200 Posts on Notyethere. The Road at Sunset.

200, another marker reached. A reworking of a NaPoWriMo poem, and as befits Notyethere travel is the subject. We all take for granted the speed at which we can move from place to place, but sometimes I think we should step outside the speeding vehicle for a moment and take time to walk. There are many journeys, and going from one place to another is just a small part of it. Here’s to the next two hundred posts, enjoy the trip with me.

The road at sunset

The Road at Sunset.

Is the long way home, the way out
disappearance of stretched lines 
that are never joined.  Sunset colours
the end.  Cruise control, the red lights 
of passing cars, speed and changing hues,

just driving.  A journey never to an end.
Watching the sun fall below the horizon, 
a corrupted disc leaving longer shadows.
A future illusion of meeting that never happens
and we realise we were travelling all this time.  

In the end, it is about perspective the vanishing point
	where all roads lead us to the horizon.

The Cheddar Alternative.

Living near the Mendip hills gives ample opportunity to get out into the hills for some days out in the fresh air, and Cheddar Gorge is fairly high on the list of places to visit. Outside the gorge itself, you get away from the crowds and walk the gentle undulations of the Mendip hills. Yet you can find yourself looking down into the gorge from the high cliffs along its length, watching the Rooks, Jackdaws and sometimes a Kestral looking for food in the scrub and grassland surrounding the area. There are a wealth of walks to suit all levels and the landscape is never a disappointment.

Cheddar Gorge

The timing of this trip meant the Wild Garlic was just coming through, not the Bluebells. The woods leading down to Black Rock were covered in the green aromatic leaves of the Garlic. A wonderful smell as you sit to munch a snack on one of the rocks along the track. Spring is always a good time to get into the countryside, to see the changes happening, the world coming awake after the sleeping winter. And this years winter seems to have lasted longer and fallen deeper than most. Everyone has been waiting for spring to kick-start the year.

Wild Garlic

Spring

This was an opportunity to try my new camera, I’ve had my old Fuji Finepix F4/fd for quite a while now, and it has always done everything I asked of it. Surviving trips in rain and sun, up mountains and across the moors. It has however, suffered from dirt on the ccd and this time I decided to change it and look for something different. I wanted more flexibility and control, while keeping the compact size and ease of use. The cost increase of a bridge camera or an SLR is too much for the pictures I want, so the hunt began in the sales at our local shop. I found a Canon Powershot SX230 HS. Lots of knobs and whistles, including things I am sure are of no use whatsoever, so I’ll save another whole post about it for later. I’ve put a selection of the pictures on this post from the new camera, some better than others as I’m still learning all the functions, let me know what you think and what the bird is in the picture below.

Full zoom

Spring Lamb, looking for the cute vote.

Caution!

You can see in the Facebook images that the white balance is off in some pictures, finding the settings takes more time than on my previous camera so I need to get that sorted. The zoom worked well as did the image stabilisation. More pictures and thoughts next time.

Earlier in the week, I had visited the best outdoor shop in the west, Outdoors and Active, Weston-super-Mare. They gave me a cereal bar to try out, a new type for them. Normally I am a traditionalist, I like Mars bars. Chocolate and sugar. Or a chunk of Kendal Mint Cake for a real sugar hit from my youth. I’ve found a new supplier so took the cereal and the mint cake to try.

The new one. Raw Bite, spicy lime.

The Traditional. Kendal Mint Cake, sugar and mint.

I’m not a big fruit eater, so the lime bar was not my thing. The Mint cake does what it should do, lets you have a dose of sugar with no chance of melting or freezing. I’ll stick with the traditional. Or a Mars bar. I like oaty honey cakes but don’t want fruit in them. Maybe there’s another flavour I can try. If I find it I’ll let you know, because healthy organic stuff has to be good for you, right? The oats etc. give a longer term energy fix, while the sugar is fast fix, so both alternatives would be a better way to go. What do you prefer for snacking, nuts, chocolate, bran bars, sweets? Let me know if you have any secret recipes for flapjack bars, natural honey bars, things you like to take for a snack along the way. Thanks to Outdoors and Active for the tester, always good to try out new things. Pay them a visit if you are in Weston-super-Mare, best shop in the West.

Outdoors and Active

Moving on, here are a few more pictures to browse including the fox I found strolling in the fields, both of us up and about before the crowds.

Waterworks Gate.

In The Gorge.

