Sunday, November 24, 2013

Little Bites

Hearing of someone who got so tired they spent over a minute trying to get into the wrong hotel room.

Picturing the poor sod in said wrong hotel room, covers pulled up to chin and staring into the darkness, as that minute stretched out into a *really* long time.

Sometimes it is the daftest things that make me laugh.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Inspiration From What Is Around You

While spending a very short week in the sunny splendour of Lanzarote we visited the house of the late Cesar Manrique, an artist born in Lanzarote who returned to his homeland in order to save it from the high rise horrors plaguing other tourist spots in Spain.  For that they should be eternally grateful and eternally proud.

I looked out over the football field behind my house today to see all the trees have been mown down to make way for yet another identikit road of houses.  Oh for the power of Manrique to have kept that little wood safe from the greed of developers.  I guess the heron, fox and other wildlife can get lost as long as they make a profit with their "exclusive" houses.

Anyway, stop wittering on.  Cesar Manrique built his house within the volcanic bubbles, while also ensuring the volcanoes remained protected.  He also took inspiration from the landscape and although modern art isn't really my thing I can see and appreciate works like this for the power and beauty they show:

And how many art galleries allow you to happily take photographs, to truly enjoy the art and take home the memories?

Wonder and the impulse which leads us to observation are the secret of analysis. ~ Cesar Manrique

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Wish You Were Here

Never mind that.  Wish I was there, wish I'd never left.

Strange experience, either it is the amount of crap I've been dealing with of late or just the overwhelming situation I find myself in but unusually I did not want to return home after our yearly trek to absorb enough sunshine to last the winter.  I love greenery, I love the crisp winter mornings such as this morning brought yet I had a huge desire not to come back.

By the end of holiday I am normally ready for my own bed.  I cannot explain it further but one month from our departure and I'm still feeling the same.  Life trudges on and I'm left in limbo.  This isn't the holiday blues, this is a wish to escape completely.


Colours that have my watercolour palette itching to open.

Step outside the hotel and boom, there's a volcano (dormant)