Local Explorations (by sarah)

Sunday Lionel (Alaric's Dad) took us out for lunch and an explore of the local area - it turned out that we have already discovered some of the attractions he'd wanted to show us like Hetty Peggler's Tump and the country park we like to hang out in! But we had a fun filled very sunny day.

It started with him and Alaric mowing in the morning as Barbara (Al's aunt wanted that done before we disappeared to enjoy our selved - I had gotten confused and thought we were all going out for a picnic).

Once mowing and the like had been completed we headed out to Sheepscomb - the neighbouring village to a Pub called the Butcher's Arms. We had attempted to go there once before but there had been no parking avaliable so this was a first. It was glorious weather and you can see across the valley - this is one of Lionels favourite views:

Alaric as always couldn't quiet leave work behind and so was found on the found for some of the pub visit!

But there were many shanagans involving Jean's pink hat!

It was pleasant waiting for the food which was really nice and we chatted about the local area and writing and things - I learnt some interesting things about a guest house that existed in Sheepscomb around the world wars but I'll disguess that on Salaric Cooking at some point in the future! But it did lead to a disgussion were I discovered our friends getting married next year! Yay!!!! :)

Jean made a friend called Emily and they bothed chased Alaric around loads and Lionel bumped into oour neighbour in the pub!

As always I had my carmera on me and so found things to photograph!

There was a humourous moment when just after announcing the fact there was a dog turd near our bench I almost knelt in it :/ Lionel then prodded it with a stick until it went away - though at one point this almost flicked it across the pub garden!

We then went on a drive about and he showed us where there is a Roman Well lurking though we didnt get out and walk down to it.

We eventually ended up at St Mary's Church Edgeworth mainly becuase Lionel likes the big mansion next to it (the place has its own steps into the church yard!) but I was in heaven with the photo oppurtunities!

There was a lovely lynch gate with sheep beyound!

Inside was fantastic with the blazing sun outside - the light coming in through the stain glass windows really was something to behold.

I found some interesting features on some of the gravestones - including a skull which I thought was interesting and got me thinking about a story line.

The entrance we came in was marked by this lantern which again just said something to me - I love the contrast with the blue sky and the day just seemed ripe to take pictures - even if I only have a happy snappy!

Jean loved exploring the graveyard and called it an adventure! She also announced that we were the Graveyard Girls - which I thought was a cute name for a girl goth band to be honest!

Lionel and Jean found some topary 'chickens' which they insisted on feeding - Lionel is of course obsessed with chickens so it seemed most apropraite.

We then got back in the car and continued driving - I was quiet tired at this point and begain to doze in the car which annoyed me as I wanted to take in where we were going and things.

Eventually we ended up in Cirencester (famed for its Roman roots), now we have explored this place but mainly just the main town bit as it was when I was still on crutches. Lionel took us to a great park/estate thing which appeared to have a castle at its gate!

Apparently the path goes on and on and is very french in the feel of it!

We would have gone futhure but as always - I needed the loo so we had to go on a toliet hunt! But I did take more pics on route!

I'm glad I did need the loo though becuase it ment we found a fantastic outdoors swimming pool which we plan to visit frequently (I think the helpfulness of the gate staff in telling us where they're loo was and not charging us anything really made me feel like this would be a nice place to spend sunny days!).

After that we headed back to the car for more driving about and being shown things - one of the things Lionel wanted to do was find a Ford he used to go over lots - we found something in the right sort of area and they asked me what I thought - I felt uneasy so Lionel got out to check and thought it looked a bit deep - this was becuase we were a road over from where we wanted to be and the nice lady in the house we were outside came and told us so and how to find the ford!

We found it and it had a white duck with orange beak on it that Jeany got a bit obsessed about! She's still talking about it now!

Lionel pointed out more road turnings with churches that are nice down them (not sure how much of it I will remember mind!). He took us to Syde Church purelly becuase it is titchy!

Syde Church

I'm sorry but the churchyard was a bit squished too and I couldn't get a good angle for the whole church.

But there was an excellent gate which I just had to take photos of:

There was a door that said Danger on it - and so naturally I came round the corner to find my family had climbed up the steps :/

Interestingly I then found another skull on a grave stone that looked somehow reminiscent of the one from the previous grave yard - this added fuel to my story idea.

And just as we were getting back in the car I noticed this fungus on a tree - anyone know what it is?

Off we went again and we headed towards a hill I have often seen and the Church that looks like its positioned where a fort should be - this is Churchdown and the Church is St Bartholomew's and it had a kissing gate which Jean learned the name off and then proceeded to enchant all the pensioners but informing them that it was a kissing gate :/

There is the most fantastic view over Cheltenham ever from here!

Again there was a mirrade of photo oppurtunities including some funky grave stones - though I didn't find any more skulls this time - there was however a sun dial which I thought was an interesting thing to have on a grave.

Jean and Lionel had fun investigating this fantastic bench!

There was also more interesting lanternage about which again lent a magical air to the day - I couldn't find anymore skull gravestones but as the evening service was about to start I didn't really have enough time to look!

