THE BIG WHITE

MAGIC IN THE BLOCK

i put on my dreaming lens

& walked around the block.

 you don't always have to go that far to find some magic.

it could be the way the sun gives the roofs 

an early kiss goodnight,

lurking inside the pages of a book,

engraved in old walls 

that whisper a million stories,

woven in the the frosty fairytale world

of January,

 sometimes it stares you right in the face :) 

“And above all, 

watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you 

because the greatest secrets 

are always hidden in the most unlikely places. 

Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” 

― Roald Dahl

x

WINTER IN MARCH

a weekend of birthday celebrations & people,

walks in a wintry landscape by the sea,

moments of quiet with a book.

it's march but winter's hanging in there,

yet it's lost its grip.

daylight lingers,

lightness inside pushes through.

i've been immersed in the words of Ali Smith,

she reignited a passion to read

that's been on a backburner for a bit. 

words like these in her book Winter,

(which I couldn't put down

despite a desire to savour,

so the only option was to read each word slowly):

“What he longs for instead, 

as he sits at the food-strewn table, 

is winter, winter itself. 

He wants the essentiality of winter, 

not this half-season grey selfsameness. 

He wants real winter where woods are sheathed in snow, 

trees emphatic with its white, 

their bareness shining and enhanced because of it, 

the ground underfoot snow-covered as if with frozen feathers 

or shredded cloud but streaked with gold through the trees from low winter sun, 

and at the end of the barely discernible track, 

along the dip in the snow that indicates a muffled path between the trees, 

the view and the woods opening to a light 

that’s itself untrodden, 

never been blemished, 

wide like an expanse of snow-sea, 

above it more snow promised, 

waiting its time in the blank of the sky.” 

i've cleared my diary for next week

 to give my joint venture the attention it craves right now.

things are exciting on the work front on so many levels

that sometimes it's a littly tricky to swith off.

but i'm learning

& loving the balance. 

wishing you a lovely Sunday evening

& light-filled week ahead. 

x

JARDIN D'HIVER

Dear blog,

you secret sanctuary,

 hideaway of mine,

it's been a while.

One of these anyway,

simply from a desire

to catch the mood,

a fleeting moment,

the light. 

It's a white light now.

One that sparkles,

catches on the silver ball in the corner of the room

that then casts its spell on the ceiling.

The rays so warm through the window

that it's easy to imagine oneself in the heat of a summer's day in Tuscany,

forget the cold spell beyond the window pane.

Almost a week off,

and I'm taking notice again,

breathing more softly,

feeling a sense of h a p p i n e s s inside.

The kind that calls to look,

admire & create. 

I've missed that notion,

so linger on won't you... 

"I'll wake up as a twelve-year-old,"

my daughter announced just before crawling to bed last night.

She told me she's been having a bit of an age-related crisis,

so I think we were both a little relieved

when she woke up this morning

as per her normal, wonderful self

– smiling, humming, dancing. 

She's at ballet now

and when she gets back

we'll head to an Italian restaurant nearby,

her choice.

She adds a whole different glow to my life.

"Je voudrais du soleil vert,

des dentelles et des théières,

des photos de bord de mer

dans mon jardin d'hiver.

Je voudrais de la lumière 

comme en Nouvelle-Angleterre.

Je veux changer d'atmosphère 

dans mon jardin d'hiver."

~ Keren Ann

⭐︎

⭐︎

⭐︎

DECEMBER DESCENDED

“I love to watch the fine mist 

of the night come on, 

the windows and the stars illumined, 

one by one, 

the rivers of dark smoke pour upward lazily, 

& the moon rise and turn them silver."

 I shall see the springs, the summers, 

& the autumns slowly pass; 

And when old Winter puts his blank face to the glass, 

I shall close all my shutters, 

pull the curtains tight, 

& build me stately palaces 

by candlelight.”

words:  Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal

music: Olafur Arnalds

last image:

model ~ Iris Haapanen 

muah ~ Meghna Mukherjee 

SaveSave

HIBERNATION

The weeks might be busy,

the weather cold,

but the weekends extra cosy

this time of year.

I'm in hibernation mode. 



x

FOR A GREY DAY

some moods from my shoot for nougat

earlier this autumn. 

a day that stretched from morning

til the last rays of light

in an excited frenzy,

every limb tired in a happy  kind of way

at the end of the day. 

today, this set serves as a note to self

to light up some candles

& soak up these november greys.

x

1st ADVENT

"The long silences need to be loved,

perhaps more than the words

which arrive to describe them in time."

- Franz Wright

Wishing you 

a touch of beauty & calm

on this 1st Advent. 

x

NOVEMBER MOODBOARD

Still a few days left

of November,

 secret & silent.

1., 6. & 7. unknown

2. Ralph Lauren A/W collection 1988 in The Sunday Times Magazine

3. Sandeea Cocina on LRF

4. Hans Blomquist's  In Detail

5. via