Yule like this...

Another year and another Xmas...

Winter Solstice

We are at the furthest distance from the sun

return is now inevitable

Warren Lane

There's a change in the air

I've got to get this done before the tide comes in...

Were the literal words of the man pictured doing this repair work to sea defences on Gorleston beach last week. Last week on a late afternoon repairing storm damage from earlier in the year. It's all a question of time isn't?

Oh what a performance....

Flegg High School Martham last week

Engaging with the landscape

On sunday I walked from Hopton on Sea to Southwold and back. This round journey took fourteen hours to complete. A distance that I would roughly equate to walking to Norwich from the village I live in. The time and the distance themselves alone being secondary to what I wanted to achieve. Which was to actively engage myself with the landscape through experience for narratives. By that I mean rather than blandly just stand there and indiscriminateatly take images try to activly intereact with the landscape itself. A photograph could just be something you take just from the inside of a car or from a building.
This shoreline is very interesting in the way it negotiates its existance with the all pervasive sea. Pictured above is a dead tree still standng at South Cove on the way to Southwold. In the distance you could make out the spire of St Edmunds and Southwold pier. Even Sizewell nuclear power station was visible from here.

Must start to use a tent to achieve greater distances. But travel light and life becomes easier. I was using just a two megapixel Kodak camera and my Pentax P30T film SLR. On this day there was very little cloud until walking back on this sunny summers day. This journey needs to be repeated for the reasons of what was missed, to be continued, a change of weather and the time of day.

In passing (part 2)

Democracy is a joke...

Atleast I had the chance to vote Green in the european elections...as for the local elections what a sham...just a choice of three non entities who don't represent anything that I stand for...I had hoped that the sploit ballot papers might have got through...but alas...

Sorry for the late news...

In passing (part 1)

Week before last I showed three films at the Club Uniquity at Someleyton. Sitting at the back watching the people I am reminded why I like making films. Good to meet Jason Parr who I will also be making a film with in the near future. Also a sculptor he was playing some music and performing one of his poems. He also like me plays more than one talent for creativity. I met more poeple I hadn't seen for ages. It's good to get out there and press the flesh.

In Reflection...

Self Portrait in a discarded television Lowestoft

The path forward

Clear evidence of the ever tangible erosion of the East Anglian coastline. Only recently my footsteps contributed to this groove in the grass on the cliffs. The newer footpath being used is seen on the right of the picture. Till that falls into the sea as well in due course. As will the village of Corton which can be seen in the distance. Consulting the cpies I have of the first ordinance survey map of 1883 there was more houses which have fallen into the sea. Infact from that map you can clearly see how much even in that short space of time what has been given to the sea.

Beltaine 2009

Watching the sunrise on Beltaine

Good time was had by all around the fire

as we watched it

rise from the darkness...

#blognor09 All for a quid

All for a pound

#blognor09 Project our thoughts onto it

Beneath

In shade

Underneath

Out of sight

#blognor09 Capricorn

cool façade

internal processes

complex

mathematics

#blognor09 One of a thousand Bus stops

Three separate narratives converge at a point of time and space.
Is this a start, a continuation or an ending?

#blognor09 Warren Lane

Whilst walking down Warren lane
it appears to be snowing
or so it seems...
A blizzard of white
drifts towards me overhead..

Every New Dawn Fades

Today is Earth Day a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment.

Still waters run deep.

New growth in the garden. But this New Zealand Flax in my front garden appears to be a silent witness to what is happing all around. Silent save only for the gentle breeze that moves through its leaves.

It's all words

Caught this image whilst working on a new spoken word film. Which is a collaboration between myself and Andrew Smazogz and Fiona Hall. We've worked before but this time it is just the three of us together. Can't say when it's finished but when it is it will be something special.
Everything is words... whether as images, sound or thought or should that be the other way around... ? The benefits of working with other people can't stressed enough. It's like having multiplying yourself to get something better

Beccles the slight return....

Did a walk and return from mine to Beccles along the Angles way again. Starting from midday the weather was good and I really had broke my boots in before hand. Perfect to try this if I could walk back as well. Also trying some shots with my film camera that I had noticed from the previous attempt. More oportunities made themselves availiable as I became aware of what I had missed previously. Arriving at Becles at around 5.30 I was successful in that I could return home. Only making a short stay for what is possibly one of the few chip shps to open in East Anglia. Eating my chips in the seated area just outside the Caxton Arms I am thinking if I should return in the direction I have come from. Yes I do and in the enveloping darkness as the sun setts it is quite well lit by the moon light. After several stops to eat and water I made my way home. So twelve hours later since I had started reaching it at Midnight via a slightly differring route along the cliff tops over looking the North Sea.

