2015, the 1st

... I started mine with the most delicious lunch and the most delicious Apfelstrudel (apple strudel).

Still too many goals from the past to be accomplished, so that's my only wish for 2015 - work harder for them and simplify life in general.

Have a good one.

Stuttgart.

Holidays postcard

This is really the first photo I want to put here from my most recent holidays in Germany.

I was so excited to come home and have decent time to look at this photo... I loved it immediately. Even now I'm wondering why. I guess it's because the night before I took it, almost ready to fall asleep but doing some zapping with the german tv, I catched the Schindler's List movie right in the moment of the girl in red and the same feeling of the first time I watched it just hit me...

Somewhere between Stuttgart and Munich (which we failed to reach due to the snow!).

Lake cottage

Let us immerge in a not-just-another lake cottage, shall we? I dare you. Too much beauty in one single space...

"This beautiful 1940s cottage belongs to famous hair guru John Frieda. The cottage has been designed by decorator Sharon Simonaire who transformed it in a light-filled retreat that’s as comfortable as it is sophisticated."

Source: The Style Files

Someone can be madly in love with you and still not be ready. They can love you in a way you have never been loved and still not join you on the bridge. And whatever their reasons you must leave. Because you never ever have to inspire anyone to meet you on the bridge. You never ever have to convince someone to do the work to be ready. There is more extraordinary love, more love that you have never seen, out here in this wide and wild universe. And there is the love that will be ready.

Nayyirah Waheed

A little tenderness on this saturday December night...

Source: Cabin Porn

Photo ?

Photo:  Ellen Marie Martinsen

Photo ?

Photo: Vanja

Does this make sense for you too?

You have to be the kind of person who can make the best out of a Tuesday.

You know those people who live for the weekends? They’re wishing their life away. You have to find something worth living for or else you’ll look back and realize you’ve wasted your life away.

Drew Marvin

"The sentence in the cities is interminable"

You can't see the commas between the houses, which is what makes reading them so difficult and walking through the streets so tedious.

The sentence in the cities is interminable. But it is fascinating, and the countryside is deserted by people who were once its sturdy farmers and now want to see for themselves the admirably tricky text that everyone is talking about, so hard to follow, most often impossible.

Which is, however, what these stubborn workers try to do, walking ceaselessly, lapping up the diseases of the sewers and the leprous facades as they go by, rather than the still elusive meaning: that still escapes them. Groggy with poverty and fatigue, they wander by the store windows, occasionally losing their goal, but never their quest... and that's the end of our fine countryside!

Henry Michaux in Slices of Knowledge

More here & here.

"Easy to smile"

I feel immediately happy looking to photos like these, because this is actually how I see myself, I'd say this is a classic behaviour of mine.
Once I read an interview where it was asked to the person to describe herself in 3 words and the answer was: "Easy to smile!" I loved it because that's what me and my dearest people would say about me.

Unfortunately, what I've been discovering is that this is not what I am most of my days. There are certain environments, where unfortunately I have to spend most of my time, where now I know I could NEVER be myself, where a lot of people that has "known" me since forever do not know me like this because I could never be myself under penalty of being even more excluded. Having born surrounded by narrow minded people do have these disappointments... Anyway I'd refer my own guilty here too, for lacking the strength to affirm myself without giving a damn on everyone, but this strength and self-confidence took me several years to realize and achieve. Anyway, those days are over I guess.

These past years really taught me to be myself and myself only, so, no more pretending, no more effort to please people who will never accept me or be pleased with me. Stepping out of an un/comfort zone isn't always easy but it's the only thing that makes sense.

Back to the photos, I do see myself like this and being in a good mood is a normal state of mine, but it's a pitty I can't smile and laugh like this to everyone, not even to my closest people, either because I had to wear a mask for so long that now I don't feel like doing any effort to make it better or simply because there are people and places on my daily basis where energies are just really bad and you know: "trust the vibes you get, energy doesn't lie".
So, yeah, this is me, not with everyone, not everywhere.

On other notes, I feel I've been focusing a lot, too much actually, on the dark side of life with all these thoughts and conclusions for the past months, I must stop and accept everything as it is, hard as it can be, and move on.

"What made her strong was despite the million things that hurt her, she spoke of nothing... nothing but happiness."

Just remember who you are. The world will try to change you into someone else. Don’t let them. That’s the best advice anyone can give you.

Cinda Williams Chima

The Hundred-Foot Journey

There are only two things I really (like, really!) miss when days get too oddly busy to do the things I wholeheartedly appreciate in life: photographing (new places or not) and watching movies. For the first, let's also blame it on the day time this time of the year, coming home always dark doesn't really help...

Anyway, let's talk about The Hundred-Foot Journey, my delight this morning! An ode to all senses.

You know the smell is the sense through which our memories can be revived and "reactivated" more easily and profoundly. Not even our vision can recall memories as much as the scents can do (parfum, food, wood, houses, the sea, etc.), so I'd like to accentuate an apparently simple moment in the movie where Hassan (Manish Dayal) smells some spices gifted to him by her mom long ago and the immediate emotion provoked on him when he smells it again. It's beautiful! It also helps the great photography and recording work done in this movie.
Beyond the smell and taste awareness, the location of the movie and its landscapes complete the journey - Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val - south of France (bliss!) brings me the most unforgettable memories too...
Last but not least, I loved the sensibility of the text.

"Food is memories"