mashoo
2007-12-29 - 2008-01-06
contents

00005ef0.jpg | 2007-12-29T11:20:02Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005ef2.jpg | 2007-12-29T11:21:22Z | -no-label- | -mt1-
just got back from waitrose with ma; turning in jan's drive to leave, i spotted a great darling, crossing the bottom of the road, left to right; she was short and fine and cute and bright and so many other good things; brown hair; quite girly, with various girly accessories about her person; she looked my way; her blonde pal wore white jeans and was also fine and accessorised, but i didn't fall in love with her; `toot toot', i said; ma replied that they were too young for me; were they? i replied that i hadn't seen two fine chicks like that... ever, probably

00005ef4 | 2007-12-30T13:17:46Z | -no-label- | -mt4-

00005f12.jpg | 2007-12-31T11:56:54Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f14.jpg | 2007-12-31T12:02:26Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f18.jpg | 2007-12-31T12:03:26Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f1a.jpg | 2007-12-31T12:37:54Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f1c.jpg | 2007-12-31T12:46:36Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f1e.ogg | 2007-12-31T13:00:14Z | -no-label- | -mt2-
ooh; happy new year, as they say; what woke me, half an hour or so ago, was a sequence of lightning strikes at the cottage, where ma and i were in the kitchen; there were some seconds between them, they were visible (through quite dense cloud) and each was closer than the last; the first, which might itself have been multiple, was quite high up the rise in front of the kitchen, so i didn't see much of it; the second blew the leaves back on the apple tree; ma moved toward the front door, suggesting that it might be time to leave; but i stayed, sat where the desk would be, on the wall, beneath the crockery; the third strike was less than ten metres away from the window; and soon i woke

00005f20 | 2008-01-01T06:36:42Z | -no-label- | -mt4-
bugger; i forgot a bit; when i got up and switched the light on, the bulb failed, which also resembled the flash of a lightning strike

00005f21 | 2008-01-01T06:53:46Z | -no-label- | -mt4-

00005f56.jpg | 2008-01-02T09:55:08Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f58.jpg | 2008-01-02T10:06:20Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f5a.jpg | 2008-01-02T10:37:12Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f5c.jpg | 2008-01-02T10:39:28Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f5e.jpg | 2008-01-02T10:47:10Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f60.jpg | 2008-01-02T11:27:30Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f62.jpg | 2008-01-02T11:31:58Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f64.jpg | 2008-01-02T11:35:24Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f66.jpg | 2008-01-02T12:01:46Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f68.jpg | 2008-01-02T12:33:20Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f6a.jpg | 2008-01-02T13:01:40Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f6c.jpg | 2008-01-02T13:08:48Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f6e.jpg | 2008-01-02T13:33:26Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005f70.jpg | 2008-01-02T14:02:12Z | -no-label- | -mt1-
i was out for around 5 hours today, wearing all my waterproof stuff, because the weather forecast had suggested rain; my breakfast had been the usual amaranth and oats porridge, coffee and green tea; i took a gillian goji berry bar with me, which i ate along the way; i paced myself well, feeling no weakness until i had some of ma's butternut squash soup, on my return;

i went through the golf course, across the fields, and then, instead of taking the usual road to codsall, turned right into bilbrook, whereafter i walked in a big circle, anti-clockwise, around bilbrook and codsall; there were few people about, and not much traffic, which was nice;

in bilbrook, it was rubbish collection day; people's recycling bins were full of booze bottles; they had white recycling sacks, which we don't; for newspapers, i suppose; and nets instead of lids on their recycling bins;

we just watched the bourne ultimatum, by the way; it was very good; the ending felt a little soft, though;

some lads, who had been jumping on a trampoline in a back garden near the brook, shouted at me to `stop weeing, you naughty boy', as i attempted to photograph a bush;

i came across a few footpath signs, on my travels; i started to follow the first, believing it to be one i had identified as a possible route; luckily, i had thought to take my compass, which informed me that i was still walking north-east;

i spotted the church on the hill from quite a distance, and eventually happened by it; the surrounding roads were very cosy; and then a house i thought i recognised from a dream;

eventually nearing the heart of the village, i came across the binmen, some lads tossing a rugby ball around in the street and the road that approaches bill's place;

before i got to bill's, i passed the junction where pa had challenged me to a race, some years ago; we were walking to the pub; pa must have fancied that the parallel road on the left provided a short cut, because he went bombing down there, when we said `go'; but it was a dead end; i must have known as much, because i remember laughing uncontrollably as i ran; not that i needed to run; i laughed all the way to the pub, and then laughed some more, while i waited for him to turn up; today, i took a photograph of the junction that was our starting place (since walking down this road again, i have realised that this story pertains to the next junction);

i passed some darling kid in a hooped top, as i approached bill's place; still full of christmas, it seemed; and going to fetch something from the shops, i suppose; i didn't trouble bill, who was burning a lot of stuff near his buildings; i might have barged in on him, but i didn't want to cool down, so i kept on walking;

it was a good walk; very little rain about; it was sweet

00005f72 | 2008-01-02T22:23:30Z | -no-label- | -mt4-

horses cross the field toward the gate

00005f9d.jpg | 2008-01-04T10:40:16Z | photography | -mt1-

00005f9f.jpg | 2008-01-04T10:43:26Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

trees reflected in a woodland pool

00005fa1.jpg | 2008-01-04T10:51:38Z | photography | -mt1-

00005fa3.jpg | 2008-01-04T11:05:28Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005fa5.jpg | 2008-01-04T11:35:46Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005fa7.jpg | 2008-01-04T11:50:30Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005fa9.jpg | 2008-01-04T11:53:24Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005fab.jpg | 2008-01-04T12:07:16Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005fad.jpg | 2008-01-04T12:08:40Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005faf.jpg | 2008-01-04T12:11:56Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005fb1.jpg | 2008-01-04T13:17:54Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005fb3.jpg | 2008-01-04T13:24:44Z | -no-label- | -mt1-

00005fb6.jpg | 2008-01-05T14:28:09Z | -no-label- | -mt1-
i had another good walk, the other day; lots of desolate views; early on, a dog-walking biddy responded to my `good morning' and asked `photographer or ornithologist?'; i replied that i was mostly out for the walk;

next, some horses came from the middle of a large field to a gate to greet me; there wasn't much left of the gate, and one of the horses eventually emerged;

woods, pools, a flock of small birds and a helpful jogger from `on perton'; the staffordshire way, zigzagging, clinging to the edges of large fields; helpful signposts (i had no map); disused buildings; a snack bar that tasted like christmas cake; monochrome splendour of a shrouded land; golf course; noisy dogs in a garden; bridleway; monarch's way;

i have been grinding coffee beans with a pestle and mortar, just lately; before making that morning's dose, i had blown out the old coffee, some of which flew into my face; and so, when the gloom of the day turned to damp, i was treated to a sumatran aroma; it was unexpected, so i got a laugh out of it too;

power lines, fly-tipping, sewage works, and a long march home, down a wet, narrow road of charging lorries; the temperature had been higher than for my previous adventure, and i sweated a bit; but my merino wool kept me comfortable

00005fb8 | 2008-01-06T09:14:36Z | -no-label- | -mt4-
contents
matthew munro, my bedroom, wolverhampton, still photograph, movie clip