Summer in the city

Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.

Henry James

London living... take three

I like the spirit of this great London which I feel around me.

Charlotte Brontë, Villette

Your own exploration therefore has to be personalised; you're doing it for yourself, increasing your own store of particular knowledge, walking your own eccentric version of the city.

Geoff Nicholson, The Lost Art of Walking

London - beautiful, immortal London - has never been a 'city' in the simplest sense of the word. It was, and is, a living, breathing thing, a stone leviathan that harbours secrets underneath its scales. It guards them covetously, hiding them deep within its body; only the mad or the worthy can find them.

Samantha Shannon

This is life, in all its gruesome, lovely, neon-lit glory.

Nuala Casey, Soho, 4am

This city had been a city for two thousand years, and I could feel that with every step I took. Bits of all that time were still here, alive, even if it was just in the form of collective memory.

Carrie Vaughn

It is the glory of London that it is always ending and beginning anew, and that a visitor, with a good eye and indefatigable feet, will find in her travels all the Londons she has ever met in the pages of books, one atop the other, like the strata of the Earth.

Anna Quindlen, Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City

Brief journeys - impressions of Toronto

“Before the real city could be seen it had to be imagined, the way rumours and tall tales were a kind of charting.”

Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion

~ Peonies and rain showers.
~ Geese. Of the Canadian variety, of course. Bronze and feathered, both.
~ Rest and restoration. Good sleep, warm hospitality, leisurely pace.
~ Walks and chats. Lots of that...
~ Waterfalls and sunlight create magic in the sky.
~ Love, and a wander down memory lane.
~ Iconic skyline.
~ Did I mention the Peonies? Never, ever, seen so many.
~ A beach, a far horizon and a big sky. Some of my favourite things.

♥

Garden of green, gates and glass

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

Minding my P's & Q's

Dear Universe,

For all the talk around here about change and the excitement of that, I'm very conscious that there was much in the past year that I loved and would like to carry with me into the new year.

Amongst the best bits, these in particular stand out:

~ Picnics - beach picnics, forest picnics, garden picnics, car picnics, sofa picnics... barefoot picnics are my favourite. 

~ New destinations - near and far, exotic or not. I don't mind. Travel, travel, travel.

~ Time to be - to stare at horizons under big skies and just be - fully present in the moment.

~ Heart to hearts - with special, interesting and passionate people. People with heart. And soul.

~ Creative work - challenging, colourful, meaningful, creative work. LOTS of it!

~ Moments of discovery and wonder... may I never become too jaded to notice them. No matter how brief or tiny.

~ Conversation and companionship - good times with good people and good food is my preferred format.

~ Solitude - not loneliness.

~ Fun - reminders that sometimes it's good to just laugh and play. And opportunities to do so.

~ Sea and sunshine - it was pervasive and it made all the difference.

Thank you for all of these in 2012. Yes please to more in 2013... 

And thank you in advance.

You have heard my deepest heart and responded. I am grateful.

K xox

Grounded in 2012

Inspired and delighted by Lisa's beautiful, colourful and soul-full 'I was here' mosaics, I thought I'd look back through my 2012 photographs to see what I could find out about where my own feet have been this year.

I usually take lots of foot and shadow shots - sometimes they're the only pictures I have of myself in a place and are the self-portraits I'm most comfortable with - but I apparently didn't take that many this year. I wonder why that is, given that I did more travelling than I have in a very long time and had more sunshine to play with. I seemed to be even more focussed on horizons and skies than usual though and have zillions (maybe even gazillions) of these!

I notice when I look at these that I'm very drawn to texture underfoot - it's often what causes me to pause. They're all - to me - very evocative of where I was at the time, which is why I take them, but I think I'll make more of an effort in the year to come to take some different pictures of myself in situ... or at least, some different foot-shots.

Namibian Retreat

Touch the earth, love the earth, honour the earth, her plains,
her valleys, her hills, her deserts, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places.
Henry Beston

Solace sought (and found) where sand and sky combine to create space - immense space, heart space, breathing space. 

Just sorting through the sensations, impressions, and the photographs. More to follow...

Gentle days and soft greys...

Everything that ever walked or crawled on the face of the earth, swum the depths of the ocean or soared through the skies left its imprint here.

Robert M. Fresco

(1930)

Walking the shores of the Indian Ocean... warm air, warm water... warm heart! Leaving our footprints alongside those of the birds, the fishermen, their dogs and the hippo.


