Showing posts with label Norway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norway. Show all posts

23 August 2009

--under construction--


not the blog, just my mind.

it's rather simple. like the old nokia cell phone i've reverted back to using in the past few weeks since my smaller more socially acceptable cell phone died. wires crossed uncrossed and now at rest. a little over a month on a new headache medication and the world seems to have slowed, calmed, nearly emptied-- through this view out the same sunglasses i always wear, it's in a light i've never seen before. simple. just phone calls received, dialed. text messages-- not enough memory to save the ones from last week so just delete and start fresh. a familiar phone-- so old i think it's probably back in style-- remember the old nokia you could drop in the gutter and take in the shower and spill coffee on and step on or drive your car over and it never broke or stopped working-- it's that one, and it works perfectly and it makes me laugh when i use it and it's easy. it's simple. {abby one of my young students thought i accidentally brought my house phone to the cafe the first time she saw it! she still calls it my house phone} but you know what, it works better than any of the fancy mobile phones i've used for years and it's reliable. the reception is unbelievable and the battery never dies it's suddenly everything i needed.

as i've often mentioned i've been battling chronic headaches for years and going through a series of new medications and treatments. the latest approach was the most drastic, and i've found some headache relief, but all at once everything else seemed to change as well, thoughts come slower and are often lost right in mid sentence, and words---
well-- i feel like we're starting over again. this has been a transforming month. another life. things are somewhat simpler, and i almost like it. but some of it has also been unbelievably frustrating and disheartening and just exhausting.

in the midst of all of this i had a visit from my dear norwegian friend and i will share some of our photographic explorations of suburbia. and then there's something that i found which i'd thought existed but also somewhat took with a grain of salt--as myth-- urban legend, turned out to be walking with me all along just like they said but-- you know how things come and go and if you listen closely you can hear me whispering it right now, but maybe you can feel it under my words, and words to come. until then, and until i figure out how to merge the new and old ways of living, thinking, functioning, observing, appreciating and most importantly writing, i might play around with posting some of the photos i've been taking lately with my really old, faulty digital camera, as for the past month, my words have been lost somewhere inside this head of mine that's trying to find its way through the pain and back again speaking the same language, and learning yours.
the headaches aren't completely gone, and even though at times it makes me dizzy, somehow things stopped spinning. please excuse my unplanned absences as i adjust to all of this and still find my words, and you-- and back again.

x c

photos : by c

02 March 2009

...to walk through this and come out again




and then this morning, after a cup of coffee i, quite by chance, re-discovered this thought:

"The wise man in the storm prays to god, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear.
It is the storm within that endangers him,
not the storm without."
Emerson



08 February 2009

lol


haha!!! maybe i'm tired, but i just glanced at this pic of mt and chris and realized that it looks like they belong in the statue park in oslo.......and even funnier, the statues are naked in the snow, and these crazy kids are wearing jackets on the beach. oh lalaaa. maybe it's just me, but hey it's a little bit funny quand meme..isn't it?! well, anyway, hope you had a good weekend with a little laughter in the mix....a demain x c

friends for all seasons

it seems as though my very favorite statue in the vigeland sculpture park in frognerparken oslo, norway (my norwegian friend {and oslo correspondent} lives right near it) is covered in snow, poor girl must be cold she has snow in her hair!


(the girl i'm refering to is this statue, my favorite, i love this girl! marianne {my norwegian friend} is, i'm sure, cold as well and most likely has snow in her hair, but i'm not sure it's as dramatic as this!!)


apparently it's been snowing a lot everywhere (except here in california where there's a possibility of rain today...but that's about it).. my olso correspondant sent reports today of 'it's been snowing like crazy here the last couple of days' and i've heard similar remarks from paris and toronto.. but i only walk through it in the warmth of my mind and the pictures i'm sent, and i'd venture to say it's a more pleasent experience like that.


this is my girl basking in the warmth of an august afternoon in oslo.


and i'm including some more of the images she sent of the statues in the snow..


i love how they look covered in snow!!


though these guys look like they've had just about enough!

...they make me smile, as does that girl, and this time, i mean marianne ;)))

02 February 2009

second look: images in my mind

★★today was spent encountering new blogs, as i'm still a newcomer to this game (thus blogs new to me, but otherwise well established) and through these blogs, new photographers were discovered as well, and many excited exclamations muttered. anyway, my mind was working overtime, as were my fingers typing stories on my glowing keyboard and scribbling notes on the paper mouse pad beside me and all at once images, ideas, thoughts and personalities encouraged by multiple cups of coffee interspersed with my favorite black tea in which i soak dried sage leaves and honey.... all made for a delightful day, but i'm exhausted. and i'm rambling. lots of images are roaming about my fatigued consciousness, here are a few that stick with me.

images in my mind. you know how sometimes you see a picture and you're somehow mesmerized -- you simply adore the image, sometimes you can say straight away why it is you can't take you're eyes off it, and other times, you can't put in words why you're so utterly taken with this particular image...

at hei astrid i discovered her colorful photographs like this........

and this..............

complete with her warm commentary direct from chilly norway.


