It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

... with a heavy snowfall in Northamptonshire last night. The timing was perfect as I am currently working on my third book, A Winter's Tale - The Countryside between Harvest and Easter, and needed some new snowy landscape shots. Pity that the sky wasn't blue, but you can't have everything!

It's always nice to see your work valued by others and I was pleased to see that one of my old pictures (above) was chosen as a runner up in the Killeen House Photographic Competition. This was shot of Lough Erne in Co Fermanagh, and was taken with my little Sony T7 compact camera - it just goes to show that you don't always need expensive equipment to get a prizewinning shot in the bag!

Here comes the rain again

... as the old song went... it does seem to be wet every day now. This has been going on for most of November and December is starting out in the same way. The people who live on rivers, such as the folk at Tewkesbury where I was last week, must live in a constant state of nervous anticipation - but not ina good way!
I have just been commissioned to start a new book, based around activities and scenes in the county during the period from harvest to Easter;the publishers are hoping for lots of Christmas card snow scenes, no doubt... well, there will be some but I suspect that they will be from my archive unless the temperature drops significantly to allow a good fall of snow to settle. Otherwise it may be a tale of wet leaves and shiny cottage roof tops!
Folk who live in a true urban environment, like can't ever appreciate the disruption that bad weather brings to the countryside. Although I do live in a suburban area, my love of the country means that I try to get out into the fields and lanes as often as possible, and that is when you notice the sodden ground and full ditches which threaten to cause problems later in the winter. Farmers will have planted winter wheat and barley which is now sitting in a paddy field like environment... perhaps rice might have been a better crop!

The Proof is not in the pudding

... but in the post! I put the corrected proofs of my next book in the post today, which is always a strange feeling... all that effort and then it is all sealed up in a brown envelope and sent off!
The nice thing is that my publishers have asked me to start work on another book for publication next Autumn. More news on this later!
A busy weekend coming up... Saturday will see me at the gallery and also in Stamford, while Sunday is lunch with friends to celebrate my birthday....

Friday 13th!

So it's Friday the 13th eh???

I think it will be a good day, because I have a dear friend coming to stay - my old mate Paul Blest who is over here from Tasmania will be spending the night with us and no doubt we will visit a nice pub !
I received the proofs of my seconfd book today - they are looking ok, and just need a few minor typos correcting. This is not due out until next March so it's good to see my publishers getting on with it so early - the book is called A Boot up Shropshire Hills and it contains 10 different walks in the county. Great for popping in the car for those spur of the moment "what can we do?" moments. I had great pleasure when I was photographing this area, as I have fond memories of my youth walking around Long Mynd and Stiperstones, and more recently have discovered many friends in the county - it gives me an opportunity to catch up with them too! Although it won't be in the book, Ironbridge is a favourite place. I used to go there before it became the tourist honeypot that it is nowadays;there was a little cafe that had a great pinball machine and good cappucino, right by the bridge. The shop is still there but now it is a made over "olde worlde" affair. The bridge remains a marvel of the Industrial Revolution - cast and constructed down the river in Coalbrookdale, it truly changed the way that the world was heading. I'm happy though that only the birth of the Revolution took place here, and developments quickly moved to the South Staffordshire coal fields, otherwise the pastoral county of Shropshire may have been very different.

I have tried to post a picture of the Ironbridge that shows it differently to the thousands that must exist already - I like the way that this shows the contrast between the rich woodland and the harsh grey iron-strangely enough, the quantity of iron needed was only possible because of the trees being turned into charcoal for smelting the ore. Man is ever inventive!

Books for Sale!!!!

I am just back from an enjoyable couple of hours at Waterstone's in Kettering where I was signing books with two other local authors,Ron Greenall and Nick Saunders. Ron's book is a History of Kettering, whilst Nick's is a collection of Gothic horror stories, that he has been writing since his teens. This was all part of the first Kettering Book Week, which hopefully will become a bigger annual event in years to come. It never fails to amaze me, though, how books "written" by so called celebrities, sell in their thousands, when really good works by lesser known individuals struggle for shelf space! Surely we are not all SO interested in what someone off the telly did when they were a kid???? Most of these autobiographies (oh yeah...) are mind numbingly ordinary tales of how they grew up, but don't really provide much of an insight into anything new - and I htink that few celebrities will tell "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!" (Unless they are Andre Agassi!!!)
Well, we three local writers enjoyed a lovely wide ranging chat and even sold a few books, before being photographed for the local newspaper- see the pic here. This was quite an odd experience for me, as just recently I have been taking news shots and organising the subjects - " look this way, move your head a little...smile etc"
And finally...a clever literary joke!
I heard a wonderfully clever advertising slogan today from a friend - it was a sign on the window of a camping shop - "now is the winter of our discount tents!"- isn't that clever! If I liked camping I might be tempted to buy one!

Signing Books again!

Tomorrow I will be at Waterstone's book store in Kettering, Northants, as part of the first Kettering Book Week, where I will be signing copies of my first book of photographs and local interest, Northamptonshire - The Glorious County - published by Halsgrove at £14.99. This book would make a great gift for anyone who knows Northamptonshire or who used to live in the county and would like to be reminded of home. BBC Radio Northampton's John Griff described the book as "evocative" and informative

Interview on BBC Radio Northampton

Last week I was interviewed on BBC Radio Northampton to discuss my journey from the cancer ward and intensive care unit, to the publishing of my first book of photographs and subsequent exhibitions. Presenter, John Griff, was excellent and very clear on his understanding of how the world looks after a major illness like cancer, and was a great person to be interviewed by. I managed to grab a couple of nice informal photographs of him too, and look forward to meeting John and his producer,Julia,again one day

First thoughts

As this is my first blog entry I will keep it simple - hello! I will be updating frequently with news about my recovery from cancer and my entryinto the photographic world, my books, my gallery and my occasional radio appearances!