The places that shaped me
The dunes of Kennemerland. The backyard in Heemstede, and in particular the trees: the cherry in the front yard, the apple, the plum and the sweet cherry in the back. My birth tree.
The Rucu Pichincha in Quito, the mangroves and tidal swamps of the Everglades in Florida, thunderstorms.
My family. My friends.
The gold-flecked hills around Grimaud, the stairs of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the Santhome Cathedral Basilica in Chennai and the sea, the sea, the sea.
The North Sea of my youth at Zandvoort, at Bloemendaal, Schoorl, the endless coasts of the Wadden Sea: Terschelling, Schiermonnikoog. The shells at Miami beach and the sharp trees along the Gulf of Mexico coastline, the rocky coasts of Portugal and their hidden caves along the North Atlantic Ocean, the tidal marshes and dolphins on the other side along the coast of Georgia and South Carolina, the unbridled richness of the Mediterranean Sea from the port of Saint-Tropez, the tea water warm South Pacific Ocean off the coast of Ecuador, the misty pebbled beaches of Lima with their litter filled waves, the cold cold foamy water of the North Sea, again and again. The beaches of Zeeland, and Scheveningen, and the riptides, and the ever-encroaching saltiness of Venice and the Adriatic Sea, and the stillness of the Persian Gulf in Abu Dhabi, and the strong currents of the Bay of Bengal at the Thiruvanmiyur beach. The calm waves and hidden islands of Kattegat and the strong winds and showers from the Northern Irish coast, and the entirely new face of the North Sea I experience now in Newcastle. The sea is everywhere, close in all my stories.•
The Wadden Sea, August 2021
Inspired by Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder