about silent landscapes

Some days ago I read a beautiful issue of a photography magazine, ‘EXIT’, called ‘Silent Lanscapes’ (http://www.exitmedia.net/#). It explained why each contact with nature is so tranquilizing:

"Before this wild beauty [of nature], man looks inward, in silence and solitude.All paths lead to ourselves. All possible meditation revolves around ouw feelings, death, love, and loneliness. It seems that in nature we can, still, rediscover. On the road, along the trail, we think in slowness and silence, detached from a noisy, fast, superficial world h, distancing ourselves from what we are, from the trees and the rivers." (Rosa Oliveira)

That may mean that at the time of close interaction with nature the man shakes off all the unnecessary stuck to him through days of city hustle and bustle, and thus 'cleans his optics'. So, the photos he takes in such moments become the most truthful reflection not of the surroundings but rather of his inner self.

Sagrada Familia

Each time, walking by, passing by on a bicycle, entering, going around in circles, just sitting and gazing at it,

I observe it

I study it

I smile at it

I admire it

I absorb it. Sagrada...sagrada en mi corazón.

Iris Dance

...they started to move along with Moby's 'Guitar Flute & String'. Irises dancing.

about artichokes and challenges

"Guess what? I've bought artichokes!"
"Huh?", my colleague looked puzzled. "Yeah, and I bought carrots and tomatoes yesterday, so what?", she mocked at me.
"I bought artichokes for the first time in my life. And today the first time in my life I will be cooking them."

I know, not a huge event, after all, but isn't it always exciting to do something for the first time? It´s been a while since I was considering doubfully that stall of artichokes outside the fuit store nearby but I never deared to deal with them. In person.
So, I finally accepted the challenge. I don't think I even held an artichoke in my hands before and liked its think arched scales, the texture, the pattern they form together...but how in the world is one supposed to cook this thing??
Anyway, I did prepare them 'alla italiana' and, which is more important, the dish was gladly finished, so I guess I can consider it a success.

oh and by the way, I was surprised to discover that an artichoke is a FLOWER which when blossoming looks like a giant thistle :)

more about surpises

Well, this is what got to my workplace after I came back from my lunch break.
I know that many people (mostly men) say flowers are a useless waste of money but at that moment nothing could brighten up my day more than this huge sunny bunch :)

...A guy in the lift grinned at me and the flowers, "Birthday?".
"Nope. Just loved", I answered smugly.

about listening

Listen to the music inside,

Not changing words nor titles,

Listen to the whisper of the steps

Along the roads and proud houses,

Listen, lips grasping the heaps

Of useless thoughts, pointless doubts,

Listen, keep listening closely,

Singing along with the eyes.

Listen, not hearing worthless confessions,

Neither false hopes nor a grudge.

Infinity’s lost, in the cast of a moment,

At the end of worn-out, chewed-up days.

Listening closely, no ways of retreat,

No plays of ‘what was or would be’,

Leaving one’s house made of dear old husk,

Listen –

to finally hear oneself.

about recognition

... a two-hour walk along the Rhine and up to the 'modern' part of Düsseldorf, with totally frost-bitten fingers was worth it.

This literally outstanding, curvy building, known as Zollhaus, is work of a famous Canadian-American architect, Frank Gehry who also designed the Jay Pitzker Pavillion in Chicago, the Dancing House in Prague and other really impressive examples of desconstructivism.

A curious thing about him is that he had to reach a really mature age to get recognized. After many years of regular undistinguished architectural career, he was finally noticed when designed his own bird-nesting-box-style house in California, something really out of the ordinary for that time. Soon after that his career rocketed up converting him in one of the most significant figures in the modern architecture and in a Pitziker Prize laureate.

Life is full of twists'n'turns :)