Kat Eye Studio

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Weekend Away: Light in the Kitchen

I’m giving myself a little blog break on weekends these days. Rather than leaving the blog empty though, I’ll share one of the many images in my queue I haven’t gotten around to sharing yet. When you see the “Weekend Away” title, the image could be from anywhere!

Today’s image is from Marksburg Castle, in the Rhine River Valley in Germany. This is one of the few castles on the Rhine that was never destroyed, so it was the most realistic view of castle life around. Many of the other castles on the Rhine were rebuilt with a more idealized view of castle life, or are in crumbling ruins.

Can’t you see working in this kitchen? I loved the light. I’ve always thought it funny that when we think of living in the past, many people think of living as the lords and ladies. We have this ideal view of what life was like. The reality is that there were very few people who were in that position of wealth. If I were born sometime long ago, I always thought I would probably have been a serving wench, eeking out a life somewhere. I would much rather live in the present day, thank you very much!

(Hmmm… that didn’t end up being much of a blogging break this morning. A different topic than usual though!)

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Altering our View

I am musing today on Applied Texture over at Mortal Muses, come by and say hello. This image was captured on our day trip to Sirmione last weekend, and I just loved the piece of the castle jutting out into the lake. Beautiful light and reflections, a reminder of an era gone by. Perfect for a little texture to age it.

I love digital photography, for the way it can alter our view. Here’s the original image, before the texture. A different feel, don’t you agree? Which do you like best?

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Castle Views

A craggy castle on the tip of a peninsula, guarding against intruders to a land of days gone by. This castle is in Sirmione on Lake Garda, an hour and a half drive from our home here in Northern Italy. Yesterday afternoon we took a little day trip out to this town, exploring a new part of this beautiful country. Besides this wonderful castle, there is a nice pedestrian town with wonderful lake views, natural hot springs, roman ruins and the most frigid wind coming off of the lake. A perfect afternoon for some of the best gelato I’ve had in a while!

I love these old castles. They are so solid, so real, even today. You can tell that life was not easy in the days these castles were needed. Bare stone rooms, small spaces, dangerous stairways. The majority of the inhabitants worked long hours in difficult conditions, lived in cramped spaces without much reward other than food, shelter and protection from invading forces.

This vision is so different than our idealized version of castles with turrets and princesses with flowing dresses. I find I like the reality of these solid places better than the gilded rooms of kings and queens later in history. There is something honest and true that resonates in the bare stone, coming through the centuries to speak to me in this age. Do you feel it too?

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Start Close In

A new year, a new beginning. What castles do you want to reach this year? I have my own castles, dreams that float in my heart and my head. Dreams that require plans and effort. I could set resolutions, or choose a word of the year to move toward them, but this year I decided to choose a poem.

I wrote recently about my journey, and taking the step I can see in front of me. I plan to continue with that idea in 2011, and here is the poem to inspire me along the way. It is by David Whyte from his book River Flow.

START CLOSE IN
Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way of starting
the conversation.
Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them
smother something
simple.
To find
another’s voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes a
private ear
listening
to another.
Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow
someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don’t mistake
that other
for your own.

Start close in,

don’t take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.

Happy New Year! Today ends 9 Muses Musing with RESOLUTION. I hope you’ve enjoyed the party! Come by, link in, and see what others are planning for their year.

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Shall we Play a Game?

Something to do, on these cold and rainy winter days, like today. I recently learned to play chess, from my son. I enjoy it, even though I’m not very good. This photo from Marksburg castle in the Rhine River Valley, reminds me that this is a game that has been played for centuries. I can imagine the people of medieval times in this nook in the hall, concentrating and passing the time with a game on a long winter’s day. (Although in my imagination I’m guessing the people are much cleaner than they actually were.)

Today I will say to my son, “Shall we play a game?”

Enjoy your Sunday!

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One Brick at a Time

Today marks my 365th blog post – one year! I’ve been watching the little number tick up daily on my blogger dashboard and have been marveling. I’ve written one year of posts. To be honest, it took me two years to get the 365 posts, but I’ve decided it’s the number itself that counts. And since most of the posts are since I started doing the photo-a-day posts last November, it means more to me. It’s since that time that I’ve found my voice, found my eye, found myself here in this daily blog.

It’s funny, for the last couple of years, I’ve watched all of these people share their “Project 365” photos where they take a photo every day of the year, and I always said “I could never do that.” It’s wonderful to see bits and pieces of people’s lives captured daily, and they have a cool record of the year when they are done. But that never interested me. Much as I love photography, I don’t feel inspired to take a picture every day. I didn’t have interest in a project where I would start and invariably fizzle out after a month or two. But, when I got the idea to share a picture every day, to look through my pile of photos (metaphorically speaking) and pick out the best, the ones that speak to me in some way, now that I could do.

So here I am, at post 365. How did I get here I ask myself? One day, one image, one word at a time. Just like when building something monumental, a cathedral or a castle, it’s built one brick, one stone at a time. That’s what it takes.

Of course, in my case I don’t have a blueprint. I’m just figuring out as I go along and that seems to work. I don’t have hard and fast rules for myself, like “you must post every day” or “you must post in sequential order” or “you must have a specific topic” because that would all make it feel like work. I know myself, I would work really hard to meet the self-dictated rules and then, eventually, lose all interest because I would have lost the spark that got me started. Think about it, have there been times where your self-imposed rules have run you into the ground? Do you have any right now? I’m constantly on the lookout for them anymore. I’ve learned those little self-imposed rules are the ones that can get in the way of following my heart, creating great things because I’m so busy with the work of following my rules.

Thanks for joining me here, thanks for reading post 365 of the Kat Eye View. A place where rules are thrown out and images and words are based on whatever inspires me that day. A place where you can participate too, answer a question, leave a comment, tell me your view. I love to hear what’s going on with you! I’ve met some amazing people this way, through comments and blog hopping and I love it. One more thing that motivates me to keep going!

Ciao until next time, post 366…

(Image is of Rheinfels Castle, in St. Goar, Germany in the Rhine River Valley.)

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