I went out into the city searching for beauty today. It had started well this morning ... there was blue sky and sunshine but I moved too slowly and voila, by the time I left the house, it was grey.
A few weeks ago, I had made one fast family visit to Antwerp's relatively new MAS museum and had found myself wondering whether the top floor might not feed my need for a view. It's not bad but, by crikey, it's flat here.
Another view from The MASS Museum, here in Antwerp.
I left the MASS Museum and walked back through the grey city, carrying my heavy camera bag, wondering why an earth I had taken it out on a such a dull day.
I stopped to look through the window at my favourite art gallery here in the city. It's the place where I consistently see art that appeals to me ... which is no mean feat. And it's easy to pass-by, located in Maalderijstraat, between the Cathedral and Grote Markt.
Anyway, I decided I would blog about it and so asked Minske if she spoke English. Of course she did. Most Antwerpenaars speak English. I asked if I might take a photograph of the gallery and share it with you here but then ... I got distracted.
I asked Minske Van Wijk how she had ended up with the gallery and somehow, we kept talking and it turned out she had also made a short film titled De Veer van César.
I was curious to know more and, at some point, realised this film might be 'the beautiful thing' I was searching for in the city today.
And so it was. I came home, organised my little world here, then sat back to watch. It's delicious! It has English subtitles (and French too), and it gives a delightful sense of this place. A behind-the-scenes glimpse. Oh I need to write of this in a better way but for this first taste, you only need to know that it is poetry, and beautiful cinematography, and wonderful animation ...
You can find out where to buy your own copy of the DVD over here. Meanwhile, the trailer is below ... without subtitles.
So ... Gert tells me, the last time we had more than 14 days without the temperature rising above zero degrees celsius was ... 1-17 January, 1941.
Tomorrow we hit Day 14 under zero celsius.
Back in 1987 and again 1997 there were 12 consecutive days under zero.
Zero celsius = 37 farenheit.
More often we've been down around -10 -14 celsius these mornings (converts to 7- 14 farenheit), and there have even been a couple of -20, when you factor in wind chill factor (-4 farenheit).
Nothing much in the way of snow but, by crikey, it's been cold here in Belgium lately.
Today, meanwhile, is a day of editing. I have 2 big projects and a third smaller project to work through. Miss 7 needs picked up from her new school way across the city and I foolishly just checked out the temperature. It was -10 celsius at 9am. The sky is grey, the ground in the backyard is white ... but more because the snow of a few days ago has frozen and frozen and frozen again. They're talking of more today snow ... we kind of hope so because it pulls the temperature up.
I rarely take off my thermal underwear in these days, and it's all about multiple layers when stepping outside. The only question is whether to wear the leather and sheepskin coat, the one that weighs about as much as an adult polar bear, or the long black boiled-wool coat, with a polarfleece underneath.
And then there's the hat, and scarf, the good gloves, and hiking boots, and woollen socks too. Did I tell you it's cold here? So very cold.
But ... the days are getting longer! We're hanging onto that. The shortest days fell in the mild days of winter. Now it's all down and dirty, weatherwise, but we have more light. It makes things more bearable.
To work.
In one of my previous lives, and I've had more than a few so far, I used to bake, and to cook impromptu dinners for other people.
I loved it but it was another time, before the pressure of a long list of things 'I must do' arrived. Back then, I was a mother and a housewife, a dog owner, a wanderer but on a very small scale, while following my first husband's teaching career round the South Island of New Zealand.
I moved to Istanbul, the oven didn't work. No baking was done. Impromptu dinners were usually the stove-top cooked Persian Chicken. Two years later and I arrived in Belgium where I was introduced to strange and unknown idea of a gas oven and really, I hated it. Ours was a dodgy one. The first and the second.
Suddenly, due to an almost-Christmas-Eve oven failure, we have an electric one that almost works and voila, we're hosting Stephanie and Catalina tonight. There's a big fat tasty Shepherds Pie ready to cook, with sultana scones as a dessert. A 'dessert' fit for an Englishwoman and this homesick kiwi. And quite immodestly, I'm delighted with the results.
And it seemed, to me, like the perfect way to say thank you to Stephanie and Catalina for inviting us along to our very first English pantomime here in Antwerpen on Sunday afternoon. It was divine. So very much what I had read of growing up but never actually attended.
Tot straks from this kiwi in Belgium