Rain

I don't know why, but the past couple of days I've been longing for rain. Not just a quick shower, but rain pouring down all day. Luckily the weather is just like that today and luckily nothing forced me to go outside, so I've spent the whole day inside, listening to the rain. I just love the sound of rain falling on the roof.

Life is like a box of chocolates

[Image: Goodreads]

Most of you probably know Forrest Gump and if you don't you should sit down and watch the movie, it's great. I've seen the movie several times, so I thought I might give the book a go too. The story line is not exactly the same as in the movie. Some of the things Forrest experiences in the book is not in the movie and vice versa. I prefer the ending as it is in the movie, it's much more touching than in the book.
Nevertheless I enjoyed the book. Some of the things Forrest says is just hilarious, I was laughing many times, while I read. He is definitely the perfect idiot, as it says on the cover.

The book is written in a very special way, that might be annoying to some, but it didn't bother me when I first got used to read it.
An example (not the best one, but I'm too lazy to look for a better one):

"About the only class I liked was lunch, but I guess you couldn't call that a class. At the nut school, my mama would fix me a sambwich an a cookie an a piece of fruit - cept no bananas - an I'd take it to school with me" - Forrest Gump (by Winston Groom)

In short, there's a lot of misspelling in this book and the words are written in the way Forrest would pronounce them, e.g. "pitcher" (picture), "hissef" (himself), "nex" (next) and "figger out" (figure out). I think it's kind of charming, but maybe it was because I had Tom Hanks' voice in my head throughout the book. By the way he's doing a great job as Forrest Gump.

Woops, forgot the trailer!

My intention was to post the trailer to Water for Elephants as well, but clearly I forgot to do so. I think it looks quite promising with Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon in the leading roles.
Anyway, here it is, better late than never!

Water for elephants

Time for another book recommendation, "Water for elephants" by Sara Gruen. While I read this book, I told myself several times, that "this is a good book" (yes, I do talk to myself sometimes) and it really is! It's about an old man, who is thinking back on the days when he worked in a circus. It might not sound that interesting, but I think it's entertaining and well written as well.
I think it's more than ten years since the last time I went to see a show in circus. But after this book I'm in the mood for circus, maybe I should go to see a show again. Or maybe I should just go to the cinema sometime this summer, when the movie (based on the book) is released.


The photo above is from the film set, taken by R.E.~, more can be found in this set.

[photos: Thomas Totz and R.E.~]

Sand art

Take a look at this cool video where Kseniya Simonova makes an amazing "movie" with sand as medium. There's so many details, it's quite impressive!



She won "Ukraine's Got Talent" in 2009 and since then she has made a lot of sand stories. You can see more at her youtube channel, if you like.

Playing around with bokeh

Photos from a sunny Sunday morning in February.

Into the Wild

Eddie Vedder - Guaranteed (Into the Wild Soundtrack)


Last weekend I watched "Into the Wild" and it's been in my head since. Yesterday I watched the extra material, which I usually don't watch unless it's a really good movie, but it was quite interesting. The movie is based on the book by Jon Krakauer, I think have to read the book too sooner or later.

Into the Wild is based on the true story of Chris McCandless, a young guy who leaves everything behind after graduating from university and travels into the wild, more specifically Alaska. This is definitely a must see! A beautiful tragedy, a movie that makes you think and stays with you for a long time after watching it. Emile Hirsch's performance as Chris McCandless/Alexander Supertramp is brilliant, the movie is full of beautiful scenery and it has a great soundtrack as well. It fits the movie perfectly (my favourite is "Guaranteed").


What Chris McCandless did is somehow admirable. I mean, who haven't thought about going on an adventure of some kind? The difference is that he actually did it, whereas most people just keep thinking about it and never realize these dreams. On the other hand it was also kind of foolish to set out like he did without further preparations, but I guess that was a part of the adventure?
Maybe it wasn't properly thought out, but still, it was very courageous and admirable to give up everything to follow your dream.

