I love to travel and see other lands; I love to spend time in the country, time by the sea, time among mountains or deserts. But I am a city girl. I was born in London and this is where I belong.
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Our cameras rely on light to create an image. When that light is diminished, as Leonardo da Vinci reminds us, shadows emerge, creating interesting and illusive patterns.
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The colour yellow seems to divide opinion. Van Gogh loved it, but another artist, Degas, described it as ‘a horrible thing’. In colour psychology it is regarded as the colour of the mind and the intellect. It is optimistic and cheerful. However it can also suggest impatience, criticism and cowardice.
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As a lover of mountain scenery, I have long wished to visit the high Andes of Patagonia, and specifically the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. This is named for the three distinctive peaks at its heart, the Torres or Towers, but these are just a few of the majestic mountains contained within its boundaries. Add numerous lakes, glaciers and rivers, and this is a landscape to tug at the heart strings and demand attention.
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The most successful buildings are those in which form and function work in harmony. Buildings that not only look amazing but serve their purpose well. And also, buildings which reflect the culture of their location and contribute to it, rather than tug against it. The Louvre Abu Dhabi is one such building.
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I have been fortunate to have seen many different animals in the wild, or in ethical preservation projects. When asked to name my favourite I am always torn between elephants and the various big cats. Usually my answer is whichever I have seen most recently, as it's impossible for me to choose!
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Japanese gardens are not beautiful by accident. Every detail is carefully considered, every plant and rock precisely placed. And the result is often stunning. It was in Kyoto that I really came to appreciate the nuances of Japanese garden design.
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With travel photography impossible right now, I challenged myself recently to see how many interesting details I could photograph within a mile of my own front door. I followed a path I have taken almost daily over the last year or so, and very many times before that. It took me along a couple of suburban streets, past the tennis courts and into our favourite local park, Walpole.
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What better position for a monument to one of the country’s greatest seamen than this, high above the mouth of the Tyne with a view out to sea? Yet in many ways Collingwood is something of a forgotten hero, barely known outside his native North East.
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Once you have been in a hot air balloon, and loved the experience as I did, you will seize any opportunity to fly again. Leonardo da Vinci had it right, even though he himself had never flown, when he said, 'Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.'