An Early morning fox.

Stone Track.

I really like the footpath leading up into the trees, the bones of the earth showing the lie of the rock underfoot, worn smooth by the footsteps of ages as they climb to work the fields or take in the air and scenery. Every time you head out for a walk there is something new to see, I love the details, small flowers, the workmanship of the gate in the previous photo, the changing landscape as we pass by places we have visited before, perhaps under a different light, less cloud or a lower sun. Each trip is different and worth the walk, each time we find some new corner to explore. I hope you get the chance to do the same soon. Enjoy the spring and coming summer, enjoy the journey.

NaPoWriMo. The End.

It’s over, NaPoWriMo has run its course and I made it to the end, 30 days and 30 poems posted. I’m not sure how I feel at the moment, it’s poetry cafe tonight, we have friends visiting for the next week and I can step back to look at everything I have written, see what I like, salvage what I can, and start moving on with it all.

A nice picture of Cheddar Gorge.

Thanks everyone who has kept visiting, it has made a difference to know someone else was out there looking in. For all the comments, likes etc. much appreciated. I may slow down the posts now, although I have a couple of walks to catch up on, and some pictures to post plus a new camera I have been trying out.

NaPoWriMo, I did it.

NaPoWriMo Day 30. The Final Word.

It’s here, the final word on the final day of NaPoWriMo and I’ve done it. Thirty poems in thirty days, what a trip we’ve had. For my final word I’ve raided my bookcase again for an old writing book, and it’s small dictionary section. I am a collector of old grammar and writing books, I find them fascinating. Even though at times my grammar and punctuation are appalling. It’s an old book as well, leather-bound and in good condition, from about the 1920′s I think, although there is no date inside. Let me know what you think about this kind of writing, I’m trying it out to see how it works, and I wanted to use the last day to say the final word in a poem. I hope you’ve found something you liked as the month has passed, and I’ll get back to replying to you all soon.

The Final Word.

(The Much in Little Series. Vol.1)

Writing Desk Book.

Poem – imaginative composition in verse.
Writer – pensman, scribbler.
Word – See figure, meaning, term.
Form – shape, appearance.
Durable – see continue.
Linger – delay, tarry, dawdle.
Abash – discompose, confound, bewilder.
Efface – blot, erase, expunge.
Leave – see abandon.
The End – object, aim, purpose, conclusion.

NaPoWriMo Day 29. The Pleasures of Hope.

Day 29. The Pleasures Of Hope by Thomas Campbell. A book I picked up in Norwich while on holiday, beautifully leather-bound, coloured frontis plates and pictures separating the sections. Anyway, browsing has given me this little piece, about perspective again. One more day to go now, nearly there, then we can all look back and enjoy the achievement.

The Pleasures of Hope  by Thomas Campbell
(a précis of intent.)

Comparing remote, 
imagined beauty
in the scene.

Why look away to the hills, 
distance only lends
enchantment to the view.

Walk a mile towards such a vision.  Arriving,
look back and see where you have been.
Looking with the same eyes. Wondering
why you left such a place for this remote crag.

And yet still she waits,
love can linger on in the deep.

NaPoWriMo Day 28. An Optimists Map Haiku.

Day 28. A Haiku for Sunday, for my friends who may be on a blustery hill somewhere in the Lake District this weekend, have fun. See you next week.

An Optimists Map Haiku.

A map, well folded,
leads me to believe we can
find our way back home.

NaPoWriMo Day 27. Slanted Light.

Saturday and the sun is shining, mostly. Hope the weekend is going well and the final run in to NaPoWriMo goes well for every one of you out there. One hundred percent for me so far, can I make it to the end, keep watching for the last few episodes of the drama.

Slanted light.

Sunlight enters the room at such an angle
it lights the dust in the air. This is such a quiet place,
only the faint murmur of life outside.
We sit you and I, close. Absorbing the moment as it unfolds,
unreal around us. I wish I could say I did more,
that is not how it happened, I left. And the next time?

It’s to late to say anything now, the opportunity never arose.
You had a cold place to stand and no-one really who knew what to say.
So you think it will pass, with time, with life going on.
It doesn’t though does it, nobody tells you that either.
All that happens is you see the moment, that collection of moments,
recurring without warning, and still no-one can really talk to you.

All time does for you is lend distance to the image of dust in the air
and the muted sounds of everything carrying on as normal outside.