Spray and Pray

That was the year that was, it's over, let it go. Only it isn't; not yet, anyway. With still over a week to go, who knows what fresh horrors lie in wait? A plague of locusts surely can't be far away; I fear 2020 hasn't finished with us yet.

One of the few positives I can take from this year, and believe me they've been few and far between, is the sheer volume of music I've listened to. Obviously precious little has been in a live situation - my last gig (The Lathums) was way back in February - but I've invested many many hours of listening and if you want to know precisely what my musical diet comprised then my Spotify 2020 Wrapped is as good a starting point as any.

Photography too has been a big thing in my life this year. I guess with all the additional steps I'm clocking up (2020 has definitely been the year of 'the walk') I've been even more aware of my surroundings so every urban ramble usually offers up new photo opportunities. From the hundreds of photographs I've taken this year, I've condensed it down to a dozen: 12 months, 12 photos* in no particular order. Here you go:

Indoor Market, Carlisle 

Nottingham Trent University

Nottingham Council House

Neighbours' 1st Wedding Anniversary

White Swan, Vernon Park

Happy Hour, Lanzarote

Cows on the Loch Ryan shoreline

Skegness Italia

Sneinton, Nottingham

Sherwood, Nottingham

James & Janneke, Manchester

Ratcliffe-upon-Soar Power Station 

I've not included the tree that sits outside my front door. Regular readers will know I started taking photographing this beautiful Beech back in October and I've been photographing it every day since. 

* 13 if you count the reindeer currently standing in my local park.

 

Shimmering, glimmering

The plane touched down yesterday just after three o'clock. It was wet. It was windy. It was cold; everything Lanzarote wasn't. A miserable December Saturday afternoon in the UK has absolutely nothing going for it whatsoever. Even the pilot was apologetic, bless him.

Rewind less than 24 hours and I'd been gazing out to sea thinking how much more tolerable life would be if this was my view, this was my vista; a light so bright and so beautifully sharp, that, if I close my eyes (even as I'm typing this), I can still see. Let's hope I can still retrieve it from my memory bank next week, and the week after... 

Charles Trenet - La Mer (1946)

Go into settings

What a year it's been; and continues to be. I'm sure there are other fairground mechanical contraptions that can I can compare the last 12 months to, but I'm struggling at the moment to call one to mind.

I'm jumping on a plane in a couple of hours. Five nights away - a bit of sun on my back, catch up with the latest Anne Tyler, and gorge on a few of my favourite podcasts*. I may even have a few glasses of the local grog, it has been known. As ever when I'm away, my thoughts will be wandering. But in a good way this time.

* Including: Ruthie - Me & My Dad. I've just discovered this quirky podcast where washed up radio presenter Martin Kelner and his 17 year old daughter Ruth sit down at the kitchen table and tell each other what it's like to reside in 2018. Essential listening.

It was going to be called 'Go Into Settings' - Ruth explains in the first episode (or is the second?) that whenever she's telling an 'old person' how to do something on their phone it's the first thing she says. Ouch, sounds familiar.