Perhaps only those with a heightened sense of time would venture out in such conditions, to walk the shifting, crunching shingle and to hold a defiant face up to the weather.
Perhaps only those with a heightened sense of time would venture out in such conditions, to walk the shifting, crunching shingle and to hold a defiant face up to the weather.
Just a young girl, hanging on, whilst desperate to let go. Hanging on, in touching distance of traffic and people, rushing, rushing, always rushing. With busy lives, places to be, money to make and dinners to cook.
I have not reached the age that I am without experiencing the good things and the not so good things that life has to offer.
When everyone faces the same way, they all see the same things. Walking down the street? Then look up rather than at your feet. In a city with tourists? Look away from the sights and the tour guides. Look behind the facade, face away from the masses and see what they are missing.
The sheer excitement of rediscovery. Finding something again after so long. Something that I really used to love. It's only been 39 years. Almost, but not quite, 40.
And of course, sometimes I will be spot on when I think this way. I am more than capable of being any of those things at certain times. We all are, no matter how hard we try. But often, mostly, it is just my mind working in a perverse, let’s not call this idyllic, kind of way.
A place that had once been busy and vital but now mostly forgotten by those that have moved on and a generation that knows no different.
Provoke and question. Shock and confuse. The faces of people tell a million stories when they first notice pictures like these and show their true feelings.
It's happened again. Out in the countryside, taking in the beautiful wild flowers in Sussex at the weekend, I heard those words.
And today I will be creating memories and collecting images and savouring every single one of them. Like every other day, but perhaps with a little renewed vigour.
However, there are some things that are beyond subjective when it comes to beauty. In fact, they are so far beyond that to even ask the question is likely to appear patronising or insulting.
Young yet confident, I had the feeling that she was part of a world I would never experience.
And you see sheep dotted across the hillside, in fact, now you notice them, you see them everywhere. Even at the top of the steepest slopes, way above you on the other side of the valley.
I like those the best. Where we just do something on the spur of the moment and live with the consequences, whatever they may be.
For me, today, it was when I heard the sound of birdsong through the open window and the first drops of rain on the roof.
Inspiration often appears, or so they say, quite unexpectedly. A look, a word or simply a thought and there it is. From nothing to something. Direction and purpose.
And there, in the slightly subdued world of exclusion and second best there exists, should we decide to look closely enough, a different level of beauty. A beauty accepting of its place and worth.