I love taking photographs, so I started a pictorial advent calendar over on Facebook four days ago. These are photo(s) of something that provokes emotion: they make me smile or laugh, make me sad or angry. Here are the first three days:
DECEMBER 1ST: PEMBROKESHIRE BEACH
Barafundel beach, Pembrokeshire on a late August afternoon. The exceptionally low tide meant that we could go around the headland to the adjacent beach – usually inaccessible – and much to our astonishment there were all these caves we never knew existed. I spent a lazy hour scrambling over rocks and photographing interesting nooks. This is my favourite shot.
DECEMBER 2ND: MILTON KEYNES MOON
Leaving the sports hall last night after jujitsu, we stopped to stare at the moon, which was not only really bright but had a multi-coloured halo around it. The words to Shining Light by Ash came to mind:
You are a force, you’re a constant source
Yeah you are a shining light
Incandescent in the darkest night
Yeah you light up my life
DECEMBER 3RD: LILY’S BOWLS
My great aunt Lil was a small but feisty welshwoman with a wicked sense of humour who loved to chat. She was a primary school teacher all her life after her marriage was tragically cut short. First her baby David died and then her husband of TB and she was widowed with a young stepson to raise. She left Newcastle and returned to live with her mother in Pembroke Dock in the house in Laws Street.
Her first teaching job was as a supply teacher. In a rural farming community in the 1920s very few people had cars, so to reach the school she either walked or got a lift in a farmer’s cart. I can just imagine her perched up on the cart entertaining the farmer with her chatter; she liked nothing better than a captive audience.
Whenever we visited her as kids we used this set of bowls for pudding; fruit salad, rice pudding or her favourite, apple pie. They aren’t anything special but she was very attached to them because she bought them out of her first wage packet as a present to her mum.
When she died aged 98, I chose to keep them in memory of her. I love stuff that has been well used and has a story behind it for that way you can connect to your own history.
Soon they will be 100 years old.
Anecdotes of an Alto 