October 2018 – Walking without a donkey

Walking without a donkey - travels in Croatia

Zagreb 1

Paris – Milan – Padua – Zagreb: October 2018

If I am making a long journey I spend quite a time looking for cheap ways to do it. This time I plotted Paris to Zagreb on Google maps, saw the stop-offs it suggested I made, and from there checked the airlines for who flew where. In the end I found a cheap flight to Milan from Paris which was straightforward, and then took Flix buses the rest of the way.

*This painting is by Croatian hyper realist painter,* *Jadranka Fatur* *whose work is on show in a temporary exhibition at the Modern Art Museum in Zagreb. Although painted in 1975,* *it is still exactly like this!*

That part was arduous with local transport from Milan Airport to Monza to get the bus, which was delayed so that was already 10.30pm, although the wait was made more enjoyable with a conversation with a masters student studying in Padua. She told me where to go when I made the change there. I think this was my first 11pm – 1am sightseeing trip!

Then the over night part in the hottest bus I have ever ridden was quite a challenge, plus we had to get off twice at the Slovenian – Croatian border for passport checks despite it being the 32nd country to enter the European Union. Is that what we have to look forward to now just enough British people have voted to leave? What a calamity.

*Passport check. I was shouted at for taking photos, just like when I visited Bulgaria with the school in 1984*

However, I did eventually get there and was met by the wonderful dancing Lea (who I met in a woman’s dormitory in Graz last year and kept up with on Facebook).

‘Croatia was, and still is, the hottest piece of geographic real estate in Europe. Croatia is the gateway between north, south, east and west in Europe.’ From inavukic.com (no longer available).

During my first day I stayed close to where the apartment is and look what I found: Bundek lake with woods in Gradski Park, and the Museum of Modern Art on Avenija Dubrovnik (all less than 15 minutes walk).

*As always I gravitate to nature. It grounds me after travelling and arriving in a new location*

The familiar smell of Autumn, insects and wildflowers I am used to, sunshine on my skin.

I sat back against the tree and relaxed my pelvis. Smelling the rotting earth at my feet, I reflected that it is hard to write when I am unsettled. I relax and exhale, feeling myself let go.

*Smooth round pebbles at and under the water’s edge*

*The roots emerging from the ground and the glorious yellow of the leaves*

wp-1540973720063..jpg — *Dandelions and spears of grass protrude between the dead leaves*

wp-1540974336264..jpg — The Weeping Willow droops her fronds almost to the earth

wp-1540974476704..jpg — The wilder side of Gradski Park, Zagreb, Croatia

wp-1540973720110..jpg — Ripples caused by unseen creatures which almost appeared from underneath the water and from the wind.

wp-1540973240098..jpg — Just like Paris! Someone camping or possibly living in this beautiful place

I walked around the lake shown above and there was the other side of it – all open and sculpted.

wp-1540973551423..jpg — Bumbina Lavada by Damir Matausic akad kipar with Ljevaonica Umjetnina

wp-1540973290579..jpg — I spent some time at a nice cafe in the sun. It had WiFi and green tea, charming staff but no food, so I had to move on

Like Norway, I am in a country where I speak none of the language and cannot make sense of the signs around me. I quickly learn please and thank you by asking shop owners to teach me. I smile a lot.

wp-1540974476717..jpg — In the morning, the Museum of Modern Art looked as if it was disused, and indeed the cafe and restaurants are shut for renovation

wp-1540974294331..jpg — Round the side of the building there were colourful hoardings

wp-1540973350797..jpg — Inside it was very much open (11am – 6pm Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays and holidays (it is civically owned), 11 – 8pm on Saturdays. 70 kun for permanent and temporary exhibitions for one day

wp-1540973350771..jpg — The red kites in the shop attracted my attention

wp-1540973449030..jpg — Also from the hyper realism exhibition. Selfie with a difference, two differences!

wp-1540973240068..jpg — Outdoor sculptural comment on the waste in our oceans and the effect it has on sea life. Clearing leaves in the background

wp-1540973290609..jpg — Temporary exhibition of industrial photographs by Toso Dabac (1907 – 1970). 1,5000,000 Volt accelerator, Boris Kidric Institute of Nuclear Science, Serbia. Before 1957

BBC Croatian Timeline

Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Walking without a donkey - travels in France

Charenton-le-Pont to Richard – Lenoir: Paris walk

Charenton-le-Pont to Richard-Lenoir métro 5. 5 kms (Charenton-Ecoles metro, Place du Cardinal Lavigerie, Avenue Jean Jaurés, Rue Claude Decaen, Place Félix Eboué, Rue de Reuilly, Rue Faidherbe, Rue Godefroy Caraignac, Square Saint Aboise, Boulevard Voltaire, 11th arrondissement, Richard-Lenoir métro).

