It's been a long time coming but I wouldn't flatter myself enough to think you were hanging on my every word, although a friend did give me a little nudge to stop being such a lazy arse and write something.
As it happens, I have actually been writing prolifically, letters to the paper regarding the local councils. I have worked out that they will print a letter from me every 2 weeks so I now write to them fortnightly. It is all full of grumps and groans that I won't bore you with except to say that they are a bunch of incompetent morons and our local MP, David Lidington is a sycophantic kissass. It never ceases to amaze me how they can all defend the indefensible......'nuff said.
The kids are off this week, so am I. Monday we did our first big photographic trip of the year, Northumberland. First stop was Whitby Abbey. I have to say that it was bloody cold and what a desolate grey place it is, very easy to see why Bram Stoker chose this as the landing point for Dracula. I have a perchance for arches and the arches at Whitby are unrivalled. Classically Gothic, intricate and numerous, I was in awe. The weather was miserable so I didn't even attempt to take a picture of them. Some may say that if you don't try then you will never succeed, my view is that it is a simple matter of respect, such a work of art deserves the best treatment and I wouldn't have given it the best and I knew it, however I did get a good shot of the full Abbey, a little too manipulated for my palate but it was liked at home so my opinion counts for little.
Our next stop was Warkworth Castle. By this time it was freezing and the hour drive, on top of the 4 hours already driven was a little wearing but what a beautiful castle. It was one of the seats of the Percy family and there is a wonderful myth surrounding a knight that mistakenly killed his brother and the woman he loved and gave up all his worldly goods and carved a hermitage in the rock just outside the castle. I managed a distance shot of this castle but the result was not exactly as I wanted so it looks like another visit is due here in the Summer.
We ended the day at Alnwick. The castle was closed as they appear to be filming but a cursory view revealed a splendid, mammoth castle that I would very much like to see properly. It deserves more than a flying visit. I think that in the Summer I may have to visit Northumberland, stay the night and maybe go to Cumbria the next day. You may be realising, by this point that I can't settle, I need to be doing or else time is awasting, life is too short to do nothing.
Today was Somerset, Glastonbury and Nunney Castle. It was raining and grey but a good day all the same. I managed some moody shots of the Tor but I couldn't find the view that I actually went there for but it wouldn't have worked anyway as the Tor was shrouded in smokelike cloud, tendrils of wraithlike mist snaking around the hill, very atmospheric.
My daughter enjoyed the shops in Glastonbury and we even managed to find her a Gluten free nearly full English Breakfast (minus the toast and sausages), so she was very happy.
Nunney Castle is just special, small and extremely pretty, set in a moat in the middle of the village of Nunney. It is so off the beaten track that you will only find it if you are looking for it as it is not a place that is publicised at all, a village shop, a pub, church, a street of houses and this huge edifice, small in Castle terms but breath taking in normal life.
I find that I am driven. It was a bit of a surprise as I assumed that I would become more chilled out and relaxed. I am not particularly ambitious and pretty much know my strengths and weaknesses but it was the realisation that you only live once that slowly sank in once I really understood that it is more than a phrase.
Most of the time we exist in life, we don't really live it like it's a one shot deal, except that that is what it is. We generally live our lives in the belief that there is always tomorrow, like today was a pratise run. It was when it dawned on me that this is it, there is no practise run, that my thoughts and actions have changed. I have to seize my life and the things that I want to do, I have to ensure that my children understand that this is it, it's not a dress rehearsal, this is main event.
Perhaps this is why I cram so much into a day, why I can't spend all day on one thing, why my time has become precious. Perhaps this is all a sign of getting older and everyone goes through it, I have no idea as every birthday is always a first. Maybe the photography is just a recording of my life and the urgency is to makeup the missing years.
I suppose this is something that we all do in some form or another, some write books, others invent clever things and those with the artistic temperament create works of art, memorials to past lives, In this day and age, with the advent of the Internet, we all carve our little epitaphs to ourselves, knowing that in some small way they will always be there and one day, someone may rediscover you.
Let me leave you with this thought. No matter how great or small our talents, we have a better chance of immortality than Shakespeare had.
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