So, a challenging photography assignment - this was the target
I set myself back in September when I wrote the piece below. The website software (Wordpress) is doing its best to prevent me from creating the look I want, so lots more frustration in prospect there. The verandah job however starts today.
It's not going to be an easy one. Jean is a close friend and a sometimes delightfully, sometimes frustratingly eccentric one. I also have to co-ordinate our builder friend Neville and a digger driver to get the ground work done, so the job has a much higher than average potential for "mission creep". This was the site this morning:
My first task is to screw 2x2 battens to the wall, fill the gaps with wool insulation (Jean is very keen on natural materials) then a waterproof breathable membrane and then clad with hardwood planks that Jean and her (sadly now dead) husband John had milled and stored in their barn. The timber is well air-dried now, but all different sizes.
Please feel free to comment!
13 September 2017
The days are drifting by. No sooner have I
brushed my teeth in the morning than I'm doing it again in the evening.
At the point where I got back from Iceland the
project that had driven me for the last 6 months ended abruptly. For all that
time I had been intensely focussed on the trip and all that went with it.
Suddenly my focus was blurred, and darkened by a sense of failure - that I had
not achieved as much as I had hoped. I was more than ever determined to become
a better wildlife photographer, but July is the off season for warm blooded
creatures - they've mostly done their breeding for the year and can take a bit
of time off. The only immediate goal I had was to get the van running properly.
What would happen after that was a confused jumble of intentions - writing?
More van conversion? Gardening?
Through July and August with the summer slipping
away, I felt that simply knowing the final total would be a relief. In a way it
was though worry about the cost gave way to a feeling of shame that I had
disregarded all the signs that the van had been hammered by the previous owner.
It was dirty, the door seals were frayed, everything worn and battered, but by
then I was up against the clock. If I was to do the conversion in time I needed
a van!
I was angry too - that the garage we had been with
for 18 years had led us into a dreadful spiral of cost and delay. Angry,
ashamed and too often tense, what I needed was a sense of purpose.
Now, I think I have found it. My Iceland trip had
shown that I could write a successful blog: I still hate the word - an ugly
portfolio of web and log - but it is a term almost everyone knows and
understands, so it will have to stay. I also discovered that the commitment to
updating a blog is a powerful incentive to completing a project. From being a
vague "thing I would like to do" it becomes a fixed goal with failure
not an option. There are lots of things I would like to achieve in the few years
of physical fitness which remain, but "becoming a better wildlife
photographer" is much too vague. How would I measure this? What would tell
the small world of those who read what I write, that I had proved to my
harshest critic - myself - that I had succeeded? A quick scan of proposals for
inclusion in my bucket list, and the answer is obvious: Which of the great
charismatic creatures would be the most rewarding to catch in mega bites, which
the most prized target to "shoot"? No contest; it has to be an eagle.
Which of the two eagles in Britain, Golden or White-tailed? Both of course.
Even for the BBC with all its resources this is a
tough one. Eagles have huge territories and where nests are known to the
conservation organisations they are kept secret. I would either have to locate
a nesting territory unknown to the conservationists, or prove my so far
non-existent credentials by volunteering, or pay someone local to help me.
All these cost money, and my base income - what comes
in each month without earning - would not cover it. I would have to find ways
of raising money, but that too could be an ingredient for the blog
.
There would also be some hefty physical challenges. You don't see Eagles by the roadside, and now that the last remaining
Hawswater eagle has died that means I would need to spend time in Scotland and
be ready to carry a heavy pack over many miles of rough ground. Scotland in May
can be cold and that means a constant struggle to keep my hands warm. All this
would be grist to the bloggers mill.
My one regret about my Iceland blog was that I didn't
have a card with a web address to hand out to people I met on route. I can
easily design a card, but it should be linked, not just to the blog, but to a
website from which I could sell things to raise money. Isn't it getting nicely
complicated? Let's get some order into it: a to-do list:
Get some help with a website. I plan to offer prints
and greetings cards from my pictures, but I've not made much progress yet with
setting up a new website to do this. I really need to rope in Chris Robertson.
Would he be OK about featuring in a blog?
Earn some money from woodwork: this means making real
progress soon on Jean Slater's verandah/conservatory. Will she be OK about
being in a blog?
Start researching the trip. I will need to read books
as well as search the web. More money needed, which leads to the next item:
Set up a budget. I can start with the one I did for
my last trip to Scotland.
