I am looking out my window and the view is exactly the same as it’s been for months and months. Low overcast. No shadows. An even grey that’s actually perfect for B&W photography. During my years in Seattle, working on my photo exhibit commissioned by Nordic Heritage Museum, I learned there was more photo chemistry purchased in Seattle than anywhere in the US. The constant overcast made the city a heaven for photographers. Grey days out shooting, sunny spending them in the darkroom.
It’s been six years this week that I have been telling the stories from my two cities Umeå and Seattle. Over the years my life has blurred the initial intention, and personal stories have sneaked in to my original city planning intentions. I hope that’s okay.
My first post was written in the lovely little mother in law apartment I rented from Dita. It was located just a block above the Portage Bay house which was me and my family’s home for a year 1996-97. This was a peculiar coincidence.
I was writing this post on Dita’s beige couch. Because my back was out. I had no idea at that time it was the start of my future. Lying on a couch. Writing my blog. And I only would return to Seattle once more. If I had known, the project would have died there and then of course. The fundament was I would spend time in Seattle.
A year ago, in the 5-year anniversary post I mentioned I might finish up Home is Away, Away is Home when I cleared out my Seattle storage. And shipped my Tempur Pedic mattress back to Sweden.
Well, the storage is now empty and closed. Trouble 2 and Audrey evacuated it in May for me, and a lot of my things found new homes with my Seattle daughters Becca and Zoe. And my car is only a memory now. Through a long drawn ordeal taking the toll out of me as well as Trouble 2 and David who has co owned my beloved Dodge Stratus with me, I finally manage to sell it. So no car and no storage. That’s a major change. The mattress though has found a corner at Matt and Elizabeth’s on Capitol Hill though, so I still have a pinky toe dipped in Seattle.
I can feel I am letting go though. A bit. Chances are slim I might return, so it’s the healthy thing to do. Well, is this the end for Home is Away, Away is Home then?
No, it doesn’t feel like it. I am quite addicted to my Sunday routine. And something weird has happened during this last year.
It used to be four people reading my blog in the US. And I know Randi and Debra are two of them. A year ago - according to the Blogger graph - my readers started increasing and have done so through the year. In the US but also in Sweden. And by some reason, French people have found me. The graph is constantly pointing at higher numbers, which of course is nice to watch.
I am thinking though, it can’t be real. I don’t have any followers. You can subscribe, and those I can’t see and they might be a few. But how do they find me? It’s probably just bots doing their job, right? But those five in Brazil? It started out with just one (I have scattered showers all over the world which I don’t pay much attention to), but then there showed up one more in Brazil, and one more… Those few seem kind of realistic.
The funny thing is, over the years, whenever writing about politics or city planning the numbers have decreased. But last fall starting expressing my concerns about Trump, Americans started reading me. And that’s when the French came along too. Or is it only bots?
No comments:
Post a Comment