[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 29 November 2022].
RIP Yasmin Jafferali Riaz.
bedford burials
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
camber sands
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 28 September 2022].
Despite visiting Camber Sands with friends on such a lovely day with perfect weather, albeit a bit windy, I barely took in my surroundings. I only captured a handful of photographs with my dSLR and my iPhone.
And some of those iPhone photos were taken while I sat in the car with my mind elsewhere.
Specifically: on the outcome of the Brexit referendum, which had taken place the previous day.
I'd stayed up into the wee hours keeping an eye on updates but had finally succumbed to sleep before the result was confirmed.
I woke up a couple of hours later and checked the news on my phone. Seeing the headlines, I tossed my phone on the bed in disgust, went to the bathroom, and then returned to a fitful sleep, brought on by my disappointment and disbelief.
My mood hadn't lifted over breakfast. It wasn't helped by our B&B hosts being unashamedly pleased with the outcome. Phil and I both struggled to contain our frustrations out of politeness to our otherwise welcoming hostess.
Even now, my disappointment over the decision for Britain to exit the European Union is still present. It's reinforced every time the current Conservative government takes the Overton Window further and further to the right.
The political situation in the UK, US and Australia had already been heading that way for at least two years. But I feel Brexit was the beginning of an even more accentuated move away from common sense toward the politics of Drumpf and beyond.
And it doesn't seem to be swinging back anytime soon, unfortunately.
full to burstin
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 25 September 2022].
The Grand Burstin hotel in Folkestone.
the queen's head
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 16 September 2022].
jubilee
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.
public footpath
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 23 August 2022].
For those who aren't aware, England, Scotland, and Wales have a system of public footpaths and bridleways collectively recognised as rights of way.
They allow folk to travel across private land without fear of a charge of trespassing. Or threat or reprisal from landowners.
In rural areas, they can make getting from Point A to Point B on foot a much quicker journey than if you had to stick to the footpaths alongside roads. They also make for interesting routes for those of us inclined to photo walks.
The entrance to this public footpath can be found north of Cotton End.
I didn't take it while I was cat-sitting for Jo and Becky this time, but hopefully, if I have the chance to cat-sit Meg and Mog again, I will be able to explore it further.
Or, at least, others not far away which lead to places that seem enticing to my photographic eye.
If you want to see how extensive the right-of-way system is in the UK, check out the Footpath Map.
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.
We wandered along the River Great Ouse out to Priory Country Park and back, despite the rain.
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.
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.
edward-howard howard-gibbon
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 10 July 2022].
The final resting place of a Norroy King of Arms.
death and roses
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 8 July 2022].
saint richard
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 5 July 2022].
As soon as I saw this fellow on the grounds of Chichester Cathedral back in September last year, I was immediately reminded of Nosferatu.
You know, ignoring the fact he was out and about in sunlight bright enough to create lens flare...
But I only read up on him as I edited these photographs, and he's quite an interesting fellow.
Here are some of the tidbits from the Wikipedia entry on Saint Richard of Chichester that caught my eye:
He's often depicted as a bishop with a chalice on its side at his feet because he once dropped the chalice during a Mass and nothing spilled from it. That's my kind of guy: no "alcohol abuse" (i.e. spilling wine)! Okay, okay, so he also doesn't spill "blood", so he's still my kind of guy.
However, he had a statute that the wine should be mixed with water. That could constitute alcohol abuse in some circles.
He also had a statute that practices such as gambling at baptisms and marriages is strictly forbidden. I guess that statute rules out the possibility of a wager on how long the marriage would last or who the baptised's father was.
Another of his statutes was that the clergy were not allowed to wear their hair long or have romantic entanglements. Spoilsport.
He kept his diet simple and rigorously excluded animal flesh; having been a vegetarian since his days at Oxford. He was well ahead of his time. This dude died in 1253.
After dedicating St Edmund's Chapel at Dover, he died aged 56 at the Maison Dieu, Dover at midnight on 3 April 1253, where the Pope had ordered him to preach a crusade. His internal organs were removed and placed in that chapel's altar. That's an odd choice of donation to the collection plate, but sure...
Other items in the entry indicate he was fair and reasonable in some instances:
The townsmen of Lewes violated the right of sanctuary by seizing a criminal in church and lynching him, and Richard made them exhume the body and give it a proper burial in consecrated ground.
But he was still very much of his time:
It was decreed that married clergy should be deprived of their benefices; their concubines were to be denied the privileges of the church during their lives and also after death; they were pronounced incapable of inheriting any property from their husbands, and any such bequests would be donated for the upkeep of the cathedral.
It seems his popularity has continued, with Sussex Day being recognised annually on 16 June since 2007.
between the trees
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 4 July 2022].
old man's beard
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 3 July 2022].
As with Ochna serrulata, this is another sneaky "floral but not floral" tribute.
These are technically the fruits of the shrub, Old man's beard, or Clematis vitalba. But, they grow out of the inflorescence and sepals of the plant to create infructescence.
And they caught the light so beautifully when I photographed them in Chichester last September, so I'm including them in my series.
artichoke
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 10 June 2022].
Once again, I'm reminded of why I love photography.
I love to eat artichoke, but it never occurred to me that's what I had photographed in a garden on Mersea Island until I popped the photo into a plant-identifying app.
It also never occurred to me that the artichoke is a flower. I knew we eat the "hearts". I didn't realise that they bloom and become inedible if left to their own devices.
When I saw them, these flowers reminded me of protea and some brassica species, which I love. I photographed them because they were eye-catching despite not recognising them.
Because I have such a massive backlog of photos to edit, sometimes it takes me years to learn from the photographs I've taken. But that doesn't make the learning any less enjoyable.
out of step
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 7 June 2022].
ballroom blitz
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 18 May 2022].
The ballroom at Bletchley Park.
hedge bindweed
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 13 May 2022].
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