Day 53

'Filzmoos', Pen on Paper

This will be the last landscape image from the Austria Collection that I wanted to draw, it's from just outside the place we stayed and an area that you would pass through on your way out and on your return each day. The building in the left of the frame was our temporary home for a week and has been for one week each year, for the last three years running. It has become a vague tradition wherein each year we go to the same place, we sample the same local delicacies and we partake in the same events and activities... there is a familiarity to things that is very comforting and the notion of familiarity is something that affects us greatly when in a seemingly strange place. To hark back to something I've mentioned before we are by our very nature creatures of habit, as such we have a tendency to be ritualistic. Wherever we may be we all have our own routines, quirks and customs that we adhere to, to make even unfamiliar surroundings seem that little more like home. The process of repetition generates a security, so by carrying out the same tasks, by seeing recognizable landmarks and by generally being acquainted with the other elements of our environment we get that feeling, the same one that we get when we return to our actual home. As that subtle smirk of realisation that materializes across our face suggests, that feeling is one of relief, a sense of satisfaction and an overwhelming notion that I'm exactly where I need to be.