in sure and certain hope

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 1 December 2024].}

I'm not seeking a resurrection to eternal life, but I'd appreciate the sure and certain hope of a break from major stresses and upheavals, thankyouverymuch.

I offer my sincerest apologies for my radio silence during November.

Ironically, I foresaw November as a month mostly at home where I could catch up on editing, share more work with you and get ahead of editing for my end-of-year wrap-up blog.

Oh, the naivety!

I did spend most of the month at home. However, I was still seeking a new flatmate, even as late as my last viewing on Saturday, 23 November.

I'm sure you know flatmate-seeking - like house or job-hunting - is a full-time job.

Combined with my full-time day job, part-time pet-sitting (although the overnight stays have a full-time feel), and attempts to keep up with my art, I've essentially been doing four full-time jobs, with my art being the most neglected.

It's not through choice. Believe me.

My art - alongside time spent with my (mostly) four-legged clients - keeps me on an even keel. Mentally, emotionally, and sometimes physically.

As some of you may know through our friendship on Facebook or outside the social spheres, I gave notice on my home of 8.5 years on 27 November.

It was a difficult decision for my heart but a no-brainer for my finances. Once I confirmed a plan B for storing my belongings and temporarily housing my being, accepting the decision was somewhat easier.

It doesn't mean I'm happy about it, or I won't miss the place I've called home for the longest of any homes I've had.

But I'm trying to look at the positives and embrace whatever the future holds for me where 'home' is concerned.

I want to find a new home in the same or a nearby postcode. But from mid-December, I'll be somewhat itinerant. (You know, more so than usual). I'll predominantly be based in south London around my scheduled sittings.

House-hunting, like flatmate-hunting, is a full-time job. I'm hopeful that putting that on hold for a while to get things back on track will free me up to focus again on my art, at least over the festive season and New Year period.

In the meantime, this is a photograph I took in St George's churchyard in September on the Isle of Portland in Dorset.

I have many photographs from that trip to share with you. Hopefully soon.

west lane baptist church

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 24 February 2024].}

strapped in

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 23 February 2024].}

so he brought them to the haven where they would be

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 16 February 2024].}

hands clasped

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 9 February 2024].}

It's all in the cuffs.

View fullsize

it’s all in the cuffs

hedd, perffaith hedd

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 29 January 2024].}

mary the beloved

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 21 January 2024].}

Hello, my lovelies.

It's been a while since I wrote you a rambling, diary-like post and for that, I'm sorry. (Though you may not be ;) )

Things have been busy with me, so many times I have time to edit a photo or four, but it's been a while since I've been able to sit down and write creatively or even just to write to give you an update.

The obvious exception is my end-of-year post. And, looking back, it seems it's been about a month since I wrote something more than a cursory caption about what I'm sharing.

I've been at home more the past few months. Post-summer, pet sittings dropped off, which was welcome. As much as I love all the kittehs and doggos I sit, it was nice to be more settled for a time.

While the homes I sit pets in are always like a home away from home (and the pet parents always make me feel welcome in their homes), I still live out of a suitcase, and I don't always have access to my raw photographs for editing and/or an acceptable screen to edit photos on.

I finally had some paid annual leave in November. I intended it to be a staycation*, but I put the word out to a couple of photographer friends and some family, and suddenly, I had three photo walks in my lap, two nights away, and a day trip out of town. My plans for cleaning, decluttering and downsizing went out the window quite quickly. I'm not unhappy about that, but it means those tasks are still on my to-do list as I write this.

Since then, my day-job brain has been addled and exhausted by piecing together functionality created long before I joined the organisation and trying to mesh that with new functionality to ensure what our web agency has created is fit for purpose. It's a challenge (which I usually love) but has often left me feeling like I've pulled that loose thread on an item of clothing, and I wish I hadn't.

The new year has started on a positive note.

There was a day trip to meet a friend in Milton Keynes. A weekend in Bishop's Stortford, reuniting with a former landlady and her family and meeting two sweet doggos I'll sit in summer - a Maltipoo called Dudley and a Cockapoo called Betsy. And (what is now) yesterday, meeting a sweet but flatulent, snorting French bulldog called Francois (naturally), who lives locally and whom I'll be sitting semi-regularly over the coming months.

I'm somewhat wary of speaking out loud about my travel plans for the first quarter of the year, given my previous travel plans fell through for reasons beyond my control.

But I've booked (free(!) first-class return) tickets using the vouchers reissued last January (and a bonus one that snuck into my inbox!), and my manager has signed off my annual leave.

