Ville de Bruxelles - Part Two

Avenue of loveliness.

Old and new combine quite beautifully.

Parks that offer an oasis of cool and calm.

Magical glimpses...

Anywhere else it would be too much. In a palace... it seemed just right. 

Ceiling panels and chandeliers covered in wings of 1.6 million iridescent jewel beetles. Incredible.

Garden of green, gates and glass

Sadly, not mine. But such a beautiful place to spend a couple of hours wandering... restorative and inspiring.

Brief journeys - castles and kitchen gardens

iSimangaliso Safari

iSimangaliso must be the only place on the globe where the oldest land mammal (the rhinoceros) and the world’s biggest terrestrial mammal (the elephant) share an ecosystem with the world’s oldest fish (the coelacanth) and the world’s biggest marine
mammal (the whale)

Nelson Mandela

One translation of the Zulu word isimangaliso is 'a marvel'. Another translates it as a 'miracle and wonder' and indeed, it is. 

iSimangaliso Wetland Park is one of South Africa’s most amazing natural treasures and became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999, part of a huge nature reserve shared by South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique. I've visited some of this area before but not for many, many years and it was so lovely to go again in the company of some of my family, including my brother, who's a qualified game ranger and was, therefore, quite useful to have along (okay, he's quite good company too! ;)

The wetland park hosts a variety of ecological marvels, including long sandy beaches, swamps, savannas, grasslands, dunes (including the 2nd largest vegetated dune in the world), lakes and reed wetlands. The extensive and unique combination of ecological diversity is apparently because of its location in a transition zone between subtropical and tropical Africa. The wildlife is abundant and to see them all in their natural habitats... such a pleasure.

Giant leatherback turtles are a common sight on the beaches at the right times of the year (we didn't see any but I am definitely going back for that - it's on the list!) and the area is a migration route for whale sharks, whales and dolphins (my brother and I have had the privilege of swimming and diving with these). There are over 900 hippo in the reserve (I think we saw about 850 of them) and a large population of African Nile crocodiles, currently around 1500 we were told (we saw seven. That was plenty for me - creepy!).

It's hard to even begin to capture the beauty and magic of this place or its residents and my little camera and I and were woefully unequal to the task but I thought I'd share some of what we managed anyway. It's one of those places that really has to be experienced to be truly appreciated and at times I forgot to even lift my lens and was entirely content to just absorb it and be absorbed by it.

Beautiful mosaic map in the ranger station

Some of the aforementioned beaches - sand like soft brown sugar, warm air, Indian Ocean

Binoculars - invaluable!

First hippo sighting, as we sat down to lunch... no binoc's required, she was that close

More hippo... grazing.
Usually more of a nocturnal activity so we were lucky to see as many out.
Cloud cover - great stuff for game watching!

One of the best ways to get close to the inhabitants of a wetland park... is by boat

More hippo... doing what hippo do best

Consider yourself warned!

Casually wandering along the road... Big Five crew. 

These guys are scary fierce - best to keep one's distance

Magnificent kudu...

...enjoying a roadside snack

So close I could have touched her

Some of our most interesting sightings were not Big Five, or even very big, although by beetle standards, this is one of the largest - a dung beetle

Golden Orb spiders - waaayyy too many of these around for my liking - harmless but huge!

Iridescent beauty - as small as my fingernail (yes, that is dung in the top right - saw lots of that!)

Crested Guinea Fowl - this shot really doesn't do their beautiful plumage justice

Whereas I think this one is improved by the blur! (Thanks BG :)

Fading light... so peaceful!

Zoom in...

When the big picture seems a little daunting and I'm feeling overwhelmed, I find it helps to zoom in and savour the moment, the details, for a while. And it's all the better if they're served with a splash of sunshine.

Signs of life...

Keep your faith in beautiful things;

in the sun when it is hidden,

in the spring when it is gone.

