PhotoDay - July 15, 2002

click on images for larger version

6 am - Curtis keeps watch

Curtis has been extremely lazy so far this summer and has preferred to spend her time lazing around in the house sitting on her favourite cushion on the kitchen counter. However she's now remembered how much she likes playing in the garden. Here she's alert to the early morning sounds: birds tweeting, insects buzzing.

7 am - All quiet on the western front

A peek out of my bedroom window at the surrounding houses shows nothing stirring, even though it's a Monday morning. I guess it's a little early yet for people to be heading off to work.

8 am - Petit déjeuner

Mmm mmm. Croissants and coffee. Food of the gods. Or at least the closest I can get in the regrettable absence of onion bagels and cream cheese.

9 am - Domestic god

Okay, normally I don't do the hoovering at nine in the morning. Normally I do it at eleven at night or some other anti-social hour. Likewise, the ironing gets done at one in the morning and cleaning the bathroom and kitchen often at three. You may consider that odd, but that's being nocturnal for you.

And because I'm sure you're dying to know, that album cover visible at the bottom is Diamonds And Rust by Joan Baez, from 1975. Marvellous stuff.

10am - Market square

I live in Wallingford, a small and very old market town in south Oxfordshire (though not for much longer if things work out the way I hope they will). It's a lovely little town with a very attractive market square and lots of narrow streets with randomly shaped buildings of the type that you expect to see in typically English places like York or Stratford.

11am - Tranquillity

This is my favourite spot in town: the Castle Gardens, ten minutes' walk from my house. We have an old ruined castle in the centre of town, above the old bridge over the Thames, destroyed by Oliver Cromwell in the 17th Century. Nowadays the ruins have been turned into truly gorgeous public gardens, open during the day from 10am until 5pm (6pm at weekends). It's very quiet, a marvellous place to sit and read, have a pleasant chat or just lie in the sun. The highest point gives a lovely view over the rooftops of the town. You can see more here, here, here, here and here. If and when I move away from here, the Castle Gardens are what I'll most regret leaving behind.

Midday - On the riverbank

Wallingford Bridge was at one time of highly strategic importance because it was the only bridge across the Thames for a great many miles in either direction and at 900 feet in length, it's only 15 feet shorter than the old London Bridge. Here you can only see perhaps a third of it, as much of the rest is on the Crowmarsh Gifford side of the river, providing a long, gentle rise before crossing the water.

1pm - My chariot awaits

Unfortunately today I don't have all day to wander around town in the sun idly snapping photos. I have errands to run; I need paint, pet supplies, toiletries and to return a mobile phone headset that attracts horrible interference. Which means a trip into Reading. Oh joy.

2pm - On the road again

The view a few miles along the A4074 from Wallingford towards Reading. Yes, I know it's not very interesting. Roads aren't, though the route is very pleasant in fact, at least until you reach Reading. Anyway, it was photo-time and I was truckin' along, so....

3pm - The mouse that ate all the pies

That's what Tasha christened a chinchilla one day when we were in the pet shop ogling the fuzzies, and it kind of stuck. I always loved the expression anyway, because it seems to sum up chinchillas well; they're such fuzzy, cuddly creatures, and they do look like big mice. No visit to the pet store for supplies would be complete without drooling over the bunnies, and there was a particularly adorable selection there today.

4pm - Carbuncular water features

My final errand of the day required a visit to B&Q to buy white paint and more ant-nuking spray. I quite like B&Q (though I really, really wish they would change the tagline for their ads because everytime I hear anyone say "you can do it" it's immediately followed in my head by "when you B&Q it", which I find irksome in the extreme). I always find myself looking at the tools trying to reason why I need another Philips-head screwdriver or a bow saw or a hand axe, or some other implement which I am unlikely to need before hell has frozen over.

Today I was idly wandering among the indoor plants when I came upon the water features. Well, they were marvellous. I understand why people like water features, but really, what a butt-ugly selection they had. The first one - why on earth would you want a pseudo-hand pump perpetually half-filling then tipping a pail? Would drive me mad after a short while I think, though I daresay Curtis and Edward might have some fun with it for a few minutes. As for the pyramid - words fail me. Not only is it profoundly ugly, but as the photo shows, it attracts algae very well too. So you don't just get a hideous terracotta thing that looks like a child's impression of the Transamerica Building, but after a while it goes green too. Tremendous!

5pm - Twitch that nose, baby

So I was watching Sabrina, the Teenage Witch when I got in. Shoot me. Does everything I like have to be great art? I was tired, it's hot, and Melissa Joan Hart is very cute indeed. And anyway, I like the show, so yah boo sucks to you.

6pm - Every rose has its thorn

Though in fact this particular bush in my back garden seems to have relatively few thorns. It produces an abundance of really gorgeous yellow blooms in the summer; the first crop have flowered recently and there are clearly many more yet to come.

7pm - I know there's a bike in there somewhere

What a bloody mess my shed is. Well, it could be worse. The boxes are all piled in neatly and the cages are stacked with a semblance of order. Sadly, that doesn't alter the fact that I can't get my bike out without a great deal of effort and profanity. It's also not going to be a laughing matter excavating my paint rollers and trays. Things are not aided by the stupid location at the end of the garden, side on, with the door opening so that it blocks access to the rest of the garden. Marvellous planning, whoever thought of that.

8pm - Close enough for government work

That's a bit more like it. May not look like it to you skeptics, however there's now no bike in there and I've extracted such painting equipment as I'll need for the half-assed job I'm about to do in my bathroom.

9pm - Bridge over troubled water

Which is what this, literally. It's taken from the gates at Benson Lock. All is tranquil this side, but below my feet and the other side there is an almighty roiling as millions of gallon of water seethe through a small space.

At long last I took the bike for a spin, which is how I ended up here. I've been living here nearly 14 months and it's been living in the shed since the day I moved in, May 25, 2001, primarily because there's nowhere else to keep it in this shoebox of a house where it would be within easy reach. The shed is rammed with stuff/boxes/crap (delete as appropriate) and anyway the back gate is jammed shut.

Anyway, I went for an experimental ride, making up the route as I went along. I had a set route I used to take when I lived in Benson which was about four miles, through Ewelme up a very steep hill, down the other side, through RAF Benson back to the village. I was always fairly jelly-legged when I finished, no matter how regularly I did it. Tonight I probably rode two or three times as far but felt great afterwards because it was all pretty much flat, if not particularly level, especially the long stretch along the Thames towpath from Benson Lock back to Wallingford Bridge. But it was still good aerobic exercise which I am in dire need of, as I really need to reduce this gruesome flab I am cultivating with such unwanted success. So I'll be making a habit of that.

And on that note, I am absolutely knackered, so that's it from me today. It's been a lot of fun doing this, purposely carrying a camera around all day. PhotoDay - what a top idea, Patti. Respect is definitely due.