Slice of Life- La Dolce Vita

Still unpacking - laundry, postcards, gifts, and memories.

Scott and I returned this week from 8 beautiful days and nights in Italy. Picture perfect weather, art inspiration- and overwhelm, food, wine and history. It's all there.  We hit many of the hot spots- The Vatican, Colosseum, Pantheon in Rome, the Uffizi, Palazza Vecchio, and more in Florence, and the Duomo and the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan.

We stayed in two fabulous apartments that we found through
VRBO. This is from our roof top terrace apartment on Via Montevecchio in Rome.

and we walked, and walked and walked. We spoke to people, went in shops and just enjoyed La Dolce Vita (the sweet life). I did some journaling and sketching and took lots of pictures.

Tiber River in Rome

Still taking the whole experience in...

The great thing about renting apartments when you travel is you can
take advantage of the wonderful markets with fresh food. Here is some homemade
pasta, pesto, and peppers we picked up and cooked at home.



Smile and say.... Gelato!

Ranch Camp Revisited- Mr. Santiago

Mr. Santiago was my neighbor when I lived in Ranch Camp in Waialua, Hawaii.

A kind and photogenic local man with a great smile and an open heart, I took many photographs of him that also became drawings, paintings and prints.  His son David and family lived directly behind me, and David Sr. (I always called him Mr. Santiago) and his wife Candy, lived across the street from them.  

Mr. Santiago
Double exposure
2012NanciHersh

Mr. Santiago kept his animals on land on the side and back of my house.  So every morning he would drive by my house to get to his pigeon coups, his horses, goats and anything else back there.

Mr. Santiago and his pigeon coups
2012NanciHersh

If I happened to be outside, he would give me a big smile, a wave, tell me I looked beautiful and say God Bless.  What a way to start my day.

His father- Granpa Santiago, on the other hand, when he was alive, would drive by in his old beat up jeep, look at our small plantation house that we were in the process of renovating, and yell with a snarl, "You paid too much!"

May be true, but I loved my little piece of paradise.

Ranch Camp Revisited- Remembering Lamb

From 1992-94, I took hundreds of black and white slides of my community while I was a graduate student at the University of Hawaii living in a small home I had purchased and renovated in Ranch Camp, old plantation neighborhood located at the base of the Waianae Mountain range in Waialua, Hawaii. 

Lamb in my Front Yard
No Surf in Sight
©2012NanciHersh

The sugar mill has since been shut down and is now an industrial park for the North Shore with surf board shops and mom and pop enterprises.   Many of you may remember Lambchop- my "famous" surfing rabbit....  here - as a double exposure, he is on top of his cage out in my front yard with a plumeria tree and the moutains in the distance.

Rediscovering these images is like a wonderful treasure hunt - and one I will be sharing on this blog as I have them scanned into jpgs.  

Before You Go... One Word

Passport.

Yep, that's it.  Have one, and make sure it has not expired, and will not, expire in the next 6 months.
Tres importante.

I learned that the hard way, AT THE AIRPORT en route to Amsterdam several years ago.  In the end, it all worked out out, several hundred dollars and a day later, I joined Scott in Amsterdam.

This time, it was Scott's password that was expired. Having learned that lesson,  I pulled his out when we booked our flights.  It cost us a little more to expedite it as we were within two weeks of departure.

Down to the wire, that's us. A nail biter.  But, it did arrive.

As did we.


What's your passport story?

Shadows as my Mantra

People say I'm lazy dreaming my life away
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me
When I tell them that I'm doing fine watching shadows on the wall
Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball?

- from Watching the Wheels Go Round and Round

  John Lennon

This is my time of watching the shadows on the wall- or the ground.

Resting and recuperating as I allow a new way of being to unfold.  One of not being so busy, so driven, so something.  It is challenging. I like doing things, being out in the world, but to quote  one of the few, but favorite passages Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 from the Bible that I know... "to everything there is a season..."

That said, we are off to Paris a week from today!  A belated birthday present and a wonderful getaway before all my treatments begin this month.

Oo la la!

Elmer & Longwood, say what?

Last week I was up in Elmer, NJ- a rural community in Salem County, NJ. I was there to observe and evaluate a Visual Artist Residency at Elmer School. Brought my camera along to take some photos of Marilyn Keating the artist working with her students. Marilyn is a wonderful artist- sculptor, printmaker and teaching artist. The students love her and I could see why- talk about making art fun! I took a couple of shots on the way home of Elmer as well, including this one of Sam the proprietor of Barnwood Furniture and Co. (He retired from a career in prisons and now surrounded by art and cool stuff!)

Then on Friday I celebrated getting my cast off (yea!!) with a trip to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA with my friend Joan and camera in tow. There is a saying in HI..."lucky you live HI"

(which is very true) but I feel lucky I live near Longwood, too!