i love being in a new country, an entire new culture and land to explore. i have a month here in sweden, although much of it will be taken up with work my camera will still be getting a workout.
where we travelled
i took this on our roadtrip to california back in january. so much happened during and immediately after that trip that i am only now starting to really look at the photos we took. this one shows the lighthouse at point reyes national seashore. we spent the night in the youth hostel in the national park and then drove out here the following morning. there were many, many, many, very steep steps to get down to this so i climbed down there by myself and snapped off a few shots while listening to the park ranger talk. i made a few mental notes of what he said and them clambered back up to the top of the cliff to report back. lighthouses and the coast and sunshine were features of our roadtrips. this one was no exception. this lighthouse was not particularly exceptional. i think that’s why i like this shot so much, it captures a little bit of many of our adventures in sunstar and glass.
spidey
south bank, london
(i have gotten into the habit of using only my phone for photos recently. i like the convenience but i dislike the same-ness. i’m going to work on breaking out an actual camera or two over the next few days).
run, crazy people, run!
crazy. anyone who runs a marathon is crazy. but it was fun standing on the sidelines cheering. in the morning i joined a cheering post for great ormond street hospital and was surprised to find most of the other cheerees were american. we all had fun making as much noise as we could with purple inflatable balloon sticks. those ones you get at music festivals that are really loud when you bang them together. we wore our purple t-shirts and waved our purple flags and when we spotted a runner in a purple tabbard we yelled even louder. on our right the children’s leukemia society wore red and banged red balloon sticks and cheered for runners in red tabbards, on our left whizz-kids wore green and banged green balloon sticks and cheered for runner in green tabbards.
once the elite men, women, and wheelchair athletes had passed the masses started trickling by and at first it was easy to spot our colour but once the masses started to thicken it became more of a where’s wally type activity. some of the runner pulled out of the crowd and ran past us dancing and waving their arms, encouraging as much noise from their colour cheerees as possible. we cheered for our colour and we cheered for anyone in serious fancy dress. the rhinos, the man with a washing machine strapped to his back, the 8 foot nurse statue, will & kate, the double decker bus, the superheroes, the kids cartoon characters (pingu was great), the apples, the long string of tutu-clad men tied together. later we cheered for the stragglers, reading their names off their tabbards and yelling, “keep going rich!” “you’re doing great katie!”, less than halfway round they needed the encouragement!
when only the very straggliest of stragglers were passing by i hopped the tube, crammed onto a train more packed than a sardine tin, to westminster. after a quick walk along the embankment to catch a glimpse of the runners in front of the london eye and big ben i made my way through the park, full of people happily munching on picnics and kids running riot, soaking up the excited atmosphere. i met up with a couple of old school friends near buckingham palace and the finish line and we bid the runners goodbye and headed to the pub. marathon watching doesn’t get much better.
the pink, the pink, the pink
it was so hot here that for a week or so it seemed like summer had arrived. then the rain and the cooler temperatures came back and we were all reminded that it’s actually still only early april. spring, spring, spring! everything has been hectic and a bit stressful recently, there’s a lot of change, a lot of potential new endeavors, some of which will become my day to day reality soon, others which will pass me by. after a long interview yesterday i was walking back to the tube and passed under three trees shedding this pinker than pink blossom like snow. the street was empty bar me and it just seemed so perfect, so peaceful, such a simple symptom of the seasons changing in the same way as always, following the same cycle as ever even while everything seems so crazy and unpredictable in my tiny world. the new season has me feeling both sad and optimistic at the same time. sad that someone i loved so deeply and dearly is no longer here to see the blossom fall and the foliage turn green, to join me in the adventures i am embarking on this spring. optimistic for those new adventures, for leaving the dark and cold of winter behind and getting back outdoors unencumbered again. it’s confusing this feeling two polar opposite feelings together, perhaps that’s why when i look at that pink blossom my mind starts singing, “let’s drink a drink a drink, to lilly the pink, the pink, the pink”, a silly camp song from happy outdoorsy childhood memories with campfires and carefree silly singing by firelight.
stripes
speeding along heading into the big city. i love having a window seat on a quiet train. love watching the world swish by especially as the sun lowers itself towards the horizon and winks between the trees and tall buildings. i like feeling the shuddering whoooosh as another speeding locomotive passes by, heading along track i’ve just travelled.
grateful for sun & time
it was twenty degrees celsius and sunny in london today, real summer weather. walking home after an interview this morning i passed a walled remembrance garden with all the trees and flowers in bloom, it was the perfect place to sit with a book and appreciate the perfect warm but not too hot weather. i ended up staying for almost two hours. i am so grateful to have the time to sit and appreciate a beautiful garden in beautiful weather. this little bug landed on my book, apparently equally happy with the day’s warmth. it looked like someone had painted it’s patterns with sharpie pens, i have no idea what species it is but it seemed to fit well with the garden.
sleeping
on the tube where it’s warm and dry. the handful of businessmen and women using the northern line at lunchtime simply stepped over these two. clearly a sight too often seen, no shock value here. i did this myself once, slept on the tube because it was warm and dry. traveling to the end of the line then crossing the platform and traveling back again. it was a lifetime ago now and didn’t last long, only the result of my own stubbornness. but without the help of friends i could be there still now, or again now. in our current economic climate anyone could be there now. i don’t know the answer to problems like these but i know enough to recognize that an answer is needed. maybe if more people knew that we’d be able to find it.
off with her head
the last four days i have been training for a summer job involving some tour guiding work. we had an amazingly knowledgeable blue badge guide take us around the tower of london and various other big name tourist sites. one little nugget i learned is that although it looks dirty the thames is actually one of the cleanest rivers in europe and the brown colour is sediment. i don’t know why but i like knowing that even a river follows the principle that appearances can be deceiving.