Parc Zoologique de Paris.

I was deposited by my bla bla car from Reims in an area I had never previously visited. I decided to walk the Maria Canal for my Seiki Shiatsu workshop with Catherine Dompas, but I dawdled so much, I had to take the tube the rest of the way!

Where people live – I have seen this all over London and Paris recently: more people made homeless by the rich-poor divide.

Circus Big top, Cirque Pinder, glimpsed through the fence.

Wherever you go in Paris there’s something lovely to see amidst the blocks of flats, supermarkets and cafés.

Beautiful sun throwing shadows.

Église de Saint-Esprit.

There is a garden in front of the Saint Aboise Church in memory of the Monks of Tibhirine (Algeria). They were horrifically murdered in their Abbey during the Algerian Civil War. A French film was made about it, Of Gods and Men, was awarded the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2010.

To get to Richard-Lenoir métro from Boulevard Voltaire you take a left and walk through a public gardens with vines and a playpark.

An impressive floral display for the end of October.

Other walks in Paris

Gare de Lyon to Villa Sainte Croix

Villa Sainte Croix to Musée Eugene Délacroix

Walking Paris with Score #17

Tuileries Gardens and Art Tunnel

Walking without a donkey - travels in England

The garden of the Geffrye Museum of the Home – London, England

A photo essay – July blooms

I just can’t seem to stop taking pictures of flowers! I have added links to a blog I have just discovered (London wlogger – we seem to like the same things) and other London gardens which will be sure to delight.

The garden is round the back and I visited when the rest of the museum was being renovated.

It is now open. Website.

Don’t miss this blog which has great shots of the front of the building and much more. Londonwlogger.com

Other physic gardens include Chelsea which had contemporary art too.

And of course Kew.

You might not know about this community garden hidden behind St Pancreas. Camley Street.

The Kyoto Garden has reopened.

Echinacea

The Hill Garden and Pergola Hampstead

London Plantology. She’s also into aikido so must be good!

Is your favourite here? If not, please do comment with one I don’t know about or link to your own London garden.

Always check out footways.london for pleasant paths to cross London, a network of quiet and interesting streets.

Please note that this museum has now been renamed Museum of the Home as it has been acknowledged that Geffrye was a slave trader and therefore not an appropriate person to name an inclusive museum after.

Walking without a donkey - travels in France

Nature pleases – Picardy 4

End of October 2018

Wu Chi – undifferentiated timelessness, the un-manifest aspect of the Tao. In peacock feathers from garden birds.

I enjoyed teaching an introduction to Chi Gung for a group of Masters students (Greek, Dutch, American) from the Netherlands before I left. Their performances at Thursday’s showcase were stimulating: a two-hander addressing non-binary issues in an appropriately naïve style, and a quirky performed reading reminding me of the toymaker in Copélia.

View from the garden. It was colder in the final days, but I still did T’ai Chi there in the morning sun.

Delicate ivy ‘drawings’ on the wall.

Silver birch bark – surely the origin of the design of camouflage clothing!

Autumn leaf burning by E. I sat and watched the burning embers and the small flames lick as the sky darkened. The fire was still warm in the morning.

The walk back to the station took me past Halloween house decorations, the luminous sumac tree, and a village hall (last time the gate was shut and I couldn’t see in, so this time I crept up and peered in the window – they were all playing cards in there!) Then there were two furry friendly (hungry?) donkeys who I was instructed not to feed, and several people who kindly stopped to offer me a lift, which I declined so I could walk.

Sumac tree.

The WW1 memorial for the dead soldiers, significant given that the topic of my studies is death.

