Winter announced

Winter is definitely here. I woke up this morning and, opening the blinds of my bedroom, I saw the first snow flocks of the year coming down. A real joy for kids. Not much for me. 

In this time of the year I wake up when it's still night, enter my office at dawn, I spend most of my days closed into a lab or into a meeting room, without noticing any difference in light as time passes and then I get out of there when it's night again and the fog has fallen upon almost everything. Milan, London or Stockholm, it doesn't make any difference. Let's get ready for this month of consumism.

Autumn explorations

After several B&W images it's time to put some colors on this blog again. Don't expect an extraordinarily colorful palette: hunting and proposing aggressive color combinations are not in my top priority list since long. There must be always some kind of balance in each proposal and long term coherence, from day to day, one post after the other, as if I was weaving a long tale on my loom.

Last time I put some samples from a french marketplace, now I'm showing the colors of the Autumn. Looks like incidental, riding bikes with my son we came out of a wood and crossed a small village where magically all building appeared as if they had just wore an autumnal frock, in tune with the foliage of the nearby grove.

In this small series everything, even my son's jersey, looks so much monochromatic, in some extent so much ... B&W. That's why, just like the french onions and powders, I opted to put it on display.

The front yard

I've spotted this building not far from where I'm living during one of my last Sunday's rides on my bike. It looks like being abandoned since eons but it's actually populated by someone. The small, ancient, garden on the front is clearly maintained, even if has already put on its winter frock. The door light is on night and day but the blinds are always shut. I've heard someone in the nearby village calling it the "institute". I'll investigate a little more in the coming days. 

The toy is broken

591 has definitely quit (fermeé). The fire's off but the embers are still burning below. The phoenix has come back to life again from her ashes. I'll come back on this topic in the following days.

The underlying form

"We are at the classic-romantic barrier now, where on one side we see a cycle as it appears immediately - and this is an important way of seeing it - and where on the other side we can begin to see it as a mechanic does in terms of underlying form - and this is an important way of seeing things too. These tools for example - this wrench - has a certain romantic beauty to it, but its purpose is always purely classical. It's designed to change the underlying form of the machine."

Robert Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

On top of the World

I must confess I'm one of those who doesn't necessarily feel disturbed while spotting one of these cabinets on top of a mountain. It's my job. I'm among those people who spend ten hours a day - most of which sitting and talking in endless meetings - trying to make these telecom equipment work as the "customer wants".

One could argue what a smart-phone is necessary for on top of a hill. He's got a point. But there are many others who are in the need of a permanent connection, where ever they are, 7x24. For them (and few others public interest services) these boxes and antennas are for and, yes, there are times I feel proud to spot them and tell my kids what they're for and that I'm one of those guys who made what's inside.

We go alone

I was talking with some colleagues of mine, today, during a coffee break at our premises, when one of them started complaining that he hadn't slept much the night before. One of his sons had been out with his friends for a cinema & pizza or something else he didn't want (or couldn't) know. He stood up, watching TV on the sofa in his living room, until his son was back home.

Some of us laughed at him; others sympathized, having had more or less the same experience; I tried instead to suggest him to be less catastrophic and more fatalist. At my words he turned to me and ironically smiling said: "Your kids are still young. Wait and see ... There will be a time when you'll drive them to party. There will be another when they'll take the car to drive you around ...".

Oh my!

Flora Alpina - VI

Flora Alpina - V

Pastorale