New beginnings; New ends

My sabbatical draws fast to an end.  And so many exciting, new beginnings!

Our youngest grandson has begun a ketogenic diet in a bid to curb his ongoing epileptic seizures. The success rate is one in two and even if he takes to it he'll be on the diet for a year or two at the least. But as with any journey there is hope in the travelling.

That's not the only new beginning.  On Monday he starts at a special-needs nursery school.  How hard his mother has fought for this and at last he has a place. We accompanied them both to the school yesterday for the Transition Meeting. He sat up in his wheelchair, good as gold, beaming at everyone and studying his reflection in a mirror. What a precious, precious sight!

And one last memory from these past three months. My mother died just before Christmas last year leaving a bundle of confusion and fear, lost years and harsh words buried deep in sharpened darts.  When I was down in London on my photography course I visited St Pancras Old Church. As I ventured inside I came across two elderly members of the congregation polishing up the brass-work and then I smelt it ...

Brasso!  The memories came flooding back, memories of happier times as a very young child before the premature deaths of my sister and my father carried her away to a dark place.  Memories of polishing and freshly-laundered sheets held between mother and me as we folded them together for the linen cupboard.  Memories that are the beginning of an end.

Yours as ever,

electrofried(mr)

London remembered

Dear Sheddists,

if you've followed this peripatetic blog thus far you're probably wondering what all the strange photos from my course in London are about.  Well, puzzle no more ...

Simple as ABC

Our first project is to find letters of the alphabet 'on the street', a turn of words afforded a somewhat liberal interpretation by our tutor.  Mine are culled from the building where the course takes place, a leisurely walk along the Regent's Canal toward Camden and a fleeting visit to the gardens of St Pancras Old Church. It's fascinating to explore the hinterlands of the City and the gardens, in particular, prove especially interesting.

From subsequent research I discover the church is mentioned in Charles Dickens', 'A Tale of Two Cities', reputedly as a supply source for itinerant body-snatchers. Fittingly, it's also the last resting place for the mother of Mary Shelley, author of 'Frankenstein'.  Rumour has it she planned her elopement with the poet Peter Bysshe Shelley whilst in the graveyard tending to her mother's memorial.

Finally, it appears the church gardens also have an illustrious photographic history. They provide the backdrop for artwork used by the Beatles to promote both 'Hey Jude' and 'The White Album'.

Little do I know all this as I set to work capturing a few more letters of the alphabet.  And it's then I chance upon ....

The Hardy Tree

In the mid 1860's a budding author and poet is charged with over-seeing graveyard excavation works to facilitate the construction of the nearby Midland Railway London terminus.  Hundreds of headstones are removed and set out in a neat circle, only to be pierced in repose by Mother Nature. A sapling springs to life in the centre of the circle and the Hardy Tree is born.

He goes on to write, 'Far from the Madding Crowd', 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' and 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles'.  The sapling, meanwhile, puts in an equally impressive shift ... as you can see from the photographs above.

Fresh

Our sophomore project is delivered on the second day of the course when we each receive a sealed brown envelope.  Mine contains the single-word challenge, 'Fresh'.  After much head-scratching I resolve to visit the legendary fish-market of Billingsgate, now relocated to the unpretentious backyard of glittering capitalist Canary Wharf.

I awake at four, and after the briefest of showers set out in search of my chosen subject-matter. The tube-station at Euston Square is all but deserted. It's a short hop to Baker Street and then on to the Jubilee Line for a dawn-break zombie ride to the Wharf.  It too lies silent and brooding in the early morning air.  A five minute walk punctuated by the occasional perfunctory jogger and then I'm there!

The hustle of piscine trade belies its ice-cold surrounds. The stall-holders to a man are friendly and welcoming, beckoning me on to take a series of photographs.  An hour passes in the blink of a shutter and I retire for a much-needed bacon and scallop roll, cooked as I watch, at the fish-market cafe.

Street Life

The remainder of my City photos are no more than quick-grapped snap-shots, dipping into the shallows of a restless metropolis. But what bliss to lose myself in the moment!

Then all too soon ... it's over.

See the photos

Please do take a look at the galleries posted earlier in my blog and see if they make any more sense.  You'll find them below if you scroll down a little further.

best regards,

electrofried(mr)