Time flies

Time flies when you’re having fun. It’s six months since I climbed Kilimanjaro. I was reminded by one of my friends from the trek, and also by a tweet announcing that they’d changed the sign at the top.

All the while I was researching the trek, and during my training, the pictures I saw of Uhuru Point had a dilapidated old sign announcing the summit. But it had been changed to a more modern green one well before I set off. The photo of me in front of it shows its age, with stickers and graffiti partially obscuring the words that tell you where you are (as if you needed reminding after the ordeal you’ve gone through to get there).

Now I understand that the tattered green sign has been replaced by a nice new brown one. I guess I’ll have to go back and have my photo taken by it again!

 

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When they come, don’t fight

It sounds like a quote from Ghandi or a Buddhist monk but I can’t find an owner anywhere. It struck me as quite powerful when I saw it daubed on the side of a warehouse in a run down industrial site north of Swansea Docks. It’s the sort of thing that appears on the walls of some oppressed city. It should mean something. It’s almost the opposite of Dylan Thomas’s ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’. I wonder who wrote it and why? It’s certainly stuck with me since I got home, and I feel I should do something with it but I don’t know what. So for now it’s the title for this blog entry.

I set out first thing this morning to walk the part of the Tennant canal I’d missed while they were replacing electricity pylons earlier this year. It seemed like a nice quite stroll, no hills, a good path. Nothing too testing for the last day of my holiday.  The sun was shining, there was no breeze to disturb the water and as I walked, a quartet of ducks swam alongside me in the canal. The only people I met for the 90 minutes I was out were two dog walkers and a guy collecting blackberries. He had a carrier bag full and as we chatted I noticed he’d tied a knot in the bottom of it. He explained that there was a hole in the bag and he was hoping the knot wouldn’t give way under the weight of his harvest. Clearly a one bag household, which is good for the environment.

Where the tow path turned into a road, I decided to stop. A quick look around to determine where I was revealed the graffiti and after taking a couple of photos to remind me of the context, I headed back along the path again. I passed the blackberry man with his knotty bag and much further on, the four ducks. Only now they were flying past me in formation and at low level.

The weather forecast predicted heavy rain for today so I wanted to make the most of the sun while it was out. I headed off to Mumbles and enjoyed a coffee overlooking the lighthouse. I could live this life all the time – I don’t need to work!

And I wish they’d written ‘When they come, do not fight’. The contraction spoils it a bit for me.

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Graffiti

I went for a short walk along the Neath canal this morning. The weather was crisp and clear and there was a frost on the ground. I love mornings like this and this morning I had the tow path to myself.

I was trying out the infra red camera again. I had nothing particularly in mind. I’d stopped off briefly in Singleton Park but the batteries had run out before I could take too many photos, and instead fo returning after getting new batteries, I headed elsewhere.

I walked past Neath Abbey and down the road system, with bridges and flyovers. There was a lot of geometry going on but I was more taken with the graffiti. It wasn’t particularly colourful, but some of it was skilful and clever. I often wonder what goes through the minds of those who create this form of art. I know some of it is tagging but some of what i saw today was more humorous. Whether that was intentioanl or not I don’t know and don’t care.

The images below are intended as a record of the work of others that some might not get to see. My only artistic input is in what I choose to include, and how I choose to record it.

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