Willow in the Moonlight (2016)

Firstly, THANK you ALL very much, for such a welcome, yesterday! It was like coming home! So many familiar Blippers with open arms! 

I really appreciate that - very much, probably more than you might know.

Thanks for asking about my father. 

As you may recall, he went into hospital three days after his 83rd birthday, back last July - and the silly sod went and died in there a month later. 

As you can imagine, it was hell going in almost every day, very often on my own, no responses from him in any way, in a locked geriatric ward. Soul destroying. He never responded to 'treatment' - perhaps he was unable to, perhaps he didn't want to. 

Life afterwards was - and still is - a mixture of swimming against the tide of slowly setting concrete. You never feel "right". So called friends suddenly disappear - "that's human nature" was the only response I got from one, when pushed for an excuse. If that's what being a human is, well f*ck them.

So, for six months I did.

I photographed everything and at all hours of the day and night. Often all day and all night. I didn't talk to anyone, just clicked away. An Italian site, based in Italy, where I could always hide behind the often dodgy Google 'translations'  was an ideal place to build up my portfolio. 

So, yesterday's come-back Blip was a testing toe in the water - to see whether I would be welcomed, if I even was remembered. 

So, ultimately, this evening, after a big argument with my brother on the phone, I trudged out in the sharpest frost of the winter, my big tripod, my big coat and big walking boots, to my favourite weeping willow. I took shots from 11.30 to 2 a.m. Salisbury Cathedral's gentle chimes marking the quarter hours. The two-thirds moon glistening strongly on the misty river. Strangely, I was completely alone (apart from the occasional squawking wildfowl) - I guess minus 6 C keeps away kids getting drunk or high in the park...

I will keep up my progress on Juza primarily as I have built from scratch, from an English nobody to one who is about to get into their list of Top 40 photographers, out of a membership of 85,000 - and most of them absolutely brilliant photographers at that.

Lastly, I do have to - and wish to - thank both AnnH and David M Rock Area for keeping me posted with Blip, by email and phone and with Ann,  who joined me on Juza - we had a few "crossed wires" (as she politely put it) when I probably went off on one of my huffs...but mostly we had lots of great 'chats' often late into the night.

I have to add, that if you think father left squillions for me to buy lots of photographic goodies and meet up with every Blipper in the world, well, sadly, no. All was spent on his care, which is how it should be, really.