*picture, middle right - adult male sibling foot alongside adult male/female hippo spoor. Not something one often encounters at the beach.

When to start?

What seems to us bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.

Oscar Wilde

(1854-1900)

Next Monday, on the 1st of the month, on the 1st of the year, after this anniversary, before that Birthday, after the final session in this series, when the sun shines, when it next rains, when it snows, when the sun shines again, when I finish this book, when the washing's done, when the clock hits 11:11... there's always a reason to wait, another milestone to reach before starting to write here again. Before starting to look out into the world instead of curling in on myself and preserving what little energy I have for breathing.

Today's a pretty big milestone though. The beginning of a new and very important countdown. And so I think this has to be when.

For a long, long time it's felt too hard, too painful, too lonely, too dark, too much, too little, too empty... no words... locked in on myself. I've never been down quite as deep as this before, or for as long. I've never had to kick quite as hard to swim back towards the surface. But the surface feels in reach now.  So, I think this has to be when.

There's always a reason to wait. And then, suddenly, one day, there's no reason at all. Today was that day. So I think this has to be when. 

Just hit publish, Kenda, and you'll have started.... This has to be when.

[ Flickr loveliness credited here]

Brief journeys - I went to London for a couple of days...

...one of the most vibrant cities in the world...
and this is what I saw.

Could be anywhere, right?

Oh yes, glamorous and exciting times.

I usually try to get out on the town a bit when I travel for work, even if it's just for a wander around the neighbourhood I'm staying in, which this time was Bloomsbury, one of my favourite areas in central London. Unfortunately the schedule this week did not allow even that small pleasure.

But, on the upside, despite being a partial building site in sections, the hotel was very comfortable, and the staff friendly and helpful so, if I had to be locked within four walls, they were not the worst four walls to be locked in. And, although the food was mostly fast and eaten on the run, it was fresh and yummy. And yes, it was quite hard work, but the group were lovely, enthusiastic people, keen to learn and practice the craft of designing, developing and delivering great, engaging learning workshops, which was very gratifying.

So all in all, not a bad few days. Glad to be home though. Nothing beats sleeping in my own bed.

Sundowners

We are staunch and true and in rather a champagne mood.

Franz Marc

(1880-1916)

Get up and dance, get up and smile, get up and drink to the days that are gone in the shortest while.
Simon Fowler
(1965)

It was one of those evenings, the celebration of a 30th Birthday, where at times I felt alone in the crowd. I enjoyed it nevertheless: the company of good friends, a view of an iconic building in the late afternoon sunlight, bubbles in a glass, an excuse to wear pretty shoes and to dance...

Love is a promise...

..., love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.

John Lennon

(1940-1980)

It's been quite sad around here for the past few weeks and as far as my brother's concerned, we aren't quite through the crisis yet. He's slightly more stable now though and being well taken care of and although he's not much better, he's also no worse, so we see that as reason to be optimistic. Thank you for all the caring wishes and positive thoughts. Please know that although I haven't been around here much, I am reading and taking to heart every kind word, passing them on to my family, and am so thankful for them. For you. 

I'm struck this weekend by how even in sad times there are so many reasons to be thankful and sometimes even to celebrate. A year ago I stood beside two of my sweetest friends as they declared their love for each other and we celebrated that declaration with a beautiful, traditional wedding party. I can hardly believe a year has passed already but it has, and today I congratulate them on their first anniversary with wishes of love and a traditional gift to mark the occasion - of paper.  Well, of mostly paper. 

I've long wanted to try making one of these little tag collections and this gave me an opportunity to do so. The tags are tiny, not much more than an inch high and I'd intended to do twelve but, in the end, nine worked better. On them I compiled a small collage of things from the wedding day, including a few picture transfers, pieces of paper embellishment from the table decor, pressed flowers from the bouquets, shells from the beach, snippets of ribbon and fabric and other bits and bobs. The photograph is not the greatest (a combination of rushing and bad lighting - sorry) but this is how it turned out. 

It's been good for me to have something so positive to focus my attention on this weekend and it gave me pleasure to recall the joy of the occasion and to lose myself for a couple of hours in something creative, to escape the gnawing anxiety of the past few weeks even briefly. It's hardly an artistic masterpiece and I don't anticipate it'll become a family heirloom but I'm hoping it will serve as a reminder to them, for a little while at least, of the happiness of the day and the happiness they are wished in all the days to come...

They're away right now enjoying a romantic weekend break so I'll be giving it to them tomorrow when we meet for an after-work glass of bubbly. I do hope they like it.  I'll let you know.

