Lock down life - part 2

rain dance 5 | © Caroline fraser 2020

So, we reach week 10 of lockdown, and this weekend, for the first time, I have been into a shop. 

I won't say that I enjoyed it.

I found it intensely depressing; the fear of getting too close to real people, the not being able to touch, the worry about paying using a touch screen. 

OH ( my other half) has been doing all the shopping for the last 10 weeks.

For which I thank him.  But there are drawbacks......

Here are some pros and cons of having all my shopping done by OH....

•  the house is full of meat. ( By house I mean the fridge and the freezer). There are black puddings from Stornaway in every drawer of the freezer, and a supply of sausages sufficient for a large garden party, except that we are not allowerd one of those any time soon).

• There are secret foods that I am not told about, and don't realise they are there until I see the packaging in the bin ( strawberries and smoked salmon for example ). I am told that I 'only have to look in the fridge'. But I can't see past all the meat.....

•  there are 10 tins of tinned tomoatoes in the not very large larder cupboard. No wonder I can't see what else is in there.

• I am given 2 minutes to decide what ingredients I require for the meals that I am cooking for the next few days. I have never had to plan meals ahead with such precision.

rain dance 2 | © Caroline fraser 2020

As you can see, I am not easy to please.

But then nor is OH. My attempts to introduce a one night a week vegetarian night have not gone well.

I wouldn't mind, but given that OH eats meat at all three meals every day, then you might think that one veggy meal was going to be tolerated. Not so. 

I have resorted to using fish as a vegetarian option.....

Life is full of compromises.... 

 I choose my own breakfast and lunch from the non meat options available ( muesli, porrige, bread, cheese, salad).

You get the picture.

And the pros?

• I get to make new images during the time that I would have been queieng at the supermarket.

• I can do my meditation Youtube video without interruption half way through from OH  asking me  'do you want to watch Boris on TV '.   To which the answer, of course, is NO.

While OH is shopping I fiddle around on the computer trying to create new images from my local walks and from old images from my travels.

I am experimenting with layering of photos and paintings. 

Some work better than others.

Here is a Scandi style window from Finland. 

playing with layers and warp tool in Photoshop

And here is a tree from Lofoten with some starlings from Wales.

playing with photographic layers

I seem to return to trees time after time.



These dead branches from Vancouver.

towards the sky | © Caroline fraser 2020

And these graceful fallen branches from a woodland in Kent.

tree dance | © Caroline Fraser 2020

But it is the images from my local pond that please me most.

I have found the shapes of the leaves reflected in the water to be an endless source of work over the past 10 years.

Raindrops falling just add to the fun. 

The ripples create an added dimension. 

rain dance 14 | © Caroline fraser 2020

But we have had no rain since I took these photos on 28th April. 

Hopefully some will come again soon, and I can extend the series a little further.

Light and water, light on water. Water falling on water . I don't have to go far to find a place to capture my favourite subject matter.

Here is a video made beside my local stream, a few yards away from the pond. 

A place of peace.

 

An Argentinian journey. Part one, Buenos Aires

My other half (OH) has taken 'almost' retirement.

To celebrate he has dragged me to Argentina, because I happened to mention some time ago that I would like to see the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. The best salt pans in South America are in the high altitude altiplano and puna of Chile and Argentina, and the Salar de Uyuni amid the Andes in southwest Bolivia.

We have a long trip, starting in Buenos Aires, and finishing in Chile, taking in both the puna and altiplano, but not the Salar de Uyuni on this particular trip. The Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat in the world, and will have to wait for another day.

Patience is a virtue; who am I to complain when we have such an exciting itinerary ahead of us, crossing the Andes from Argentina to Chile.

But first we must see Buenos Aires and do the 'city' thing.

I would have opted to head straight to the countryside, to open spaces and wild places.

But there are sights to see here.

First we headed to the small local shops in search of batteries.

I was taken with the brush department.

So colourful. And such a selection.


I resisted, and made do with a plastic mug for making tea in. ( Hotels here don't have kettles).

Next we wandered up to the pink palace ( Casa Rosada) at the Plaza de Mayo, where Eva Peron used to live.

Casa Rosada , Buenos Aires

Life here is hard at present. Local people are tired of their politicians, and the devaluation of the currency is causing much hardship.

For us this makes prices very reasonable.

A cafe lunch at Cafe Puerto Rico was quiet on a Saturday.

Truth speaks in silence

Cafe Puerto Rico, Buenos Aires

Mostly we walked and ate.

Meat, beer and more meat. A certain person in heaven.

We found an exhibition about meat. OH easily persuaded to visit.

Carne ( meat)

The exhibition of meat facts accompanied by paintings of juicy steaks.

from the 'Carne' exhibition by Micaela Gauna

Carne

Obviously that made us hungry, but before eating 'we' needed a beer.

cerveza (beer)

No prizes for guessing which one OH had.