[photo source: rottentomatoes]

Hey, little girl, comb your hair, fix your make-up

Yesterday I finished the first part of the Belfast trilogy by Sharon Owens, "The tea house on Mulberry Street". It's a "collection" (in lack of better words) of stories about a handful of very different people, who have one (ok, two) thing(s) in common - the tea house Muldoon's (and troubles with love). One of them is a young artist who writes love letters to Nicolas Cage, whom she is completely infatuated with, and she is convinced that her ordinary name is the reason why nobody is buying her paintings. Another character is Aurora, who loves books by Brontë and to dress up like she was living in a Brontë novel.
It's a feel good book, very cosy (if a book can be cosy?), it reminded me a lot of Love Actually (the movie - haven't read the book). Definitely recommendable if you need an easily read feel good book. And as a bonus a recipe for cheesecake (they eat a lot of cheesecake in this book) is included on one of the last pages, if you fancy some cake after reading.

I still have a lot to catch up on after my days without internet, but hopefully I'll get time to catch up in the weekend.
Here's a little piece of music to start off the weekend. My favourite part is the beginning, so good. Have a nice weekend!

Dionne Warwick - Wives & Lovers


[source: Goodreads]

Mushrooms again

It seems that I have a thing for mushrooms these days. I've also been working on a painting with mushrooms for more than a month, I think. I painted a lot on it while my internet was gone (being without internet was good for my creativity), I'm not sure whether it's finished or not. Maybe I'll take a photo of it sometime.

Back on track

I've had problems with my internet connection since my last post, but now I'm back on track (hopefully). When that happens you realize how much time you spend on the internet, it's a little scary. The good thing about being without internet is that I suddenly had a lot of time to read books and paint and do nothing.

• I finally finished Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka (before the internet went on a hiatus). Oh my, it was boring! It took about 250 pages before it started to get a bit interesting. To cut a long story short it's about a bunch of samurais, a few American missionaries and a lord or two who get visions about the future. Interesting, huh? I thought it sounded good when I first read about the book, but it was way too historical for my taste. 
• The next book was Doppler by the Norwegian writer Erlend Loe. It was easily read, which is always a plus. It's about Doppler, a man who crash on his bike and decides to move into the forest for a while. A lot of things happen in the forest, for example he meets a moose and they become best friends. 
• I also finished my second book by Paul Auster, Mr. Vertigo. I don't know whether I like it or not, it was ok, but I'm not too keen on it. I liked Man in the Dark more (and the cover was also prettier - with shiny letters and everything! Just found a prettier version of Mr. Vertigo (the one on the right) They should stick to the most colourful version). Can you recommend anything by Auster?

[photos: faber]

Hummingbirds

Lately I've been quite fascinated by hummingbirds. Actually colourful birds in general (thanks to flickr and the explore-thing), but this post is hummingbirds only.
Their shiny metallic feathers are so different from what I usually see. I often find the birds here a little boring. A lot of them are just grey/brownish and definitely not shiny.



All photos are taken by Glenn Seplak. As usual I wasn't able to limit myself, when I first started looking at all his photos of hummingbirds (there's more than 350 in his set with hummingbirds), but I managed to come down to six favourites.

[photo credit: Glenn Seplak]

Spring is coming!

When I looked through my photo archives I realized, that I didn't have any spring photos! Apparently I only bring my camera with me during summer, autumn and winter. I think that will be different this year.
The photo below with the beautiful colours was taken by Lupen Grainne. Take a look at her photo blog Garden by the sea if you don't know it already, there's lots of beautiful photos! I love the mustard field photos in her latest post as well.



I read an interesting post "a public airing of dirty laundry" about crediting photos on the blog the fabric of my life earlier today. My blog is still pretty new, but I've tried to credit photos that aren't mine as correctly as possible from the beginning. Luckily I've been good at noting my sources the last couple of years, so it's only the oldest photos I don't have a proper source for.

[Photo credit: Lupen Grainne]

Purple leaves

Love the purple colour on the backside of the leaves. I'm still reading Cloud of Sparrows, it's not that interesting. A bit boring and extremely long chapters, but I like the illustration at the beginning of each chapter. Hopefully I'll finish the book this weekend.