surface

*P.S. Addendum at the end*

This Thursday Theme - Surface - immediately said to me "water" and it was only later that I began to think about all the other things it might mean. Which is possibly rather odd, its certainly quite specific and maybe Freud would have had something to say about it.

Odd or not, its probably related to my numerous photos of water - something I could photograph almost endlessly.

I saw an exhibition in London last year of work by Roni Horn, an artist from Iceland. Among my favourite pieces was a series of large photos of the Thames, annotated with witty, whimsical, serious, fascinating, historical, personal comments - some relating to the history of the river and happened or might have happened on or below its surface, some of them about the nature of water. Like this - the water photos will enlarge if you click on them, though unfortunately you can't read the comments. Unless your eyesight is seriously better than 20/20. And theres a bit more about the series here.

Her work really connected with the fascination water has for me - the way its surface reacts to the light reflecting or absorbing it, the way it reveals and conceals what is beneath the surface, the way it looks so solid and weighty and so light and evanescent.


So, um, I think maybe this has ended up being more about water than about surfaces but hey ho, I don't mind if you don't mind.

And here are some water surfaces







































So, lets hope the Thursday Theme isn't "Water" any time soon....



P.S.
Addendum
After all your very nice comments about my photos, I'll be making some greeting cards with prints of these and they will be available for sale soon on made4aid - all proceeds for the next month or so are going to relief work in Haiti.

cosy

This is how we found Logan at the weekend, he'd managed to tuck himself in on my favourite armchair.

And doesn't the green in my cardi match his eyes?

Sepia

I love the idea of Sepia Saturday, not only because I love sepia photographs, and cos its a help to a slightly lazy and/or frequently uninspired blogger like me but also because it coincides with a current project of mine.

My parents made scrap books for the family some years ago - at least 2 scrapbooks for each family (3 of us siblings) - one for the parents, one for the children. So many old family photos, with added notes, memories, annotation - they are so precious.

This Christmas as I've visited family, I've temporarily borrowed these scrap books in order to scan in the photos and create a digital archive.

This project grew out of this remembrance post about my grandad. I could see in my mind's eye, as I wrote the post, a couple of particular photographs which I knew existed somewhere in the family - I just didn't know who had them. And so I resolved to search them out and acquire my own digital copies.

During the last couple of days of my Christmas holidays I have spent some enchanted time immersed in these family memories and momentos - glimpses of a past I don't recall but feel connected to by familiar faces and family history, images which transported me back to my childhood - it would be easy to wander and get lost there for quite some time.


So, I shall begin my Sepia Saturdayage with a couple more photos of this much-loved grandad.

I haven't yet found the string-vest photo I remembered, but it was similar to this photo of my grandad - on the right. He'd given up smoking by the time I remember him and suffered from emphesemia and constant chest problems. But was nearly awful cheerful. In the centre is his best friend, my great uncle Tom who I don't remember. He married my nan's sister, and was in the trenches at Ypres with grandad.




This is grandad - in the white coat to the left - in the workroom with the other craftsmen shoe-makers. I still have some leather offcuts that came from him.



And here relaxing in his beloved garden in North East London. I loved staying with nan and grandad in this little house.



I have such vivid memories of grandad like this - wiry and wrinkly and always brown from being in the garden where you can see the coal bunker to the back right of the picture, and onions from the vegetable patch drying in a hammock under the window...

polka dots

I had thought I wouldn't be playing this Theme Thursday. "Polka dots" gave me no ideas at all and a quick scan through my photo archives didn't help.

And then, as I changed from cycling gear into backfromworkslobbingaround gear, this caught my eye:

(a new wash bag I was given at Christmas)

and looking down, I saw the socks I'd just taken off.

(the other socks just visible here were also spotty [I'm wearing 2 {minimum} of most clothing items in these chilly days] but in a less polka-dotty way)

And so I thought again, and took my camera for a walk around the house.

Not expecting vast quantities of spotty things, and I mysteriously can't find a special red and white polka dot plate which my mother gave me.

How does a plate go missing in the comfort of one's own home? the losing of teaspoons, socks, tickets, toothbrushes, pens and remote controls I can understand of course, indeed it is almost expected, and the frequency with which I mislay my glasses is getting entirely beyond a joke. But I'm flummoxed about the plate and having to restrain myself from re-searching in all the places I've already looked.

However I did find this in the study:

fave new umbrella

this in the bathroom:

from my shell-collecting youth

and this in the spare room. It may not be exactly polka dots but I do feel that any opportunity to include daleks has to be acted on.


temporarily relocated due to Christmas "things", will soon be back on terminating duty in the lounge...


In the lounge is my current notebook for knitting and weaving projects

(theres a surprising amount of maths to keep track of when weaving)

and this spotty S which is my daughters:

who also claimed to be wearing spotty underwear....


I admit that some of these picures had to be re-shot after dusting.
My "housework is overrated" mantra seems to be working nicely.


And finally, amongst the decorations waiting to be put away are a couple of red and white polka dot baubles.



More spottiness altogether than I would have expected to find.

There is something in particular that I find appealing about red and white polka dots. I do hope the plate turns up from the other dimension where it is hiding.

Maybe it will arrive bearing red and white polka dot cup cakes?

points of light

honesty seed pods in my garden

I've never made New Year resolutions.
January 1st has never had all that much significance for me really.

However - I find myself thinking much more, lately, about turning points, milestones etc. Maybe awareness of distance travelled makes one more sensitive to sign posts and measurements along the way?

Which is probably just another way of saying that getting older makes one more aware of getting older....
pffft.

And looking back on a decade which has been rather dark for me and mine, my key resolutions for the future reflect some of the points of light from the darkest of those years and days.




And they are all to do with relationships - family, friendship, love - and the beauty of life and taking the time to live it.

So these are the things I look forward to as the next decade begins. I have high hopes.



my street in South London


Happy New Year to all of you, and may 2010 be filled with multiple points of light, even - especially - in the everyday and in the dark.

Interim

Late winter sun in Buckinghamshire


Well I have good intentions about blogging more regularly in the New Year, and thought I'd better get a post up now before I totally forget how to go about it....

I'm feeling relaxed almost to the point of blankness.

Catching up on sleep and rest, catching up with lovely family, catching up on a weaving project which has been going on for too many years, catching up with latest new Doctor Who Christmas special (regeneration into a new doctor approaches fast, tis very exciting), catching up with my camera.

Thinking about catching up with tidying and housework (but only marginally), thinking about going to see Avatar, thinking about the fact that I'm almost entirely successfully not thinking about work, thinking about knitting.

And thinking about you. I might even catch up with your blogs too before long.
If my state of relaxation doesn't lapse into complete torpor.

HOLIDAYS

Happy holidays to all you lovely bloggers!


xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

its a topic of conversation...

We do have snow in London - I was surprised news of this had reached the USA. I guess its not just we Brits who are so interested in our weather...


Charlton, South London

Our snow clearly can not compare, however, with the vast heapy quilts of whiteness which some of you on the East coast there across the Atlantic have been endowed with.

Unusually, for London, our snow - just a couple of inches or so - is just sitting there, sparkling and crunchy. Not melting or being drizzled on, or turning slushy. Its been gleaming in the sunshine for 2 or 3 days now like a crust of sugary icing and we have a week of freezing temperatures and bright sunshine forecast.


Greenwich Park & Canary Wharf


I hope to be out and about with my sadly neglected camera.

Inside the house, Logan is intrigued by the crackling fire. He loves radiators with all his little furry heart, and is surprisingly tolerant of tinsel.

History

This post has a history.

It started out being a post about graffiti ...

... which got me thinking about walls and the way they are marked by their history...

and so the post evolved in a way which is linked with my own history.

My photography habit started to become serious with walls quite a few years ago.
Yes indeed, walls.

I took dozens of photos of walls for a design board on a textiles and design course I was doing. I was much laughed at by my family and attracted some comment from passers-by but fortunately LG was too young then to be as scandalously embarrassed by my behaviour as she would now be.
And anyway, she was firmly fastened into a push-chair at the time so could do little but watch, bemused, as I scrutinised and photographed interesting bits of wall.

Here are some of the photos, scanned:



Most of these are from the walls around Charlton House, which is Jacobean - C17th.
These walls have really been marked by their history.

As my interest in photography has progressed, I've found myself taking photos of all sorts of walls, the most interesting being those bearing signs of their histories.

Histories of previous attachments






Histories of habitation still inscribed, faded and peeling, merging with the repetition of the brickwork...











histories of more recent markings and erasure



and of course graffiti. And among my favourite graffiti are those scrawls on walls which hint at a history all their own




you have to remember Ray





This last picture was around the back of the Astoria, a favourite venue in London, now demolished - consigned to history.




a Theme Thursday post

not so wordless weekend

Brighton, art installation by Niaomh Looney

I was going to post this photo as a wordless weekend post - I love this.
But then I saw Steve's post on desire over at Shadows and Light.

Which made me think. And add some words.

I do have great desire, my desire is great - but also, Steve's quote resonates, the ideal of "few desires" has a powerful pull, I'd like to aspire to that.

So am I oxymoronic?

Maybe theres a distinction between desire and desires? In the sense that my great desire is not for objects or even for specific pre-defined targets, but for experience - for living life to the full and for the wonder of the world, for love and friendship most especially and for beauty.

