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As Autumn approaches, I’m reminded that in the glare of the summer we appreciated the shade from the noise.

When all the noise stops, the silence can become deafening. Apart from my annoying tinnitus, I’ve found the shades between distinction and disappointment can be refreshingly arresting.

For a while, again, I have been thinking about the trend of pausing and noticing… I’ve tried this before, it’s not as easy as it might seem. Truly stopping and hearing the gaps between the breaths.

On a recent commute, I stopped, on an unremarkable morning, entertaining a wistful intuition, I took a photo from the bridge over the river… Unexpectedly, it had a majesty.

I took another moment during a lunch break, and the photo captured some of the natural glory that surrounds us.

To embrace a certain expectation of that not seen. If you can try to forget everything you think you know… a silence, or a different noise, might be something to be treasured.

Language secretly pushes and prods every one of us in hundreds of directions we don’t see, until the only way to be careful with our words is to not speak…

We live amongst noise… both the publicised significant stories that delight and direct our days, but also the chaotic enigmatic bridges over rivers…

Our diarised sounds can be deafening, as bright lights are blinding, making the treasures hidden in our noisy days indistinguishable.

We live by noise and stories… if we might pause, listen and find delight in moments of, iron, gold, thorns, flowers… the smallest enigmatic variabilities we experience, the twist of a glowing neuron…

A chance conversation, an unexpected incident, a meeting or coincidence – the shining particle of experience…

I’ve said it before; IAM… Images, create Assumptions… which in turn create Motives…

Revisit those images, reduce the noise and perhaps resing an old song… ?

This summer we’ve been lucky enough to get carried away.

An opportunity to leave the habits of daily life behind. Weekly routines can become spirals… and the familiar can tarnish and jade… I was hoping for some form of maintenance mode.

So thanks to the wife‘s tenacity (again) we got carried away to the pop and glare of the Mediterranean climate. (Only to hear the UK had a touch of ‘heat’ also!)

Boom! ‘Saturation’ is a good summary. The Mediterranean light and colour, hits you; preposterous energy everywhere, bright high-vibrations, vehement light. It was less maintenance-mode more an assault on the senses. Or, perhaps less of an assault, more of an enveloping that enwraps you. When you step out of the ordinary into the bright heat, colour, sights and sounds… Seemingly over-saturating energy!

Here’s a snapshot of commonplace Cypriot colours that surrounded us daily: 

I slumped, sizzled, listening to cicadas singing. A thirty foot palm tree towers over a jasmine bush, lemons fall to the ground, a silk tree’s delicate feathery leaves flutter… the heat is intense… the tone of the shade is an utter delight.

Surely at home, an equally vibrant energy can be tapped into?

Perhaps our familiar native energies are just less harsh, less fierce, covertly accustomed…

Perhaps the overdose of flare and vibrance might make us appreciate the temper of the shadows. Perhaps the shadows we fear might be less shadowy, but more shades…

I guess it’s all about energy and temperament.

At home – When your teenage daughter shouts up “Dad, I’ve made you a fried halloumi and bacon sandwich!…”, the shades become somewhat warmer. The tone of the shade glows and scintillates a hint of a hue of pure energy, to be grasped and cherished with gratitude and then released – energy is never lost, only transferred.

Boom! ‘Saturation’ hits you; preposterous energy everywhere… more of an enveloping that enwraps you…. When you step out of the ordinary into colour, sights and sound… 

A friend put out a request – can anyone make this look nice?

It’s what I do… make stuff look ‘nice’, I guess. Not just nice, but I as graphic artist – I design the graphics on a page to form a visual that effectively relays a specific message*.

It didn’t take a lot to make this, become this…

They run a British Sign Language ‘meet up’ club at M&S Thurmaston.

A so to further promote the message, we created a few flyers and posters, and a social media image…

It’s what I do.

If you know anyone in and around Thurmaston or Syston that may benefit from meeting up at Sign Club, just send Ineke a message!

*I have previously created a little project about Sign Language here. But that’s another story.

I’ve been making a list of the stories I have read over recent years. I am not a big reader, but enjoy the random process of discovering new characters and encounters.

Why do we read fiction? I have written plenty about the benefits of reading for pleasure. But, I wonder, where does all that data go? How nutritious can reading fiction be?

Some stories I have read have had characters I remember fondly, some titles were vibrant at the time, but I cannot remember the story at all now. Sometimes the events in the stories are real and tangible, but as time passes this seems to fade.

It seems the library angel sometimes delivers the right book at the right time (which is nonsense, but is a nice thought). More realistically, our brain seems to link up past and current thoughts and feelings, join dots, and equate meaning and pattern from chaos and confusion.

The act of reading fiction helps emulate meaning behind the concepts and notions that life throws at us. But how much we invest, digest and reflect from the experience is up to us I guess.

Anyway, above are some of titles that I have enjoyed over recent years… not sure what this says about me… but here’s a link to a list, if you’re that interested;

List of fiction titles and authors that I’ve enjoyed.

