Windows

More photos in the LAII gallery. A rather different view of Hollywood.

Not an exit

A Troubled Sky

Once by the Pacific
by Robert Frost

The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
The cliff in being backed by continent;
It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God's last Put out the light was spoken.

Life's longing for itself

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
- from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran


Apparently there is an age, around 6, where boys start to look for male role models in their lives. They seek out the company of their fathers, their uncles, coaches, older cousins. The days of cuddling with mum on the couch are slowly left behind, and replaced by the rough and tumble play of father and son.

Matthew is reaching that age. He wants to be with his father. He wants to be seen with his dad, play rugby with his dad, tell jokes to him. It's no longer cool for mum to walk him to school, it has to be his father now.

It is strange for me to watch this natural progression into boyhood. It is not that Matthew and I don't have close moments, or a good mother-son relationship, but it is changing. There is a distance growing between us that does sadden me.

I watch him grow so quickly and sometimes just yearn for the time when he was nestled at my breast, would like to make time stop and go backwards just to caress his sweet baby cheek again.

And yet... that would be doing a disservice to the world, because Matthew will grow into a fine young man and give something of himself back into it.

That is, after all, why we are all here.

Rising Moon

Taken without a tripod from the front door as the moon was rising. Blurry, but I love the lights fluttering, like fairy lights, or fireflies. I miss fireflies.

Tall, tall buildings...

Gotta love 'em. More LA photos here.

Flags

This installation is part of the New Zealand Festival of the Arts. It is quite incredible to stand under these huge structures with the wind blowing hard.

Concrete and wood

Underbelly of a bridge on the waterfront.

More LA Photos

Photos taken in Santa Monica.