speaking Wallonia.  There I had the loveliest day, lazily catching up with Wendy and Patrice, and Momo the dog.

And their sunflowers were stunning, just stunning!

This Summer ...

This summer, we spent two weeks using this staircase so many times every day ... our bedroom, with that exquisitely huge old-fashioned bath, was up on the first landing.

I snapped this image, handheld, 'interesting' light, didn't think it would work ... but I like it.

Miss 8

In lovely news, Little Miss 8 has returned to Belgium.  We've spent these last couple of weeks, lying on the bed, reading for an hour or two most days.  We have now reached Book 5 of Harry Potter.

We re-enrolled at her old school today and everyone seemed very pleased to see her again. 

I am.

Sometimes ...

Sometimes, our house just fills right back up again and my responsibilities change.

I am currently buried in the cleaning of this quirky little Belgian house, babysitting, and stuff.

Clare and Chris ...

They booked their visit months ago.  It was written into 'the book' and then time passed, in its usual haphazard manner.  Being me, I lost track but suddenly, despite this non-participation with regard to time, it was 25 August and voila, they were here.

I met Clare in Istanbul and adored her there.  She left, we stayed in contact and Gert and I had the joy of photographing her British wedding to the lovely Chris ...  

This friendship,  it's been lovely so far.

Yesterday we wandered the city ending our day at Taverne Ter Rivierenhof, with unlimited exceptionally exquisite Mosselen a Velonte, Scampi in Lookboter, and Stoverij.  Bliss!

This morning a traditional Belgian breakfast was enjoyed by all, conversations too, and then afternoon saw them disappear on our bikes, exploring this city Clare has only visited during colder months.  Chris has never been here ... it was therefore imperative that he went wandering.

Last heard of, they were leaving the Open Air Sculpture Park called Middelheim, heading for the famous Het Elfde Gebod - a pub full of religious statues, bought when the Catholic Church entered its minimalist phase.

There have been a couple of serious downpours but we're thinking they're fine.  She's an intrepid soul, as is he ... and we're looking forward to the stories that will surely be told over Shepherd's Pie and Pavlova tonight.

Oh ... and red wine too. Belgian beers for the boys we're thinking - in the style of an anthropological-style ethnography.  Gert's been introducing all the blokes to the new beer by Duvel Tripel Hop.  So far, everyone he has introduced to this new limited edition beer to, has looked like they have partaken of a miracle upon supping from their Duvel glass.

Even Clare toyed with not returning Chris's glass to him after a taste of the Duvel, despite the fact that we in the midst of our own red wine religious experience.  That, my friends, is how good the Duvel Tripel Hop is ... 

Anyway, meet Chris and Clare.