Pushing Boundaries

The main blip picture shows my friend Hywel Griffiths QPM, BSc, KFC, OAP (the last two are bogus but shows his sense of humour as he often puts them after his name) looking at a retirement card at his leaving do tonight. The man with the card in his hand is former Welsh Rugby legend Gerald Davies.

Hywel was a dog handler with the police. I first met Hywel in the early hours of the morning, sometime in 1997, when we followed a 'scent' along the old Machen railway line following the scene of a burglary. The first thing that struck me was his blonde hair and the fact he looked too young to be a Police Officer. Afterwards we had a chat and it turned out we lived in the same village.

Not long afterwards, life took a challenging turn for Hywel. The link does a great job of explaining that journey. Rather than take things easy he obtained a degree in his own time with Open University, and changed roles to become a detective in the intelligence unit, whist at the same time raising awareness of Parkinsons. He has written a couple of books. It is a really cruel disease and he raises money and awareness of it by writing and attending events.

I was on the police disability forum with Hywel and I remember one time we stopped off at a transport cafe. I had to help him with his food and we got a lot of stares with people thinking he was drunk.

He asked me to take yesterdays photo of a daisy. He was too busy tonight for me to ask him the significance - maybe it's because weeds keep growing whatever you do to them?

The extra is of him and his identical twin brother saying a few words of thanks to everyone and opening the buffet. His brother does not have Parkinsons - strange how nature decides things.

This weeks Wide Angle Wednesday tag was 'widwed24'
There were nearly 30 entries (three mistagged!).  In my humble opinon, the best five in order are:

1.  Crispin25 (a lovely picture of a long row of Beach huts)
2.    Richy    (a mono picture of a whole building taken with iPhone)
3.  Cowgirlcarol    (a trailer and lovely extra of a beachscape)
4.  Fairweathergirl (a panorama at the top of the mountain)
5.  Richardg   (a very nice waterfall scene)

Mention in dispatches;
a)   Hibou    (washing line panorma)
b)  GEO2B   (fisheye scene)
c)   isbi        (lovely mono of three children on ride)


Thanks to all who tagged their pictures for the challenge. They were all good and I had a tough time - I hope you agree with some of my choices!

Next's weeks tag is 'widwed25' - don't forget the hashtag before it! Photo's taken on the Wednesday. Maybe we can look at any wide subject plus a theme from May?