I took this picture of a mustard field on my regular commute to London. There was a long cycle lane along this field. It crossed many fields and went on for miles and miles.
I dreamt that one day I would take my daughter and go cycling there. Then a month later I fell ill and suspected that I might have had a mild heart attack. I ended up in the hospital across the field and there I dreamt of being able to go back on my regular train journey and be alive to maintain the livelihood of my family. Fortunately it was a false alarm but it did dawn on me that you can’t always leave things to future. A few month later I did take my daughter on that cycle trip. It meant a lot to me but my teenage daughter was rather indifferent about the whole experience. Perhaps when she reaches my age she would look back and then the trip would mean something to her. Come what may, it has been wonderful to be alive and cycle on that lane.
Cuba; how La Habana stole my heart
I'm not going to go over the details of how we got to Cuba because I see them as irrelevant to the bigger picture of the circumstances that came to be. It would also be unpatriotic to reveal the ease of purchasing a ticket with cash money from any one of the dozens of travel agencies throughout Cancun, all selling discrete backdoor entrances into the infamous Pearl of the South.
When I was away from home I would sometimes go for long walks.
I liked the effect of evening lights and the shadows.
This is from a book of old photos of Tehran.
Stairway to heaven
Many years ago I came across this book which showed how to make sculptures from cut and folded paper.
I then made this paper sculpture.
I recently found it in the cupboard and decided to photograph it. So there it is, another novelty from my past!
Bird sellers of Tehran ( century old)
This is from the book of old Tehran with some pictures going back to 1871.
Call it a boyish obsession but I just love conkers. They are beautifully formed and their skin has a sort of texture that the likes of Rothko would have been proud of.
I’ve put about 50 of these seeds in water with an idea of a little sculpture that uses roots and plants. The water has tuned soapy and I found out that conkers were used in the olden days for that very purpose i.e. to get a kind of soap that could clean linen.
And now for something cheerful. I have a new job and I’ve given up consulting. Working for a local company with a change in career, I will not be doing my long journeys. On the plus side I’ll have more time at home and doing my Art work, but on the downside I will be taking less Travel photos like this one from a train.
