Best Friends

My best friend is visiting this week!





We're having a great time, going lots of places. We walked around the Lake at Divonne-les-Baines. It's very changed now with all the Fall colors.




The yellow and orange leaves are gorgeous.





We went to a cafe in Divonne that specializes in chocolates and also has very nice teas.










We had gingerbread and a chocolate pie to share.






The coffee cups are bright, colorful and very appealing.










Cruising around the countryside we've seen lots of sights. We snapped a crow flying across the fields...



Picked apples near the Lac Leman in Switzerland...
















Went for a picnic in the foothills of the Jura...








We've been doing all sorts of silly things. Here it was apparently necessary to hold the boulder in place, in case it moved during the photo session.


We've driven through villages with sweet flowers by the roadside...












Passing time with your best friend is one of the most wonderful things in life. We'll see what more fun and mischief we can get into for the rest of the visit.

Optimizing The Way We Spend Our Time

A few months ago I was desperate to improve my work output. I had outlined my goals and set timescales, but could tell that I wouldn't reach them with my typical daily routine. At the end of each day it was becoming more and more excruciating to find that I was no closer to doing what was needed in order to reach those goals. I just had to figure out if there was any practical way to reach them.

I started by analyzing all the ways in which my time was being spent and in what amounts. This was a crucial and extremely revealing step in understanding where my time was disappearing.

Some areas of our lives may be less under our control than we would like. There might be aspects of our lives that we're not aware of taking significant amounts of our time. If we have a situation that we hope someday might change, we might unwittingly plan for the future without taking into account that circumstance's full impact on our present activities. Understanding all the demands on our time gives us the chance to assess the realistic timescale for achieving our goals. This in itself can remove an incredible amount of frustration and pressure.

But even with circumstances that we may not be able to directly change, it may be possible to find ways to more effectively work with or around them. And once we know where our time goes, we have the opportunity to prioritize all our activities, and even eliminate those that aren't essential and don't give us the return we're looking for.

Around this time, I came across a book called: "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. It covers all aspects of setting up a personal system to organize ourselves so that we can become more efficient and productive. It was very helpful and got me moving forward in a way that has really made a huge difference.

Following David Allen's recommendations in this book, I did a few basic things. David Allen points out that a tremendous amount of energy is wasted by trying to remember tasks that need to be completed. If we write them down in a place we know we can rely on to find them, then we don't have to pointlessly keep mulling them around. We can free up our minds to think of more creative things instead.

I also understood from the book that it's important to break up tasks into one-step actions. Once we know what to do it becomes easy to do it. For example, if we write down 'organize party', it's not clear what action is needed first in order to accomplish this. Once it's broken down into a list of actions to complete, we can just do them and tick them off as we go.

David Allen also suggests, in the office framework, to delegate, or in a more personal framework, to ask others for help. This may not be an obvious option for someone to consider. If we're not used to asking for help, this can be difficult. But it's well worth considering, because this can lead to many unforeseen benefits and possibilities.

I don't think I followed strictly everything David Allen said, but this is what I did as a result of reading his ideas:

• Wrote down absolutely everything that needed doing, small and large tasks alike.

• Created categorized lists of tasks.

• Created categorized lists of projects (a project being anything that required two or more steps in order to be completed).

• Created a list of tasks that could be completed either by me or by someone else, and then asked for help.

• Put recurring tasks in the calendar on my computer so that each day a list pops up of things that need to be done that day. This is a tremendous help. For example, I no longer have to think, keep track, or rummage through random bits of receipts to find out how long it has been since the water filter was changed and when it's necessary to buy replacement filters for it. Or when the kitchen needs its next deep clean.
  

Defining all the tasks that need to be completed, both routine and one-offs, enabled me to really address how those things are accomplished and when. It also allowed me to ask others for advice on how to tackle some of the things I didn't directly have control over. This has resulted in some dramatic changes that I would never have been able to make on my own.

I keep looking for ways to change and improve and, with the passing weeks, have been able to add more to the schedule than I had previously thought possible, but that were in fact in my original set of goals for the future. Now, each day generally provides me with more accomplishment in a way that's directed towards those goals. And that's a great feeling.

I thought I'd mention this process in case you might find it helpful too. Life is a lot more fun when we can play the game with a better hand to win more victories.

I didn't realize until after this photo was on the computer that there looks to be an 8 card behind the 10... well, there's even more there than first meets the eye! :)

Lighted Windows Egg Tempera Painting

Here is my latest egg tempera painting, which I completed last week. It's 17" x 9". Norton Down Methodist Church is a small building approximately 10 miles south of Bath, in England, and is just round the corner from a pub called "The White Post". We were driving by, after going to The White Post, and I took a quick shot from the car as we passed. The warm light from the window caught my eye, making this a very appealing subject.

Walkways And Canals: A Day In Venice, Italy, Part III

There are many pretty walkways along the canals in Venice.












The gondolas are always there to take people directly along them.Elegant taxis for a city.















The carving on the woodwork is beautiful.










The buildings are very interesting because there are so many different styles and colors. This gentle pink with the deep green of the water is appealing.














There are restaurants dotted all over the place where tables are set by the waterway.











The views from the different restaurants are pretty.

It's fun to see the doors of houses opening up onto the canal, pretty much as you would in a normal street.










The fronts of some of the buildings are especially warm and attractive.




