If Only

I wonder how many times we say - or think - those words. When I cast my mind back to the day when I climbed up the steep spiral of the narrow steps, in Christ Church tower; I still think to myself - If only I had taken a series of pictures that I could have 'sewn' with JASC Aftershot. What a sweep pic that would have made. If only I could climb them again to take a genuine sweep shot with my Sony SLT A7. That needless to say at 91 years old would be more or less impossible. My original JPG's had been lost when I suffered a hard drive failure. However Jane had the pictures safe and sound. I have just done scanning them and it certainly brought back memories.

Elevated views of Clevedon could only be taken from Dial Hill Road or the top of Hangstone Quarry, Until one day when delivering for the butcher's in Hill Road I noticed activity going on at Christ Church. After seeing one of the workmen at the tower top I realised that an opportunity had opened up for a view untrammelled by tree branches. I parked the van and asked the foreman if it would be possible for me to climb up there to take pix.

I was told "Yes but it will be your own risk and only during the dinner-time break." It was a steep climb that had me puffing even though I was only in my late 70's. 

IT WAS WELL WORTH IT.

I managed to get pictures from all sides of the tower-top. If only I had taken more than a 24 exposure film, if only I had been able to carry another zoom lens. However the pix I did manage to take show aspects of Clevedon that I doubt have been seen before.

Comments on this blog will be appreciated. Have you had any 'If only's' in your life?

The oddness of the human race.

Isn't it peculiar that when we are small we wait impatiently for the time when we are regarded as old enough to progress to long trousers.

Yet when we are grown up and secure in our long trousered suits and jeans we can hardly wait to get into a pair of shorts.

WHY? This idiosyncrasy has puzzled me for the last few years.

The long and short of it.

I'd bet that if that youngster had been asked to wear a pair of short trousers he would have been most indignant. Yet the grown up person with him was happy enough to don a pair and doff his long'uns.

The ways of humankind become more puzzling the older I get.

Comments invited and welcomed to this blog post..

Crosswords

For the last few years I have been writing crosswords. I am determined to keep my brain awake and not go off to senility as my sister did when she was in her 90s.

Realised today that if I scan them I can post them as pictures. Hard to do if they are just a Microsoft Word file.

 If anyone is interested all they need to do is to click on it and it will come up larger. Copy it and print it, If you have no editor that you use save the JPG and then make a new word-file and insert it. You can then print it out on an A4 page. Failing that Email me at derek.lilly@btinternet.com 

I can send a word file as an attachment.

I have around 400 crosswords that I have written and saved to my hard drive.

Checked with Morguefile

This morning I found that three of my steam train pictures have passed the 1,000 downloads mark.

Morguefile is a website that has members posting pictures for use Royalty Free by the public for such things as websites, church magazines, and many other uses free of charge. The only thing NOT permitted is to use them as free standing pictures for sale. Although the moderators are constantly on the lookout for that type of use, there are always a few folk that try it on.
I have had at least six of my pictures used as book covers. 

Oliver Cromwell at Yatton

King Edward at Hewish level crossing

King Edward and Nunney Castle at Mud Lane

Checked my total downloads at the same time and found I have now had over 430,000.

 I wonder how long it will take to get to the half million?

Found at last

A Gentle Mist

A gentle mist rises 

from the pond I sit near
birthing a rainbow in the cool sun's light.

A water hen fusses her way
through the rushes at the verge:
crying with a raucous call, to her young ones
as they scatter across, the stretch of water.
Small fish break the surface, as they hunt down
midges newly hatched: to make a breakfast.
Here and there a swirl, as a pike, in turn
skims his meal, from the little fish.
I sit unseen, as a heron, lands upon the further bank
and stands, like a preacher, in his pulpit; looking down
not at a congregation, but for frogs or eels.
It is the start of a summer day.

inspired by the three lines of Michael O'Donnell's 'Gentle Morning'  Ben Grader 2001.

Michael O'Donnell was a young American poet who contributed to the original Poets Quill website. His work showed great promise. Unfortunately when Poets Quill ceased to be I don't know what site he moved to, and lost touch.

When I finally started to organise my JPG lostfiles renaming and sorting them into categories, I found at last the picture that I knew that I had, had.  I thought it lost completely  and it was very suitable for the introduction of his 3 lines that stimulated my work back in 2001.

Culverting the Middle Yeo (Lilly's River)

Just done posting 18 pix of the Middle yeo on Everything Clevedon

Now I wont be seeing my pix of it from Flickr  being posted and being put over with no credit.

They cut the water flow and allowed the river bed to become weed filled. Then used that as an excuse to culvert it because it was not doing its job.