Wednesday, December 19, 2012

golden grace, brown disgrace

Meet Livy -rarely has a dog been more graceful

lineage

livvy majestic 2

and totally ridiculous

livvy shakes it all 5

livvy shakes it all 3

rarely has a dog made more beautiful daughters

golden gate

who haven't yet figured out the trick of making puppies themselves

humping the wrong end

and top that of by both totally defecating all over the scenery

livvy and her defecating daughters

Friday, December 14, 2012

frost -still water, just harder. And smaller.

One interesting part of travel is jet lag. It's not just about time difference -i'd say that's only a small part of it. In William Gibson's novel Pattern Recognition it is described as the time it takes the soul to come back to the body; we travel faster than our souls can on airplanes, and it takes a while for them to reconnect. You sit still for a long time and when you get up again, you're in a different world. It takes time to adjust, time for the soul to travel the same distance the body just has done.

After Vertical Blue, i went from a blue water white beach warm world filled with friends and passion to a grey and cold London filled with hard work. The transition took a week of grump. The two things that helped were my girl, and water. Water, as an element, is endlessly fascinating in all its forms, and even though i was away from its blue deep form, i was surrounded by its frosty form. It beckoned me to go out exploring again, even if i'd been working outside all day and had become quite frosted myself.

It was near the end of the day, and though i was surrounded by monuments

monumental tree and frosted grass 2

graveyard ivy tree v2

my attention was drawn down

frosted grass

from monuments to moments, almost literally frozen in time

frosted branch

leaves frosted

frosted seeds

and i saw the cohesion, the link between blue water and frost

frosted web at dusk

which is when my soul returned to me, i reckon

frosted roses

It reminds me of something my father wrote about the element of water: "That water is an element means that man could attribute an endless amount of meanings to it, but only based on the fact, that the water itself is the centre, and not subjected to an ‘egotrip’. It’s not man that makes water, it’s water that makes man and invites him to contemplation. Drifting on water, listening to the waves or with his eyes following the stream he is confronted with something that in force and duration surpasses his own existence and on which he depends."

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Suunto Vertical Blue

Some pictures of this year's Suunto Vertical Blue, where i was the commentator together with the lovely and formidable Francesca Koe. Luckily for me, main photographer Igor Liberti not only very kindly let me share the territory, he also introduced me to this wonderful tune: