Beach Huts ...

The beach huts, they intrigue, horrify, and amuse me ...

For me, a child of New Zealand, the beach is about Nature, with a capital N.  It's not about about shelter and masses of 'stuff'.  It's not about windbreaks, umbrellas, or cafes. 

But there I was, down on the beach in Holland today, delighted by the light and the colour, horrified by the 'civilised' nature of the beach ... but. at the same time, enjoying a glass of red wine or two at those cafes located every few hundred metres along the sand.

There was live music too ...

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.

Interview by Di Mackey, Film by Hanna Kuikka - Wendy Leach, Artist

Hanna and I explored the possibility of merging our interest in people with my passion for interviews and photography and her talent for film back in July.

New Zealand artist, Wendy Leach kindly agreed to be the subject of our first combined effort and while you don't hear or see me, that's me doing the interview.

Following is the 7 minute interview we created.

Interview with artist Wendy Leach from Wendy Leach on Vimeo.

And the full 16 minute interview can be viewed below ...

Full interview with artist Wendy Leach from Wendy Leach on Vimeo.

 

 

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 :-)