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!
What will be the first thing you do when the isolation is lifted? Where will you go? Who will you see? What will you do?
For me, not being able to get into the great outdoors is the big frustration at the moment. Yes, my posts have included daily walks around Glastonbury, but I want to get properly out and about. Having moved to Somerset seven weeks ago, I am itching to see more of the local area, the countryside, the seaside resorts.
My National Trust and Glastonbury Abbey passes are sitting in my wallet, going unused because all are shut. The countryside is very apparent from here. Looking out of my office window, I can look across Butleigh Moor to the Hood Monument, knowing I cannot, in all good conscience, get out and visit, climb the hill and see the Tor from another angle.
In this time of restrictions and “one walk per day”, what better use of that time outside than to undertake a “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.
So, the nine photos…
31st March 2020 – 08:58
It was a crisp, bright morning, and I had an idea of where I wanted to go. Living in Glastonbury now, I am fortunate enough to have the Tor virtually on my doorstep (as you will see, 15 minutes or so from the summit!).
Walking up to the main road, I pass the Rural Life Museum – currently closed, as with most other places at the moment. I have seen the bicycle sign on numerous occasions, and it just happened that, when my first five minutes were up, I was close enough to it to include it in my set of nine photos!
31st March 2020 – 09:04
At the base of the Tor are these two stones. There are a lot of pieces of stone in and around Glastonbury – half of the town was built from pieces of the Abbey when it was dissolved in 1539. The thing that has always caught my eye, however, is the symbol on the one on the left. I think it’s military, but I’m not sure…
31st March 2020 – 09:10
I will be honest, I am not as fit as I once was, or as I should be. I may well have not walked continuously between taking the 09:04 photo and the one above… In my defence, however, the Tor is blooming steep, and it’s only fair that I sat down on a handy bench on the way up the climb…
A fair proportion of the planet may be in lock down, but here in the Northern Hemisphere, Spring is continuing unabated… This shot, of some cherry blossom, turned out better than I thought immediately after taking the photo. (I had intended a smaller aperture, but when I had taken the shot, I realised the camera was set to f/8. However, the depth of focus turned out to be pretty much what I was aiming for!)
Right, I’d better continue my climb, then…
31st March 2020 – 09:16
Mr C’s strict rules state that selfies should not be included in the 9-in-45, but halfway up the Tor, my options were limited. I wanted to avoid the bulk standard countryside views, but the sun was still fairly low in the sky and my shadow was too good an opportunity to miss!
31st March 2020 – 09:22
In recent weeks, the summit of the Tor has been distinctly devoid of visitors (a combination of isolation and the weather). However, at other times – at the height of the tourist season or on pagan celebratory days – it can be teeming with people.
I will be honest, I prefer it quiet. With its 360° view of the levels, it is an ideal space for reflection and meditation, as you can see!
31st March 2020 – 09:27
I awarded myself a five minute sit down before moving on, but the 9-in-45 had to continue unabated. The image of perfect calm belies the fact that is was blowing an icy gale and, to be honest, I was more than happy to start moving again!
31st March 2020 – 09:33
Unsurprisingly, while it took nearly 20 minutes to climb the Tor, it only took five to walk back down again!
At the base of the hill, in a sheltered, sunny location, is the Avalon Orchard. Another place for reflection and contemplation, these old fruit trees hold decades of history in their gnarled and twisted branches.
Rather than a wide shot of trees, I thought I would close in tighter, and this fungus caught my eye as soon as the timer on my phone alerted me to the end of the the next five-minute window.
31st March 2020 – 09:39
Time for the money shot, then; I’ve talked a lot about the Tor, but not had a photo of it yet!
31st March 2020 – 09:45
The wind may still be fresh, but the sun has been in full attendance over the last few days, so one final shot to show that spring has definitely sprung!
The photos and the route in more detail:
I have completed the 9-in-45 project a number of times now – click on the links below to see the results:
As with much of the UK, Somerset has had a pretty damp start to the year (in fact, it’s chucking it down yet again as I type). But, grey clouds notwithstanding, there are signs that spring is on the horizon, and so for my second ode to my new home, I thought I would post some budding new photographs.
(Click on an image to see a larger version and scroll to the bottom for some information about a new post!)
Even on the darkest of days there is a hint of brighter things to come, and he knew this gave him an advantage he would be able to press home. He could show her that things had changed, that he had changed.
He knew that the temptation he had given into has been ill-advised – no, more than that, it had been the stupidest thing he had ever done! – but she had hinted that there was the slightest of opportunities, the tiniest glimmer of hope that he would be able to rectify the damage he had done.
The “slip” – that was what they had taken to calling it – had happened last autumn, and this new spring gave him the hope, the push to start putting things back together again…
It’s time for a new Mass Observation Project post too! With everything going on in the world at the moment, the next theme is going to be ISOLATION.
The idea, as with previous MO posts is to:
Take a photograph based on the theme, however you want to interpret it.
Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com by Wednesday 1st April 2020.
Include your name, website/blog address and a short note about the image.
Come back and see the results on Sunday 5th April!
For the past two decades I have been drawn to the sleep Somerset market town of Glastonbury.
This lure has nothing to do with the celebrated music festival (which actually takes place seven or eight miles away on a farm near the village of Pilton, but just happens to take its name from the closest town), but there is an ingrained history about the place that I love.
It’s a Bohemian place, but that only adds to the draw of the town – in Glastonbury you can be who you want to be, wear what you want to wear, follow what beliefs you want to follow and nobody bats an eyelid.
I moved to Somerset from West Sussex, just along the coast from Brighton. This is a city that badges itself as welcoming and warm, open and kooky, but, while I like the coastal resort, I have always found that Brighton tries to be Bohemian, while Glastonbury just is.
The Avalon town has a spirituality about it that supersedes the mythical visit of Joseph of Arimathea (the uncle of Jesus) a few thousand years ago. There is an undefinable connection to something about the place, something I’ve never been able to put my finger on, but which I have felt, certainly over the last ten years or so.
Driving to Glastonbury from Sussex, when I get my first glimpse of the Tor from the outskirts of Shepton Mallet, my shoulders have relaxed and I have felt like I a coming home.
Not everybody feel it, I know, and, while we get that sense of home from somewhere in the world, I appreciate that Glastonbury is not going to be it for everybody. But for me, that love, that peace, that security is what drew me to make the move down here last month.
All I would encourage you to do is to find that place, find your space, find your home and connect with it as often as you can, in any way that you can.
First in a potential series, delving back into the CKPonderings Archives…
Pretty sure I have not shared these in a blog before, but here are some images from a trip to Kenya over a decade ago, and some of the fauna we came across while ‘on safari’.
While I was preparing this post, I realise it has been ages since I last looked at these images. That’s the downside of photos being stored online nowadays, I guess! There are some I am particularly proud of (ones which, because of that, I have posted before, and so have not included here), but I am happy with all of these. They show not only the beautiful creatures we can encounter in this world, but also their natural habitat.
It’s time to get those cameras ready for this month’s Mass Observation Project on CKPonderingsToo!
The theme for March is Change and you are free to interpret that theme photographically in any way you like.
It’s really simple to take part. If you’re interested, just:
Take a photo that represents the Change to you
Photos should be a maximum of 650 pixels in height and/or width
Email the image to adayinphotographs@outlook.com
Include your name and location and a short note about the photograph
CKPonderingsToo 