Did You Miss Me?

I think it’s time to start this again. It’d be a shame to quit completely when I’d only just begun.

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted. 1 year, 7 months and 18 days to be exact. A lot has changed in this time. I’ve had 2 new jobs, I've moved out of my parents house, then moved out of the house that I moved into. Much like a Victorian farm-labourer, I followed the sights, sounds and financial opportunities that can be found in the city. In fact, I can imagine these same labourers following a not too dissimilar route to me, leaving the agriculture-centric Craven district and finding work in Bradford. I don’t live in Bradford, though.

I miss being in the countryside more and more as the time goes on. I’ve been spending some time going back through my camera and looking at the photos I took during lockdown, when I started writing this blog and I’ve had my sentimental heartstrings plucked by them. It’s now been long enough for me to feel genuinely sentimental about the time I was living in when this blog began.

I miss writing here too. I always enjoyed writing about what I’d been doing, what I’d been seeing and my thoughts and feelings on life, the universe and everything. For me, it’s been a great tool to understand myself a little bit better and I always hoped that something I’d say at some point would stick with somebody and they could see the world the way I do, even if only for a second.

I think it’s time to start back up again, but we’re going to be noticing a few differences.

Don’t expect huge changes in my verbal ramblings. The way I think, by and large, will be the same. The way that my creative process works best is still the same. I will still be finding myself in these natural settings that so many of you enjoyed reading about. But with the change of setting will inevitably come some tonal changes.

My physical setting has changed, and my surrounding environment has always been the centre of this entire blog. Even when writing about my favourite pen (a personal favourite piece), it was my surrounding environment that had spurred me onto the thought. When writing, I’ve always seen myself as part of a wider picture. It’s always been me stood on the sojourn I’d recently taken, a part of the world around me. Now that I’m part of the hustle-and-bustle of city life, we’re going to see my self-perception change. It’s certainly something I’ve noticed. I’ve become more solitary. I don’t find myself connecting with the deep history of the land that my feet tread on a daily basis like I used to. Really, I think this is become it feels man-made, and the history that I’m connecting to is only as old as the buildings I see around me. I find that my daily walks exhibit are less enjoyable in themselves and are performed to get me ‘out of the house’, rather than for enjoyment in themselves.

I’m actively trying to change this. I’m trying out a new lens and it seems to be working. I think together we’ll be able to build something better, stronger and with a more stable foundation than what we had previously. Out of the rubble, we can build it together piece by piece and build something that’ll reach greater heights than what we had before (much like the building of the cairn that you see at the front of this post).

In the meantime, I appreciate you all bearing with me through this change and all and I hope you’re all looking forward to what lies in the future. I know I am.

Thank you,
F.