When the sun is setting, between dusk and darkness, there is a moment when the light turns blue. And the world stops for a heartbeat.
It’s been windy lately. Change-of-season weather.
The South African side of our family is passionate about Highland Dancing. Stuart’s sister, Hayley, has her own dance studio in Cape Town – and the niece, Robyn, has won the SA Championship (under 15) several times – this year being no exeption. Therefore, the SA Championships in August is a major event, with the entire family descending on us.
The day is always a lot of fun, but due to travel, work and life in general, I was unable to join them for the event itself. However, it did get me going back to my photos from year before. And because these were better than any pictures I snapped on this date itself (by a long mile), I decided to make an exception and post pictures from exactly a year ago.
If everyone knows about it, it ain’t cheating.
Stuart and I are much more into watching series than watching movies. Sure, we see many of the big blockbusters, and sometimes a movie is rumoured to be so good, it can’t even escape our notice, but generally it is a good series that gets us ticking. Maybe it’s because the series will continue past that single evening. Letting go of a good movie character is just as hard as saying goodbye to a favourite book character in the final chapter. Let’s all be grateful for the season 10.
Close to our house there is a very sweet statue of a sister and a brother – or maybe sweethearts – leaning to each other and smiling.
Change the angle, have a few dark clouds in the background and add some contrast – and the scene changes. Something threatening is approaching and the brother is wrapping his arms protectively around his sister…
It’s all in your point of view.
The combination of early sunset and the safety issues in South Africa make it a challenge to take Merlin to the park during weekdays. Luckily he is such a curious little chap that he keeps running in our back garden all day long – and our domestic helper also takes him out several times a week. As a result he is (with a wide margin) the fittest creature is our household. Admittedly, that is not a high bar.
When Stuart and I started dating, he once told me how I made him see the nature in Johannesburg differently again. I was childishly excited how there are flowers blooming around the year – and commented on it non-stop. He had lived here long enough not to see it anymore.
We all need to be reminded sometimes to see what is around us. Luckily there are children aroud. Children and foreign visitors.
When I come home after few days away, nothing can pull Merlin away from my side. Nothing but a frisbee or a tennis ball.
Today’s photo is not the best of the day. (My last day in Rome…). In fact, it was (and still is) a bad photo in many ways – overexposed, badly framed and lots of ‘noise’ in the picture (The cars really bother me). I am still not sure why I kept editing it over and over again, and trying to make it work. Something in it just spoke to me.
It’s still not the greatest of photos. But the story it tells is a story so very typical to Rome.
History of the Vatican is not a religios or harmonious one. It’s all about power. The level of dirty politics during e.g. Borgias exceeds almost any other stage in human history (I leave the word ‘almost’ to prevent Stuart proving me wrong in the next minute).
With that as a backdrop, and tourist milling around, the sense of calm is surprising.