With this distance I have covered Norwich is attainable and realistic.

So anything is possible...

Aprils Fool

These boots will get me somewhere.

...from Norwich

...and even perhaps from London

....if I am that inclined

...from somewhere

...to something thing

...Everything I do

...is about footsteps along the way.

About Type face

I'm three today

My blog is three years old today. This has been one of those projects that I've really enjoyed doing. It's an ongoing work to document myself and what I find interesting and how I interpret it through work. It is about doing rather than copying what has been done before and that is the point of this. I can't stress that highly enough. There are other places and times for that on the internet. Here I try to endevor to have "made the effort" in creating or expending energy. Both physical or temporal endevours. So many thanks to all of those who have visited, made comments, been inspired by, those who have inspired myself or have made comments and shared ideas. Many thanks from this part of the global village.

So that leads us to the question....

Answers?

Who likes school anyway?

Found this plaque in Norwich today.
It brought a smile to my face.

Comparing maps

I've been using a combination of the first Ordinace survey map of 1883 and Google Earth to see what is recognisable from the past into todays landscape. Some parts seem to register quite well using a combination of key points such as the field system which in places is recognisible. There fore keying in the map as a whole to what you can decipher from it. This makes landscape images interesting. Something in which I want to explore more in my photgraphy to give it more meaning and less cliche. Rather than just the shapes or tones but what the actual landscape is. Therefore how we interact with it and shape ourselves through this.

The Ley Hunters Manual

From the blurb on the back cover:

The sacred places and settlements throughout the British Isles are founded on an esoteric pattern of 'leys' - a system of accurately aligned monuments, stretching far across the landscape and laid down by the astronomer priests of prehistoric times.

Alfred Watkins, a Herefordshire business man, magistrate and photographer, discovered the ley system (and coined the word 'ley') in 1921. This manual, first published in 1927, is still indispensable for anyone interested in the sacred sites of Britain. As John Mitchell writes in his introduction: 'Behind the chaotic spread of modern buildings and development the ley hunter discerns faint traces of a far older pattern in the landscape, a linear pattern which integrates the traditional landmarks and spots of sanctity with the natural features of the countryside... For those who are inclined to accept Watkin's invitation to test the leyline thesis for themselves, this manual provides the perfect guide and companion.'

Blockage

A small blockage of a public footpath. It may not seem alot but it's the thought that has gone into this. Impassable from the otherside and I seriously ripped my trousers whilst trying to get over this on the barbed wire fence. Joking aside the spoke person from Suffolk County Council said do not directly speak to the farmer and would send someone to have a look at this.

The Angles Way

Walked to Beccles along the banks of the Waveney on the Angles Way. From mine I timed it as being around four and half hours to do this. In the grand scheme of walking this is no great distance.
But allows greater distances to be built up. Let me encourage the thoughts of how the area of Lothingland was connected to the rest of the landscape. It left me thinking of people through the ages who had traveled along this way and of their stories.

Found

In stark contrast to the previous post

Lost

The failure of the James Paget Hospital management to spend seven and a half million pounds. So they have to re apply for this money if they are to be successful to spend it. Is this covering up something else or is it just a self taxing prophecy made real? Either way that's alot of executive sandwiches/carpets/chairs etc if you look on the bright side. Patients I hear you ask I'm sure they count. Last year I had my retinal scan and was pleased with it and the reading material...a good selection of Natinal Geographics that somebody donated to the reading room.
Politics and art do meet how ever intangible. What seems separate does infact link. So what would you spend on seven and half million pounds in the context of health care?

First Light Movies

Attended a presentation about funding about film making projects for young people at the Arts Picturehouse in Cambridge on Wednesday. This was given by www.firstlightmovies.com

Have a banana

Break a record by joining people all over the world eating a Fairtrade banana between noon on Friday 6th March and noon Saturday 7th March. Register online at www.fairtrade.org.uk

Footpaths of Lothingland

To keep them alive you have to use them. There was someone elses footprints in the soil. So I could tell someone had used this before the field was last ploughed. Use it or lose it as the saying goes.

Discovering Suffolk

This book is dated from 1961 before the boundary changes that happened in 1974. Which explains why there is a picture of Burgh Castle on the cover. Which is now in present day Norfolk.

When a Male goes wrong....

My boots! My boots! My kingdom for some new boots!!

When the mail goes wrong part 2

r














Too late for a Valentines I have received this today

I did a degree once

University

Seems such a long long long time away

When the mail goes wrong part 1

This arrived in the post today.
I think it's a trick question.
I haven't opened it.
Does raise some questions.

Attacked by water from both sides.

