About 5 or 6 years ago I began to realise that my expectations about life were that from about the age of 24 I would be an adult and pretty much know everything I needed to.
Fortunately being an amateur at life living the reality has been far far more interesting.
I’m not sure what I learned at school (apart from survival) but I wasn’t ever told that later in life I would be learning more and more and finding the most outrageous surprises everyday.
I have mentioned on previous pages about starting to understand ‘Art’. As my life blossoms then the feeling inside craves beauty and the expression of this is on these pages and what I call Art. It won’t win me any prizes or make me rich but actually its an expression of something so much more than that. The song to the film below is called Lost in Space by Emmit Fenn.
When I heard it I liked it straight away. If you perhaps think its a bit melancholic then that is not how I feel when I hear it. I feel a great joy. It started life as a very different movie but as I added pictures to it I was astounded because firstly I was the photographer and secondly they are from all around this amazing planet. I’m still not sure how all this has happened but more recently Ive stopped asking ‘Why’ and started saying ‘Thank You”.
PS. I would suggest watching it on something bigger than a phone screen. Use the full screen function button bottom right corner of the film.
The previous movie was pictures and movies taken in the sunshine. This one features pictures from the rain. The birdsong backing is from the dawn chorus on 29th April 2020.
Apparently I have a family armorial. The Wording is Honore Et Amore. ‘Honour and Love’
Summer 2019
Recently there has, for various reasons, been time to reflect. The last year has been a tremendous time of learning for me and I have a rekindled enthusiasm and excitement to learn. I have had the good fortune to catch up with a couple of old friends and to share 30 years of memories makes me marvel at the good fortune I have in my life.
This might explain why for this page I have chosen 2 Gerry Rafferty songs. A singer who put his heart out there for all to see and had the voice of an angel. Driving along Pacific Coast Highway today with the song ‘Over My Head’ on repeat was sublime.
I’d forgotten about this picture but as I sat here waiting for another flight it struck me how what I expected from life’s is so far away from what life is giving.
Thats not meant to sound cryptic but its just that my narrow expectation of how a life, my life should be, some kind of ordered existence is about as far from how my life is and exceeding everything I could have imagined.
Sometimes its extremely difficult to write anything because I wonder if anyone can relate to the world I live in.
Ive often wondered about ‘art’. I know there are things created by people. Paintings, music poetry that affect me because they are an expression of something. Something that can’t be grasped in words. I never thought that I could ever have the opportunity to express my ‘thank you’ but here I am building a sculpture. It has 4 wheels and an engine but its a sculpture all the same.
Yes I know he is not popular currently but oh so relevant.
How this will turn out Im not sure but sometimes I am so moved to write that I am compelled to do so.
I once asked someone wiser than me ‘What can I do in the face of huge world corporate powers or what seems to me to be overwhelming greed and confusion’.
The answer was not what I expected. It was a response filled with immense humour.
Today I heard a quote which sums it up for me.
‘What is an ocean but an infinite number of drops’
I am proud to be a drop in that ocean.
I am sorry to give yet another quote but it’s late. So its funny how someone can tell you something for years and intellectually you understand it. Then the penny drops and it’s like a rush of joy. Im probably mis quoting but it is roughly
‘Learning to learn is a life long experience’.
I am so excited at 65 years of age to be learning.
It’s been a while since Ive posted anything and a picture from Australia in October is probably an odd choice for New Years Eve but as this is my blog and probably no-one else will ever look at it so I think it’s Ok to put what I enjoy in it.
2018 has been the most wonderful year. I’ve had opportunities that most people can only dream about and the final week has been the crowning glory of the year.
It’s unexpected to find that at an age when many think of retiring my thirst for joy and life is overwhelming.
I seem to have started a theme now which I will continue by adding one of my current favourite songs to end 2018Battle
This rather strange image was taken by me in the night sky in California. The event itself created quite a stir.
The explanation is relatively simple. This was the Space X launch at sunset. There is a launch vehicle and an orbital vehicle. This captures the separation of the orbital from the launch vehicle. The third light is the moon and the strange cloud is from the orbital rocket motors.
What have I learned this summer?
Its impossible to move forward without letting go of the past.
What have I learned this summer?
Its impossible to move forward without letting go of the past.
One of my current favourite songs. Paul Carrack singing Satisfy My Soul. Reminds me of sixties soul music.
Florence Welch. When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men’s Eyes (Sonnet 29)
Skylark birdsong
When I first read, or more accurately heard this sonnet my admiration for Shakespeare grew as I could have sworn he knew me when writing this.
Although his language is old English which can take a little understanding the story contained within these few lines is remarkable.
This is my interpretation of which Im sure others will say is incorrect.
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
How I look and see others who all seem to know whats going on but I am on the outside.
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
My pleas to heaven seem to go unanswered and so I consider myself of little worth.
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess’d,
I look at this person or that person and wish I could be more like them, popular, lots of friends.
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Looking at how others are talented and clever but the things they like and do don’t interest me at all.
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
And when I think about all of these things I start to feel low and miserable.
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
But then I realise my good fortune in knowing someone like you and my heart bursts with joy and my spirits rise to the heavens.
For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
When I see and remember your love for me I know I am the richest person in the world and I know I would never exchange what I have for all the wealth of kings.
Below is the complete sonnet without my interpretation and after that is Florence Welch singing the most wonderful interpretation. I really like the way her voice soars as she sings the line ‘Like to the Lark at break of day’.
A Lark or Skylark for those who didn’t know is a small bird, alas becoming rarer in the UK that soars high into the sky singing its delicate song.
I have put a recording of a Skylark at the end of this blog page.
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess’d,
