Winter Break + Napa Valley

The holiday season in the Northern hemisphere is nothing like it is back home in Australia. First, Thanksgiving is a thing here, whereas down under has no such thing. It's unfortunate because having experienced my first Thanksgiving here, I've understood its significance. Let's just say there will never be a year I don't celebrate it, no matter where I am. That happens on the last Thursday of November, before the deathly Black Friday sales with which I am oddly familiar. After a five-day vacation, we all head back to school for another five weeks, then it's Christmas break. Other differences include the cold weather, the varied traditions, and of course - the people. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas break with a friend and her family in Saint Helena, a beautiful town amongst the vineyards of Napa Valley. Here are a few belated shots from Thanksgiving break. We did some wine tasting at Tamber Bay, pie and ice-cream eating at Noble Folk, and subtle perusing in the sweet boutiques of Healdsburg - all under the grey and rainy Californian sky.

The rest of the photos are from my time spent in Saint Helena and Corte Madera during Christmas break.









I realised how important art was still is to me; how looking at a piece of creation someone took time to curate, with or without an agenda in mind, gives me a sense of release. It's a strange time of rest where my mind and my heart stop to think about what meaning a painting or a sculpture is attempting to convey. Then sometimes, looking at pieces that make no sense gives me rest because I don't have to do anything; I just have to look, I just have to feel.







So with a week left in Saint Helena, I lay in this house a rest. I rest not merely because I have to, but because I need to. I rest in Him, and from rest, I live and I love.

from a different perspective,

CITRA