My granparents restaurant. All what's left is a precious glass. And told memories. Photo by lilypenelope

A walk on the beach. The city behind me. The horizon in front of me. Water in-between. The sound-{s} of nature. Thoughts are flying. In space. The end of Land - "Finisterrae", the beginning of a new "state": Imagination. Photo by lilypenelope

Couple of years ago I read a fascinating book about litterally the "small pleasures in life". Small pleasures like those gestures, actions that we, consciously or not, encounter on a daily basis often without even realizing how important / fullfilling they actually are. "Whether it be a croissant in the street, the Tour de France, a potluck, shelling peas, a glass of port, the smell of apples, the mobile library, a garden in August, getting your espadrilles wet, or an autumn sweater".

Lately I have been often talking about the fact that, after years of profound struggling with food allergies / intollerances I tried my very last option to fix/solve these problems. I seriously couldn't handle anymore the fact of getting convulsion, badly sick, sometimes even fainting in restaurants even after telling the waiter(s) I couldnt eat certain stuff (but still finding them hidden somewhere on my plate!). After almost 8 years of trying every type of possible "medical solution", and after being told there was nothing I could do since it was, unfortunately a permanent state I should live with for the rest of my days, a friend of mine told me about an alternative cure (that apparently fixed all of his allergies/intollerances in a couple of months): Magnetic bioresonance. Well, I said, what the heck...one more try wouldn't hurt plus it was completely natural. It turns out another friend of mine had a studio of naturopathy right next to my office and...so I went, without having any expectations.
4 months have passed and my allergies/intollerances are gone, they disappeared!!!!

Why have I started this post with a book on small pleasures of life? Well, right now I'm in the phase of re-introducing all the food I haven't eaten in 8 years. All that food that contains lactose: yogurt, ham, sausages, butter (ohhhh yummy risotto!). Let me tell you...eating just bits of this stuff was like eating the best things ever for the first time ever! A milk shake at the bar on the boardwalk, a sausage at the barbecue with my friends, the famous risotto made by my mom (finally the real way...with butter not with olive oil!!). Well, exactly like those things Philippe Delerm was talking in his book "We Could Almost Eat Outside: An Appreciation of Life's Small Pleasures" (in italiano, en français) Photos by lilypenelope

I'm back! It has been so long since I've been posting on my blog but, sometimes, life is a very busy job! Many things have happened lately and I dont really have the energy to talk about them! Too much to do, but yet so little to feel intellectually fullfilled.
But I guess now it is time to get my artistic side back into action! Not only in photography, but in writing too (I keep postponing my ideas!). But the most important thing is trying to put some order around me. Not litterally intended as cleaning, washing, doing the dishes (although that's a part of my daily routine!). It's about sweeping negativity away from my personal space. Put in the mental trash can all those people are too heavy to carry around, like your weekly grocery shopping. Those people who keep pretending without even say thank you (sort of what my friends Efrem and Fred where talking about...in different ways). Those people whose actions piss me off so much I can't sleep at night. That's why lately I've been drinking this "passion fruit potion"...apparently it makes you sleep like crazy! Only when it's not this hot...the potion doesnt work with the heat! But the weather at least changes...these people never do! Photos by lilypenelope

It's raining. Everything is dark outside. Yet I see colors. I feel colors. But still. Outside it's dark. And raining. Photo by lilypenelope

If this wall could talk how many stories would it tell us? How many anectdotes, fragments of lives, urban poems could it narrate? Pieces of juxtaposed realities that daily cross path through the streets. But maybe, that's actually the beauty of walls. Their speechlessness. We can imagine what happens right in front of it. Dream. Or we can take a spray can and make it ours, leaving a trace on it, an image, a word, a drawing. Our story on it. Our story in our city. Aren't we all the writers of our reality? Photo by lilypenelope

Seriously...I don't know how and I don't know why but... I found antlers at the office. Maybe they are there since who knows when but, the main point is that there are antlers in our architecture office! Maybe as an examle of how a natural/animal element can influence forms in our job? Since the dog was here and didnt know how to spend his time beside eating everything he finds laying around including drawings, pens and a wool glove (where in the hell did he find it????) so...that's when I've realized how useful antlers can become!!!!! Photo by lilypenelope

Around the city. Floral compositions. Photo by lilypenelope

There are those moments! When you don't have any inspirations. When all you need is a creepy empty room where you can sit, relax and think. Maybe even not this creepy!! Photo by lilypenelope (in the image: my friend Efrem)

Photo by lilypenelope

The sky is infite. That's what we all are used to say. Where is the line though that divides the limits of the infinite? As you all know I adore staring outside my windows. Not really in a voyeuristic way...really! I just look at the sky thinking "that freak of a weatherman was wrong again". I look outside, I admire the beautiful everchanging color of our everyday roof, the sky. I look at the birds flying, I listen to them sing. I look at the planes flying and I smile trying to imagine where they are going. I dream about me sitting on a plane flying somewhere. Hopefully not next to the old fat lady that made my flight turn into a nightmare. When I found this old picture I took from the top a building in Downtown Los Angeles with my friend Efrem a feeling of joy started running through my body. First of all remembering the adrenaline while we were illegally going onto the roof to shoot some pictures. Then remembering the beauty of the city from a different angle. Ohhh those old billboards!!! Such works of art! There, on top of the roof of a huge building the sky wasn't only above us but right in front of our estatic faces. The billboard was the arrival yet creating a new starting point for our endless imagination. A man made construction in the middle of the sky. In front of us. Sad to realize that from my apt, shifting my eyes from the infinite above to the reality in front of me the line is very visible. Not a line through the infinite. But the line of my bank account going lower and lower. In front of me the taxes Building!
Photo by lilypenelope

