My Point of View

My husband and I were very fortunate this year to have been able to travel to Italy this summer. It was an amazing eight days! The first leg of our trip was with my husband's company and then we spent the last three together on our own.

With incredible timing we managed to take off before the tornadoes hit Toronto. I am really glad I heard about this weather after the fact! We later learned we must have been one of the last flights out until after the storm had passed. We knew other friends with later flights that sat on the tarmac for over 3 hours. Of course, for others there were many missed connections due to the delays, redirections and needless to say many lost bags.

So really, our flight was quite uneventful - the way that I like it. We were on a big jumbo jet, the kind that has the second level and to our surprise that's where our seats were. They're just regular, economy seats in the upper deck, no bar or disco dance floor as my husband had hoped but kind of fun anyways. We flew Toronto to Paris and then Paris to Naples. With only an accumulation of 15 minues sleep on the first flight I was pretty tired landing in Paris but we made the most of our 2 1/2 hours. We bought a great cup of coffee and a fresh pastry in the Paris terminal and we managed to snag two lounge chairs and rest our eyes a bit before our next flight.

I think we were served a light breakfast on this next flight. I no longer knew what meal my body wanted or even if it wanted anything at this point. I just ate what was put in front of me. On a flight it's like an event, you earnestly watch the flight attendant as they approach your seat until they pass you your plastic tray. You carefully eye the food as you unwrap your plastic dinnerware. I've never been so excited about a plain semi-fresh muffin and a strawberry yogourt before! Ah, 15 minutes have passed. What will happen next? Coffee, tea some water perhaps? How am I going to wake the guy next to me so I can get up and go to the washroom? Should I wake him up? I have to wake him up! I can't sleep on a plane. I haven't slept at all. I have to get some sleep! I want to get off this plane. I wonder if my luggage will be there?...ah, the ramblings of my mind while flying. Next thing I know, as I finally feel like I've started to doze off a rather loud announcement is made declaring that we are making our descent and we will arrive in about 30 minutes. Couldn't they tell us this in 30 minutes?!!

We arrive in Naples.

...stay tuned.

Food for Thought...

...a feast for the eyes.

The smell of warm bread wafting through the street...

A woman in a business suit and heels carrying a warm baguette home for dinner - not even placed in a bag but clutching the narrow loaf with a small square of wax paper...

chocolate, raspberries, whipped cream...

works of art in their glass cases...

an ice cream cone presented in the shape of rose petals...

...such care and pride taken in the making and presentation of food. This food was meant to be enjoyed, each mouthful tasted, digested. It is the complete opposite to our hurried, grab what you can fast food culture. Few cafe's even provide take out coffee cups. Sit down, enjoy and have a conversation. What a concept!

...it's easy to stop and smell the roses when you're on holidays and especially when it's made of vanilla bean, coffee and pistachio flavoured ice creams...but it does make you realize that somehow our fast and 'I'm so busy' lifestyle is missing something...and I'm not speaking of fancy french pastries...there's just something you can't get while racing through the drive through line of Tim Horton's.

My Point of View...

...from the Eiffel tower...

....sigh.

Inspirations....

Claude Monet

No vacation has ever affected me like this one did. Full days of walking through museums, churches and old buildings provided what was almost an overstimulation of artwork and history. Weary feet and tired eyes at the end of the day could barely take in any more beauty. This time away allowed me to rest my head of everyday stresses and open my mind. Creatively, my head is in a wonderful place. It's full of colours and visions and thoughts. The visions I can't complete at the moment I scribble and draw on scraps of paper so I won't lose the image.

Although this image of Waterlilies, Matin is small and so tiny compared to the floor to ceiling sized canvases I was lucky enough to see in the Musee de L'Orangerie it still can pinpoint my inspiration. The right hand side of this painting is a gorgeous mixtures of aqua blues and greens.

Here's my interpretation ....Waterlilies ~ glass and copper earrings.

Capturing the Moment...

Little snippets of our trip.

Telephone booth near Trafalgar Square, The Fountains in front of the Louvre, The 'Adventures of Squishy the Turtle" ~ here he is up the Eiffel Tower, Joie de Vivre!

Back Home

I'm still slightly in a fog as I write this. Not a groggy, headachey type fog that I can often find myself in but more of a gentle, relaxed, at peace with myself haze as I try to work through my daily life. It's a lovely, dreamy haze to be in and I don't want to let it go. We recently returned from a short but wonderful family trip to London and Paris. Only 9 days long but the time together was a memory itself to hold on to as our young teenage daughters are growing up so quickly.

We walked for hours every day. We carried no cell phones, read no newspapers or watched tv and only once briefly touched in with reality when we had to check our emails for our return flight home confirmation. We engrossed ourselves in the history, art and architecture and of course the food. We all came back a little different. Our daughters now live in a bigger world. Once what was only read about they have now seen. Their eyes are wider now and they have seen a small glimpse into a big world.

Our first night in London.

Looking across the Thames at the Parliament Buildings and the Clock Tower (Big Ben).

The steps of St. Paul's Cathedral. Absolutely breathtaking inside.

History and traditions. The changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.

Westminster Abbey provides more than a 1000 years of British History within it's walls.