Today has been fun. Today has involved driving an open topped white Saab slightly inappropriately (stay right! stay right!) around a small warm island and laughing a lot. Today was my kind of day.
One of the places we visited was César Manrique’s cactus garden. I am a longtime admirer of Manrique, I love his sense of scale and drama. I do love me some drama. His use of natural light in his home, later made into a Foundation to showcase his work and art collection, is incredible. He made a James Bond lair in a rock and theres just no arguing with that type of genius.
His cactus garden, created in an old quarry, has terraced sides, like an amphitheatre. Inside the amphitheatre, cacti gladiators, the badasses of the plant world, battle with each other for status while bonkers playful elements like that face waterfall up there, show that really, he was just a guy who liked to have fun.
I bet he would have liked my Saab. Now, I’m on the left, right?
Posts from the Places and spaces Category
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Places and spaces…shock of the new
For the past few weeks everything has been upside down. No really, literally upside down, inside out, in the wrong room, covered in dust.
The joy of renovation.
Now though, now, we can congratulate ourselves on having survived something and enjoy the fact that in my office I actually have space to put stuff away.
Whether I will or not is another issue…
Places and spaces…up in the air
Aha! Holiday time and, given the ‘Summer’ we’ve had here in London, about time too.
Packing is always a big deal isn’t it? What to take, what to leave behind, what looks good in one place looks totally wrong in another and all of that. I’ve got my suitcase packing pretty down by now but what I’m really obsessive about is the carry on situation. Wait, that sounds like a film, but you know what I mean, the stuff you actually have with you when you fly. The stuff that protects you from the budget airline with the screaming baby you know is going to sit near you.
Now this is all a lot less fun since the security got tightened up post 9/11 but still, there are certain things I deem essential in flight.
So, with apologies to these guys, this is my list..
Big pashmina (aka the comfort blanket) because planes are always cold.
Cosy cardigan, see above.
Socks, see above. (Now actually don’t look, they’re not beautiful any more, but they are snuggly soft and cashmere.)
Fan, because sometimes, planes are hot.
iPad, hello Easyjet.
iPhone, yeah Mac addiction, whatever.
Headphones, see above.
Eyemask, nicked from previous flight, for sensory deprivation.
Moleskin notebook and pencil, for ideas and because pens always explode on me in planes. I have the clumsy thing.
Wallet, obviously, with passport and all that jazz.
Camera, never far from my person, would never check it.
Massive sunglasses, I know the smaller ones are cooler but I just like ‘em big.
Stuff to read, of course.
Sweets for take off and landing.
(Now, this is the bit that got trickier, but with judicious use of sample sizes and a clear ziplock, I find it’s all still possible.)
Bioderma cleanser, possibly for flight but really in case my luggage gets lost.
Avene water spray, yum.
Avene moisturiser.
Bioderma sunscreen, really in case my luggage gets lost, are you getting the theme here?
Dr Hauschka lip balm, seriously the best.
Mario Badescu Control Cream, because, clearly, I need control, and just in case my…you know.
Mini toothbrush and toothpaste, because I like to brush ok?
Ducray hand cream and nail file, for distracting myself. We’re in the air you know, it makes me a leeeetle bit nervous sometimes.
Lavender oil, we’re in the air..
Rescue Remedy, yeah, d’you think?
And then really in case my luggage gets lost, in the black pouch, emergency bikini, underwear, rolled up tshirt and silk slip dress/nightie. Just in case is all I’m saying, just in case.
Big bag to put it all in.
(Full disclosure the source of all the luggage losing paranoia stems from a holiday I took with a group of friends about eight years ago. All the suitcases went on, all the suitcases rolled off..wait, all except mine. Now this would have been ok had I not been with a group made up entirely of boys. Not a bikini or moisturiser among the lot of them. So there you are, this is how I deal.)
(And actually, of course, it didn’t matter a bit even at the time because we were all having way too much fun but anyway)
OK, I’m stopping, I’m stopping.
What about you, what do you have to have with you?
Places and spaces…say it with me
Well, there’s a mantra to live by. I’ve been taking some photos for the fabulous Outline Editions and I’m particularly taken with this Anthony Burrill print. His work is filled with a dry humour that is right up my street.
Places and spaces…sun seeking
Places and spaces…wide open
So, clearly, I was growing a little frustrated there.
I thought you might like to know that I have made some progress on that one, I now have an studio in which to work, not big enough to shoot in but, you know, baby steps. Plus as of a few days ago I have a new desk. I say new, I have a slight allergy to really new things so it’s already lived a life, this desk. This is demonstrated by the rude er, creative graffiti inside the drawers…
This is England
This week has, frankly been bonkers. It’s raining like it’s November and everyone’s partying like it’s 1977. A few pics from the street before we move on to normal inhibited behaviour and blazing sunshine, yes?
The final frontier
Ok enough is enough, I’ve got camera equipment under the bed, I’ve got drawing pads in the kitchen. There are laptops and iPads and paints and memory cards just..everywhere. I’m writing in one room, starting a pinboard in another, I’ve filled a cupboard with lights and tripods but it’s nowhere near where I need the rest of my stuff to be. The printer’s upstairs, the big table’s down…my brain is? Fried.
I need a studio.
Or at the very least a desk.
A corner?
My friend Charlie is so disgusted with me, she literally cannot believe that I don’t have a space to work.
Something’s gotta give. So, I’m taking out the tape measure, plotting and planning, dreaming of lots of this and trying to make a workspace somewhere (although there’s a strong possibility it will be Harry Potterish and not in a good way, ie. under the stairs).
To be continued…
Breeze..
Looking up