And I hope that wherever you are and whatever you are up to, you are having a relaxing and love-filled weekend too.

♥ K

Happy half hour

It was a beautiful day for a walk: gentle cows and yellow flowers in fields and treasures to be discovered along my path - a beckoning gate; shoe, bench and sand sculptures; an encouraging sign; just me and my shadow, and a fragile beauty washed up by the tide - a magical half hour of peace and solitude.

In my memory it glows even brighter, more intensely.

Memory can be like that, can't it?

Hanging in there, hanging around, hanging up stuff...

We are never more than

one grateful thought away

from peace of heart.

Brother David Steindl-Rast

(1926)

Home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve; it is life's undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

(1811-1896)

Greetings my friends from planet kendalee where it's been a strange, interesting and sometimes challenging few weeks. I won't bore anyone with all the gory details - suffice to say that after the initial move there have been a few hiccups, which involved having workmen in for a few days, half my stuff in one location and half in another for a while, the logistics of remedying that again, dealing with uncooperative utility suppliers and lots of travelling for work that's meant I haven't been able to spend as much time on the settling in and all that goes with it as I'd have hoped. It's been, and continues to be, a lesson in patience.

Now, almost two weeks later, I still have no internet connection so am having to rely on irregular roving wi-fi when and where I can, which is very frustrating; I'm still working on reducing the boxes, which have been moved here and there and back again; I still have barely any furniture, no curtains, walls that need painting, and there is still only a tiny supply of those kitchen dry goods staples that build up over time and make catering on the fly easy to do, although I do at least have salt and pepper now... 

But, despite the challenges - many of which are just part of the process of moving and nothing unusual - from the minute I first walked through the door, before a single thing was unpacked, this has felt like home. And in between all the above, I've managed to have various people over for dinner, a lovely friend to stay for a few days in not horrendously uncomfortable circumstances, and have kept myself going in to work without it being very obvious that a ladder and work tools have been living in my bedroom and bathroom making the everyday getting ready a bit of a mission what with the dust and dirt and general disarray they bring.

Having said all that, it is slowly starting to take shape around here. Things are emerging and finding their rightful spot, I am becoming familiar with the sounds of the place and tuning out those that felt strange and discordant to begin with, and I'm moving through the space in way that feels comfortable and at ease. Both externally and internally I am unearthing things that have been in storage way too long and it's a process I'm loving. I don't think I'd truly realised how tightly bound I'd been feeling in my previous situation until I arrived here, where I have physical and emotional room to breathe. It's wonderful. And I am very thankful.

Some of my favourite things so far:

~ unpacking bits and pieces and if their placement's not immediately obvious, just piling them up on a shelf or hanging them around the place until the right spot becomes clear. When this happens it produces a small a-ha moment that give me enormous satisfaction. Sometimes new groupings just emerge and are fun to discover.

~ I've always had a bit of a penchant for hanging things - lanterns, mobiles, garlands - and I'm so excited to have the space to have more of these around me again. I'm already imagining new creations I can make...

~ my space can be as colourful and girly as I'd like. I'm not a wildly girly girl, but I've long had to justify things that are purely decorative, always referred to by my ex in an ever so slightly derogatory tone as my 'pretty things'. He also preferred neutrals whereas I love neutrals but cannot resist colour sometimes, and like to ring the changes. More recently, sharing a space with a housemate, there have been natural restrictions and considerations too. It's not a major issue but I love that I don't need to do that right now and can express myself here without reserve. Flowers in every room of the house I say!

~ my new quilt - soft and snuggly fabric, strong and vibrant colour. I'd had my eye on it for a while, it came on sale, and I couldn't resist. It makes me so happy.

~ the afternoon sunshine that streams in through the blinds and front windows, creating pattern and glow wherever it lands. We haven't had much sun recently but when it is out, it makes me smile. It shines through my glass lanterns, stained glass colour wheel, beads, and vases on window sills and lights the place with colour and warmth. Love it.

And now, back to it... boxes await. I have the whole weekend to potter and organise before heading down to London for work again next week. My appearance in the virtual world promises to continue intermittent for a while yet and I apologise for my absence in your spaces, but I'm hoping it won't be for too much longer. I really miss it. And you. Especially you.

Have a lovely weekend lovelies! ♥

Plan B - muted moods

A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again.

Margaret Mead

(1901-1978)

When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused.

