The Last Week.

(sorry about the instagram photos)

Things have been silent around here, but i promise there is an excuse. The past few weeks, months even, have been a complete whirlwind all culminating in me moving back to the states from england. This meant lots of meeting for drinks, museum visits, and walking around the city as much as possible. It also meant trying to cram in eating at all of my favorite restaurants and ones i've meant to go to the whole time i've been living there. There were steaks and burgers with bone marrow tucked inside, pulled pork and beef brisket from Pitt Cue Trailer, Dim Sum at Yauatcha, and quiet breakfasts at St. John Bread and Wine as well as ones at home. I will miss so many things about London, most of all the people, but some of these restaurants will also be sorely missed. 

The Moon.

I remember when i was little i wrote a poem once about how the moon seemed to follow me whenever we took long car journeys at night. The other night, my curtain had gotten caught on the photo of my grandfather on my windowsill and right in that tiny little opening, the moon seemed to peek it's way into my room, finding me while i was trying to read.

The Light.

Lately i've been noticing little occurrences in the flat i will sadly be leaving in just over a month. Most of the time this happens right around when the sun seems to hit each of the buildings in the city and reflect golden light directly into our windows. For someone who likes neighbourhoods lined in trees with twisty cobblestone streets it's amazing how much i love, and will miss, the view we have overlooking the tall, shiny buildings right out of the windows.

Life Lately.

Instant.

Every year at university i would start a polaroid wall with photos taken only from the summer that had just taken place. It would look meager, perhaps 20 pictures, and i would spend far too long trying to hang each picture straight. Every year this square would take over the whole wall slowly, as i would add pictures throughout the year, ending up with around 300 by the time i was done. May would arrive, and i would painstakingly take all of the pictures down, storing them in boxes which now sit on my bookshelves at home, boxes that i can flip through and remember four years spent at sarah lawrence. This tradition is something i miss. Building a new wall of snapshots always seemed like a wonderful challenge,  filling up an entire space. In london this faded, i think partially due to the fact that whenever you're around a new group of people they just want to ask lots of questions about a polaroid camera, and you can't snap away like you would with some little digital camera you barely notice. I wasn't up for having to have another entire group of friends get acclimated to me slinging around a polaroid wherever i went. Now that i only have a few months left in london i've realized i want to capture my time here in this medium, so that i can have a london box of polaroids to sit next to the ones from new york. A new challenge awaits.

Sitting Still.

The weather, the weather. It's what everyone talks about always in london. It's made for the start of a very lazy weekend. So far chocolate chip cookies have been made, and a pomelo and brussel sprout salad is on its way, and a roast chicken isn't far off. The rain annoyingly makes me feel like i need to be overly productive when i'm home, and this was remedied by cleaning, arranging flowers bought from the market and cooking endlessly. Sometimes i wish i was better at sitting still.

Lately.

My flat lately has been quiet, and in my two flatmate's absence i accidentally filled it up with lots of flowers. I realized all too late that i bought a few bunches and then was leaving for Cornwall for the next ten days, and somehow, i'm hoping some will last that long. I won't hold my breath though.

Survival.

The past five weeks have been a serious test in endurance, and it all culminated last weekend. I got offered an amazing opportunity a few months ago to take a curatorial internship at Tate Modern, which of course i was shocked and amazed by and had to take. But this meant working six days a week, and i think a little bit of me is still recovering. I haven't quite been motivated lately to do anything but sleep, which is all i did last saturday, on my tiny tiny couch as seen above.

 It's been the kind of month that you put sweaters on the wrong way around, and trip over your computer cord, and try to grab really hot pots off the stove without thinking about it. I think March in London might be one of the harder months, the whole winter is hard here because the days last about 4 hours total (ok, not really), and it's rainy, and it is grey grey grey all the time, and March specifically is the month where it really feels like it might never end. But the thing about getting through the hard months, and the months you work harder than you feel like you've ever worked before, is that you do survive, and then you know you can do it next time. Onward into April!

The End of February, Pt. II.

The End of February, Pt. I.

Again, life seems to have gotten busy. It's taken days to put these photos up, and they've just been sitting on my desktop waiting and waiting. Monmouth, Tate Modern, Kusama, MeatLiquor, Wallace Collection, Maltby Street and Hampstead Heath are all mingling in two parts.