Roy R. Gibson

A hush is over everything,

silent as women wait for love;

the world is waiting for the spring.

Sara Teasdale

One swallow does not make a spring, nor does one fine day.

Aristotle

...tiny, but unmistakable.

Not yet a new season but a move in the right direction for me. I'm so over winter and feeling blah. I need light. I need to feel the sap rising. I need my words to come back to me so that I can reconnect.

I miss them.

I miss me.

I miss you.

Signs of life. Tiny, but unmistakable.

Looking through Autumn eyes

These last few months have felt like an ongoing exercise in either running to stand still, or trying to catch up with myself. Actually, I think it's been more than a few months. Given what's been going on in and around my life, this is not all that surprising and I'm not bemoaning the fact, just acknowledging it. Change has left me stagnating where I hoped it would move me on and come with brutal force where I would not have had it visit me at all. In these places of wild transition I've not been so much driving or even navigating my journey as holding on for dear life so's not to fall into the void.  And all round there's not been much sparkle going on. As the end of the year approaches, all too fast, I find I have hardly the energy left to generate a glimmer, let alone a glow. It's been a hard year so far and I stand here, facing another long dark winter, feeling empty and cracked and worn out. 

Much like this little group of objects at the weekend flea market. 

Strange thing is when I look at them, unlike when I look into the mirror of my heart right now, I don't see something devoid of value, discarded and broken. I see rich texture and warm colour and a story of a job well done and rest well-earned and permission granted to lie still and fallow whilst Autumn settles down in preparation for Winter to take her turn. And I see the promise of life still to be had and purpose served anew when the seasons turn again. With a little care, rich soil and spring bulbs, a lick of paint, a dab of oil, a freshly trimmed wick, I see they might retain the goodness wrought by wear and tear and go on to bring new joy. Sparkle even.

Maybe I need to pause, stand properly still for a moment, and then look in the mirror again... with kinder eyes. With Autumn eyes.

P.S. thanks to lovely Lisa for pointing me towards the Autumn colour week going on over at Poppytalk. I do so love a colour week and, conveniently, Monday's colour is green.

Colour week - it's a rainbow 'round here

The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, 

a portion of the rainbow I have clutched.

Henry David Thoreau

(1817-1862)

When I daydream about my perfect home it broadly includes a white, light-drenched space with a small lush garden and an ocean view. More often than not it's decorated with lots of natural materials in light neutrals, accented with rich but subtle colours. Strange then that I find myself living in a city-centre apartment, without even a tiny balcony let alone a garden, a view of a city skyline, not a lot of natural light, and decorated in quite dark neutrals and bright jewel colours. And I'm happy here. What both have in common I guess is that they are calm and peaceful spaces that reflect the things and the people I love. If I were living in my dream home I would have posted whites today. But what I see around me is a rainbow. And living in a rainbow is not such a bad place to be.

~ several years ago now I moved to the Eternal City to live for a few years and whilst there I met a kindred-spirit, someone who showed me the ropes, shared her days with me, and gave me some of my happiest and most enduring memories of the place. I had no idea at the time how profoundly this meeting would impact on my life. She and her husband returned to Canada, I went to France and then came to the UK but we remain friends, joined at the heart across the distance. Joined at the heart I like to believe, like the city where we met, eternally. Even at a distance she enriches my life, loves and supports me unconditionally and gifts me with her thoughtfulness and a warm deep wisdom, always when I need it most.  She has also given me some of the things I treasure most and love to have around my home, including this incredible glass colour wheel, made especially for me. When it catches the light, I think of her and the creativity that runs in her veins and the love that she embodies. And it makes me smile. Thank you E.

~ we've already visited my bookshelves once this week and I return to this one now because it's a rainbow of colour and content. My book collection is vast and eclectic. I love books. I enjoy electronic media but I hope we never ever move away entirely from books made of paper and ink. Books that we hold in our hands, that we keep on shelves, that we revisit like good friends for years and years. Those who love books will get this. Those who don't will not. Let's just leave it at that.

