The Monolith of Hrepingas…

Buried deep in the folds and dales of middle England this memorial to the past stands a lonely sentinel. A witness to the whimsical eccentricities of the caprice of the chronometer. Its man made passage cataloguing vagaries of the follies of man.

Forgotten by its makers it stands alone a picket against all that nature can project at and against it.

What a load of bollocks! The problem is it was actually quite enjoyable putting such nonsense together. I asked Word’s AI co-pilot (I believe at the time of writing this is mostly OpenAI’s mussings – I could be wrong) to rewrite. It came up with some equally pompous nonsense which didn’t sound like me. Nor was it as much fund to concoct. I may not be the most eloquent writer but I do enjoy come up with my own brand of nonsense.

Of course the reality doesn’t match up to the syrupy twaddle. Perhaps the only ‘fact’ contained within it is that it does stand in or on the border of Hrepingas (the early Medieval name for the people who settled in and around what became modern Repton). Yes, the bales of straw are standing in the undulating countryside in Isley Walton and has a certain bucolic charm. Unfortunately, this is shatter either by a plane taking off from East Midlands Airport or vehicles racing around Donington Park.

Of course the reason for me standing in a field on the Leicestershire/Derbyshire border is that I am on the trail of images for the next photographic project – Paradise – Consumed. This will cover the district council area of North West Leicestershire (whilst it still exists). I have not really worked on this project much since the winter so my intention is to try and plough on regardless during the autumn and see where I am by Christmas. Wish me luck.

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Where to go from here?…

Good start but I really don’t know how to fill the central section. I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

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Autumn is here….

Thankfully, the new season has brought much needed rain. Praise the gods. My watch tells me to the nearest minute when the rain will arrive. Unfortunately the capricious weather god doesn’t seem to have read the memo. Instead of arriving in 8 minutes as reported by my watch it arrived a full 50% late at 12 minutes. Shocking inaccuracy.

As for these sketches. They are what they are. Not created by an AI app. At least the last time I looked I wasn’t artificial intelligence just good old flesh and slowly congealing blood.. But then, if I was an AI app would I know? Would you know? After all I do write a lot of gibberish (Ed. Note: This piece is exhibit No. 01!). Perhaps that makes me human after. all? Our tech lords (they are mostly if not exclusively male) would like us to believe their latest version of their specific AI is so good at writing etc. they are incapable of churning out this type of nonsense. (Ed. Note: The WordPress AI is having a fit with that last sentence.)

So there you have definitive evidence. I am not a robot. Or is that what a robot would say? Alan Turing must be spinning in his grave. (Ed. Note: This is impossible as he was cremated – well that’s what Google’s AI tells me!)

I’m going for a stiff drink!!!!

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Almost Autumn…

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Autumn is almost upon us. Technically autumn starts on the 1st September but nature abhors such neat lines. The summer bedding plants on their last legs and the nights are drawing in. Perhaps we’ll have a wet autumn. Lord knows we need it.

When I was walking around my local botanical gardens the other day the lawns were mostly dried out with just a hint of green.

A damp autumn and a wet winter will do the world of good. Thank goodness global warming is a hoax.

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The Summer Hut … No More

Life moves on. We are born, we live and we are not more. The Summer Hut is no more. The truth is I can’t recall when it was last used – probably before COVID. Still it was always there and now. No more.

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Post Colonial…

Every now and then I fell old. No really old. The latest occasion was whilst watching this short by the always watchable J.Draper. The purpose of the short is to quickly explain how money was denominated in the Victorian period. It is, as usual, a well put together short apart from one point. She talks about this as though it was something from the dim and distant past. How crazy was the money back then! Only problem is it wasn’t from the distant past but my childhood. Apart from the farthing this was the system I was taught and used! I am not a Victorian!

This started me thinking. How would I describe the period I have lived through? I suspect in generations time it may well be called Post Colonial. We were the first generation where there wasn’t anything left of the British Empire. We now live in a period where the world is trying to make sense of a shape and order created by the this empire. I think the best spin you can put on it is that there are some teething problems! (Ed. Note: example of British understatement!)

Of course one of the many problems facing modern Britain is dealing with this Imperial legacy. I think it is reasonable to describe that as also having teething problems! Perhaps in a hundred years, when we are all no more, people will look back on this time. They may wonder what it was all about. Or perhaps they might be cursing us for leaving them with a world significantly less benign than the one we grew up in. I hope it is the former. I’m far from sure about that!

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Catch Up…

This is how he wants things. He is the centre of the world’s attention. So yes of course I have made a DJT drawing. It is impossible to remove him from any conversation. Before any Trump hater in the USA decides to complain a majority of your fellow citizens, who bothered to vote, voted for the man. They knew what he was like and yet a majority voted for him. I don’t think there is anything else to say.

One of the joys/problems with using the iPad to create art is that you can do it anywhere. For me I find a lot of the time I’m sitting on my settee nominally watching something on the TV. Discuss.

However, just recently I have been getting up off of my settee and making drawings in the real world in sketch book. What is the world coming to?

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Heatwave No. 04

“…There’s a 4:30 in the morning now? …

Bartholomew Jo-Jo Simpson

Another heatwave. Out this morning walking through the dew.

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What Have I learnt This week?

Always look back at what you captured before. Perhaps you could improve it? Welcome to 2006/08 viewed through the lens of 2025 hardware and software. If only I hadn’t captured the first image as a JPG. So there is a lesson of the day:

Always shot in RAW with the largest sensor you can afford – you’ll never know what you’ll want to do with the image in 20 years time.

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London # 02

It is very easy to think that London is some form of special place. It is not. It is the product of almost two millennia of human interaction. The highs are incredible but the lows are vomit inducing. Each time I visit the city has changed in some small way. It will always be the place where a large number of humans live. Things can and will happen.

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