Looking Back at Looking Forward

If you know me already, or if you scan through this site, you’ll appreciate my fascination with rain.  As I’ve said before, this goes back a long way – as far back as early childhood, in fact.  Well, just recently I did what I used to back then, just to see if it felt the same: I took something to eat and drink, and sat on a garden chair just under cover from the falling rain, and quietly ate, drank, and thought.  And the question is, did it feel the same?

Well, first of all, the same old curious fascination was definitely there.  As ever, I loved to muse on the way everyday things like roofs and plant-pots, as well as the plants and trees, looked excitingly different just because they were wet.  Once again, I loved to look at droplets and reflections.

But then there was, and always is, something else, much harder to describe: doing this, as I did once again, has the effect of giving isolation and comfort at the same time.  The falling rain emphasises that you are alone, but never lonely.  You are surrounded in solitary beauty.

Let me make a contrast: to walk through a shopping centre on a busy morning, surrounded by hundreds of people who care nothing for you, and shop displays compete to entice you to part with your money in exchange for the latest this and that, that is loneliness.

So, was anything different, and, if so, what?  Well now, here is the point of my title: as a child, I would sit there like that, mostly filling my head with thoughts of what I wanted to do, either that day, or at the week-end, or in the next school holidays,or whenever.  Doing the same thing now (the food, drink, chair, and location will all be different but the concept is the same) I find that I am mostly looking back, remembering and wondering about all kinds of things… Perhaps my two little pictures show us something: you can focus on the surroundings, or on the reflections, but not on both at the same time.

The fascination, though, and that strange, almost paradoxical comfort, is still there – or did I say that before?

This post was prompted by the writing workshop at:

http://www.sleepisfortheweak.org.uk/2011/07/18/writing-workshop-prompts-big-kids/

Now look here:

http://www.sleepisfortheweak.org.uk/2011/07/25/writing-workshop-on-the-top-step/


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The Gallery – Week 67: Vintage

Once again, I nearly passed up on this subject – then I told myself to pull myself together and have a go.  Then I remembered this was in my wardrobe:

It was passed on to me by my father.  Nothing very ‘vintage’ here, I hear you say.  But look…


No, that is not a fake label.  Once upon a time, clothes – ordinary, good, comfortable, well-styled clothes – were made in Britain.  Honest.  this example must be forty years old, or more.  Worn, washed, worn, washed, dozens of times.  Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Find more ‘Gallery’ posts at:
http://stickyfingers1.blogspot.com/2011/07/gallery-vintage.html

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The Gallery: Week 66 – Travel

I nearly passed up on this one because I am not, relatively speaking, all that much of a traveller, at least, not by today’s general standards.  Then I remembered an outing to the RAF museum at Cosford, where I took quite a lot of pictures.  This museum, by the way, is well worth a visit, not only for  the opportunity to study a great wealth of aircraft of all kinds and how they find their place in history, but also for the visual feast of shape and line.  It’s very much about travel, mostly, of course, air travel.  It’s easy to travel to the site – by road, as I did, or by rail.  And while you’re there, you will ‘travel’ back in time…

This shot, I think, fits our theme best.  Anyone interested in aircraft, world war two, or design and shape for its own sake should go and see the rest for themselves.

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At that moment…

This is a short anecdote about something that made my day special.  The day in question – some weeks ago now – became special because of something hilarious (at least, I thought so.)

What happened was this: I was driving around (as part of an ordinary business day) when I had to stop at traffic signals (a common enough occurrence.) I happened to be the first stopped car, that is, I was right at the stop line.

Now, this set of signals served two purposes: it controlled a crossing point for pedestrians and cyclists (several were waiting) and it was also part of a complex system of traffic control for a large roundabout linking trunk roads.  The entire layout was not visible from where I was stopped.  (Note that.)

After a few seconds, the signals allowed the pedestrians and cyclists to cross.  Among them, a very average cyclist on an equally average bike began, slowly, to cross in front of me…

Well, as I said, the entire layout was out of my range of vision; but out of earshot it was not.  Oh, no.  And at exactly the same moment, unseen, a powerful motor-bike roared away.

Picture, if you can, the absurd overall impression – a pedal cycle moving off at a sedate pace, making an ear-splitting roar!  It made me scream with laughter.  And the humour of the situation stayed with me all day.

Watch out (or listen out) for excessively noisy push-bikes…

This post was prompted by the writing workshop at:

http://www.sleepisfortheweak.org.uk/2011/07/04/writing-workshop-prompts-what-today-meant/

Then look here:

http://www.sleepisfortheweak.org.uk/2011/07/11/writing-workshop-what-today-has-meant-by-a-special-guest-contributor/

I linked this post to #chucklemums week 7 on 7 June 2016

Mumzilla
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