~ last night a friend turned thirty and we celebrated with a party where everyone was required to wear a wacky wig. Fancy dress for heads. It was fun - great fun. This gift bag, hanging on my living room door was waiting to leave for the party... where, like it, there was a swirl of rainbow colour and style. I love to wear a party wig and I think that every opportunity to do so should be taken. Wig-wearing releases the alter-egos of people, usually their bolder, sparklier sides, and I love to observe those at play. Mine was red, very bright red, and curly and big. Very big. I was channelling someone who might have hung out with Dolly Parton in her big hair heyday and it was fab. Perhaps I'll model it for red day of our next colour week.

~ There's something magical about a kaleidoscope, isn't there? I'd like to collect them and so far I have two. More than one is a collection, right? This tiny one, a souvenir from a visit to science museum, offers up a rainbow both inside and out. It always makes me smiley.

~ today's breakfast. Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day to eat out - love it - but I'm not always very good about eating it at home. I know that's not good, so since I've moved I'm trying to make an effort to do so more regularly and one of the ways I find makes it easier for me to stick to this resolution is to make it up on a little tray. This morning I started my day with some red berry tea, cereal with milk and a sparkling blue sky - perfect.

And that rounds up colour week. I've enjoyed having the opportunity to look for the colourful comfort and sparkle in my living space. It's interesting to see one's own world through the lens with this kind of emphasis. It's shown me things and made me think about them as I might not otherwise have done. And it's given me something positive and creative to focus my attention on, which is always a good thing and just what I needed. Like Thoreau, I realise that the true harvest of my life to-date is intangible but that the things that surround me remind me of these, and facilitate the creation of them too - love, friendship, fun, learning, contentment... happiness. A rainbow of beauty and emotion. Thank you to lovely Lisa who initiated and hosted our colour explorations and to everyone who popped by to say hello, and who shared the beauty of colour in their worlds for our enjoyment. It has been a pleasure.

A happy, rainbow-filled weekend to you!

Colour week - green, green, where are you?

Every day in colour week up to now I've had an abundance of the colour of the day to photograph in my flat, bearing in mind that I chose to limit my search area to just my apartment living space. Green has definitely been the most challenging so far for me. I'm not sure why. I love green but apparently it's not a colour I love to live with. It appears in little accents all over he place but if you looked at the space, I don't think green would pop out at you. Having said that, once I tuned my eye in to it, there were green bits to be found, especially in the kitchen.

~ the last of an absolutely magnificent arrangement of flowers that a friend gave me when I moved in. It had huge, white, deliciously spicy smelling lilies and softest pussy willow catkins in it. All that remain now are the green bits, including those chartreuse chrysanthemums, which always amaze me with their colour and form. They make me think of fireworks for some reason.

~ more coloured glass, all shiny and pretty on the shelves that are over my sink in the kitchen. The little vintage cruet set is something I bought more for how pretty it is than how practical I imagined it would be, but it turns out it's very useful and adds a lovely shot of colour to a dining table.

~ as I mentioned earlier in the week, I'm not a regular coffee drinker but I always have some in the house for guests and I like to try them out so that I know what I'm serving. This is a new blend that I've not had before and I freely admit that I bought it because it's African, Fairtrade, and has a picture of lush green jungle with gorillas on the packaging. I know the coffee connoisseurs amongst you are probably drawing breath in horror but it's true. Fortunately, it tastes pretty good too. I'm not sure I fully appreciated the butter toffee finish but I would certainly not be too embarrassed to serve it. And I do love the packaging.

~ tea towels. I have many. Once again, I'd probably be accused - not unfairly - of buying most of them 'cause of how pretty they are rather than with pure function in mind, although they seem to manage both quite well. And my friends apparently recognise this in me too because the one on the right travelled all the way from South Africa in a gift, and was made there, like me. I always think that when I read that text on it. The one on the left, came from the States, also from a lovely friend, who knows my colour passions well. I think of them both every time I use these beauties, with love.

