Category: DO

Oxford on a Shoestring

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Living in London is great when you want to get away from the place, if you know what I mean.  The city is so well connected with an abundance of train stations heading to all parts of mainland UK and for those further afield places there are an ample sufficiency of airports or and ferry terminals within easy reach.

But living in London is also expensive and it’s easy to open your purse to find nothing but coffee receipts.  So I set myself a challenge to take a day trip away from the big smoke but I wasn’t allowed to spend more than £30 and that had to cover my transport there and back, food and any activities I got up to.  Here’s how I got on.

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Shades of Autumn

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Before the fallen leaves turn to mulch allow me to share why I think Autumn is more than just cinnamon spiced lattes and pumpkin pies.

Spring is often thought of as the time for new beginnings but let’s not forget that new starts can’t happen before old skin’s been shed.  Autumn is nature’s way of shaking off the old in preparation for the new.  But it’s not always easy to say goodbye to things you’ve held on to all year and so each species of flora bids farewell to their old selves when they are ready, and not a minute before.

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Book Club: The Moth

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img_8491I came across The Moth while browsing the stand alone displays of one bookshop or another and something about the cover commanded me to stop in my tracks.  Perhaps it was the promise of an introduction by Neil Gaiman or maybe my own inner moth was drawn to the golden glow of the lightbulb suspended front and centre on the cover.  Whatever it was that cast its spell on me, moreso than all the other books on display I had to know more.

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be a storyteller.  Someone who can turn a tale and transport the listener (or viewer in the case of my work) to another time and place for a moment or longer.  The cover’s promise of 50 extraordinary true stories had me hooked and I was keen to know more.

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Dawn of the Photograph: Fox Talbot at The Science Museum

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It frequently happens moreover – and this is one of the charms of photography – that the operator himself discovers on examination, perhaps long afterwards, that he has depicted many things he had no notion of at the time.

-William Henry Fox Talbot, ‘The Pencil of Nature‘, 1844

Until two weeks ago I had never heard of William Henry Fox Talbot.  But as a fan of picture taking, from the humble smartphone selfie to the supped-up DSLR snap, I owe him my thanks.

A Sunday trip to the Science Museum placed me face to portrait with one of the forefathers of modern day photography.

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