The story of a camera

This is the most palpable example of how blogging ripples. Not only you get the best people into your life, sometimes they bear astonishing gifts.

All photos in this post are by Liz Pettit at Fetching the World.

The new old camera, the wonderful past week, and the three quotes in this post are by Crystal Trulove at Conscious Engagement. Thank you, both, from the heart!

Manja you are the one who brought us together. I didn’t really know you or your blog and you kept commenting and being funny and interesting and optimistic. I finally couldn’t resist and went to go see what you were all about. Thank you for kidnapping me. 😉

Crystal Trulove

She told me her history as she handed over the camera to me last week. (“Of course it’s a girl,” says Crystal.) This camera has seen places. And then she had to do a coast-to-coast, twice, before she reached me.

First you have to be extremely lucky to know Crystal and casually mention in a comment that you needed to study the market for a new camera that was supposed to be your big 50 present from your parents. “My idea is to ask if you want my old camera. It’s not sparkly anymore, and it’s traveled the world and has been battered due to my rough treatment,” Crystal emailed me, and that was that. I knew that pretty much anything would be better than my point-and-shoot, but I was amazed to find she was a Nikon D5000.

This was just as Liz, another blogger who I’d already met in Italy and spent two lovely days together, was getting ready to come on a twice postponed visit to Italy and spend a week or two with us. It would be perfect if Liz brought the camera over. It’s just that Crystal lives in Oregon and Liz in Pennsylvania, with the entire USA in between. So on top of gifting me the camera Crystal sent her to Liz as well.

And then the Venice Carnival got cancelled and that meant it was serious. The pandemic spread and Liz had to postpone her visit once again. She took the camera for a ride and took the photos that you can see in this post, and then we all waited.

And my favourite is often here with you: Piran. I will go there one day. I will.

Crystal Trulove

When Crystal informed me a few months ago that she purchased the airline tickets and was coming over with her boyfriend Pedro, I was still in the pandemic funk, not going anywhere, not seeing anybody, slowly going feral. Not that I doubted that it would work, I had no vision of the future, and that had been bothering me for a while.

In the meantime nothing major happened that would jeopardise Crystal and Pedro’s arrival and so the camera went coast-to-coast again. This time Liz took care of the charge and even provided the missing lens cover.

That is, nothing except their first flight was cancelled but after a long phone call with the never-fly-United they found another solution, so that they touched down in Rome on the last day of August only five hours later than initially scheduled.

So I got my friends and a week full of movement and fun and chats and views and yummy meals in my two countries, and I got my new old camera too.

Now it’s on me to use her wisely and show her around and not drop her too often and gift her to somebody should I ever get another. And be grateful to the grave to two amazing women.

I love that we can use our blogs as tools to help shape us into who we want to be.

Crystal Trulove

This day in my blogging history

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  2014: Offside

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  2015: The Fiora river at Vulci and its doors

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  2015: Sometimes it is hard to pinpoint precisely when “to live” turns into an excuse to postpone writing. —Carlos Pascual 

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  2017: When waiting pays off (compilation of waiting times)

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