The amount of water running off these cliffs causes the slippage that runs onto the beach.
Yes attack by water from both sides.

Now you see it... now you don't...

The disappearing nudist beach at Corton. Owing to the erosion of the beach this will be changed to ordinary beach. In the previous image there was a far greater amount of sand over twenty years ago.

Sea defences from long ago.

On the right a procession of yesteryears sea defences at Corton.

Hopton sea

The sand has gone somewhere

Hopton in the sea?

Erosion worries caused by the outer harbour at Great Yarmouth in the village I live in. The ever changing coastline is just that ever changing. In a hundred years from now where I am typing this will be on the edge of a cliff or will have fallen into the see. So prehaps time and effort would be better spent using the sea rather than fighting it? So lets see those houses on stilts and people living on boats. You never know it may just catch on.

The 1974 boundary of thought.

The Norfolk - Suffolk border crossing at Herringfleet

Footsteps

Yesterday I was walking
from Hopton,
to Blundeston,
to Somerleyton,
to Herringfleet,
to St Olaves,
to Fritton,
to Belton,
to Bradwell,
to Gorleston
then back to Hopton.

More useless tat that nobody wants

Doesn't represent anything about me

Handy Cam...

Halina 150

Halina 150
Originally uploaded by -{The Broken Camera}-

Picked this Halina 150 compact up from Freecycle.

The Compact Disc is dead. Long live music.

All for one pound sixty pence. A free newspaper with an album for £1.60
Sigur Ros compilation album with The Independent.

My Kingdom for a 32 bit horse....

In the long term I'm going to need to start using Linux again. I've just been reading about the new worm infecting computers running Windows called variously Conficker, Kido or Downadup. Read the article it's very easy to spread and from using other peoples machines via copying files on pen drives. So apart from practising "Safe Hex" the only thing is I need a Linux compatible modem most are windows surprise surprise and a new scanner for exactly the same reason. The Apple option is no longer available to me and a new computer is laughably out of the question. I've run a version of Linux called Suse and was impressed with it. It was very familiar if you've used windows before. Application wise OpenOffice and GIMP handle the writing and photediting applications. I'm using Firefox which is a Mozilla browser which also comes in a Linux flavour. So if I don't want to use the net or scan anything I'm alright. Oh and video there are some applications some of which you have to pay for. So Windows isn't straight in the bin just yet.

Much like banks, software and computer hardware companies have you by the short and curlies.....

BBC Complaints [T2009012800CWS060]‏

From complaintresponse@bbc.co.uk

Thank you for your e-mail.

We note your disappointment at our decision not to broadcast
an appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee to raise funds for Gaza.

We decided not to broadcast the DEC's public appeal
because we wished to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence
in the BBC's impartiality in the context of covering a continuing news story
where issues of responsibility for civilian suffering and distress are intrinsic
to the story and remain highly contentious. We also could not be confident that
the aid resulting from audience donations could reach those it was intended for
at a time of a fragile ceasefire and sporadic border access.
We will of course continue to report the humanitarian story in Gaza.

The BBC's director-general Mark Thompson has therefore explained
the decision in more detail in a number of television and radio broadcasts
and online at our Editors' blog.
Please follow the link to read his explanation in full:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2009/01/bbc_and_the_gaza_appeal.html

Please be assured that we have registered your comments on our audience log.
This is the internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily
for all programme makers and commissioning executives within the BBC,
and also their senior management.  It ensures that your points, and
all other comments we receive, are circulated and considered across the BBC.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Regards

BBC Complaints

Funding approved for regeneration

in this weeks Gt Yarmouth Mecury news paper is the news of the successful funding of an area of the town As part of this scheme that is most interesting is the renovation of St Georges Theatre in the scheme. It will be transformed into a flexiable arts centre and communty hub. This will be completed by April of 2011.

Closer look at the town

St Georges theatre in the top left hand corner of this section of the mural.

Two sides of the town

The mural depicts two sides of the town. The town itself (which is on the right) and the countryside and broads that surround the town (which is on the left). A community project led by Mike Skipper. There's some pictures of this mural earlier in my blog I posted a couple of years before.

A mural revisted.

I paid a visit on the way back to the Color4all mural in Great Yarmouth to see the state it's in. This is situated in a subway in the town. The mural is in two halves of the corridor. there is another corridor that has been painted over but there has been no attempt at another mural. The work that color4all have done is slowly becoming covered in graffiti, dirt and cobwebs. I took some more pictures with the Pentax for some better quality images.

Walking back from Caister

Walking back from Caister. I live a few miles outside Lowestoft. Interestingly Beccles is only a 12 miles from Gorleston.