Return of the Blog!

 As you may or may not know, I've had a busy couple of years since I last posted here. They sort of mysteriously petered out around the time I started my MSc up at Durham, which, I now know, coincided with a tumour growing on my pituitary gland getting big enough to start having an impact on my memory! Don't worry, I'm absolutely fine - but it did make it a bit difficult to do anything. Including keeping up with blogging.

When they started treatment last summer, I decided to experiment with having a proper website. It was nice, but expensive, and the year is now up - and with it, I'm letting my subscription go. Which means that I'm back here! Hooray!

I'll start posting here regularly again now - hopefully at least weekly, but it does depend on timings. I'm starting a PhD at Oxford University in October, so it's likely that periods of free time will be few and far between. But never fear, I'll do my best to keep up!

In the meantime, I've got some fun images which haven't really made it to public consumption. So here's two of my favourites from about this time last year.

The image at the top of this post is my current home, Ustinov College. I've been living here for nearly two years now, and it's a fantastic and unique community. Not to mention in an absolutely gorgeous part of the world on the outskirts of Durham. I took this photo last September when I moved back in after a summer at home. It's one of my personal favourite images of Durham, mainly because I felt so happy to be back!

This is also from a place very dear to my heart, though for completely different reasons! It's a footpath on Caldey Island off the coast of Tenby, Wales. My family has very old roots in Tenby, and we find ourselves going back there again and again. Visiting Caldey Island is something that never changes - it must be 23 years or so since I first visited (OK, maybe 20 or so since I've been old enough to remember what's going on), and it seems just as I remember it the first time.

And it's gorgeous.

Anyhow, there's many more brand new photos waiting to make their way up here - why not put your email address into the box on the right and you'll get a message when I post them? Don't worry, it won't be anywhere near frequently enough to clog up your inbox, but it will mean you won't miss a post...and we wouldn't want that now that I've started again, would we?!

Thanks for sticking it through to the end,

Josh

A Taste of the North... (part 1)

Me again, hello!

So, as you may or may not know, in October I'm going to become a temporary Northerner when I go to study at Durham University. In a desperate attempt to acclimatize myself to the incessant winds, constant blizzards and eternal twilight that comes with going further north than Birmingham, I thought I'd go to the Lake District for a few days with two of my friends, Ross and Thomas (Hi!).

Get that name dropping - not only do I have friends, I have more than 2 of them! Bet you're jealous now.

Anyhow, when we turned up the Lake District was, miraculous, not only sunny but HOT, SUNNY and even NICE WEATHER. I was pretty sure it was just a ruse. Anyhow, we used out first full day there to go for a brisk walk, up Striding Edge on a small hill called Hellvelyn.



Yup. He looks about how I felt, standing at the start of Striding edge. It's very much an edge. Badly named though, because Striding is a bit hard. It's more...well, climbing really.

Ross and Thom there, taking centre stage.Thanks guys.What you can't see is the VERY steep, deep and ... fleep ... drop that they're looking down! Here's the ridge from a different angle...

Yup. Remind me not to do that on a windy day...

Anyway, here's the view from the top. With Ross trying to work out the name of EVERY peak within sight.

That's a nice looking tarn. Not very red, which is strange if you know that it's called "Red Tarn". Here's a barefoot man on a rock, waaaaay down below.

That's right - it's Ross and his friendly reflection. I should probably rotate it so that the horizon's straight, but I've already put the picture up now so I won't. You live and learn. Finally, for now, here's the way back down - we chose Swirral edge, a much less scary (but still steep) walk:

Very nice.

Anyhow, you may have noticed the GORGEOUS weather...suspiciously gorgeous. Ominously nice. Beautiful. SURELY there couldn't be any surprises on such a short gallivant*. Surely...

TO BE CONTINUED...

*Pretty sure this counts as a real word. 

East Bergholt

More countryside shots of East Bergholt today - got to love that rural feeling. Here's the Donkey Track again:

Gorgeous evening sunlight could make a cracking shot out of pretty much anything, and Constable Country is pretty picturesque anyway to be honest. I like the way the trees look red, almost autumnal. Definitely summer today though - my flip flops prove it. Anyway, here's some primroses:

Now you know it's the countryside - look, trees in the background! Wild flowers! The singing of the birds in the trees! Small woodland creatures singing songs and holding hands in the undergrowth!

OK, one of them may have been made up. Not telling which.

I had a few goes with different apertures to experiment with how focused I wanted the trees in the background to be - at first they were too blurry and there was no context whatsoever. I like to think I found the pleasant middle ground.

I'll take some more exciting photos soon, I promise - I'll take loads of photos when I go on holiday somewhere exotic...which may be a while. It may have to be East Bergholt again - maybe some portraits, or a photo of an escaped puma...

J

Bright Colours! Must be Suffolk

What's that you say?! A picture which isn't a dismal train under overcast skies?! Well, it can only mean I'm back in Sunny Suffolk, surely!

That's right. For those of you haven't guessed from all the bits about Suffolk in the previous paragraph/title, I'm back in East Bergholt - and where there's East Bergholt, there's sun! Sometimes. OK, quite rarely. Anyway, here's some flowers:

These are the flowers my Nana got for Mothers' day - I took this photo on Monday. Unfortunately, that afternoon she was admitted to hospital with a suspected minor heart attack - don't worry, she seems better than ever now, although they are keeping her in for observation until after the weekend. So the photo of these flowers doubles up as a tribute - get well soon Nan!

I also wanted to show you this shot of THE donkey track, iconic East Bergholt icon since ever. I am still yet to see a donkey on it though. It took me sodding ages to get the starburst effect coming off the sun, so I hope you appreciate it!

That one was taken yesterday afternoon, and I've got a few more from the same shoot that I'll upload in the next few days. Until then, I need to go and write about why Husserl is wrong. Which I should be doing now. Can I count this as part of my essay?

No? OK then. In that case bye for now,

J