★★

and then i came across this bike basket, and fell entirely in love.

i went to design house stockholm where the basket can be purchased for only $39, and, well i haven't fully recovered yet. look around this fantastic site. for tonight i'll let the products speak for themselves, but i will show you more later!

★★

the day actually started with a lingering look at unruly things, where i discovered photographer jennifer causey's blog simply photo and these perfect images available for sale in her etsy shop.

((i really want them all.))

★★


and also another blog with photos that are stuck in my mind, bliss...

this last one is first on my list in her etsy shop, i can't find words to tell you how much i adore this image and the feeling that i get from gazing up at it.....

.....i found so much more today, this is all off the top of my head as i try to digest what i took in today. and yes i realize you all probably know about these blogs and photographers but i'm a new girl in town, feeling my way around...and really liking what i find myself bumping into!!

★★


oh yes and another delicious 'edible idiom' that fits right in with my own little life, found today on clotilde's c&z..."mi-figue mi-raisin." which she translates as "half fig, half grape," basically implying ambiguity.. and that's me in a nutshell. read more about her description here amongst infinite recipes and beautiful images that you can almost eat..

like this one..


and a polaroid at that!! great taste.


★★yes, i'm getting tired, almost time to swivel my executive chair around from my desk to my bed..

but one more thing, i've also, in the past few days, had a starteling number of encounters with talk of portland. ya, portland..as in oregon. i'm suddenly intreagued with this city and want to know more. many of the blogs i read today were located in portland, beautiful photographs taken of portland, i watch the movie feast of love the other day which took place in portland, and i can't remember what else right now, but now it's on my mind...so tell me, if you know, what's it like, this portland?...

ok, i'll stop rambling now..bonne nuit, dream of these images as will i. i mean, why stop now, i've been doing it all day au fait!★★c

23 January 2009

almost out the door.......



i always get ideas and inspirations when i don't have any paper or time to write..
on walks or in the shower or when i'm pressed to get somewhere rushing to get ready and leave the house, well it's often a sequence of inspiration: walk..shower..get ready..try to write some of it down quickly..inevitably late out the door......



and yes i find myself in that position once again. wanted to share some delightful photos of oslo in the snow, according to my norwegian correspondent ((aka my dearest norwegian friend marianne)) it snowed 36 hours straight this past weekend in oslo, and she took photos of some of my favorite places in olso..places i've only visited in the sun ((yes there really is sun in norway!!)) now covered in snow. she's one of those friends that makes me feel like i'm right there with her, walking to kaffebrenneriet for kaffe or driving through the mountains to the island sommerhus.....



oh, and would you look at the time, i'm officially running late. again. haha funny that i'm running late after just talking about my dearest scandinavian friend....ever punctual..ever patient with me..

tucen takk, stort kyss x c

11 December 2008

ahhhhhh la laaaa!!!!




Been having trouble posting,
got a pile up here of posts for ya ;)
but I’ll ease into it......

09 November 2008

accidental moments become perfection


I love juxtaposition. Juxtaposition, contradiction, accidental moments become perfection. Traces of lives, shattered views, details, that, together, say more about the world than one view could ever convey. Thoughts, memories, photos from friends and words in any language, voices of the past and those from the very present, mingle with languages, cultures, music and glimpses of the world we subtly discover are woven throughout today. When certain things appear with others the resulting message, the context that is created by such arrangement, can be perfect, or shocking, or extraordinarily not what was expected but exactly what was desired. So many instances in life find us walking too fast, failing to stop and look at the things we never thought of mixing together, but when we look again, and realize the message that their union has created, something in the world seems more complete.

The beautiful scenic pictures on here called ‘Selma’s pictures’ are images I fell completely in love with when my Turkish friend Selma sent me pictures from her trip to Cappadocia. Selma and I like to trade stories from our current locations (Istanbul and California) and the mundane for me, is exciting for her, and likewise, her daily routine in Istanbul, has become one of the highest priorities on my dying-to-do list.

I guess I could make an excuse for not writing the past few days, but every time I came to this page to do so, I wasn’t sure how to follow these words spoken by Barack Obama the other night. “And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world — our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared.” This one phrase, more than anything, spoke to me, as I truly believe and have lived it, our destiny is shared. The people I have met from all corners of the world, whom I have the fortune of calling my friends, have touched something deep within me, sparked a curiosity, and changed how I see the world, and what I plan to do while I’m here. And the picture of Selma, standing free above the breathtaking views of the ancient land of Cappadocia, complimented Obama's eloquent words, from another corner in the world, and somehow made it all seem more possible.

The richness that can be discovered from all corners of the world, when the mundane mingles with the extraordinary...

Consequently, the photo here is of a bridge that I came across (but didn't cross) after taking a wrong turn with my Norwegian and Irish/Basque friends high up in the mountains of Rjukan Norway.

Come to think of it, I’ve yet to tell Selma about my blog!

((canim Selmacim baby cok optum, you know I love your photos!))