Apparently the church is built on the site of a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter.

Thirsty we headed off to another pub me and Alaric have only seen the car park off - the Edgemore.

Again there was an impressive view:

It was a fantastic day even if I did spend alot of time fretting about not having sunblock - and guess who was burnt?!

Alaric argues that he wasn't burnt becuase it didn't hurt :/

Jean off course was fine! I was being hen peck mum and stuff making her sit in the shade and wear her hat all day!

I am actually really looking forward to exploring all the little churches around here - and think Alaric's going to be sad about the amount of space my photos take up on the server!

Hospital Windows (by sarah)

Silent World

Portal, out staring

Concrete cubes

Stretch to the sky

Brown on Brown

Line sinuous

Cracked

Golden dawn

Violet dusk

Stretched into buaety

Spindly tree

Flutters - Life

Maroon leaves

Twitch

Their reflection

Tangerine clouds

Scud

Seagulls soar

Life beyond Glass

The Canular (by sarah)

Robot butterfly

Turn leach

Tendrils reaching

Till mosquito

Injecting

Wasp sting

Bruising

Flutter away now

Please?

Seagulls (by sarah)

More hospital poetry

Seagulls

Soaring, roosting, perching

Above, in, on

Hospital peaks

City stretching

Inside Self

Fully contained

But the seagulls

Show hills

Disappearing mist

Blankets - clouds

Blue sky peeps

Monolith old

Religious relic

Dominates domiciles - weak

Hills wrap landscape

Steel giants

March endless

Communication

Gulls wings black - white

Strip

Eyes look

Me - glass cage

Concrete prison

Needles sharpe

Machines bleep

Time stretched

Monotony baige

Tread bare blanket

Yellow, Blue, Teal

Beyond flight

Trees puffed

Green, red luminous

Spring summer

Calling

Trapped, tagged

Stare

Seagulls, swallows

Night crisp air

Window ajar

My world

I am somehow there

Twitter Poetry (by sarah)

I have found a home for all those tacky rhymes I came up with about everyday stuff - and that is twitter. I started typing the poems into tweets and found that there is actually a communitee of poeple tweeting poetry which is interesting - Ella who has just joined pointed out that it was something that occured to her straight away although she was thinking hikus not the tacky dross I produce.

Mainly they are the sort of thing I make up to entertain Jean but I am chuffed that one of them has been pilfered (with credit mind!) onto my friends blog - I just couldn't resist making something up about the cat who had too many kittens (and yes I am going to keep on about baby animals - between pregnant cats and guinea pigs and people I seem to be surrounded by an over load of cuteness at the mo!).

Poetry is the one thing that I have had published multiple times - I think actual anthologies/peotry collections that have a poem (one has two in) from me is now at 4 and then a couple in newspapers (nationals :) ). I haven't actually sent any poetry off for a long time last attempt was Myslexia which was a no go though I got a lovely letter from them.

I have been submitting short stories but have found this a bit of a struggle as the stories want to expand them selves into novals and this has obviously been evident in that the responses I've been getting are 'we loved the imagery and the characters but it needed to be a longer story it read in places like a summary' etc...

I'm taking the fact that people are responding positively about the writing even thought it is ultimatly a regection as a good thing?

Poetry quiet frankly doesn't pay enough for me to pay out the postage costs and the like. I have been unable to go to many poetry readings since christmas becuase of my course and stuff but found that was far more rewarding - plus I was reading it out so didn't have to worry about the spellings and gramma - I know what its supposed to sound like so that is how I read it.

Most of my poetry is also niche - it is sciencetific/technical so arty peeps tend to not understand what the poem is actually about and the science peeps go - why are you writing the concept in an unclear way? Sigh.

Short stories just quiet frankly don't want to be short - I am thinking that I need to face the fact that I am a novel writer. This is a bit depressing as when I was writing the Drs Wife I was obsessed with it and could not leave it alone - I have perposly not started another noval becuase of this - for a start I have seen 0 back for the invested time - I hope purely becuase I wrote the whole thing in long hand and have only typed up the first 30, 000 words! That was all pre-flood and I haven't typed up a single word of it since which is disgraceful - its a short novel at 85,000 words approximatly - obviously this is a guestimate I have avearged words on lines etc... I did this for all the different note books its in and there are alot of them :/

But why am I writing about writing again? I am concidering my future yet again - if I am just stressed out then I need to think about academia seriously thats if I can go back after ending up in hosptial a second time on them :(. The same goes for business plans - stomach ulcers and IBS are both apparently acted up by stress so I need to actually look at my life and not fall apart.

I want to achive something with my life but writing is a gamble - especially as I can not spell for toffee and I do try (well most of the time my blog posts on here are a bit erm... I just want to write what I'm thinking and send it live and so is often not spell checked). The spelling is my bottle neck - I have missed submission deadlines waiting for people to spell check things for me which is frustrating and not their fualt they are busy people and there's no way I can pay for proper proof reading at least on shorts.

This has turned into a bit of a ramble hasn't it?