There was a sense of loss, a sense that belonging had been forgotten years back. The shell was there, but the heart had been ripped away and buried deep miles away.
And yet The Watcher kept guard. He knew not who or what he was guarding against, but he was there. The one sense of permanence left, while life crumbled around him.
The worst element was the silence, the complete lack of noise. When the wind blew, and if it was in the right direction, the rotting boards creaked ever so slightly, but even their muffled cries echoed with a sense of obligation rather than any commitment, any passion.
But beyond that there was a deafening silence, that unnerving calm that always came before the storm. But the storm had been anticipated for months, for years, and yet it had still to break. So the silence, the absence, remained.
Another quick reminder about the May’s Mass Observation Project!
Take a photograph based that sums up the theme COLOUR to you, however you want to interpret it.
Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Thursday 30th April 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
With everything that’s going on at the moment, connecting with people, keeping up communication with friends, family and loved ones has never been more important.
I will be honest, I am quite introverted. I am more than happy with my own company and I find social events (you know, the type we used to have, seeing people face to face in restaurants, pubs, bars or at their houses) tiring.
But you can always have too much of a good thing, and online socialising was the way forward. It’s not something I have ever tried, but, in these unprecedented times (how common a phrase is that now?), new adventures and experiences await!
It’s an odd feeling, sitting in your lounge chatting to other people in theirs, as you ‘share’ glasses of wine, beer or cups of tea. Once you’ve made it past any technological hurdles and connectivity, I found you can quickly see beyond the screens.
We are getting used to a new normal, but doing so with a glass of something nice from our own sofas, chatting with friends who are doing the same isn’t a bad way of doing that!
Another quick reminder about the May’s Mass Observation Project!
Take a photograph based that sums up the theme COLOUR to you, however you want to interpret it.
Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Thursday 30th April 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
The lockdown in the UK came within a couple of weeks of me moving from West Sussex to Somerset. (Editor note: Oh really, CKPonderings? I hadn’t realised you’d moved, given all of the Glastonbury photos you’ve posted of late!)
There was plenty to do on the house, but the restrictions put in place by the UK government meant that we were unable to get anything started as quickly as we would have liked.
Back in West Sussex, with us both working full time, we were not able to spend as much time on the garden as I would have liked, and one of my missions for the move (and the eventual change to part-time work) was to enjoy and make the most of the new patch of land.
Glastonbury is known for its Bohemian, back to nature lifestyle, and I had in mind that I wanted to have a go at growing some vegetables and fruit, but the lockdown gave me the opportunity to speed that process up a little.
The back garden has a strip of decking across it which, even when we came to view the house, we knew had seen better days. It would need replacing or landscaping at some point, and my “Good Life” plans provided an ideal opportunity for that.
So, armed with nothing more than an idea floating around in my head, I decided that a section of decking could come up, and compost could go down and a veggie patch would be born!
Take into account, however, that I am not necessarily used to building projects, and the small tinkerings that I have attempted up to now haven’t always ended in glorious success.
The positive for this was that, whatever the outcome, the decking would ultimately have to go anyway, and, if push came to shove and the vegetables came to nothing, I would have a nice new flower bed to fill!
The decking proved to be a harder foe than I had anticipated…
As I mentioned, it had seen better days and, quite frankly, it was quicker to count the planks that were not rotten than the ones that were. However, it put up a valiant fight.
Surprisingly, it was the crumbling piece of wood that proved harder to lift than the solid ones, but, at the end of my first day of heaving, shoving, swearing and sweating, I had managed to clear around half of the 7ft x 8ft section I was planning on.
One of the things that the lockdown has taught me is to pace myself, rather than going hell for leather, trying to get everything accomplished in the quickest possible time. So, after a day off, I got back out to the project.
This time, it seemed quicker to achieve what I wanted to; the remaining planks came up a lot easier to lift, and soon I was down to the bare joists.
Mother Nature had taken its toll on the wood, and the first joists crumbled at the merest hint of a saw. Time had been ticking on, however, and I left it there for the second day’s work.
Day Three of the project and I was definitely into the swing of things by now. I had a plan: there were three joists to cut and a number of battens to remove, and if I was able to do that, I would be happy!
Again, however, six cuts with my saw and a bit of brute force meant that the decking was no more!
I had kept a number of the planks – as much as anything, the more solid ones would allow me to replace some of others that had rotted – and used five of them to edge the hole I had created. They would be no good for standing on, but they made it look a lot tidier!
God Bless Click & Collect!
A week or so ago I had ordered some compost from my local B&Q. (Well, I say ‘some’, it turned out to be nearly 1200 litres of the stuff!)
As much as anything, getting this from the shop before I started any work gave me the incentive to get going – it would be a complete waste of money buying all of that compost without then making use of it.
So, decking lifted, compost ready, the last stage of the project was in sight!
Filling the hole began, then! After the first few bags, I admit I did panic a little about whether I had, in fact, purchased enough of the black stuff, but I needn’t have worried. It turned out to be almost the perfect amount!
So, the vegetable patch is ready, and there remains only the small matter of putting some actual plants in it.
Again, with the lockdown, there are no physical shops open, but online stores are there, and I have placed an order, which should be with me at the beginning of May!
As I have already suggested, I have never undertaken this sort of project before; I am not a manual person, and, while I am not afraid of hard work, I do have a tendency to get bored easily and give up if things aren’t going the way I want them to.
I am personally impressed, therefore, at how it has turned out; it’s not perfect, but it will suit its purpose for the first year, anyway. Who knows, this could be the start of big things to come!
More, I am sure, to follow!
Another quick reminder about the May’s Mass Observation Project, then!
Take a photograph based that sums up the theme COLOUR to you, however you want to interpret it.
Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Thursday 30th April 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
The signs were all there, no doubt about it. There was not escape and, even though he couldn’t read the language, the intent was still pretty blindingly obvious.
But how to go about it? Which was his best way out? He didn’t know who was after him, or when they would catch up, but he knew he would give escape a bloody good try, and this was where his fight back began…
Colour is also on the cards for the new Mass Observation Project, so get snapping!
Take a photograph based that sums up the theme COLOUR to you, however you want to interpret it.
Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Thursday 30th April 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
Some more spring colour now, with some photos I took last year in Switzerland.
The town of Rapperswil, on Lake Zurich is renowned for its rose garden and, at the time I visited, the blooms were out in full force. Summer was beginning to ebb away, but the weather was still definitely on my side as a tourist, and it was a pleasure to spend time wandering amongst the blooms, colours and scents.
Colour is also on the cards for the new Mass Observation Project, so get snapping!
Take a photograph based that sums up the theme COLOUR to you, however you want to interpret it.
Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Thursday 30th April 2020.
Images should be a maximum of 650 pixels wide.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image, including where it was taken.
When times are tough, we often hark back to days when things seemed better, when life ran more smoothly.
The issue with this is that we tend to only remember the good things, not the bad – the childhood summers that seemed to go on for months, the Christmases when presents were huge and we were not left wanting.
This rose-tinted view of the past is detrimental and can reinforce our connection to what has gone before, making us even less willing too connect fully with the present and look to the future.
Back in the day you had been part of the smart set You’d holidayed with kings, dined out with starlets From London to New York, Cap Ferrat to Capri In perfume by Chanel and clothes by Givenchy You sipped camparis with David and Peter At Noel’s parties by Lake Geneva Scaling the dizzy heights of high society Armed only with a cheque-book and a family tree
You chased the sun around the Cote d’Azur Until the light of youth became obscured And left you on your own and in the shade An English lady of a certain age And if a nice young man would buy you a drink You’d say with a conspiratorial wink “You wouldn’t think that I was seventy” And he’d say, “no, you couldn’t be!”
Following yesterday’s post, some more evidence that spring is definitely here. Not from my back garden this time, but from a recent wander.
Amongst the desolation, there was still the vaguest of hints that something new, something big, was coming. She wandered through the ruins and rubble, and stopped beside a pile of stones. The barest glimpse of colour among the greyness had caught her eye and she had to go back and check.
Yes, there it was, a tiny blossom, subtly pink, tiny yellow stamen that reflected the weak sun’s light.
She felt a tear run trickle down her left cheek, clearing a path through the dust and dirt she new she was covered in. For the first time is weeks, no months, the tear was a happy one. This tiny bloom, this tiniest of blossoms represented something she had not encountered in a long, long time.
With everything going on at the moment, it’s easy to forget that this virus and its complications, while bad enough, is only affecting humans. Mother Nature is still keeping the world going (grateful, I am guessing, that us pesky beings are giving the planet a bit of a break from our pollution), and across the Northern Hemisphere spring is, well, springing…
Three shots, then, from my back garden! (Click on an image to see a larger version.)
It was a sunny weekend in Somerset and, while the restrictions in force still allow a daily walk, I thought I would take my camera out for another 9-in-45!
The idea of the project is to set out on a walk with a phone/stopwatch and your camera. Set your stopwatch for five minutes and start walking. When the five minutes is up, stop walking. You have a minute to compose and take a photograph. Set your stopwatch for another five minutes and start walking. When the time is up, stop and, within a minute take and compose your second photo. Keep going until you have walked for 45 minutes and have nine photos.
I’ve undertaken several of these before and now, with the move to the South West, it’s giving me an opportunity to explore new places and seek out new routes!
4th April 2020 – 14:24
I promise not every set of photos is going to include the Tor, but on this occasion made it too good an opportunity to miss!
4th April 2020 – 14:29
A welcome to the Somerset town, but I was walking the other way. There is no “Thank you for visiting” billboard, however, so this will have to do!
4th April 2020 – 14:35
…definitely no more photos of the Tor, I promise…
4th April 2020 – 14:41
Walking along the River Brue, you come to a small weir. This hut, I would imagine, has something to do with water management, though don’t quote me on that.
Graffiti on out of the way huts: good or bad?
4th April 2020 – 14:46
It really was a lovely day for a springtime walk! The sun was shining and it was pleasantly warm…
4th April 2020 – 14:52
Love Actually is all around. Glastonbury is a place of peace, calm and openness and these painted rocks – on the road from Street – stand as testament to that sense of love.
4th April 2020 – 14:58
Heading back homewards now, and a steep climb through a field of cows as I ascended Wearyall Hill. The timer on my phone went off and there was little obvious to photograph (apart from cowpats and hoof prints).
The chimney in the foreground belongs to the old Baily’s Tannery and Glove Factory, disused since the 1980s.
4th April 2020 – 15:04
The top of Wearyall Hill now, and a place to stop and relax. I have sat here and relished the view on a number of occasions, but today I carried on, because I had a ninth photograph to take!
4th April 2020 – 15:09
Never ever be afraid of being the odd one out, the black sheep. Life is made for standing out!
Another nine photographs taken in 45 minutes, then; my seventh attempt! Click on the links below to see the previous results:
I’m currently not under personal quarantine, and am eager to have my daily constitutional for as long as I can.
In addition to this, having not long moved into my new home, the place is still a bit of a tip (although it’s getting there slowly) and with some building work going on (the builders working in isolation), I am paranoid that whatever photo I take will show up the dust!
So, with my once-a-day walks continuing, camera in hand, I am photographing the outdoors quite happily!
CKPonderingsToo 