Rainer Maria Rilke

(1875-1926)

Plan B - soak in some city

Absolutely nothing in the way of sunshine in the Big Smoke. But there's still light and lustre to be found there if you know where to look:

~ Step back in time and into a cloud of delicious scents - an ambiance of enduring elegance

~ Sheltering under a golden marquee - two days, 48 hours of rain, lots of reason to pause and take in the view

~ Selfridges, still one of the finest and unlike any other - and those sunny yellow carrier bags always promise treats

~ Springbok gold in Trafalgar Square - always reminds me of loved ones far away

~ Sweetest smelling Mimosa on the Embankment - reminiscent of Spring in warmer climes

~ Catching up over lunch and a glass of sunshine with a very dear friend - an amazing view from one of my favourite places in the West End

~ Midnight window shopping in Mayfair - no crowds, no expense, bliss

~ Mood lighting in the hotel - sheds a warm glow over dinner

~ A night in London's theatreland completes the visit - amazing to see living legends perform their craft 

Off to the coast for a few days... no internet connection, no cellphone signal... just me and the sea. 

And maybe some sunshine. Although I'm not counting on it.

See you on the other side lovely ones...

Soul soothers

mosaic meditation, soothing me into a quiet space...

~ Thank you Flickr lovelies for all the beauty - you inspire and delight me always and allow me to tell stories that my heart sometimes can't express in words.

~ Thank you bloggy beauties for taking time and offering advice on my photo format - we're going with the majority who voted for unframed, and just ever so slightly smaller to create more white space. I hope you like it. I do.

~ Thank you EAT for the yummiest breakfasts on the run - your porridge with bananas and spiced chai lattes make very early winter mornings on the rails more than bearable. I'll be popping in to say hi tomorrow...

~ Thank you iTunes for this and this - escapism is sometimes the only route I can face and you always deliver without question.

~ Thank you Mr Sketch for the very best scented markers ever - so much more fun to use 'cause they smell delicious and last for ages. I only wish Amazon.com would ship them to the UK so I could buy this big box with extra flavours!

~ Thank you Samuel Johnson for reaching out across time to remind me that "kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not." - I needed to read those words today and there they were. You knew.

~ Thank you. You know why.

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!

♥

Lovely stuff

1. Harvest moon necklace 2. Vanilla rooibos tea 3. Paper tea filters

4. Voluspa seasons candle 5. Russet elegance earrings 6. Lovely leather lariat

7. Tiny gold lustre vases 8. Honeybird clutch 9. Toasty fingerless mittens

Just window shopping...

♥

Detox Desperado

I would say to housewives, be not daunted by one failure, nor by twenty.

Resolve that you will have good bread, and never cease striving after this result till you have effected it. If persons without brains can accomplish this, why cannot you?

Marion Cabell Tyree

’Housekeeping In Old Virginia' ed. (1878)

Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.

James Beard

(1903-1985)

For the past twenty three days I've been eating like a gluten-free vegan. And I feel great for it. Mostly.

I'm one of those extremely fortunate individuals who has no food allergies and I actually love fruit and vegetables so managing my 'five a day' is no problem at all. I have a bit of a weakness for chocolate, love toast with honey perhaps a tad too much, and eat almost no meat, but generally I follow an everything in moderation diet and consider myself reasonably healthy, borne out so far by those things they measure annually like BMI, blood pressure and cholesterol. I do like to do a detox every now and again though, to give the ol' metabolism a little boost.

And just before Christmas I volunteered to support a colleague of mine who wanted to detox as one of her earliest New Year's resolutions. Twenty eight days: gluten-free vegans the pair of us.

And it's been no problem - there have been things I've missed a little (especially in the cold weather, nothing satisfies quite like some starchy carbs) but there's nothing I've really craved. Until this weekend. Suddenly all I could think about was bread. Any and all kinds of bread. With butter.

I know that proper, grown-up gluten-free vegans would probably whip up some delicious alternative (and feel free to shout up with ideas if there are any of you out there) but my culinary skills are limited at the best of times and I've never tried bread making. I would clearly not have cut it as a Virginian housewife in the 19th century. So instead, I just looked at mouthwatering pictures of bread on Flickr in the hope that I could fool my brain into believing it was getting what it wanted.

But you know how it is... once a craving strikes, it's difficult to ignore. And I think bread is going to be calling my name loudly for the next five days. I'll have to hum to drown it out.

Five days will fly by.

What would you miss most if you were on a strictly fruit and veg diet?