Riding the train through the winter wonderland that was the Belgian countryside between Antwerpen and Brussels this morning, I wished for my camera.
The light was astounding!
The trees were coated in white thick frost and snow still lay on the ground ... but most important for this unbounded rhapsody over this winterscape, the train was warm.
It was my first day back at the NGO in a while and it was good to be back.
Annie Leibovitz arrived today ...
You see, I bought Gert a dvd documentary about her for Christmas and we both fell in love with this remarkable photographer.
Tomorrow I'm lunching with the (just) ex-prime minister of New Zealand ;)
Sunday we might risk a drive in this life lived in the minus 12 celsius (tonight) freezer and head off to a beach, just to breathe a little of the salt air that used to be so absolutely necessary to the creature of nature I once was ... back in New Zealand with a golden labrador.
It's cold here, stunningly, finger-snappingly cold.
As I wandered home from the tram on this dark winter's night, I knew, really knew, that if I stopped to tie a shoelace or help a bird frozen to the path, I would lie down in the ice and sleep forever. It was 'that cold'.
The good news is that this year I was finally with money enough to buy a good winter coat. Gert and I have spent the last 3 years struggling, as I cut a path for myself as a photographer creature and he supported us both ... this year, things have finally started to improve and although it's not huge, by crikey, it's enough.
I hope you are warm where ever you are in the northern hemisphere, and as for the southerners ... 40 celsius in Christchurch, cousin of mine ... I'm not sure I want to hear about that right now.
Be safe and have a good weekend.
6 comments:
You're having lunch with Helen Clark? That should be interesting.
Have a lovely weekend, Di. You deserve it!
Do we get to see a photo of you in your new wintercoat?
I'll be one of many but it seems like a good thing to do on a winter's day.
The new wintercoat isn't so interesting, in fact it was affordable enough to make me worry about who made it and under what conditions ...
The new red hat ... not that's something else ;)
Yep, sure has been warm here cuz. I nearly melted on Thursday. Makes me not so keen to leave, that and the summer fruit being almost ready. Lucky I'm going somewhere warm.
The winter landscape is beautiful, so long as you're warm :)
Say hi to Helen for me, and yes a photo of you in the new coat would be good.
That's what I really admire about you Di:
you came from the other side of the planet and successfully managed to build a life of your own over here.
I doubt whether I'd be having lunch with the ex-prime minister of Belgium in Auckland three years after I'd arrived in New Zealand :-)
What, 40°C? But how will the penguins survive? Is Helen Clakr bringing them over so they can survive? :D
I'm warm this year, Jules, so it's not so bad and so veryvery beautiful.
Who knows what you would get up to if you were transplanted, Peter. I would absolutely love to have lunch with Guy Verhofstadt one day though! :)
Oh, my home town is a bit of an Antwerpen, Manic ... the penguins will be fine back home.
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