Coming home...

After nearly three months in the UK I came out of the Christchurch Airport terminal and the first thing I noticed was  the perfume in the air. Not any specific perfume, floral or manufactured, but a sort of pervading sweetness not unlike the smell of honeydew in the bush. It was sufficiently noticeable for me to comment to Claire and Elaine who had come to pick me up. It got me thinking that, in general, we only notice particular smells. As with fish in water (no doubt) we are largely unaware of our constant airy environment unless it is especially sweetened or polluted.


Once home in the harbour, the second thing I noticed was the quality of the light. Of course I knew this, from many previous visits to the UK and from the longstanding tradition of New Zealand artistic commentary, but it was something of a revelation to re-experience it. The mid-late autumn afternoon sun on the bone dry hills and blue-grey sea created a startling luminosity (even without my glasses!). Sadly I can already feel myself shifting back into the 'taking-it-forgranted' mode. How to retain this awareness of, and sense of wonder at, the air, the light, the most basic elements that comprise our world? How to always be experiencing the world anew? Maybe such constant sensory awareness leads to a Van Gogh  over-sensitivity and 'madness'. But it also produces glorious works of art....