Het schildpad eeten het boterham.

The more time I spend in the Netherlands, the more I want to learn the language. I am sorry, my Dutch friends, I am trying!

In June I did a mini tour of  Dutch Castles and Country Houses with Visit Holland and DFDS. It was an utterly lovely experience. I learnt so much about the beautiful buildings, ate wonderful meals, saw the most fabulous gardens full of roses, and a dog called Percy tried to put its football in my handbag. Read about it here, you won’t be disappointed!

I’ll be back in The Netherlands again next month for one of the most exciting exhibitions I have ever been lucky enough to curate – STREET / FORM at POW! WOW! Rotterdam, Europe’s leading street art festival. I’ll be spending a couple of weeks in the city and I am really excited about it.

(You can find the STREET / FORM call for entries here, if you’re interested).

I’m also working on an exhibition called HOME, which is a collaboration between Shutter Hub and Gallery at Home in Usk, Wales. (Call for entries, here). We’re raising money for Crisis, Shelter, and Toiletries Amnesty.

Adam and I took part in the annual village yard sale. No one asked for guns this year, but there was an old man with a pro-Trump hat on.

I repotted Mrs Pollock the pelargonium.

I helped judge graduate photography at the Freerange Awards 2019, and Shutter Hub gave prizes to 6 photographers.

I wrote Foodie Finds #19 and #20 for Surf4, ate parma violet flavoured fudge and drank ginger beer.

A lady told me she thought I was very attractive, tall and slim, and about 28 years old. She was also blind. This is not a joke.

I went to the Dutch Ambassador’s residence in London for breakfast (nice carpets). Then I went to Brixton and power chugged hot tea in Van Gogh’s kitchen.

We endured a super hot heatwave day of hell. 38.7°C. The chickens were really sick, we gave them frozen sweetcorn and iced water.

Shutter Hub took an exhibition to Festival Pil’Ours in France. Time to Think includes the work of 145 female photographers from 15 different countries, and a total of 435 images (It runs until 31 August 2019, technically, but the festival organisers have already said they want to extend it).

Jayne and I flew into La Rochelle, picked up a hire car (a Renault Clio with a stoved in door) and took the two hour drive to St Gilles Croix de Vie, stopping for pastries and a packet of mustard and pickle flavoured crisps on the way.

We arrived at our  little seaside chalet. Welcomed by the sea, and a drunk man who wanted Jayne to touch his hair. It did look soft.

Beach front picnic under pink skies. Lapping waves. Sticky sea air.

In the morning we walked to the town, over bridges and through the brocante, for the exhibition launch event. People came from across the region, and beyond – Italy, UK, Ukraine and 14 hours on a bus from Amsterdam. I gave the opening speech, Jayne took photos, I told everyone to eat fish balls. It was fun. There was iced peach tea and a beautiful cat who had a number written in his right ear.

If you want to see lots more photos of the exhibition (and read some lovely words) you can find them all here.


We walked back as the light faded, through the night market, passed the pink neon glow of the fairground. Candy floss, and a massive grey dog that looked like a bear.

A couple of days of sea air and perfect sunsets, interspersed with meetings, project work, and plenty of cheese. Time to think – definitely. 

At home Tutti Biscotti managed to catch two birds in the space of two days. Not bad for a house cat! Kamikaze sparrows were delivering themselves to her through the open windows.

And look! I found my first comb in over two years. #combtheory

I should write more often, because when I do, I like it. I like sharing stories – the good, the weird and the wonderful. I love to read back old blog posts. Notes to strangers become notes from my past self, and I am always grateful for them.

So, what can I tell you?

I was interviewed by the marvellous Loupe Magazine. I’ve read the article several times. You can read it too, it’s nice, I think so. (Read it here).

I was interviewed by Judith Weik at the Centre of Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, Cambridge University, for their blog. (Read it here).

I made a cake that tasted like play doh smells.