I still need to book my accommodation, which I'm a bit nervous my bank balance will struggle with, but I plan to visit Llandudno in Wales for a week in early to mid-March. Manchester for a long weekend in late March. And Glasgow for four days in early April.

I booked my tickets at the eleventh hour before my vouchers expired. I could only book as far ahead as early April, so it's all a bit hectic over the next few months between my travels, work and pet-sitting, which will start to pick up again from next weekend.

I'm looking forward to returning to north Wales, a bit further along the Avanti West Coast network than Wrexham, where I travelled to and on to Minera in late October 2021 to sit Meg and Mog for Jo and Becky in the old vicarage. I'm hoping to see more of Wales generally in future, especially returning to the south where Mum's family came from and where I haven't visited since Christmas 1991.

It will be my first visit to Edinburgh's "lesser" sister, Glasgow, but I'm looking forward to the Necropolis and exploring the city and its museums, galleries and botanical gardens.

It will be a return to Manchester, where I've visited at least three times. It seemed a sufficiently substantial distance to justify a first-class ticket but a short enough journey for a long weekend (and, as I've been there before if I have to sacrifice one of the trips due to my finances not covering accommodation, I can live with that).

I thought about visiting Liverpool, which I think I've only driven through. But nothing drew me to Tate Liverpool during the dates I was looking at, and I hoped to catch up with a friend while in Manchester (though we'll see if that will still come to pass).

View fullsize

untitled #70 [st mary’s church, minera, wales, 2021]

So, with Wales on my mind and recent fruit and flower photographs captured in Jo and Becky's backyard in their current home in Cotton End, I thought I'd share some more photos from St Mary's Church in Minera in October 2021. I have so many I still need to edit and share, including some more puffball photos to come in a few weeks.

The light after the rain was just delicious and so wonderful for me to experience and capture the graves in the churchyard.

It was a magical Monday morning. If only all my Monday mornings started with such beautiful, inspiring, contemplative and creative visions and experiences. Followed by exploring a new place (or even a familiar place is welcome), some exercise in the fresh air (a mixture of strenuous and gentle), a refreshing pint of cider in a welcoming pub at the end of a productive day, cheese, and cuddles with a kitteh or a doggo.

I'd almost** become a morning person for that shit ;)

So, that's where I'm up to as we close in on the end of January (seriously?! Already?!)

What are you guys looking forward to this year? I'd love you to tell me in the comments x

<sup>* My definition of a staycation is a holiday when you stay at home, doing things locally and maybe doing some DIY or just hanging out and reading books. But it's become recognised as holidaying in your home country instead of abroad.

** I'm not fooling anyone, am I? But I'd probably get my butt out of bed earlier more regularly. Probably.</sup>

fly agaric

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 8 December 2023].}

View fullsize

untitled #56 [london road cemetery, bromley, london, england, 2023]

View fullsize

untitled #57 [london road cemetery, bromley, london, england, 2023]

View fullsize

untitled #54 [london road cemetery, bromley, london, england, 2023]

View fullsize

untitled #51 [london road cemetery, bromley, london, england, 2023]

View fullsize

untitled #55 [london road cemetery, bromley, london, england, 2023]

View fullsize

untitled #50 [london road cemetery, bromley, london, england, 2023]

View fullsize

untitled #52 [london road cemetery, bromley, london, england, 2023]

View fullsize

untitled #58 [london road cemetery, bromley, london, england, 2023]

of red bows and holly

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 7 December 2023].}

View fullsize

untitled #44

uplifting angels

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 10 July 2023].}

crucifixion

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 7 April 2023].}

On a rainy day in late September 2021, I was returning from a few days away in West Sussex with my friend and fellow photographer, Phil.

That day, I was scheduled to return to finish my first cat-sitting with the kittehs I'm currently sitting.

Shiloh is nestled in my lap as I type this, despite my semi-regularly lifting her off my lap to go to the fridge or the bathroom during the past few hours of photo editing. When I do that, she gives me a Marge Simpson-like sound of disapproval.

View fullsize

untitled #148 [st nicholas’ church, arundel, west sussex, england, 2021]

I had an off-peak return ticket to London from Chichester, which meant I could take any train on any permitted route to get back to London within a month of the original booking.

Arundel was on the route back, so we drove there and wandered through the drizzle. Visiting a bookstore. Visiting Arundel Cathedral and the nearby St Nicholas' Church and its churchyard. And having food in a local cafe before Phil dropped me at the station for the next train.

