Thierry’s view from the balcony

If it's flowers that I’m a little bit corny about, then it’s the view from his balcony that my husband is a wee bit fanatic about! He has maybe hundreds of photos taken from the same spot, all in varying seasons and times of day. Often he has the tip of his ugly old slippers showing at the bottom of the photo. He can’t sit still in the apartment for more than a couple of hours without coming out to the balcony.

He would sit on the little bamboo swing when it’s warm, or stand leaning on the balcony bars, freezing his butt off in winter. He would stare out at everything on a clear day, watch ducks play in the water on a wet day, lookout for a rainbow when the rain lets up, marvel as the sun casts a play of gold and shadow on the forest in certain afternoons, swoon at the moon and stars at night.

Whether I’m in the middle of watching a movie or doing the dishes, he would call out and ask that I come out "quick", to see how a flock of birds is swooping up and down as if of one mind, or how the sunlight doing funny things again. And if I don’t seem amazed or react quickly enough, you’ll hear a soft mumble, “Oh, you don’t care.”

He would say, “Do you hear that? That’s how silence sounds. Do you smell that? That’s the scent of nature.” He likes the apartment well enough, but it’s the view that he loves and is proud of. He says that’s what made him buy the apartment. “We have nature as our backyard. That, that’s what I love!"