~ and here we have... yet again... my quilt. That quilt is going start getting delusions of grandeur, it's made so many recent appearances on this blog. But it is a bit of a star in my life right now, and I am made happy every evening when I crawl in under it. This is a detail from the underside, which includes lovely purples and greens. I like that it's as pretty (albeit quite different) on both sides. I think there's a reminder in this for me, which has something to do with the reason I believe in wearing pretty undies even when no-one sees them, and painting my toenails gorgeous colours even if I'm wearing closed toe shoes. It's something about how even what can't be seem has an influence on how the world feels to me and I like to think that lovely on the inside, or in the bits that we can't see, is as important a part of that (if not more so) as what's on the outside. And I like that to be colourful too. Yeah, I know. It's a bit daft. But it's true.

So the green I sought was found - a little less obvious in the space perhaps but still bringing its own quality of comfort and sparkle into my every day. Thank you green, for subtly adding your value. It's much appreciated.

Can't believe we've almost reached the end of the week of colour it's been a busy week and this fun colour exploration has made it a bearable one. I am slowly making my way around everyone's lovely posts and the flickr group and am just blown away by how much colourful beauty people are finding and how creatively they are capturing it... what a treat.

I hope that wherever you are, and whatever you're up to, you have a very happy and colourful Friday!

♥

Let the majority rule...

Framed?

Unframed?

In the spirit of democracy and as I've been dithering about it and simply cannot choose for myself because I like both for different reasons, I'd like to enlist your help in deciding how to present photographs here from now on, and I'll go with the majority vote. I quite liked the look of the framed version of my recent inspiration board and I wondered if I might extend it to all my pictures. Or most at least, as at some point I might change it up again. I really appreciated your thoughts on the larger size, which I'm enjoying, but which of these formats do you prefer? The framed or unframed versions?

I tend towards a preference for quite a lot of white space but I appreciate that I work on a little 13" Macbook so what I see will be different to what many of you might be looking at.

I've been tinkering around with the look and feel of my little blog space over the past few weeks and although it's hardly a dramatic overhaul, I have finally made a few updates I've been wanting to try for a while - inserting post dividers; tidying up the sidebar; putting up a menu linked to some pages where I can record and access some of my favourite quotations more readily; working out how to tweak the HTML to create a background for the entire space; creating some linked images out to other spaces like my Flickr favourites and my other little blog project... and it's been fun playing around with it. I can't explain how excited I was when I actually managed to figure out the HTML for removing the border on my header - it's a little bit sad really - I'm so untechy and easily thrilled when I learn something new.

Anyway, I think I'm quite happy with it (although, as always, I'll need to live with it for a bit to be sure and am delighted to have your feedback either way) but now I'm at that crucial point I sometimes reach with my paintings, where I'm not entirely sure whether to fine-tune just a fraction more or leave well alone. And I simply can't decide about this photo format thing. I appreciate it's hardly going to upset the universal balance either way but if you feel inclined to chime in, I'd value your input... otherwise, it may just be decided on a coin toss. So, what do you think?

Unframed?

Framed?

These pictures were taken recently - the top set at a local art gallery, where I go for tea quite often. They have a tiny but lovely collection of iron and bronze works, including the little study of Eve by Rodin (bottom centre of the mosaic) who looks a bit like I feel on a Monday morning. And the bottom one taken on an early morning crossing into the City over London Bridge looking east towards Tower Bridge and a wintry sunrise, a view which makes a Monday (or any day of the week) feel just a little bit better.

It's been great to read the lovely lists of what you were up to at the weekend and although it hardly feels like I've had a pause to speak of and here we are at Monday again, there's no stopping the march of days, so, deep breath and off we go again.... 

Wherever you are and whatever you're facing this week, I wish you a happy one!

♥