Wooden Boats

Welcome to my neighbourhood everybody, it's about time I showed you all around! The truth is, if you've been reading my blog long enough... you will have already had a few snippets of where I live as the Kennet and Avon canal system is a regular haunt of mine and a place I will truly miss when I graduate at the end of this year. 

It's funny how when you realise that your remaining time with something is limited, that thing suddenly becomes precious and you tread more carefully around it. I have taken Bath for granted a lot over the last few years that I have been studying here, but now I know I will be going home at the end of the year, I am endeavouring to cherish every inky, lamplit street, each passing hot air balloon in the sky and the sound of buskers in the streets. The opulent architecture has ruined me for every other city (Except Edinburgh of course) and suddenly I realise that I will be going back to a sleepy land where shops don't open on Sundays and going-out culture involves a bonfire on the beach, acoustic instruments and an abundance of mulled mead and scrumpy (the latter, I much prefer).

Although it is beautiful to look at, I always find myself on the outside of Bath life, for the culture here is largely focused around buying and luxury and well, I'm the kind of girl who buys second hand clothes, picks up walking shoes from the car boot sale and trades a lot of my stuff with friends. Like these dungarees for instance, they used to belong to Alex, but I swapped them for a jumper my Nan had been trying to find a home for because it was too small for me. Now we're both happy and we didn't have to spend a penny. It's not that hard, I like to think it keeps the clutter down too. I feel guilty buying new things when homes need to be found for things that already exist, otherwise they go to waste and then all the effort put into their creation was for nought. You may think, she's an only child; what does she know about hand-me-down life? Most of my childhood was spent wearing clothes that Nan had been given by my older cousins Emily and Mary-Ann and I never minded one bit. I think I would be just fine living with the Weasley's. I love big, noisy families; I guess that's why I love George's family so much. I love the chaos, the community and the fact that it's perfectly normal to spend an evening singing sea shanty and folk songs at a family get-together or that between them they know absolutely everything there is to know about country living. I love that we do archery and air rifle shooting in the back garden on a Sunday afternoon like a bundle of hicks and that his Granddad knows how to skin a rabbit (sorry vegetarians for that bit of tmi). 

Here is the locks behind our house. I absolutely love sitting out on the grassy parts in the warmer seasons, watching the boats chug by whilst eating dinner and thinking how wonderful it is that this little oasis exists inside this valley of buildings and spires. I think most of all, I'm going to miss Bath's chimney pots and water ways. I always find it entertaining when walking along the canal, that I can out-walk the barges- they are so slow, but I think there's something in that. I imagine to drive one, would slow down time for you, you could look at everything with more intensity and take more time to take it in. I think we do things too quickly these days, that's perhaps why life goes too quickly. Everything is about speed and efficiency. We hate being stuck behind slow people in the crowd, or slow cars on the motorway but to chug along a canal ever so slowly - I reckon that's a fine thing. Did anyone else go as mad for Rosie and Jim as I did when we were tots? Seeing these little rag dolls gave me all the feels. 

I am delighted to say, that I am planning on taking this year a whole lot more slowly. I have left my  retail job. Although I love the brand, I found retail difficult for somebody like me; I am clumsy because of my dyspraxia and I was constantly getting bruises and injuries from damaging myself on railings, hooks and clothes hangers. It also saddened me on Christmas eve and boxing day, with customers flooding through the doors that people would rather be out spending money and buying stuff on this precious, family holiday than be at home with their loved ones. That utterly shocked me and broke my heart. Those aren't the reasons I left though, I left because I had well and truly bitten off more than I can chew - I need to not only focus this year on my dissertation modules, but also on working on preparing myself for life after uni. I want to be part time freelance and better my creative skills, push my photography business and expand my skill set so that I can offer more services such as illustration and design. With two jobs, plus my wedding photography work, and third year degree, it was a surprise I found any free time at all and I was slowly going bananas, my humanity ebbing away with my youth as I slowly transformed into a work-mule. That's not who I want to be, I want to live my life for myself and values/people I believe in. That's why I want to try my hardest at being self employed because then I can create work I truly believe in for lovely people. It will also permit me to live my life in the place I love. 

How considerate that somebody took the time to make a little puddle bridge? This afternoon I went on a little walk by myself with camera and tripod in hand for the sun shone weakly for the first time in a good while. I do love the winter light, it's charming and silvery and with the temperatures as lukewarm and mild as they have been, I barely had need for a jumper. I still can't get my head around the fact that December is the height of summer on the other hemisphere! Australia are all feeling pretty sun soaked right now, meanwhile here all our chimneys are puffing away. Still, no snow coming our way down south and I've got a sad feeling that it won't be at all this year. 

