Day trip to Kingsand / Cawsand - 15th July 2013

Took a nice little boat trip to Kingsand / Cawsand on a beautiful sunny day. I think it was actually the 16th not the 15th.

and so is love

Modern Haiku

 My little Haiku app got published in BlackBerry World yesterday and is now available to download for free to any BlackBerry device. Check it out here: Modern Haiku I find editing my photos and doodles with haiku that I have composed to be a relaxing way to pass the time.

For anyone without a BlackBerry, all the haiku can be found online here: Modern Haiku

Drawings - Lisa Evans

Drawings, a set by firefluff on Flickr.

I love the art of Lisa Evans, her work always transports me back to my childhood dreams.

renza

Recently built a website for my brother's polished plastering/ micro-cement business. Not quite finished but pretty pleased with it so far.

www.renza.co.uk

Touch Wood

mini-utopia website

Here is a website I built a while back when I was made redundant. It kept me busy and I enjoyed building it a lot. The website is home to some of my old (very old) writing and art. Most if it is over fifteen years old, which probably explains a lot.

The Alternative Lifestyle

The other day I was helping a customer over the telephone with a technical enquiry. His mobile broadband was running slow. He lived in a remote area of Devon and was quite a distance from the nearest mast which was causing the somewhat slow connection speeds. As we chatted it came to light that he had given up the conventional lifestyle of mortgage and 40 hour working week. He said that he was tired of being a slave to his mortgage. I told him he was living my dream and he told me it was the best thing he had ever done. Previously he worked all the hours just to pay for a house that he was too tired to enjoy and so he sold it and bought a static caravan with the profits. He had also managed to secure some part time work at the site where he lived and all his utility bills and land rent were covered by his employer. I guess a pessimist could argue that he is still a slave of sorts to his new employer as he needs a spot for his trailer and money to get by but how can anyone feel imprisoned when they have copious amounts of free time and are able to walk along the beach every sunrise and sunset?

I seem to stumble across more and more people with similar stories to tell. This is quite common with work as folk who live somewhat off the grid need to rely on mobile broadband for their internet connections. A lot of people who live away from the towns and cities live a simple life and it is often the case that due to their locations their connections can be quite slow, but then when you are living a life that has more free time, where is the hurry?

Every day I dream of living a life without a mortgage and a life with more free time and away from consumerism. It is not because I am lazy (that is a matter of perception) but because I sometimes am sure I can feel the speed of the earth as it turns beneath my feet. I long to sit still and enjoy the ride as we circumvent the sun before it is all over. I long to see the sun rise, so I can join the birds in their celebratory dawn chorus, and then watch with awe as it sets opening up the heavens to my eyes. I want to experience the seasons in each of their glory and their effect upon the local landscape like the fluctuating moods of a lover. I want to feel the sun on my face and taste the rain on my tongue and catch a snowflake on my nose.



My dream is still a little far off as I am caught in the negative equity trap along with a huge pay cut in my current employment after redundancy from the last. Distance makes the heart grow fonder and so I court the alternative lifestyle in every small way that I can so that I am fully prepared. "Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find resources of strength that will endure as long as life" - Rachel Carson

A favourite place of mine to visit is Diana Lorence's website Innermost House. It is a magical life that she lives with her husband in the woods.'...a truly simple life that stands on its own centre, equal to every other life in its essential dignity'.

The Icebook - a miniature theatre experience

The Ice Book (HD) from Davy and Kristin McGuire on Vimeo.

A Life On Fire

"Betrayals during war are childlike compared with our betrayals during peace. New lovers are nervous and tender, but smash everything. For the heart is an organ of fire". Michael Ondaatje - The English Patient.

Diana Lorence has lived for many years in tiny abodes, and has been married to her husband, Michael Anthony Lorence for many years. The stories that she shares from her Innermost House are incredible gifts. They are the accumulation of all the years and also of a transcendence from darkness into light.

The world is perhaps full of as much fear and darkness as ever it was. There are stories of war and betrayal filling our news. And yet the world is also full of love and light and much kindness.

Those that live a simple life without many material possessions tend to be very peaceful people. They do not covet outer wealth and power and yet tend to be the most spiritually wealthy and seem to hold a very deep inner power.

