January 2017... a new beginning

So, January 2017, The year of my 55th Birthday and the start of my first full year of retirement! The stress, strain and angst I and my family endured from my organisation in the last months of my service evaporated like morning mist, and my life changed for the better once it finally came through and I owe a huge debt of thanks to Mick N (think Dom Littlewoods brother) for his help and support over the last couple of years. 

I know that I have health issues that will stay with me for the rest of my life, Yet I face this New Year with hope and a determination to be as creative as I can be. To this end, I have been working with my long-term musical collaborator Keith 'Musicman' Melhuish and the songs and poetry projects we have been working on - as well as remixing older songs we are gradually re-discovering - is a wonderful way to spend a day between school runs!

For the projects I call our 'Performance Works' (until a more pleasing name comes along), we started off with a poem from a previous collection called 'Si d es'. A poem which outlines my reaction to various terrorist attacks and discusses the dogmatic and tethered thinking that creates a world where murder as a protest is a way of life for some and ends up with the inimitable Donald Trump becomes the President of the United States.

We then continued with a poem written for a wedding I did some photography for - 'Silver Shoes.' Keith had a lovely piece of music called 'By Candlelight' which was slightly altered to fit to the poem and, I believe, is perfect for it. (You can view it on my YouTube channel here www.youtube.com/watch?v=13XtL36cK5Y)

Currently, we are working on a poem from last year that is possibly my favourite of those written in 2016; a simple short recording of a dream I had entitled 'Dragons'. This was read by me to Keith during a pause after a cup of tea. He listened to it once and then came up with a musical phrase almost immediately! It has been recorded and refined and will make - I hope - a truly wonderful video. It certainly deserves to as it is lovely. A close friend of mine even called it 'brilliant!' when I played her a recent sound version - finding the images to go with it is going to be an entertaining task!

I have also been busy with my other various wording endeavours - my collection of Short Stories is nearing completion (I hope!) and I have just taken delivery of the paperback versions of the second in the 'Sleeping' thread - 'Also now Sleeping'. This is a collection of poems written between 2013-2016 regarding the death of my Mother, and which saw its publication date of the 22nd January unremarked on by anyone. not surprising as thus far, only two copies are 'out in the wild' but I hope this will change somewhen soon. It is available to purchase from the Store if anyone were to read these ramblings and be moved so to do. I aim to have the Kindle version out very soon.

I had also wanted to have my collection of every poem - bar one - from 2016 ('Reflections in the Mirror') published in the first week of January but just ran out of time as more work was required on 'Also now Sleeping' than I had envisaged. The corrections I had to make to what I had thought was a finished and proof-read final version seemed to never end!. Hence 'Reflections' has been pushed back to February. The digital version will also follow shortly after, all being well. 

Finally, after having spent over 35 years loving taking photographs of a variety of subjects (and with a variety of success), I have for the first time ever decided to have some academic input on the 'right' way to take them. Lisa had brought home a leaflet about adult education in and around Chelmsford (I believe in an effort to get me out of the house) and looking through it I saw a course or two on photography.

I enrolled, had a couple of exams on English and Maths, managed to pass them both and began this course with high hopes of finding new ways to do things. Some of the early course content has been directed at those who have not picked up a camera before (e.g. how to put a battery and SD card into a DSLR!), but I have learnt a few things even this early in the course - something that might even have been useful for the photographs taken for 'Silver Shoes'!  

I have also been researching photographers and those who have invented a variety of processes and inventions which have shaped this amazing technique from its earliest inception in 1839 as part of my homework. This has been fascinating to read and to find out how many people (many of them French) have added to the course of photography over the last couple of hundred years. The two Units for the course will include some work on PhotoShop; this is something I will relish. I enjoy using PhotoShop (other image editors are available) but am completely self-taught. To find out how to widen my knowledge on this will be a really great experience I am sure. just three weeks in and I am already looking at my photos with a different critical 'eye'. I have always taken the best images I could - but I am starting to see how I can take better (or at least more pleasing to my eye) ones in the future.

I hope that, in time, these will work there way onto my collections and other books. [Did I hear a groan at the back then? Who was it? Come on, step forward. I'll find out soon...]

Stay safe, keep reading all....