Saturday

Saturday, October 5th - a sunny day and quite warm too. Shirley was off to the "Help the Aged" charity shop on Ecclesall Road to put a shift in. I felt like bagging a few more images for Geograph. This involved driving north through the city, out beyond Hillsborough and over the M1 at Tankersley.

Then through Hoyland and Elsecar to Hemmingfield where I began to gather my missing pictures. I guess the image I was most pleased with was the one at the top of this blogpost. It's an old farmhouse that was built in 1691 and it is called Hoober Hall. It is still part of a working farm and is never open to the public.

Even though snapping that photograph from the lane was perfectly legal, I didn't want to risk anyone rushing out to berate me so I took it quickly and jumped in my getaway car (Clint) before  heading back to Sheffield via Rotherham.

Saturday is often a busy day for road traffic and there were big football matches on in both Rotherham and Sheffield with the two "United" teams kicking off at 3pm. It took me longer than expected to get home.

Walkers on Smithy Bridge Lane

As Shirley was out I thought I would take the opportunity to catch up on the final episode of a Channel 5 documentary TV series called "Phillip Schofield: Cast Away".

If you don't live in Great Britain you will most likely never have heard of Phillip Schofield but he was a popular and busy TV presenter over here for forty years until... Yes , until he lost his "This Morning" role. In fact he was booted off it and the reason was that he had an affair with a much younger member of the production team.

Until then, the general public though that he was heterosexual. After all, he had a wife and two daughters. But it turned out that he was attracted to men and his affair was with a young man. I think to myself - so what? The affair was a consensual relationship between two adults.

Anyway, in the past year Phillip Schofield has been put through the wringer by the tabloid press so he was probably looking for some way of clawing back his previous reputation. He agreed to spend ten days alone on the uninhabited island of Nosy Ankarea off the coast of Madagascar - fending for  himself and filming himself.

I quite liked it but I  became irritated by his self-pitying rants about how he was let down by other people and there was rather too much gratuitous swearing for my liking. I would have preferred  the documentary to focus exclusively on survival and the beauty of the island and I would have liked Phillip to answer these questions:

  • Why didn't you go swimming until the very last day?
  • Why did you cast your fishing rod from the beach and not the rocks?
  • Why did you go wandering around in the middle of the night?
  • Why did you set up your little encampment in such a silly place?
  • Why didn't you talk about the night sky - so clear overhead?

Phillip Schofield on the island


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Long read

 I’m okay physically. Mentally, I’m coming out of survival mode. I woke up last night reaching for a flashlight I no longer need. I rode to town yesterday, and as I looked around, how I have power and water is a miracle. I open up to write and tears flow. Tears of relief and guilt mix. I asked my therapist how long this would last. Her guess. A while. I prayed for one week for power, and one the seventh day, He delivered.  Honestly, I doubted after day two, but God was showing me something. I’m strong. You do things you never thought you would. 

I got rid of so many undergarments. Please don’t think going to the bathroom outdoors is an easy task for everyone. My pride had to go. Doing laundry by hand is exercise. The washing machine is a luxury. I know now why on the seventh day rest is commanded. 

I have power and water. Gratitude holds new meaning. I will continue writing, I don’t know how it will look. 

Grace 

What 

I need

As I move forward

Not forgetting

That suffering

Happens every day

Yet we persist

My life

Not my own

Anymore

Dreaming of 

Exotic places

And wild spaces

Yet knowing

The next steps

Will require

Courage

Navigating

Silver spooned

Blue blooded

Nature doesn’t discriminate 

Until the fire 

Refines you

Compassion

Is not a given

When the 

Trials of humanity

Come to the door

Yours

Do you 

Give freely

Willingly

And without pretense

What seven days

Shows

Is change happens

Even as our

Eyes are 

Wide open 

Gratefulness

And grief

Intertwine

Positivity

Meets reality

In a delicate dance

I never wanted

To partake in




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world

 In my reality

The dream

Still lives

Even as

My sensitivity

Is heightened 

To the plight of

Others

You all 

Told me

Change was hard

Didn’t listen

Naïveté is gone

But hope

Is the constant

Must now

Be a light

In my own

World



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