People ask me a lot of questions about photography, mostly if I can do a photography post. I did one back in the summer where I thought I'd try and cover everything that was important about shooting on a DSLR in manual, but people still ask, so you guys, please ask me exactly what you want to know :) I'm here for you! While you can see from these photo's that I'm by no means perfect, particularly when it comes to self portraits. This is one of three times when I've taken it upon myself to take self portraits and it's an art I'm still getting the hang of. Despite the fuzziness and imperfections, I'll tell ya'll what I know anyhoo :) 

• I highly recommend a 50mm lens for portraits and ease of carrying around. It's not great at landscapes but if you want a lovely portrait or detail shot, you have to take the plunge and brave shooting in manual. Put your F number down to something nice and low like F/2 or F\2.8 and you'll get a nice shallow depth of field (blurry background). This entire post was photographed on a 50mm Nikkor lens for Nikon. I am a firm believer that everybody can benefit from a 'Nifty Fifty!' :) 
• Winter light is BREATH TAKING. I know it's raining a lot right now, but the moment the skies clear it's time to jump outside and get snapping. Because the sun is lower in the sky, everything is in permanent sunset mode but with a more silverly, weaker and delicate light. You won't have problems that you normally get shooting in the warmer months with stark daylight portraits, you can get out at midday and take lovely lit shots without any harsh shadows and awkward contrast. Winter is the time for taking some great portraits. 
• If you're like me, trying to take self portraits for whatever reason, be it for blogging, fun, college/uni projects, vanity (not judging here!) then a tripod and remote shutter are your best friends. I put my settings onto 'remote mode' with a 2 second delay after I press the remote button, as this gives me a chance to sneakily hide that little control so that it doesn't invade my shots and look obvious :) 
• Focusing this way is a pain. Stick to manual focus and use something nearby like a distinct rock, branch or plant that you can go stand by. I still haven't mastered this... 
• I edit in Lightroom although I appreciate that it's kind of pricey and not everyone has the budget for this. It depends how seriously you take photography. If you don't care much about editing, there's some free editing sites online so the fates tell me, however I have never used one of these. I had the fortune to always have access to Photoshop at Uni and then last summer, I saved up to buy Lightroom. If you can get the exposure right in the first place though when taking the photographs, you shouldn't need to edit :) I don't do a great deal to my pictures unless I'm trying to bring things out of the shadows or bring detail back into a bright sky. 

Dungarees: Free people c/o Alex   |   T-shirt: Joy   |   Shoes: Vans  

 Some people's neighbourhoods are houses, but we're lucky because we get to have houses and boat neighbours. The community of people who live in the boats is a vibrant one and people always smile and bid you good day as you pass by. Their pets sometimes rush out to greet you and you get all sorts of smells of their cooking wafting out (and sometimes rather herbal smells :P). Ocasionally, they're out chopping wood or painting their boats and its such a charming, if not chilly-in-the-winter way of life. I would dearly love to live on a canal boat or in a small log cabin, but the Mr has more grandiose ideas about central heating. hot water and fridges. sigh.

So here it is, all fresh and new; 2016. For me, it doesn't at all feel like a fresh start but a rolling continuation of days, dusks and inky nights. Although the calendars forge our pathways and dominate our plans, I don't set a lot of personal store by them. I feel more in tune with the weathers, solstices and tangible, physical elements like seasons. Dates and calendars are just a concept, for instance in other countries, their new year is completely different to ours. Learning this has only diminished their importance to me. It's nice to make a marker though for the year and be able to reflect on what has happened in the space of that time, but my chapters weave their beginnings and endings through experiences rather than the passing of time. Sometimes those chapters overlap like experiences; new relationships, new ventures and new places.  For me, coming to Bath was the beginning of a chapter, a marking point and this summer marks the end of that chapter. I know that I'll look back into my memories and photographs and reminisce about the time I lived somewhere else, the time I didn't live in Cornwall. That's why I'm glad to have this blog, because it allows me to do just that - but with words too. Words are like smells and songs, they help repair a fading memory.

Friday, I am excited for George and I will be packing our suitcase and venturing to new places, places I have never been to before to visit old, old friends. Friends who speak a different language to us. I've been manically watching cartoons and listening to radio shows in their native tongue in my efforts to recall all of what I know of that language, for I couldn't bare to have forgotten how to communicate with her. My darling Clementine, my little Orange, I will see you soon.