Everything I Ever Learnt was a super success. An exhibition of photography at Cambridge University, a collaboration between Shutter Hub and Art at the ARB, that got some great media coverage, was received by its audience with kindness and intrigue, and had a private view that felt more like an exciting reunion of dear friends. It was so good actually, that we organised a closing event– a symposium of talks, print swaps, and an array of biscuits.

I was a guest on a BBC radio arts and culture show. This involved being wedged into a tiny room with four men and a euphonium. (Google euphonium and offer me sympathy and a free hearing test).

Everyone I know went to Japan (well, maybe not everyone).

I wrote Foodie Finds for Surf4, ate cherry cake and drank peach and elderflower iced tea.

Tutti Biscotti turned 12. She’s lived with us for two years now. We didn’t have a party as she doesn’t like a fuss.

I went to the Netherlands and ate chocolate crayons in my favourite hotel in Haarlem.

I gave a talk about photography in the marble-lined chapel of rest of an old pathology laboratory in Amsterdam. Probably one of the best sentences I’ve ever written.

I peered in windows and car-spotted in Rotterdam.

And I stayed in a mouldy hotel hovel in Amsteelveen.

Read the full story and glorious mouldy hovel low down here.

I signed up for the CEO Sleepout, again. Last year was a real experience and it feels important to be reminded. This year I am fundraising for Toiletries Amnesty and would really appreciate your support. Will you join me? If you don’t fancy sleeping outside on a wintery night, maybe you feel like sponsoring me to do it for you?

I’ll just leave my fundraising page here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/karenharveyok

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The past couple of months, for me, have been mostly filled with the preparations for Everything I Ever Learnt, the Shutter Hub exhibition opening this week at Cambridge University.

100 photographers from around the world, 158 stunning images, months and months of planning – hung in 10 hours, with 300+ squats, a time lapse video, and several cups of tea.

That image reminds me of something. It ignites a small flame that lights my way through the filing system of my mind. It brings me eventually to the hint of a memory, and that memory guides my interpretation of the image, influences my reaction, connects my thoughts and feelings, and threads them together, binding them into a new collection, to be drawn upon the next time something familiar arises.

Everything I have seen, felt, remembered,
everything, influences and informs every thought I will ever have.

I wrote that. Nice innit? Well, I think so. The exhibition is on until 3^rdMay, and I would love you to see it. It’s all printed on newspaper.


I wrote about deleting my Facebook account and running free. It’s easy, just do it. You can read why I did it here.

I wrote Foodie Finds for Surf4 and included an amazing Easter cake called Colomba di Pasqua and a not-amazing drink called Ocean Bomb (but look at that cute packaging!)

I was invited to a cocktail party at the Canadian Embassy as part of London Fashion Week (I know, I think that’s strange too!) and it reminded me about the time I went backstage at my friends show and trapped a model in a lift door.

I did a track day at Cadwell Park.

I cut my finger on a book about communist era bunkers.

Someone sent me a photo of a squashed toad and said it reminded them of me.

Margaret laid her first egg of spring, and a mole delivered a beautiful piece of blue and white china to the garden.

I won a really special award – Digital Influencer of the Year at the Holland Press Awards. Super chuffed! I love The Netherlands.

I thought I was nominated for ‘best online article’ and when the names came up on the screen, mine wasn’t there. I thought to myself, Karen you’re a bell end! I must have somehow assumed that I’d been nominated – how embarrassing, what a total knobber! The awards moved on, I relaxed a bit, and then Simone Sagi from Visit Holland started talking about the Digital Influencer of the Year. I kicked Polly’s foot, ‘this sounds like me!’ I said, and then, it was me!

My acceptance speech amounted to three words, ‘This is nice!’ And, it really was nice.

I went to Derby. I took my own pillow. It was a success. I was really chuffed to be invited back to Format Festival to give portfolio reviews. It’s one of my favourite things to do – a 20 minute challenge where I sit with a stranger, check out their photography, and do my best to come up with as much advice and as many opportunities for them as I can muster.

