summer times

always collecting

stones & pebbles from various beaches in Denmark

My two younger siblings and I went on a road trip to Denmark, together with our parents in the car boot. Due to covid we had had to wait a little longer than we had intended to.

Both urns had to endure a long wait in storage where they had mistakenly been packed with the stuff we are keeping there until our house extension is finished!

At least they were stored amidst their personal belongings, we joked.

Fortunately unearthing them (pun intended) was a cinch as the moving box they sat in (together with memorabilia we thought our Danish relatives might be interested in) was situated right at the front of the container. We have two surviving aunties, our mother's younger sisters, and many cousins, nieces and nephews in Denmark. The goal of our trip was to bury our parents' ashes in the family plot. As none of us wanted to make it a formal gathering it turned into a rather unceremonious ceremony, 'weeding, feeding and seeding' we liked to call it. A few interested Danish family members joined us for the digging holes and drinking crémant de Bourgogne part.

Afterwards we had a wonderful dinner in a nearby restaurant, with the aunties of course and many other cousins. It was a special occasion as we had not seen each other for quite some time and a lot had happened in these past years. But family being family, and our's is a pretty close one all things considered, catching up was easy and we had a really great evening!

the plot is slowly filling up as several of our departed relations have been laid to rest, or maybe not as they liked to quarrel amongst themselves, now they have eternity to sort things out......

We visited 4 museums, Nolde museum in Germany, Louisiana in Humlebaek, which used to be my favourite but alas it has become too popular and was pretty crowded!

It remains a really special place but I'll have to visit outside tourist season. The Johannes Larsen museum and finally Clay on Fyn, that last one was a first for me, and what a delight it was! I will return.....

images of me: on a quiet beach somewhere on Fyn, and below in Lingebos, the woods just around the corner from where I live, yes I'm back home

I painted just a few figures in the newly bought Moleskine booklets, whilst we were on holiday; I had brought one of my dad's old watercolour paintboxes just in case I felt the urge.....

I've been filing them like crazy ever since I got back. Seems to be what I am into these days: making one-off-books. Not thinking about how salable they might be, but gotta do this.

I find self wanting to have something to laugh about when browsing these books, although the image above is pretty grim with the knife-bearing-figure on the left, I remember feeling angry whilst glueing the knife-thingy onto his/her hand, even if I cannot recall what I was upset about at the time. 

common hogweed seedheads glowing pink in evening sun, never had they appeared to me in this shade! we are still enjoying what I like to call proper Summer weather, although many complain about the heat and worry about the drought. I go swimming in the river most days and walk a little less....yoga practice wakes me up each morning, am slowly returning to the home groove