It rained most of the day today In Istanbul. Rain has this way of forcing it’s mood on you, doesn’t it? There is a sense of containment and going inwards, where if you had the choice, you would curl indoors with a book or bake cookies.
I love rain photography, when reflection, rain drops and moody skies abound. Istanbul delivers all that and more.
You can even find the smiles between all the grumpiness of bad weather if you search for them hard enough.
Every year at about the same time in November a new wind blows in Shanghai bringing with it the promise of a heartless winter to come. But there is so much to love about the way the fall forces itself on summer, not offering any apologies, simply making a bold statement, stripping the trees of their leaves, forcing us all to alertness and away from the laziness of summer warmth.
When a storm decides to come, it does not give us a warning, neither does it ask for our permission to turn our world upside down…
On a few occasions while living in New York and when answering ‘Lebanon’ to the ‘where do you come from?’ question, I was hit with the following questions: “do you have a camel?”, or “how does it feel to live in the desert?”, and my favorite: “wow, I did not know that you were African!”.
Now, I had learned to accept the fact that a few Americans did not find it necessary to get acquainted with the rest of the world, but I was always feeling very strongly about passing on the fact that Lebanon has the most moderately wonderful weather with dozens of sub-climates, more water than any other country in the Middle East, has 12 rivers, and thousands of clear cascading waterfalls from snow capped mountains. It has been named since biblical times the most fertile and lush country in the region.
And I must point out that I only saw my first camel when I travelled out of the desert free Lebanon 🙂
After leaving Lebanon, it took me such a long time to get used to the fact that the sun does not shine every day during the summer in other parts of the world! The sun is Lebanon’s soulmate, the are inseparable in the summer time and makes everything glow in a most beautiful warm shade. The stones, the water, the mountains, the trees, and the beautiful Lebanese women who love the sun back.
And once you meet the passion of Lebanon’s sun, you yearn to be back there every summer just to say hello.
photo: the beautiful Alice on a boat.
To wake up excited about a new day, to find something wonderful about any type of weather, to look at mud as a potential mud pie, to view a puddle as a chance at some great splash excitement, to laugh at funny things without any inhibition including a funny face or a very fat bum, to run around exploring until your fall down in an exhausted heap, to lay in bed after a long day feeling nothing but peace and an anticipation of a great and full tomorrow…
This is the love of life, mostly exclusively available in children sizes 1 to 12. Highly contagious to open minded adults.
The moment temperatures go above 27 degrees Celsius, the men in Shanghai start doing what is called the t-shirt flip! In other words, they flip their t-shirts to allow their stomachs to be exposed in order to cool down. This guy was flipped happily sitting under a tree when I photographed him, and he reacted with a “eeeeyyyyy, bla bla bla bla” in Shanghai dialect followed by “what are you photographing?” in Mandarin. So I came over to him and showed him the shot on my screen (thank God for digital) and he had this wonderful reaction where he straightened up proudly and mouthed a “hmmmm” in approval. I love these tiny clips of Shanghai moments.
It is the season of color and smiles. Who doesn’t smile to a pretty flower, to the warm rays of the April sun, to the first crisp fresh breeze that flirts with the curtains of an open window?
And then come the colored eggs! In our little family we get very excited about coloring them, hiding them and finding them again!
Thank you Spring! Thank you chickens! Thank you weather Gods!
Happy Spring everyone 🙂
Today was the first day that we truly felt Spring in the air! We planned a little picnic with treats, books, a memory game and of course smiles and bubbles!
Happy Spring everyone!