German troops occupied these small villages between 19 14-18. Britain helped out. There are information boards all along the roads of this area of Picardy with photos of these times.

Strips of roots growing across the bottom of the tree.

A whorl of bark.

Flowers found at ground level on the pavement.

Outside the old school is this lovely sundial with the inscription La grive aux raisins (thrush with grapes is a delicacy and also the name of the local newsletter) and on the gate of the village room.

View from the train to Reims.

Another sundial, a giant one in Reims lit up in the night. Cadrans Solaire de la Marne, also connected to WW1 as the River Marne, site of the battles of 1914 and 1918 where the German advancements were halted.

From the back of a toilet door at Le Maryland bar in Reims – not so very respectful of our monarch!

This bar is near the Cathedral and I do not recommend it as it was full of smokers and smoke, and with men making not so-funny remarks. I didn’t feel comfortable there on my own.

Sculpture by Armelle Blary https://armelleblary.com in a window in Reims – inspired by the work of Louise Bouregeois I would guess.

Les bunnies. At the home of Julie Martin who was my bla bla car driver 10 days before and who kindly invited me to stay on my return. Together with her lovely flatmate, Marie, I was cooked two sorts of crêpes which were delicious.

Many thanks to them for their hopitality. Check out their innovate business: Be Vegetal My Friend which offers all sorts of workshops with plants and flowers, plus you can see Julie demonstrating what she does, and go there to get designs for your wedding or event.

Julie Martin, Be Vegetal My Friend, in her element!

Reims Tourist Information

Walking without a donkey - travels in France

Quiet moments – Picardy 3

Nearing the end of October, Northern France

Yesterday I lay down on my back to do my exercises under a tree with my eyes closed. I was focusing on my breath and muscles, moving through my paces. I opened them on hearing a tweet and there, in the spreading branches (don’t they always spread?) and bright leaves, was one, no, two, a whole flock of little birds with long tails bobbing up and down, jutting their tiny heads and flitting fast from place to place. I couldn’t see their backs because I was underneath, but there were hints of pink adding to the brown and beige. They took no notice of me, which was nice.

As I watched, a beastie with many legs crawled up the edge of my arm and onto the top; another one went in and, thankfully, out of my ear; an ant went all round my knee.

When I went to the loo I sprayed soft moss fronds and scratchy bits of autumn twig on the floor!

Later sitting at my desk, writing, the lime greenery was only broken by the odd brown leaf and matching beech nuts opening their hard lips to the air. From the first floor I am half way up where the branches are thinner. It all shivers and sways gently, not much, almost settling, continuing its dialogue with the breeze.

Shadows on my bedroom wall from that same tree outside, like an old sepia shot.

This morning I stood beside another one to do my T’ai Chi. Just as I got to move 134 I found myself back at thirty something so I completed almost a whole second round (140 in total). I got slower and slower. In the fog I saw the tips of my fingers, covered in fine rain, shift in my peripheral vision and I felt myself sink a little.

A bit sun bleached, this photo, but it shows the thin horizontals between branches. I’ve not noticed them before.

It’s trunk was very quiet, half in, half out of the ground. I couldn’t see it move although I knew it was, inside. It stood there before I got here of course, and stands there now. I tried to emulate it. I thought of the tree, being in all weathers; watching people, animals and insects coming and going over the years. The wind rustled it. Then did the same to my hair. I stood, learning.

Then I stood still, ‘standing like a tree’ (it’s a chi gung exercise). It was lighter now (approaching 7am). I enjoyed it.

First in shoulder stand and then bottom in the air – the world looked lovely even upside down looking between my legs.

After I gave Shiatsu to a wood worker this morning, I left him on the mat and walked to the window. High on the second floor I was level with the top of the tree and there was a woodpecker. No, really. Right there. Black and white all down its back with a red top knot and knickers. The window was closed, but I saw it noiselessly tapping inbetween tilting its head to the right as if looking to see if anyone was coming.

When I looked back into the room and asked how L was doing, he said “floating” and then there was a wait. From inside himself with his eyes tight shut he added, “my body’s fizzing”.

I didn’t try to take a photo of the woodpecker in case I disturbed it. However this little critter, a ladybird, was on my last piece of apple (from the tree in the garden) when I came back in.

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