On the opening night of the festival, it was late, I’d been watching an Elvis impersonator killing it (literally, whatever ‘it’ was he was karate-kicking it into oblivion) I walked back to my hotel, through the city centre. Ahead of me a woman was shouting. At first I thought she was on the phone, then I thought she was shouting at an invisible person, and then I realised – she was shouting at me! ‘You’re fucking kidding me. No fucking way. You’ve got to be fucking joking! Get away from me!’ She yelled. She thought I was following her.

I look like a stalker.

I also ate a miniature custard éclair and got given a Twix and a papercut of a myna bird.


I went on a mini-tour of the North West – Birmingham for meetings, Chester for some consultancy work with a hotel and restaurant, and Manchester, to speak at the art school.

And then I came home and watched Columbo on the tele.

At the beginning of the year, nothing to do with resolutions but more to do with the holiday downtime and opportunity to think, I decided to leave Facebook.

I deleted the app from my phone at first. For a day it felt like something was missing. For a week l left it and realised, there were only a handful of people who I was in touch with on Facebook and nowhere else. I messaged them, exchanged details, exchanged lovely conversations via iMessage, and, was nearly tricked into thinking I should stay on Facebook. But no, this was me taking the time to reach out personally, and this is the way it should continue.

People told me things like ‘Wow bold move!’ and ‘I really wish I could’! as if I had announced I was moving to the other side of the world or signing up for a marathon.

I’d noticed the pattern: pick up phone – check email – check Instagram – check Twitter – check Facebook – lose hours looking for something of genuine interest.

I’d thought that I was staying on Facebook  as a means of keeping in touch with friends, but I realised, I wasn’t communicating, just scrolling endlessly for something worthwhile, and, when I found it, brain too exhausted from reading rubbish to have the energy to write anything of value… tap… I communicated my response through a picture of an approving ‘thumbs up’, or even a ‘heart’, if you were lucky. How is that social?

It wasn’t easy to leave. Not for any sentimental or social reason, but because Facebook make it pretty difficult to do so. It’s designed to keep you there, to keep you scrolling. To keep you looking for something uplifting that will give you that endorphin boost.

Post something and keep fingers crossed for multiple likes and a dopamine hit.

Not anymore.

In an ideal world I’d just socialise, in the real world. But there’s not time for all of that, and it’s hard to get together with everyone. I like sharing stories and images, and always have since before the internet, when I was a child that wrote letters, and postcards, and made telephone calls whilst sat on the bottom stair.

Telephone calls. Why not? What an advancement the telephone was, yet we’ve gone back to one line (if you’re lucky) ‘telegrams’ through Facebook.

Facebook is training us to care less, scroll more, and forget how to properly communicate with our friends.

Remember those coverall emails or photocopied round-robin letters that people used to circulate at Christmas? We thought they were impersonal and almost an insult to receive, but now you’re happy with a digital thumbs up? There’s some psychological conditioning there!

The alternative to keeping in touch or performing to a large audience, (which is essentially what you’re doing on Facebook, don’t kid yourself that it’s personal), is obviously to use other social platforms like Instagram (or MeWe?) but if you want to share a lot, like me, what’s wrong with a newsletter?

When we were all desperately unsubscribing from mailing lists to get towards the Mecca of inbox zero and free up our time, we didn’t stop to think what we’d do with that time – scroll social media searching for interesting content that speaks to us.

Why not sign up for that newsletter instead? Everything in one place, a quick skim for the bits you’re interested in, just delete it if it feels too much, or save it to a folder and read it on a quiet evening, instead of clutching at your phone every five seconds to see if someone’s posted something of value, shared a new meme, or liked your cat picture (they used to love my cat pictures!)

For me, this is the way forward. Although I have every intention of starting the ‘anti-email party’ I also would rather be free of Facebook and receive a compact digest of news. Bring back the round robin! (Ah, cute!)

Would you like to join my mailing list? I’ll send you good things every now and then.