I, of course, had the 'Scottish'.

We walked some more. Long distances along wide streets.

La Recoleta cemetery was fascinating and morbid altogether.  Enormous mausoleums to contain the departed. Displays of wealth and importance.

Dead people; some coffins visible through broken window and door panes. A bit close for comfort.

So many 'streets' that you need a map.

La Recoleta, Buenos Aires

Resting place of Eva Peron

Eva Peron - much loved Argentinian

And the tragic story of a young girl who died in an avalanche.

Accompanied by her faithful companion, nose stroked by many who pass by.

After all that walking I demanded some culture. There are so many wonderful art galleries and museums in the city, it was hard to choose just a couple.

We managed the Museo de Arte Moderne (MAMA)

The photographs of Argentinian history were particularly moving. Thousands of boys 'disappeared' under the military dictatorship in the seventies and eighties.

Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo demonstration 1983, photographs by Aldo Sessa

White headscarves were worn by the 'Madres de Plaza de Mayo' movement.

After that a more light hearted exhibit, aptly titled

"Huevos en el piso"

( eggs on the floor)

'Entrevidas' a performative installation ; huevos en el piso by Anna maria Maiolino

We resisted temptation........



There was some eccentric performance art from the 1969 body of work set up by F.E Walther and photographed by Tim Rautert.

Having recently met Richard Long of  'A Line made by walking' fame, I was amused by these alternative views on the line.

OH was seriously not amused by all of the above, so we had a nice cup of tea, and then out for some more meat.

A brief trip to the Museo de Arte Latinamericano de Buenos Aires ( MALBA) the next day was somewhat better tolerated.

Cindy Sherman was deemed to be 'really weird', but OH interacted very nicely with some paperclips and padlocks hanging from the ceiling in a work from Pablo Accinelli's Nubes de Paso.

'I did blow them, and they moved'............. he informed me.

I preferred Pablo's feather dusters.

feather dusters from Nubes de Paso

The would have gone very well with a nice red brush.

Margate to Broadstairs........along the Viking Coastal Trail

flat white at Forts cafe

My other half (OH) took me out for the day today.

I say 'he took me out' because he did all the driving. It is traditional.

I chose the walk. As I hadn't been to the beach for a whole week I chose a coastal trail.

Viking Coastal trail ( part of)

Six miles along the coast from Margate to Broadstairs. Unchartered territory on a fine autumn day.

By the time we arrived in Margate I was ready for a coffee.

We found Fort's.

Cosy and welcoming, with novel wall decorations.

Fort's in Margate

novel wall decorations in Fort's cafe.

At this point I really wished that I hadn't had my breakfast, for a family of four were tucking into the most amazing spread of eggs benedict, sausage and chips and real Welsh rarebit. Youngest child throwing a wobbly at the sight of her sausage and chips, wailing "that's not what I wanted', in the way that only young children can do and do do.

I wanted.


Flat white in a blue and white china teacup for us. And very good it was too.



Leaving the streets of Margate for the tarmac path along the cliff top we passed subtle signs of a town past its heyday trying to reinvent itself.

Margate casino.

Cliff Lido, Margate

Then off along the coastal path, forced into our anoraks as we walked directly into the strong sea breeze.

Water quality results not bad.

 Efforts to keep the area clean also not bad.

Seagulls and wind a challenge ; special seagull proof bin bags and bins tied to posts with more rubbish bags.

Seagull proof rubbish bags

Bins on the clifftop

There are a lot of useful signs along the way

tied bins and falling rocks

probably dangerous

100% effective forensic traps

The beaches were tucked in under the cliffs.

The jet skis too.

jet ski world.

I was not heartbroken that jet ski world was closed.

Botany Bay

a plentiful supply of Kentish greens

flint stone wall in North Foreland

we descended 78 steps, but there was no beer.....

 The cafe was closed but surf was up at Stone Bay

Beach huts in various colours and styles abound along the shore.

gone swimming

beach huts at Stone Bay

somewhat more interesting beach hut

Last stop Broadstairs, a proper holiday resort, with rock, buckets and spades.

'As seen on TV' tourist shop.

Also home of home of Bleak House, where Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield.

Unfortunately my guide did not take me to see it, for it was lunch time.

The Intolerant Wife

We were not tempted by The Intolerant Wife.

We found beer.

And meat.

And the beach, basking in the autumn sunshine.

Broadstairs beach

Add caption

A bus returned us to Margate.

Margate

where we admired the outside and a little bit of the inside of the Turner Contemporary and popped into Aldi to replenish our supplies of meat.

Just in case......

Paolo Canevari at Margate Contemporary

Coastal architecture, Viking Coastal Way.