Accessibility

I had a hospital appointment today to see a Specialist Clinical Physiotherapist. She specialises in back problems and is helping me to strengthen my back, torso and legs with a regime of exercises. On the whole my pain is reducing, though I wish that I had met her 12 years ago when the damage occurred. "If wishes were horses then beggars would ride" so best not go there! In the meantime I work hard at the exercises to prevent things getting worse and hopefully reduce my pain. As I left the Hospital it occurred to me that "accessibility" is the key to so much in life. I wondered about the access to the Hospital too.............

Sunday

I seem to have spent the day asleep, though I did go shopping and post some photos on PBase, so I must have been awake for a couple of hours!  The weather is awful, the ground is saturated and the rain shows no signs of abating.The people living at Bondleigh Bridge watch the river and must know the tide tables by heart. The concrete channels laid down the side of the lane in places have acted as wonderful traps for fallen leaves, which then stop the water reaching the drains. The lane now looks like a mini canal and requires careful negotiation........

Had a long day yesterday an early start, a long road trip and then a few miles walked round the Motorbike Show at The National Exhibition Center in Birmingham. It was interesting to see all the new bikes and equipment available. Also to people watch! As with most hobbies, when you get together with like-minded people the barriers drop  a little. The hardest looking  biker becomes your friend when he knows that you have a bike in your garage, which makes me think about impressions..........

Still Friday

Puts me in mind of a Beatles song.

Friday

So.... it's Friday. This means a different sort of photograph to be taken. Through the rest of the week I wander around, visiting villages, churches, a seaside town. Or maybe stay in the garden  - lots of scope there for pictures and when the weather is truly bad then the house has a wealth of features of interest. Not to mention the lifetime collections of "stuff" all ripe to be placed before the lens. But on Friday I take a Self Portrait, SP for short. It's fun to do, mostly. On a day when I'm feeling low no matter how I try, it shows in the photo. So my SP is a pretty good indicator of my mood of the day.  Sometimes I "chicken out" and take a bit of me rather than my face. In lots of ways that is even more difficult to do, no, that's wrong - it's more of a challenge! Hmmmm  I wonder what today's will be.......... I might show you, unless it's truly awful.

When you meet someone

 Most of us are lucky enough to meet at least a few people every day. If not in person we "meet" them via phone or internet. Some are acquaintances, some friends and some we have never seen before and may never see again. What is it in these meetings that causes the change say, from acquaintance to friend, from friend to lover?  Shared interests or maybe completely diverse interests which open new ground to both. A shared experience, be it good or bad can forge a friendship to last a lifetime. But what is that "spark" that sets it off?  Even more puzzling to me is how this happens, and happen it does, through internet meetings when there is so little to work with apart from the written word or maybe a webcam. No facial expressions, the nuances of which are so telling. No body language. Then there is the knowledge that all may not be as it seems with the shared information. But that is not an avenue I wish to travel down at this point.  It is that spark which intrigues me. Perhaps it is something which we should all be thankful for and not question too deeply for fear that we snuff it out..........

If only

Why do we find it so difficult to please ourselves in life? We are always striving to please others, to put aside our own wishes so that the waters remain unruffled. I say "we"  I can, of course, only speak from my own perspective, that of a Libran.......whether you think that Astrology is a load of bunkum or not........those scales are forever with me as I endeavour to keep life balanced, keep everyone happy. Perhaps it is too late to change - old dog, new tricks - I don't know. But I do know that in so many cases everyone has been happy...... except me. The older I get and the more I think about this the more I realise that it's time to step away from the scales. Time to let everyone do their own balancing. And if the water gets a bit ruffled well so be it! What's the worst that can happen.........

Round the Lanes

I am constantly draw to churches and graveyards as I drive round the lanes of Devon and there are many of them to be found. Even the smallest hamlet has a church, some quite humble and some ornate and extravagant. It is not through any religious beliefs of mine, more an admiration of good craftsmanship and an interest in the past inhabitants of the area that I visit them. In one graveyard there are 3 graves in a line, the given name on each is "Mary Anne" the dates are broadly similar. It certainly wasn't through admiration of any famous "star" that these ladies all bore the same name, or was it ?...........

I took this photo today, leaning over the bridge which connects the two halves of the small hamlet in which I live. I was thinking about the people in Cumbria, many of whom have lost their homes and businesses and worse still some who have lost their lives. It didn't worry me that I was standing on a bridge which is probably hundreds of years old with the River Taw flooding beneath it. Bridges in Cumbria have been swept away in an instant. We feel safe in our own environment.........

The beginning

I have a feeling that there are going to be many "beginnings" as I wander through the maze of technology that is available today. Never being quite sure of where I'm going or where I've been! I wonder where this new venture will take me?