One Street

Kendallishire has suggested a challenge for those inclined to take it up of blipping one street, inspired in part by Ursula LeGuin poem from the book she did with Roger Dorband, Blue Moon Over Thurman Street.

The notion behind the challenge is intruiging for me. One of the aspects of blip that I've valued is the deeper and more frequent "noticing". Certainly my relationship, appreciation and involvement with the moor I live on has been developed through my blipping. Restricting the "frame" in this way suggests more possibilities in terms of noticing, understanding and relating beyond the mere photographing.

So here goes, The Grove, Ilkley

Do you remember the world before amazon.com?, the streets of our towns have probably been influenced more by this webdomain than anything else in modern times I would suggest. The world of bookshops (the real world I'm talking about here) probably affected more than any other, it seems that we read more and more but visit book shops and libraries less and less. Certainly the world of an independent bookshop seems a precarious one and even the bigger national/international bookshop chains seem to struggle. I love to spend time in a good bookshop, it is one of life's great pleasures for me, the quiet discovery, the interaction with how the books are currated, often the comments left as recommendations or guides by the bookstore itself, sometimes the discussion with other customers and owners about books. All of these have led me to suprise (to me) choices and engaging with something new and often welcome choice, more than my online book buying. Just noticing reminds that I ought to consider giving them my custom more - with the current issues in the UK about tax "avoidance" by the amazon.co.uk amongst others, I suspect that in terms of tax on profits I'd be more comfortable ethically shopping in town.