the river stort

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 20 March 2025].}

Last summer, I spent three weeks in Bishop's Stortford, sitting two cheeky puppers, Dudley and Betsy.

On the last Bank Holiday of the year, I popped out for a walk with my camera along the River Stort in the canalised section that runs through the town, known as the Stort Navigation.

I have a series of photos to edit and share with you from that day, but this one looks back along part of where I'd walked.

I'll be back in the town for ten nights next month, sitting those cheeky puppers again.

angelic youth

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

memorial to heroes of the marine engine room

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 5 May 2024].}

I let the team down.

This monument and some flowers attached to a railing near the Isle of Man ferry terminal were the closest I came to photographing a grave while visiting Liverpool last week.

Nostalgia was heavily represented: tributes in various forms to The Beatles, Billy Fury and others. And my memories of Pier Head swirling around my head.

But my time in the city was too short to allow time to seek out a cemetery.

There may have been graves in the Our Lady and St Nicholas Church Garden, but I only paused briefly to capture the church before moving on.

And even when I photographed this monument, I had forgotten seeing it on the map.

Google Maps records it as the Titanic Memorial. Wikipedia tells me that was the original intent of the monument. However, it took on a broader recognition of the heroes of the marine engine room after World War I.

From Wikipedia: The memorial was intended originally to commemorate all 32 engineers who died in the sinking of Titanic on 15 April 1912. Liverpool was the Titanic port of registry, as well as the home of the ship's owner, White Star Line. Construction was funded by international public subscription.

Spaces were left on the monument to record the names of other engineers. However, due to the heavy loss of life throughout World War I, its dedication was broadened to include all maritime engine room fatalities incurred during the performance of duty. Shrapnel damage from bombs that fell during the Second World War can be clearly seen on the monument.

The shrapnel damage mentioned is apparent in the photo I took. However, I was so conscious of time (and the weight of my luggage on my shoulders) that I didn't stop to inspect the monument more closely and take more photos. I only looked up this information after editing. I realised I should have spent more time capturing it.

radio city 96.7

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 2 May 2024].}

I visited Liverpool from Sunday to Tuesday to support an event for my day job on Sunday and Monday.

I took advantage of my day off in lieu earned through that to stay an extra day in the city to see more of it.

The one time I visited the city for an extended period was on New Year's Eve 1999 for Cream 2000.

However, my time there during that visit was predominantly spent in a tent designed to accommodate 26,000 ravers, where the focus was music, dancing and welcoming in the new millennium, not the city itself.

I wrote a short piece about that visit on my Instagram earlier in the week when I posted a photo of Pier Head I took with my phone camera on Tuesday during my two-ish hour photo walk.

I snuck a short photowalk in on Sunday evening en route to get supplies from a supermarket. But, both that walk and the one on Tuesday predominantly focused on the waterfront area, with my walk on Tuesday extending into Matthew Street (where The Cavern Club is) and up to Lime Street, from where I caught the train back to London.

Unfortunately, due to the weight of my rucksack, I didn't manage to revisit places I'd passed that caught my eye en route to my accommodation on Sunday with my D700.

I could have left my bag behind reception in my accommodation after checkout and returned for it. But the hotel was about a 23-minute walk from the station, so it would have involved me walking there and back to retrieve it on top of my photo walk when my intended route took me close to the station anyway.

Liverpool is, understandably, littered with tributes to the Fab Four, The Beatles. And, while I have some photos from my visit that relate to them that I'm pleased with and will share in future, I wanted to avoid the Liverpool cliches for my first post of one of my D700 photos from the city.

So, instead, here's a music-related photograph of St Johns Beacon, the former revolving restaurant that became the home of Radio City 96.7 in July 2000.

Radio City's stations rebranded to Hits Radio on my birthday this year. Unfortunately, they've announced they'll rebrand the tower with their new logo, which I don't think will work as well on a structure of that era, so I'm glad I captured it when I did.

I hope to arrange to sit Sir Peter and his peacock friends in Delamere again for a longer stretch. If I can, I'll take advantage of the proximity to pop over to Liverpool again for a day or two or three to explore more of the city with my camera and to visit Tate Liverpool, the Open Eye Gallery, the various museums along the waterfront and more.

past his bedtime

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 22 April 2024].}

One of the first graves I came across in the Glasgow Necropolis was that of poet William Miller, who "appears to have popularised a pre-existing nursery rhyme, [Wee Willie Winkie,] adding additional verses to make up a five stanza poem" and publishing the same in 1841.

I didn't know there was a monument to him there, and to be honest, I couldn't have named him, though I grew up learning at least the poem's first stanza. The monument stood out because of the detailed profile of him.

He died destitute, and his remains are interred in an unmarked grave in Tollcross Cemetery.

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william miller [glasgow necropolis, glasgow, scotland, 2024]

Though I've read enough Irvine Welsh novels to understand a reasonable amount, I don't know enough Scots to understand Miller's original without the paraphrased version in English alongside it.

Despite that, I love reading it, and I share the complete poem below, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Wee Willie Winkie rins through the toon,
Up stairs an' doon stairs in his nicht-gown,
Tirlin' at the window, crying at the lock,
"Are the weans in their bed, for it's now ten o'clock?"

"Hey, Willie Winkie, are ye comin' ben?
The cat's singin grey thrums to the sleepin hen,
The dog's speldert on the floor and disna gie a cheep,
But here's a waukrife laddie, that wunna fa' asleep."

Onything but sleep, you rogue, glow'ring like the moon,
Rattlin' in an airn jug wi' an airn spoon,
Rumblin', tumblin' roon about, crawin' like a cock,
Skirlin like a kenna-what, waukenin' sleepin' fock.

"Hey Willie Winkie, the wean's in a creel,
Wamblin' aff a bodie's knee like a verra eel,
Ruggin' at the cat's lug and raveling a' her thrums-
Hey Willie Winkie – see there he comes."

Wearit is the mither that has a stoorie wean,
A wee, stumpie, stousie, that canna rin his lane,
That has a battle aye wi' sleep afore he'll close an e'e-
But a kiss frae aff his rosy lips gies strength anew to me.

great orme cemetery

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 15 April 2024].}

With all the to-ing and fro-ing between my trips to Llandudno, Delamere and Glasgow (and pet-sittings in between), I got ahead of myself by posting a photograph of St Peter's Church in Delamere last Sunday when I should have rounded out the week with a #SepulchralSunday entry for Llandudno first.

No harm done, though.

Here's one of my photographs of the Great Orme Cemetery Chapel. The cemetery sits just outside the churchyard walls of St Tudno's Church, down the hill from the summit.

butchery

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 29 November 2023].}

When travelling, my camera is probably pointed equally at the sublime and the mundane. Whatever catches my eye.

In this case, a former butchery in West Ulverstone, Tasmania, caught my eye as Victoria drove me from our delicious brunch at Hey Buddy to West Ulverstone beach for a wander (albeit relatively brief as the weather turned wet and windy soon after).

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untitled #28 [west ulverstone, tasmania, australia, 2023]

We'd only driven about 160m when the shopfront caught my eye, and I asked Victoria to stop so I could take some photos.

I can't explain why I was drawn to it. Maybe it was the eggshell blue tiles. Maybe it was the faded signage. Maybe a combination of the two.

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west ulverstone butchery logo

I don't recall if I registered the logo design fully in the moment, but that is definitely a reason I should have been drawn to it. I've included a crop of the detail of the logo (albeit not the best quality at that size) to explain why it was 100% worth stopping, in my opinion.

ely

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 12 October 2023].}

I have so many photographs I took during a road trip with my parents in 2017 that I haven't yet had a chance to edit.

I'm trying to fix that (not to mention trying to work through editing all the other photographs I have from other holidays or day trips with them over the years).

It was Mum's last international trip. Her dementia was evident during that visit and even more jarring for me as I hadn't seen her in person since our road trip through Belgium in 2014.

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untitled #33 [ely, cambridgeshire, england, united kingdom, 2017]

uplifting angels

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

helmsley

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 16 February 2023].}

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untitled #123 [helmsley, north yorkshire, england, united kingdom, 2012]

there will be comedy (loading only)

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

I took this photograph of the Futurist Theatre in February 2012 while visiting Scarborough with an ex-partner, Kyle, using The Old Chapel in Baldersdale as our base.

I finally edited this photo a couple of weeks ago and looked up which road it was on in Scarborough. That was when I discovered the theatre closed in January 2014 and was demolished in August 2018.

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(Photo courtesy Google Streetview)

I have to admit I gasped in shock, horror and sadness.

The place seemed somewhat comical when I photographed it.

Most British seaside towns - especially their esplanades (even if called something else) - elicit a strange combination of amusement (especially if there's a 'Pleasure Beach'), nostalgia, curiosity, wonderment and sadness for me. Maybe there's a longer piece to be written about that.

But, given its history (both iconic and terrible), it seemed shocking to have been knocked down.

And from what I can tell, the site hasn't been developed further since (which is possibly even sadder).

For a time, the Futurist Theatre had the ignominious heritage of being owned by the Black and White Minstrel Show's producer. They staged the show there many times.

But The Beatles also performed there during their Beatlemania period in 1963 and 1964.