At the school I support, reinforcing our visions and values is an ongoing ambition…

Here we’ve brightened some empty stair wells with some simple graphic ‘expectations’…

As the windows are conduits to outside, these graphics are similar to the signage installed on the scholars’ outside exercise spaces. The idea is that this mirrors the outside environment, making these empty stairwells more dynamic.

A simple project with a positive impact.

Graphic Repro – it’s what I do.

It’s taken 10 weeks… from Late Feb to early May. The anticipation has been exciting. The result is an umbel of simple white flowers.

Today it’s Flora Day in Helston, in my homeland county of Cornwall, and it seems perhaps fitting that our VF’s flowering has peaked.

Below is just a simple record of our Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) flowering.

Searching online, there are numerous places that say unless you are an experienced grower you should cut off the budding stalk and not let it flower. Flowering can be exhausting for plant.

The advice above seems contrary to the natural order. Yes, growing a plant in pot in a kitchen window may be contrary to the natural order, but that’s another discussion.

Our plant has shown signs of exhaustion over the last few weeks. It seems to have put all of it’s energy into the flowering.

I’m not wanting to overdoing the analogy but, in our daily lives, we put a lot of effort in to many things; both the everyday demands and the extraordinary achievements that we are part of can take a lot of our energies. We require fuel and support to do these things, and after a specific period of effort and toil we may need time, space and fuel to recover.

Give yourself time, and be proud of your achievements, no matter how familiar or simple they may seem. Perhaps.

Amongst other things, I’ve read three charming books this Spring…

Four vibrant stories that took me to imaginary places, and at the same time altered my reality…

The President’s Hat by Antoine Laurain

The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain

Geraldine Verne’s Red Suitcase by Jane Riley

(I also enjoyed Jane Riley’s ‘The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock‘ last year.)

Coincidentally, a friend recently asked “When you close your eyes and imagine something – a picture, an object, a place etc…Can you see it? Can you see these things with your eyes shut?”

It seems that some people don’t see things the same.
Aphantasia is a phenomenon in which people are unable to visualize imagery. Whow?!

What is y-our reality?

‘The things that we think/see {ellipsis} ‘, that’s our reality. We all respond to what we are presented with very differently. From waking in the morning, our brain takes over… “Fancy a… coffee, tea, juice?” #choice #difference

This spring break, we’ve been down to the tip of our island… Back to a place of ellipsis, where people leave out unnecessary stuff. A place of relative contentment. A place of elemental rugged rustic black and white. Sparkling mica, rolling waves, flourishing campions. A place of roots and wrecks.

Wasson? There’s so much potential in the gaps between words…

As we return from the edge, the foliage of consumer culture thickens. The rhythms and vibrations, the colours and mechanics that make up our world incite noise. We build signs and significance over and above the elements that made us. Words and pictures that distort the truth, glare and blind, intoxicate and enchant…

When you see things, what do you see? What do you imagine?

In addition to the above we watched a ‘charming’ film last night, that used hardly any words… Davidson and Warbeck’s The Man In The Hat #delightful 

Images…  May your day become exponentially effervescent…

Contact cards… “You talk, we’ll listen…”

Sometimes it’s good to just talk it out.

Many of us live a cluttered life, and juggling thoughts and emotions can prove challenging. A neutral shoulder and someone who might just be there to just listen can sometimes be just the tonic needed. 

A pal of mine spends time as a chaplain at a midlands shopping centre. Yes, those hard-working shop workers might need respite or solace too. 

“You talk, we’ll listen…” says the chaplaincy which provides a confidential, pastoral listening service.
The service is free for centre staff experiencing anxiety, grief, stress, struggling with illness, difficult decisions or overwhelmed by life.
It’s someone who will listen without judgement…

My small role has been to design some contact cards to spread the word. Interaction and leaving your details is still a great way to start conversations.

The last six months has seen three postcard-sized card drops.

The service started last year.
They dropped off a seasonal postcard in December.
And are delivering a Springtime thank you this month.

If you have a need for print publicity, if I can help, just ask.

Do you remember the feeling…
sitting on the ground, aged five-ish, or six, or seven? The tarmac gravel of the schoolyard, or the road outside your house? The little stone chips that stuck to your short-trousered legs or your palms. The smell of summer stone. Do you remember cleaning the scab that grew over the graze.
Do you remember the cut grass on your jumper? 
The sand in your hair?
The fire’s smoke in your clothes?
The sticky fingers from a currant bun bigger than your hands…
The sweet smell of Coke from a can…
The sound of the train or the plane in the rain as it roars past as loud as the loudest thing ever to pass by this way then… silence.
The birds, and a church bell.

Then… Concrete Cows, Grange Hill and Dallas…
Then thoughts took over from feelings, plastic took over the elements, we built stuff, and made stuff, our perspective changed as we grew up and away…

We were closer to the ground back then. Do you remember the feeling…?

I make images… #julesprichards It’s “what I do“.