Windows

I admit to being a bit of a voyeur. I find windows intriguing. Looking into them poses questions about the lives lived behind them. Peering out from them has it's own fascination. By putting a frame around the world, you see it a little differently and perhaps imagine new possibilities. And, well Paris. Now Paris really does have some of the loveliest windows.

Rooftop Soliloquy

Before my trip, I read the book Rooftops of Paris. It contains utterly beautiful watercolor paintings by Fabrice Moireau depicting this "levitated, almost unreal world". To capture his views, he would slip into apartment buildings, pretending to live there, and painted while perched precariously on high. I wasn't quite as bold as Fabrice, but was determined to capture this landscape of form, pattern, and rhythm. There is nothing like the feeling of stepping out onto a rooftop to suddenly have Paris there in front of you, in all its magic, at an unfamiliar altitude.

Home

Although my home isn't as adorable as these homes in Burano, it's good to be back with TB, my cat Six, and all that is comforting and familiar. I had a wonderful trip and I'm thrilled with the photographs I took. They'll be keeping me busy for many months to come.

But in the middle of this heat wave we're having, nostalgia is simmering and my lazy, hazy brain finds itself reminiscing, remembering and missing:

• The colors! My God ... the colors! Pinks, yellows, peaches, blues, greens. Villages like Burano and those in Cinque Terre are works of art. The houses are the canvases onto which the most amazing colors have been painted and one feels as though one is walking through a dream.
• Taking a vaporetto instead of the bus in Venice
• Tagliatelle (pasta) with truffles
• Cafe Americano con latte
• The amazing croissants I ate every day for breakfast while in Tuscany
• Tomatoes bursting with flavor
• The gentle rolling hills of Tuscany
  
• The chance to photograph such incredible beauty for hours each day