Oh great! Now apparently the cloud is coming! It has been 3 days now that the radio keeps announcing that the cloud with volcanic ashes is coming this way (why not another one?). From Iceland with "ashy love"! Alarmed countries are closing the airports and cancelling flights. Even Switzerland! And then again on the radio "Big problems on ground level too". For humans we'll deal with lungs, eye, etc problems. In nature probably similar (!!) stuff!!
Now I'm wondering why the cloud keeps arriving...the day after the one expected?? Always tomorrow. Why? Is the cloud stopping by every other country to say "Komið þið sæl" (Hallo everyone!") and "Gaman að kynnast þér". Maybe right now the cloud is still in Germany chatting with locals about life and the future! Maybe the Germans are offering their amazing beer to it! And the cloud would probably ask, having had too much of it "Hvar er klósettið?" (where is the toilet?). That's why it's not coming here yet! It's the germans fault! They got it drunk!
Well, till today the weather has been great, cold but great. Trees and flowers are blossoming. Nice colors all over the state. No ashes anywhere! But, what will happen once the cloud arrives?? Would it be still drunk? Will it slur? Will we ask "Ég skil það ekki...Gætirðu sagt þetta aftur" ( I dont understand...can you please say that again?). Well, let's wait... !!! Photos by lilypenelope

Not sure what's happening with the weather lately. Isn't it official that it is indeed spring??? You wake up in the morning and realize there is snow on top of the mountain and all you think is "damn...I wish I could wear my flip-flops today". No you cant. The sun is out, the birds are singing, nature is having panic attacks since it doesnt know what to do since the damned thermometer shows 5 °C! Photo by lilypenelope

Modernity discovered through design magazines. And then re-discovered through a reflection. An old mirror. A vintage lamp. Past and present. Design. Photo by lilypenelope

Photos by lilypenelope

4. As the number of days I'll be spending on vacation...starting today!!! See you all next monday!!
Photo by lilypenelope

Phtos by lilypenelope

Photo by lilypenelope

Photos by lilypenelope

Sometimes reality and dreams cross path. On that particular path I found myself driving couple of days ago! Curiosity told me to keep going on a road I've never experienced further than my own home at the lake so, since I had nothing much to do I took the car and kept going. It was a rainy day and spring apparently was playing hide and seek! Would I find it on top of the mountain? Maybe that's what drove me!! While I kept going up I found interesting things to shoot. Strange trees, beautiful flowers, rain drops on grass (post below) and, on top of everything my tripp was surrounded with the typical smell of nature touched by the rain. I kept going higher (on the mountain!). Til I met Fog! To be said: I love reading mystery novels. Especially scandinavian ones (Mankell, Nesbo, Indridason, Nesser...). For some reasons, the landscape, all of a sudden, appeared to be those narrated in those fantastic books. With one little uncomfortable detail: "what if the killer jumps out of the woods and stabbs me to death?". Yep, sometimes I wonder if I maybe dont read too much of those books!! A strange feeling started to appear: fear. No houses near by. Only those of German tourist who come in the summer. But hey I said to myself. This Fog is amazing. The landscape is surreal. Fear can be managed! Then, details of life/fiction started to appear. An abandoned truck with a swiss licence plate (and I was in Italy). My mind started to flip: "Oh geeeee. What is this doing here?" "Where is the owner?" Al this thoughs were spinning in my head and, I decided never to live the car but shoot my pics from inside!!!
Ultimately I got til the end of the road. In a huge land covered by fog. Only a sign was visible. The name of the area and its height. "Acqua Minerale 590 m" ("Mineral Water 590m". That's when My already freaked out brain started to lose it! What if this one was the perfect place for a murder? What if this was a great place for those authors to set their stories in? Then worse of all.... "Oh geeeeee....what if this would be the perfect place for a real murder??" Seriosly I needed to come back to reality! While I turned my car a strange last (messed up) thought crossed my mind: "What if the (fictional) murderer just jumps out from the Fog and.... "Swiss architect found dead on top of a mountain in the region af the Lake Maggiore. Her body was found in "Mineral Water"". Yep...that would make the headline!! But would people ask "Who was she?" Or "Was the water sparkling?".
Photo by lilypenelope

Photo by lilypenelope

Photo by lilypenelope

Photo by lilypenelope

It doesn't happen that often that I look at my city from above. Like the "small town Icarus" I went up the hill, went inside the "3rd castle" patio and then I started to look towards the dark horizon. Down not that far there is the lake. Down, meters below, there are 2 other castles. Yet, what strucked me was the beauty of my city from above. Detached from the everyday. Detached from the street level. Detached from those routines that, day after day, create my urban experience-(s). Now, on top of the hill, all I see is a perfectly calm image. Lights softly guide you through the mysterious darkness of the night. As I drove back down a song was playing at the radio. It's words started to fly through the open window... "These streets will make you feel brand new Big lights will inspire you"...
I'm not sure how much my town still inspires me but, many stories have already being written, nothing new appearing on the blank pages of my urban everyday journey but, looking at it from a different perspective yes...those lights inspired me. And made me feel brand new!
Photo by lilypenelope - Bellinzona from above.