Aside from the architecture, history, irony and nostalgia, I photographed the theatre because The Muppets was showing.

Man or Muppet became our shared earworm during that holiday. It played regularly on the northern radio stations we listened to in the rental car during our time in the region.

Despite its cheesiness, there's a snippet of the film's dialogue in the video clip for the song that got me every time. It still does.

this road floods each tide

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 30 September 2022].}

It's been a while (like, over a year) since I created and shared a new digital collage for my lost in her own world series.

So here's one I created this evening using a photograph I took in Bosham a little over a year ago.

#FridayFeels

It's also been over a year since I wrote an instalment of my postcards from another's life series. But I've had some ideas gestating the past couple of days inspired by a couple of podcasts I listened to earlier in the week. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to write those soon.

I hope you have good things planned for the weekend x

leeds castle

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

Leeds Castle in Kent. Taken in May this year during a visit with friends.

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untitled #12 [leeds castle, maidstone, kent, england, 2022]

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untitled #13 [leeds castle, maidstone, kent, england, 2022]

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untitled #37 [leeds castle, maidstone, kent, england, 2022]

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untitled #18 [leeds castle, maidstone, kent, england, 2022]

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untitled #34 [leeds castle, maidstone, kent, england, 2022]

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untitled #17 [leeds castle, maidstone, kent, england, 2022]

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untitled #20 [leeds castle, maidstone, kent, england, 2022]

priory country park

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 18 August 2022].}

In 2018, on a drizzly November day, I met my friend, Khanisa, for a walk and a late pub lunch in Bedford.

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untitled #60 [priory country park, bedford, bedfordshire, england, 2018]

We wandered along the River Great Ouse out to Priory Country Park and back, despite the rain.

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untitled #62 [priory country park, bedford, bedfordshire, england, 2018]

I didn't manage to get out and about as much as I'd have liked while cat-sitting in Cotton End last week, though I did attempt something of a photo walk one day.

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untitled #57 [priory country park, bedford, bedfordshire, england, 2018]

And I did catch up with Khanisa for an afternoon for a long overdue face-to-face chat.

So, I thought I'd edit and share some photos from our walk that day in 2018.

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untitled #58 [priory country park, bedford, bedfordshire, england, 2018]

untitled #9

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 10 May 2022].}

Tonight was the calm, creative and productive evening I had hoped to have last night.

Something I desperately needed after an unexpectedly stressful and emotional 24+ hours. 

Tonight was an evening spent editing photos, sharing work here with you and listening to my illuminations playlist followed by Dubstar's latest album, Two.

For much of the evening, I've enjoyed the company of a brimstone moth who you can see on my Instagram, chilling on my desk. S/he's nestled in a crook of the hutch on my desk as I type this.

I guess if I don't have cat-sitting therapy this month, then at least I have the calming company of a pretty moth. Though initially, s/he had the 'zoomies' around my monitor :P

wisteria sinensis

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 7 May 2022].}

bosham ices

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 16 February 2022].}

untitled #79

^{[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 14 August 2021].}

054 corner house

Day fifty-four of The 100 Day Project for 2021.

Despite this being a 20-minute sketch, it was possibly one of the most hastily executed for the project so far.

After sketching over 50 of my photos - both those specifically shot to sketch and others from my archive - finding the next one often takes as much or more time than drawing it.

There are plenty of my photos I want to attempt to draw. But how much time I have to draw each day generally dictates what I take on. Often more macro/abstract elements can take as much, if not more, time than photos of a wide vista.

Yesterday it took me almost 30 minutes to find a suitable photo. That meant I started sketching about three minutes before I was due to have a Skype call with my friend Erin. Despite allowing myself about 45 minutes after finishing some client work. My sketch delayed us starting our chat until almost 30 minutes after our planned timing.

Obviously, I didn't like being late to the call but, given we can talk a lot when we do have a chance to Skype (we clocked up about three hours last night!), I didn't want the sketch hanging over me while we chatted, putting a time limit on our catch-up.

Thankfully, Erin understood. And it was a good thing I completed my sketch before we spoke, as we didn't finish up until almost 23:45. Allowing for the image search would have meant I missed a day of my project, officially, if I'd sketched post-chat.

And then, as I was closing off this post, my Dad became free for a "short chat", which turned into an almost 1.75-hour chat. So my sharing of yesterday's sketch has come even later. No regrets, though, as it's always good to natter with Dad.

My sketch of a tall thin building on a curved road in Cambridge from my travels with my parents in 2017 (my Mum's final overseas trip) was executed initially with a 4H pencil. I then hastily drew over the darker elements and shaded them with an HB pencil. I then went over the outlines of the lighter areas with the 4H more heavily.

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