Hope Photography

Change...

I wish I could say I woke up this morning with the sun but it's been raining since last night. It feels like I have been awake since the black turned to grey. The beauty of having a house  with more bedrooms than people means you can sleep somewhere else if you wish, which is what I did last night. There is comfort sometimes in the unfamiliar.

A year ago today I moved from East Sussex back home to Yorkshire. Some of my belongings are still in boxes, which is excatly what I went to find at 7 am this morning. I remember my father put them in the outbuildings and so of course they were dusty and damp. I have boxes of books that I don't have room for on my booksehlf, boxes of photographs I no longer dare display, and personal things that only mean anything to me. A painting of two horses, a gift from a young girl who for two years was my destination. I remember sitting next to her while we painted it, I remember her peachy smell, the paint on her hands, the look of concentration on her face. There is a compass in a box, which is ironic as today I feel like a person who has no compass. A large grey paper weight with my initial on it. A wooden carving of an angel. All things which remind me of times past, and of a love that was cowardly. I fingered each item and let the memories fall on me like the rain outside.

An hour or so later I re-wrapped everything in bubble wrap to protect it. Except the wooden angel.

There is some comfort in going full circle and there is some comfort in change. The great thing about change is that it can be so constant you don't even feel the difference until there is one, it can be so slow that you don't know that it's better or worse until it is. Or it can just blow you away and make you something different in an instant.

''The heart is the only broken instrument that still works''           -T.E Kalem

Gorgeous...

Have you ever seen a 1 year old so cute?!

Passion and Poppy's

I have found myself waiting on trains a lot this week, sitting in my car waiting for the red flashing lights to turn green. I thought today (while waiting on a train) about passions, and how very lucky I am to have so many. Sometimes when the days feel hard or we feel badly done by, it's a struggle, but necessary to see the good things. And for me, that is my passions. I am so very grateful that I have things that make me happy, that I even know what makes me happy. 

The sun shone at times today and I finally got to take some photographs of poppy's.

Quote of the day

'Sometimes when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated'  -Lamartine

Poppies and dreams...

This time of year reminds me of my Grandma, who's favourite flowers are poppies. I have been waiting on the weather as I have found a field that is full of them and I am eager to take some photographs and send them to her.  Today though, the wind is blowing what feels like a gale and the clouds keep throwing down rain. Here's hoping on tomorrow.

I have spent the past hour re-visiting my photographs of Alaska from last summer. I blame my now melancholy mood on that! Alaska remains one of my favourite places in the world and looking over pictures of views that feel as familiar to me as the view from my window make me literally ache to return. I would sit most evenings and watch the fishermen fishing for their supper. They lined the beaches with their families, lit fires and made the most of the fact that darkness never descends in the summer.

I fell in love with a house while I was there, or rather an abandoned wooden cabin. I remember looking at it's boarded up windows and letting my mind dream of what they would look like with glass in them. I looked out over the lake and imagined it frozen in the winter, the lights from surrounding houses dancing like fireflys.  As I sit here typing this post playing with the cord of my jumper and listening to a song about downfalls, I can't help but dream of cashing in my air miles.

Look at this picture and join me in a dream. (click on it to see it bigger)

A beautiful quote I stumbled across recently.

'Love that is not madness is not love' -Pedro Calderon

Miss Potter

I have come to the Lake District for some much needed 'time out'. I am staying at Yew Tree Farm, the house where Miss Potter was filmed. It's very beautiful and my room is fit for a Queen.

I just needed some space to remind myself of the things I love.... reading, writing, running and taking photographs. I have views which go for miles, and I cant help but feel they match my mood right now. I have no boundaries or limits. Click on the image to see bigger and I am sure you will agree it is truly beautiful.

Today I went for a walk and looked out over the Cedar trees and watched the swans on the lake and the way the evening sun catches the brim of the leaves and thought about how we so rarely measure success in happiness.  Sometimes I wish things were simpler, sometimes I wish the world would stand still long enough so that you can find your new bearings, sometimes I wish it was as straightforward as when you were a child.

Wonderful Life...

Here I go out to sea again

The sunshine fills my hair

And dreams hang in the air

Look at me standing on my own again

Up straight in the sunshine