In need of a little break...

Somehow the days just don't seem to have enough hours at the moment, and I feel like I'm not getting anything done at all. I'm so in need of a holiday, of a change of scene, a few days to lean back and relax. Luckily, that's just what I have ahead of me, and I'm so looking forward to visiting Christmas markets, drinking mulled wine and hot chocolate, eating cakes, and taking lots of pictures in lovely Salzburg. And spending the whole day painting, without having to constantly run away to do a thousand other things while the paint dries. Hopefully, I'll learn some new watercolour techniques, get at least one decent painting done, find lots of inspiration, and meet some nice people. It's really just what I need right now :)

And hopefully, there'll be a few snowflakes too. It's been snowing a lot up in the mountains these last few days, but unfortunately, down here, we've only had lots of rain and wind, and the temperatures, well, it feels more like early spring than winter... It's only the Christmas lights and decorations, and all the Christmas markets that remind me of the season. But I keep hoping for that white Christmas :)

I'll be back in a week, with my batteries recharged, and looking forward to keeping up and in touch again with everyone. Have a wonderful week!

{9 Muses Musing} ~ Day 2: Lights

What a great surprise awaited me yesterday morning, when I opened Mortal Muses to get the prompt for Day 2 of 9 Muses Musing and saw a very familiar picture appearing before my eyes! The prompt was "Light" and Kat had chosen one of my pictures to feature on the blog. The photo was taken a week ago and I was trying out my new lens, a Canon 50mm f1.8, which I had very spontaneously decided to buy the day before. This is one of my favourite spot in Zürich. Looking up the Limmatquai with its Christmas lights, the typical blue trams of Zürich, the old guild buildings, the river. To the left is my favourite bridge, Münsterbrücke, a old, small cobblestone bridge connecting the two big minsters Grossmünster and Fraumünster. There seem to be new kind of benches in town and they provided great spidery shadows and the people walking by just helped to add the whole scene into one that reminded me of the dark, gloomy mood of Carlos Ruiz Zafóns novels, which I loved reading, exactly because of their mysterious mood.

I was also trying out my new bokeh kit with various shapes, which fits this lens perfectly. I chose the star shape as I thought that fitted the Christmas season best. Zürich's got a new Christmas lighting in Bahnhofstrasse, replacing a cold and much hated one. The new is sparkly and colorful and I get the feeling that each time I get to tone, it sparkles even more! The new lens and star bokeh turned it into a sky full of bright cheerful stars :-). I have posted this photo earlier already, for Picture the Holiday's prompt for Day 10, "Twinkle, Twinkle". But decided to use it again for 9 Muses Musing because I really quite like it :-).

I love my new lens!! :-)