do you recognize yourself in a language not your own?

i've been thinking a lot lately about whether you can ever truly be yourself in a language not your own.  are you recognizable as yourself? and to yourself? i've had occasion to feel that i wasn't myself several times of late in danish. and yet, i can also have moments of feeling comfortable in danish and feeling like my sparkling self. but i wonder if i will ever truly feel like me in danish.

so i asked husband about this, especially since he has spoken exclusively english with me for going on 15 years now and we will never switch to danish (it feeling most unnatural to both of us). i asked him if he ever felt something was missing. he said it was the cultural references, especially those of childhood -  books, films, television programs - that he felt most acutely.  but he said it never made him feel like he wasn't himself, just that he didn't have the full breadth of expression that would be at his disposal in danish.

i actually at times feel like a different person - one who is quieter, who holds back when she would normally say something, who thinks more before she speaks (admittedly not a bad thing), one who sometimes sounds sharper than i mean to because i get something slightly wrong (tho' i'm sure there are those who would argue that i am at times sharper than i should be in english). it's partially that different words and grammar express things differently, it's partially intonation, and i guess it's also a feeling of awkwardness. maybe i'm simply never truly comfortable in danish, so i can't fully relax.

i know some of you live outside your native language too...do you ever feel this way? do you lose a bit of who you are when you're speaking a foreign tongue?

photo app fun continued or get thee to the app store

this is the same photo as yesterday, run through the tiny planet app.  after that, i got a little obsessed. but it was way fun!

swans on our lake.

the lighthouse at blåvandshuk

husband at the north sea

an old german bunker on the west coast of denmark

amber hunter at the north sea - i LOVE the birds in flight.

and here it is flipped the other way in the app. even cooler, don't you think?

a watch tower at sunset on the west coast.

and the same photo played with in the diptic app.

get thee to the app store, i tell you. 

iPhones are a very good thing. 

i wonder if other phones actually still exist?

photo app fun

it's been awhile since i got all excited photographically-speaking, but i just had to share a new app that kristina (who is ALWAYS ahead of the curve on the cool stuff (she was on pinterest before pinterest was all the rage)) turned me on to.  it's called montage. it lets you cut out shapes and layer your photos. it's not entirely intuitive, but it's usable once you get the hang of it.

to do this photo, i used no less than 4 apps - i took and treated the original photo in vintage camera. then i loaded it into montage, along with another photo from a week or so ago - and clipped that photo into a circle. i played with it a bit to get it sized and placed as i wanted it. then i cropped it in photogene and uploaded it all to instagram. a little bit the long route, but worth the fun.  funny, how my old favorite - hipstamatic, isn't even on the radar anymore.  i do still occasionally use camera+.

it's good i discovered this, as my month of iPhone photos only was wearing a bit thin. it's been good for my photo mojo, as i'm ready to go back to the big girl camera come february 1.

what are your favorite photo apps?

stop the merry-go-round, i want off

there comes a point when you just have to say "enough." you can't do more. you can't give more - thought...energy...horses. sometimes what you give simply isn't appreciated. and in the worst case, it's actually abused. for example, when a 150 pound kid is allowed to ride your teeny tiny pony for an hour and then the riding instructor wonders why the pony won't gallop. hmm, could be something to do with the fact that she can't lift her feet off the ground. just sayin'.

i'm notoriously bad at recognizing the "enough" point, but i'm trying to get better. this time, i vow it will be different. when the welfare of the pony is at stake and the one responsible apparently cannot recognize, even when asked, that it wasn't ok to put such a big girl on such a little pony, then one has to take hold of the reins, literally in this case.

besides, the horse (which has been dubbed princess leia jesus kristensen) at home is lonely and the pony will keep her company.

memories of light and drawings of the future

a shot from the old house - a happy memory of light

we have snow at last.
enough for building snow forts and having a snowball fight.
one that quickly dissolved into laughter.

a weekend of new friends.

a bit too much red wine.

an impromptu fish soup supper.

an afternoon at the movies with the whole family.

a 6 layer rainbow cake.

a bit of horsing around.

a new cat named pepchen.

three brown hens are now broody.
i swear they actually growl at me when i go out.
it has cut down significantly on the egg count.
but they're sitting on plastic eggs.
silly hens.
i'm oddly charmed by the whole thing.

some new plans forming.

a result of the red wine evening.

in vino veritas. 

or at least dreams.

and husband gets to indulge his inner architect.

and tho' it snowed,
and i've been wishing for that,
i'm longing for the garden.
and something green. 
i blame hugh's veg show.

here's hoping your weekend was exactly what you wished for.

the swans have it

how can you house culture?

i took these photos ages ago, with my iPhone in the henie-onstad museum in norway. i neglected to note whose work they are, but i vaguely recall it was a scandinavian poet of some renown. i've been thinking a bit about culture the past few days and they seem to fit my thoughts.

it strikes me that the word culture has, like socialism, become a bit of a swear word. it provokes people with visions of snobby opera-goers or hipsters attending avante garde theatre performances or gallery openings. and of course opera and theatre and art are cultural artifacts, but isn't culture more than those things? culture is the whole of a society - the customs, the norms, the traditions, the language, the food. it's words, art, images, music, lamps, chairs.  it's also sports and concerts and films and yes, even television. it's such a broad word. but i think that sometimes we forget that.

our community is going to build a new "culture house" (or renovate the old one, that's not yet decided) and it's bringing out the community's emotions. some are provoked at the thought of latte-sipping fashionistas on the square with their little boutique doggies (an unlikely sight in the countryside, but apparently a fear, just the same). those who are provoked that art and theatre might have a place in our town want the money to go to a sports facility instead.

but it's all a matter of categorization and prioritization, isn't it? and both exhibition space and a place to play handball have their place in a community. they give us different aspects of culture. because culture is multi-faceted. and multi-fascinating. and although i'm now involved in this, i'm also an observer, an anthropologist, amazed at the breathtaking speed at which committees are formed and factions delineated. and people provoked at the notion that there might be a space for the local ladies to quilt or for the big mess of a ceramics workshop. instead of space for a bunch of sweaty people to chase a ball around.

hmm, i guess you can see which aspect of culture i prefer...

stay tuned, this isn't over yet. not by a long shot.