Coincidentally, the train I had planned to be on was cancelled. But I digress.

View fullsize

untitled #150 [st nicholas’ church, arundel, west sussex, england, 2021]

In the churchyard of St Nicholas' Church, we experienced drizzle, rain, the beautiful after-rain sunlight and the saturated hues post-rain brings to stonemasonry, plant life and... well, everything.

View fullsize

untitled #145 [st nicholas’ church, arundel, west sussex, england, 2021]

In the churchyard, we also found this elaborate crucifixion scene.

View fullsize

untitled #152 [st nicholas’ church, arundel, west sussex, england, 2021]

At the time, I presumed it was a monument for someone with a lot of money. Perhaps with a name in the local community.

But, in retrospect, I presume it was installed by the church. Though I can't find anything online to confirm or deny that.

View fullsize

untitled #146 [st nicholas’ church, arundel, west sussex, england, 2021]

Since I took these photos, I've been keen to share them, but I knew I had to share them as a series, not as individual photographs. And, obviously, Easter is a timely point to share them.

View fullsize

untitled #151 [st nicholas’ church, arundel, west sussex, england, 2021]

I didn't capture a long shot showing all the participants in this act of mourning together. But, from the individual photographs and the photographs of Christ and the two women, I'm sure you get a sense of the scene.

View fullsize

untitled #147 [st nicholas’ church, arundel, west sussex, england, 2021]

I presume (with my limited atheist knowledge) the two women closest to Christ are his mother, Mary, and Mary Magdalene. A quick Google search tells me the man is unlikely to have been Christ's father, Joseph.

View fullsize

untitled #149 [st nicholas’ church, arundel, west sussex, england, 2021]

Earlier today, I tried calibrating the monitor I'm working on, but I'm unsure how successful I've been. Hopefully, successful enough that I don't have to redo the edits on these photographs over the coming days.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it.

death in reserve

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 26 March 2023].}

As with many of my friends and lovers, my parents reached a point where they not only accommodated my obsession with visiting and photographing cemeteries, graveyards, churchyards and other final resting places. But they facilitated it.

Sometimes I wonder if it was because they felt they owed me for all the times my brothers and I were left to our own devices in winery car parks in our childhood and teens. While they tasted and purchased wine, muscat and/or port, whether on a day out or on a road trip.

I spent most of those times reading the books I was absorbed by, and I came to enjoy wine in my early 20s. My brothers didn't. Maybe they "owed" my brothers more than me.

View fullsize

untitled #10 [peachester cemetery, crohamhurst, queensland, australia, 2009]

Sometimes, it was because the cemetery was near where they or their relatives lived at some point.

I vaguely remember Mum mentioning that one of her relatives was buried in Peachester Cemetery. Dad confirmed it was one of her cousins.

View fullsize

untitled #11 [peachester cemetery, crohamhurst, queensland, australia, 2009]

Whatever the initial reasoning, my parents seemed to find them interesting the more they lurked in them with me.

And with Crohamhurst Ecological Reserve on its borders, Peachester Cemetery was one of the more scenic cemeteries I've photographed, although the graves were simple.

now he's gone aloft

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 19 February 2023].}

life's a short summer, man a flower

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 1 January 2023].}

The final stanza of Samuel Johnson's poem about Winter (with some tweaks), inscribed on a headstone in Arbroath Abbey that I captured in April 2011.

The original quote reads:

Catch the, O! catch the transient hour,
Improve each moment as it flies;
Life's a short Summer - man a flower,
He dies - alas! how soon he dies!

Though the quote on Wikiquote varies from the above and attributes it to a poem with a different name and only cites the final stanza.

I don't have a copy of the original poem to be 100% sure which is correct, but I'm okay with artistic license on headstones.

of fruits and flowers

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 9 December 2022].}

bedford burials

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 29 November 2022].}

View fullsize

untitled #2 [st paul’s church, bedford, bedfordshire, england, 2018]

View fullsize

untitled #4 [st paul’s church, bedford, bedfordshire, england, 2018]

View fullsize

untitled #5 [st paul’s church, bedford, bedfordshire, england, 2018]

side by side in death

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 6 September 2022].}

bunny

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 22 August 2022].}

amber treasures

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 19 August 2022].}

The last of my Gazania photographs from St Kilda Cemetery from my visit in 2007.

View fullsize

untitled #166 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]

View fullsize

untitled #160 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]

View fullsize

untitled #166 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]

View fullsize

untitled #163 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]

View fullsize

untitled #161 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]

untitled #2

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 4 August 2022].}