Sometimes pictures are better than words. That’s how I feel about the streets of Havana anyway – mainly Havana Vieja (Old Havana) - in all their gory richness; the dichotomy of grand, colourful buildings basking in a halo of sunlight, replaced by shadowy vestibules of crumbling brick, exposed wiring and rotting trash round the next corner.

When I think about the explosive, corrosive, all-encompassing bath of heat in Cuba now, it feels like I over-exaggerated it even to myself. I guess it’s hard to put myself back there while wrapped up for winter wearing furry slippers with the heating at full blast. Maybe.

Comments Off | In: Lifestyle, Photography, Travel | tags: buildings, cuba, cuban architecture, havana, havana city, havana in pictures, havana vieja, holiday, hot, streets. | #

I just downloaded some pictures from my phone and rediscovered these beautiful flowers that compelled me to capture them in a little frame of time. They can be found in the Kibble Palace within the Botanic Gardens, which I visited recently with my friend Rachel. I hadn’t visited for years, which is usually the way when you live close to something. Tragic.

There is a whole amazon-jungle section complete with the dense canopy of exotic leaves and palms you would expect in tropical climes. An unmistakable musk of undergrowth; sweet and laden with promise permeates the air, the occasional droplet of condensation smacking onto the flora below. 

On the day we visited, there was a section cordoned off with the kind of plastic tape the police use to protect a crime scene. I wondered if someone was going to jump out in front of us and shout: “There’s been a murder!” in full Glaswegian patois, shooing us away with a gruff eyebrow and a bark worse than death. No one did. But it definitely got me to thinking that the Kibble would be quite a good place to commit a murder:

• Relatively quiet
• Lots of cover from plant life
• Soil to bury the evidence
• Hosepipes lying around to wash away footprints/blood

I’m not even into CSI but I do have an over-active imagination… Luckily on this occasion we got in and out safely, suitably inspired by the plants and flowers on display.

I particularly loved these specimens as they look so perfectly formed, so intricate; almost as if they have been carved from wax with a precision tool. A waxwork museum dedicated to flowers. That would be well worth a visit!

No Comments | In: Lifestyle, Photography, Wannabe Journalist | | #

Contrived this on a whim. Love the fish-eye perspective. The rest of the long-lost Berlin blogs are definitely on their way…

No Comments | In: Lifestyle, Photography, Travel | tags: beetle, berlin, camera, car, fish eye, fisheye, imagery, photo, photography, road, sepia, volkswagen beetle. | #