[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 16 February 2023].
arseways round
The portrait of Mouri above I took while cat-sitting her and her father, Dugla, nicely sums up 2022.
It wasn’t a bad year as such.
It was just a bit befuddling, stressful and a constant balancing act.
I experienced worse and more frequent panic attacks earlier in the year due to health issues. I’m hoping the trigger has just turned out to be a new food intolerance (the jury’s still out). But I became near-agoraphobic for a period.
In addition, I got a bite guard and discovered I was both vitamin D deficient and B12 anaemic again 15 years later.
With some time, stern self-talk, medical tests and procedures, I seem to have brought the psychological impact of the potential food intolerance under control. But I need to confirm my suspicions before things return to “normal” (though, even then, the likely culprit is so widespread that “normal” is definitely subjective).
My year started well with temporary work beginning in mid-January. It allowed me to get back on my feet financially after a couple of years of sporadic work and the lingering psychological impact from previous jobs.
And the job offer came despite my being open about my experience photographing roadkill. I shared that in the context of the organisation focussing on haematology as I would potentially have to interact with graphic and disturbing imagery.
Almost a year on, my managers and co-workers are some of the best people I’ve worked with.
They’re inclusive. They understand work-life balance. There’s zero bullying and no alpha male egos to contend with. Bliss.
At this stage, I expect to continue to work with them for a few more months at least, but we’ll see what lies ahead.
Despite the positive start to 2022, the year was bookended by death. And there was also the loss of a beautiful kitteh I stayed with in October.
Anthony left us unexpectedly in January, and a friend’s mother passed in November. So I attended my second-ever virtual funeral toward the beginning and my first-ever in-person funeral toward the end of the year.
Though the degree to which I knew each was quite different, both were meaningful losses.
On the positive side, this year I:
Had my hair cut and coloured for the first time since early October 2019.
Attended my first live gig since the pandemic started.
Visited four art exhibitions.
Read a book cover-to-cover in one evening (okay, technically, it was a short story, but it’s the most I’ve read in book form since 2021…)
Resumed my language studies (late in the year, this is recent).
Continued my letter-writing (albeit just one this year…)
Took some new self-portraits.
Continued to share curated series from my sepulchre work and travel photographs, and I swapped fungi for flowers.
Created the odd digital collage.
Dabbled in AI art.
Engaged with at least 40 people on dating apps (though at least five turned out to be douches) and went on dates with 10 of those I chatted with (who were mostly not those who turned out to be douches).
This year, I found something of a second home in Bromley, cat-sitting Lily, Sammy and Poppy most months of the year.
The current Primark was originally Medhursts department store, where David Bowie used to buy vinyl. And I popped by to look at a couple of the houses he lived in as a lad.
Earlier in the year, while cat-sitting, I revisited the Imperial Arms in Chislehurst and wandered through
Elmstead Wood and
I didn’t travel as far afield as I’d hoped, but I did manage to venture out of London to visit
Leeds Castle and
in Cotton End, just outside of Bedford, and an overnight stay in Bedford a few months later.
And days out in London included revisiting
Regent’s Park with my new co-workers and visiting
the Sky Garden for the first time with friends old and new.
It was a quiet year on the cemetery front.
I revisited Abney Park Cemetery on a first date.
I visited Grove Park Cemetery for the first time.
And dropped in to see William Blake and John Bunyan in Bunhill Fields for the third time.
Stopping to chit-chat with the resident squirrels.
Sitting Lottie (and her loss) led to a renewed friendship with Sarah and a wander along the New River (not new, not a river) from Hornsey to Bowes Park.
Hopefully, in 2023, we’ll continue that walk north from Bowes Park.
It was an absolute pleasure sitting with Lottie earlier this year despite her being poorly.
I love this portrait I took of her because it’s so uncharacteristic of such a sweet-natured kitteh. Obviously, she was yawning - not threatening to decapitate me - at the time. Though it may seem otherwise.
Alongside my new friendship with Lottie and recurring stays with Lily, Sammy and Poppy, and Meg and Mog, I added
Mia (including her cat-sitting me with her cat-mother, Sophie, post-medical procedure),
Dugla,
Mouri and
Bentley to my close feline friends this year.
In 2022, I spent 63 nights with smooshable kittehs and visited kittehs locally 13 times.
I had 10 furry clients. Five of them were new clients.
I’m hoping my mojo will be fully restored in 2023. So I can enjoy kitteh-sits, doggo-sits, and photo walks further afield. And continue to hang out with my faves closer to home.
And on the creative side, I look forward to creating and sharing:
Themed chapbooks (including photographs, writing, collages, sketches, musical compositions and curated playlists).
Collaborations.
Possibly some AI art (but likely incorporated into other work).
More instalments of existing series, including my love letters to london.
New series I’m yet to discover.
I hope your 2022 went as smoothly as possible and that 2023 will bring you lots of good things. xx
two heads are better than one
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 20 December 2022].
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
table cape lighthouse
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 31 May 2022].
A series of photographs I took of Table Cape Lighthouse during my visit to Tasmania in March 2018.
parish church of st cuthbert
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 10 March 2022].
brontë parsonage
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 18 January 2022].
new lighthouse [dungeness]
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 28 December 2021].
five crosses inn
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 1 December 2021].
jazz at 11 (accidental portrait of the artist’s parents)
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 8 September 2021].
hotel ^^^^
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 24 August 2021].
untitled #79
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 14 August 2021].
first we take manhattan...
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 16 June 2021].
So, a mere ten days ago, I wrote about feeling like my heart had been torn out of my chest. It turns out he didn't get it all the first time, and today I learned that the hard way.
Yesterday was hard. I was tender and tired and anxious but simultaneously hopeful and cautiously optimistic.
Clearly, I had no idea what today would bring.
I thought the worst would be less time between drinks. I didn't know last drinks had already been called while I was away powdering my nose.
And today, all the fight has gone out of me.
I didn't get to post a photograph from my travels before I had to take some time out last night, so I'm sharing these 35mm film photos of Tacheles in Berlin that I took in 2000 tonight.
Memories from 20 years ago that might have been revisited with another. But apparently, that's not to be.
Tacheles, as it was in 2000, feels like such an appropriate metaphor for how I feel right now: half-demolished, half-derelict, yet full of art and creativity, and somehow still standing despite everything. Somehow. It also had a beer garden.
I scanned these today from glossy black and white prints with the Photomyne app on my iPhone. For me, it's no substitute for scanning negatives with a proper flatbed scanner. While it may be worthwhile for some, I think I'll save my money to put toward an actual negative and photo scanner so I can share my older work with you from time to time.
Also, after a long week or so of sunshine and warm weather, today is closing with rain as it was ten days ago. I believe a thunderstorm is coming our way.
The rain and The Cure are intermingling to alternately calm me and punctuate my sorrow.
untitled #174
[I originally posted this image as early access for my Patreon patrons on 26 May 2021].
glistening waters
[I originally posted this image as early access for my Patreon patrons on 4 May 2021].
rear window (you can see hollywood from here)
[I originally posted this image as early access for my Patreon patrons on 23 March 2021].
st bernard's well
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 11 February 2021].
I'm a couple of days late on sharing a travel photo for this week but I came across this lovely lady in my archive and edited her to share with you this evening.
I took this on a wander with friends through Dean Village in Edinburgh all the way back in August 2011.
Set atop St Bernard's Well on the banks of the Water of Leith, Hygieia holds her bowls, allowing a snake to drink from one.
Inscribed on the pump inside are the words 'Bibendo Valeris', meaning 'drink and you will be well'.
I'll drink to that!