Looking up also brings lots of novel sights...











Worn, but warm surfaces...












Varieties of colors and brick...



Dark and mysterious narrow alleys...


















Utilitarian spaces...


























Graffiti, bringing us back from the quaint surroundings with a reminder of what today's 'street art' looks like...

Beautiful doors making a grand entrance...



These characters above the nameplates, the doorbells, are striking.










Here's a closeup showing how piercing those eyes are. His tongue, nose and even ears are certainly shiny!

Looking up from the narrow walkways down below, the gentle afternoon light can be seen glancing off the side of the walls.














Much of the city takes place above eye level.








The scene is so relaxing with the calm water up against the buildings.




Larger canals give room for more grand buildings.



Venice is a remarkable place.


Walking out from the small walkways and canals enclosed by the city brings you out to the more open waterfront with large squares and very grand buildings. To see more of this, stay tuned for the next, and last one, in the A Day In Venice posts.

Silhouettes and Profiles In Photography

Capturing silhouettes with a camera can create some fascinating images. This crow was doing some fancy acrobatic flying up in the French Alps last summer. His outline shows how beautiful he is in flight.

It's much more difficult to see the fine detail of this hawk's feathers, but the size of his wings compared to the size of his head is impressive. The tree gives the otherwise bare picture some added interest. This hawk was flying over a newly plowed field in Switzerland last Spring.

Here is another silhouette of a bird, this time framed by trees overhead. The trees and size of the bird show him to be fairly high up. The trees also give a sense of the fleeting moment in which the hawk is viewed, as soon it will pass out of sight behind them.






Here more trees are framing a passing solitary couple of clouds. The profile of the tree closeup on the top left hand side sets the scene, while the trees further away almost provide a pathway for the line of vision, making the clouds all the more interesting. It begs the question: in a sky that appears otherwise clear, where did these two snippets come from?



Silhouettes can enhance the beauty of sunsets. The dark permanence of the land contrasts starkly with the ephemeral beauty of the fading but glorious light behind it.
The photo below is kind of fun. At first glance the silvery colors of the sunset are nicely set behind the tree-line. And then it might seem that the tall tree has leaped up above the others, almost as though it's trying to reach the setting sun. And then there's the crane, to the left, which might seem an unfortunate detail, but then it also emphasizes that the apparently unbounded strength of nature and the trees in this skyline are actually quite frail, at the mercy of human activity.
A frozen world framing a silvery cold sunrise.

Profiles are a great way to capture the details of a character. The beauty of this horse is shown nicely in this side shot. The gloss of his coat is lovely.



This fella looks both thoughtful and alert.
















The outline cast by the tree's shadow is fascinating and really adds to the tree's charm. It seems the most perfect Christmas tree.









The jagged peaks in this photo of the French Alps gives the image a feel of untouched ruggedness.

Framing a scene with profiles and silhouettes adds flavor to the overall effect of the photograph. The intimacy and muted color of the flowers close up provide sharp contrast with the vastness of the mountains in the background.






The stark bare trees next to the lake make the mountains and the oncoming weather look especially harsh, cold and hostile.
The detailed closeup beauty of the roses is not shown in this photo, but somehow their silhouette against the soft blue sky intimates a loveliness that might be greater in the imagination than it would be in reality.

It's fun to play around trying all sorts of ways of taking photographs, just to see what happens. Often when I photograph something I'm not convinced will look nice, I find a surprise.

Taking photographs in completely different and new ways opens my eyes to seeing the world in a fresh way. And that's a wonderful thing! Have you tried it lately?

Jasmine's Musical Chairs

Jasmine has two large cages to hang out in, and she likes both.But she also loves to be out and about round the house. She has places where she's 'officially' allowed to go (and of course places where she's not, but often goes anyway). One of her places is the tops of chairs.
We arrange them throughout the house so she can come and go as she pleases in either short hops or long flights.


Sometimes she tests her wings and flaps, with no intention at that precise moment to leave her post.




After a few test tries on her wings she'll then poise herself ready for takeoff.
















Then comes lift-off.Although this photo isn't clear, I just love the way it looks. A fantastic blur of Jazzy in the air, red tail brilliantly bright.



At other times it's nice to sit in the kitchen basking in the afternoon sun.
















Sometimes she likes to be sought after and picked up.












The tops of chairs are also a great place for having a snack.
But then, for Jazzy almost any worthwhile activity is best savored with a delectable tidbit.





And of course, the top of a chair is a great place to sit and chat and share a beer...well, Jazzy doesn't drink beer, but she sure enjoys the camaraderie.

Butterfly Egg Tempera Painting

Here's the finished Butterfly 10"x7" painting.


It's based on a photograph I took on a walk in the Jura foothills in the Spring. It was a beautiful day, with bright blue sky and the fields were full of brilliantly red poppies. This butterfly was out enjoying the day too, and this is where we met.

Over a period of a few weeks after completion, the egg tempera paintings continue to become brighter and more distinct in color. This is because the egg yolk, which is used as a base for the pigment, initially tints the colors in the painting. The yellow of the egg yolk disappears completely when exposed to daylight. See previous post, Egg Tempera Painting, for more about this type of painting.



It turned out that the last two photos of the Geneva Lighthouse painting were taken in different lighting and so the photos aren't really possible to compare. But here it is after it has had time for the egg yolk color to vanish.