Many followers of the 'Tiny House Movement' are single people. There are many reasons why one might live a solitary life, whether it be through circumstance or choice. Something very special about the Lorence's story is that they have successfully managed to develop a relationship while always living in tiny homes. I do not doubt for a single moment that they have not encountered difficulties and hardship. Indeed, the fact that they are so magnanimous would suggest that they have suffered as much as any.

There are many practical guides of how to build a tiny house but by reading Diana's words, one learns how to live in a tiny house. How to let go of what you think you want and to learn instead what you truly need and love.

The heart of the house is the fire and Diana's article is full of metaphor. A fire must be respected. If we are to live a peaceful life, a life of deepest contentment, then we must all learn to build and tend to a fire that gives warmth without scalding and brings light without blinding.

It is from such sparks of hope that our entire lives might one day burst into flame with a fire that like the Holy Fire or the Burning Bush, burns without consuming.

(To visit the website of Innermost House please click here).

Half a century of love

I recently went to visit my mum and dad, the first time since Christmas - when this photo was taken. I sat with them in the same garden, the butterflies dancing around us while birds played in the trees. So quickly time passes. Where had the previous six months gone when they had built snowmen of each other? Time melts; love blooms.

My parents are in the winter of their life and yet their love continues to grow. They have been together for fifty years. They are my biggest inspiration. I do not aspire to have lots of money or a fancy car or an important job. All I want is a love like theirs that offers warmth in the winter and solace from the heat of summer.

What boundaries does love know? When this photo was taken last year, just before Christmas, there was an episode of sudden thick snowfall which brought much of the country to a standstill. My mother was snowed in at work and had no means of getting home as all transport had ground to a halt. My dad, old as the hills yet strong as a rock walked the four mile journey through thick snow and over steep hills carrying snow boots for my mother and then walked the four miles home with her. This touched my heart deeply because both of them do not like walking very far at the best of times. My dad has bad knees and my mother suffers with all manner of aches and pains.

I hope when I am old and grey and in the winter of my life that I am still with my Love so we can trade memories on a sleepless midsummer's night of making snowmen on a cold winter's day.

Sock Monsters

I made these just before I started the new job. It all started with wanting to create a special Valentine's gift. I am only a month at work and already missing the endless hours of free-time where I could indulge my imagination. Role on retirement!

What Happened to Alice?

I have admired Pogo's work since this Alice video of his, which has sadly disappeared from his YouTube account. The reason this has happened is due to reasons of copyright from Disney but the full story has a twist. Information after the jump: What Happened to Alice?




You can visit his official site here: www.pogomix.net

Here are some random images of my random artwork.

This year's number one Christmas present... for me!

The child inside me (who is way bigger than the adult inside me) wants to wake up Christmas morning to find that Santa has left these beneath the tree. Santa, are you listening? I will be leaving you the biggest bad-arse plate of cookies you ever did see.

aarting: Where The Wild Things Are x Medicom Toy Figure Collection.

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Feed the Fire

I want to go back to the trees
Where my art was born...

Sweet Tides

Not a new track by any means but just it heard for the first time today. It was very early morning and I was so tired and miserable then this track comes on the radio from nowhere and my heart is ablaze once more with memories. Funny how your heart can give you that sudden rush and pull you back to those certain moments that live for an eternity.

Three Memories

I was going through my computer files and found some video footage of a visit to my parents and found my old piano had been relegated to the garage...

Ten Haiku

Well, my current Haiku obsession doesn't seem to be showing any signs of waning just yet. I hope that my plan of feeding my addictive personality something safe and soul enriching like writing Haiku is going to pay off. I am too old for the whiskey and cigarettes.
Music is by the wonderful Ken Bonfield.

Humble Haiku

Here are some more Haiku that I have written in the last couple of days. I am going to try and write at least one a day as part of my daily routine. I am finding that the process is great food for the soul. I am deciding for the moment to stick with the three lined 5-7-5 syllable counting form as I am enjoying trying to find freedom within these tight boundaries. However, after recently reading about Gary Snyder's views on the topic, I imagine that I will soon change all that. (Here is a great interview you can read if the desire is yours: Gary Snyder talks with Udo Wenzel )

But for now, here are my four latest humble Haiku attempts.

A flag, a symbol
of man drawing boundaries
on that which is free

Death is stalking us
so I celebrate the day;
it could be our last.

All about is still
while up above, clouds move fast.
Summer starts to wane.

The little kitten
cuddles me with her sharp claws.
It is true, love hurts.