Though that does translate into particular desires.... the desire, especially to travel.

And its important for me to be able to state these desires, having recently (and thankfully) begun to grow out of a view of the world dominated too much by duty and an out-of-kilter work ethic.

And I guess thats another part of the distinction - balance; in my case balancing duty and desire and seeking out unattained desires but not "extensively" as Steve's quote says. Or at the very least, not at the expense of other people or other values. Including duty.

So does my desire translate into "seeking to gain a lot"? does it bring with it more afflictions?

Well, I guess that partly depends on openness. Everything is experience, and the wonder of the world, love friendship and beauty are everywhere if we are open to watch and listen and feel.

Extensively seeking out desires could certainly get in the way of that.

I'd like to travel worldwide.

I hope to visit the States again before too long.

I would LOVE to visit people I love in Australia, I have a nice little itinerary mapped out in my head and frequently contemplate strategies which could help it to happen ...

I have a good friend who knows India well and has offered to take me on a tour some time.

M has a friend in Japan who has offered hospitality...

These are desires. Pretty substantial ones actually. And I would regret it if none of them are fulfilled. But I don't think it would be a regret strong enough to afflict me.

I accept that these trips might well never happen and if they don't, it will be at least partly because I am doing other things, experiencing life and wonder and love and friendship in other ways and places. So long as I'm not too wrapped up in duty to recognise it and to live it.


So, am I oxymoronic?
I'm really not sure. This is more thinking than I'd planned to do today.


See, Steve, how may words your post provoked?

Snow

Ah, I wish it were true - oh that we had snow.

Tis not so.



Its not a regular occurrence in my bit of England and it still causes quite a bit of excitement...
Traffic delays.
Days off school.
Falling on bums.
Wet gloves on radiators.



Slushy snail-greyish sludge is what we Londoners expect from time to time - its something else to moan about as we trudge, sleet in our faces, past the scarcely-moving traffic, to and from work in the mid-morning late-afternoon constant winter twilight.

Proper thick crunchy sparkling blanketing soft soft snow - now thats a different matter entirely. That particular translucent eerie quality of light which - filtering through the curtains - declares snowfall, that still evokes a childlike anticipation and delight in me and mine.




I guess rarity increases value.



It happened last February and I posted about it then so do go look if you want to here and here.


And for this winter - we'll just keep hoping....

re-thinking busy-ness

I recently did a course on personal / life coaching.

I'm now working on myself.

Instead of telling myself "I'm too busy" I'm experimenting with saying "I have a full and interesting life. I'm involved in a lot of activities which are enjoyable or important or useful".

It takes a bit longer though which is not an advantage when one is too busy.


Instead of saying "I have too much to do" I try to say "I can prioritise and choose what to do next".

still longer tho.....
(but I did finally make the time to upgrade to new blogger!)


And instead of saying "I must do some housework this weekend" I am saying "I'll sit and read a book".

Which is shorter, so maybe I will succeed.



Here are some other good short phrases which I am practising:

• that can wait
  
• housework is overrated
• ...and relax.
  
• they don't pay me for this
• I deserve it
• life is too short
• stop and breathe

friend

- what a perfect Theme Thursday topic for bloggers





but I'll try to keep this brief cos I could go on and on ....

I started blogging in February 2006, to my surprise, as a way to keep in touch with a best friend who'd moved out of London...

and blogging kept me well in touch with another good friend who'd moved out of England...

and, to my surprise, I developed new friendships with people here in south London
and the south of England
and with people in France
and Australia...

and these friends (as well as more local non-blogging friends) helped me to survive an awful few years when my life seemed to be falling apart

and the circle has grown and grown and I have friends around the world - I've met quite a few blog-friends face to face now but not as many as I'd like to. I've experienced great kindness and hospitality from blogging friends.


and finally a blog-friend inspired made4aid. We found each other when my mother and her brother were both dying of cancer and blogging was one source of comfort and strength and tears. Joyce continues to be an inspiration with her almost-daily bags - if you've not visited her bags4darfur blog please please take a look at her unique, wonderful bags raising money for relief work in Darfur. And buy!

And now I am making new friends again through made4aid - and some of them are giving some of their beautiful work to be sold for Darfur





Please take a look - lots of lovely hand-made things for sale. Yes, shameless promotion. No apologies.

I wish I could show my mother what we are trying to do with made4aid and I know she would love the way the web leads to friendship and leads to love and love leads to action for those in kinds of need beyond the experience or understanding of most of us...

Thanks so much to those of you who've supported made4aid (which is now just 6 months old) - and especially if you've bought, donated an item, linked on your blog or even done a blog post about m4a.


touch 4 love