kelseybacon.com

We live in a road that is a loop, and on a hill.  We are at the top of the loop, on the downhill side of the street, with about a four foot drop form the street to the front step of our house.  We are also only maybe ten feet from the front walk to the front door, leaving us a little nervous when people do foolish things in our road. 

As I said, our road is a loop.  There is only one way in and out of it.  No matter which direction you go, you end up at the same place. 

So why, why, why do different people keep making u-turns in front of our house??? 

It is bad enough that teens on their scooters will use it as a race course!  If you are any good with your spatial relationships you can see from the cars parked on the side of the road that the road is narrow as can be.  But to flip one in front of our house when all you have to do is drive around the loop? 

And friend, this activity is performed by people who live in our street as well as by those who don’t.  It is not huge!  The entire road and the houses around it only cover about three acres! 

This is just one more reason your author and his family have little confidence in their fellow man. 

I propose that at the next election, each of the candidates are turned loose with a car on my road, and we all watch.  Anyone seen making a u-turn is automatically disqualified from the election and sent to the Midvale School for the Gifted!

I was going to go to a little town along the River Severn today called Chepstow, but as the rail strikes were called off, so were more than half of the services from Worcester to there, so I opted for the more expensive trip to Shrewsbury instead.  It is the birthplace of Charles Darwin,and the origin of the Origin of the Species.  It was in Shrewsbury that Darwin began collecting and cataloguing insects, this developing the interest and skill to study the Galapagos Island species a he did. 

My travels today will take me through stations stops at Droitwich Spa, Kidderminster, Hagley, Cradley Heath, Rowley Regis, Langley Green, Smethwick Galton Bridge (where I change trains), and continue on to Shrewsbury.

The station at Shrewsbury is beautiful. As seen in this photo here. 

I walked around and about through Shrewsbury only to find that there really is no museum for the Darwin Birthplace as such.  The house remains, but has an assessor in it, and the pottery shed where Darwin performed some of his early experiments is in the back garden of a house down Hermitage Walk and around on Darwin Gardens.  Clearly his father was not hurting financially as the house is huge, even by today’s standards. 

I also shot some photos around Shrewsbury which I include for you here. 

After leaving Shrewsbury, I decided to go on the train bound for Hereford to have a look around there, and with any luck, get there in time to shoot another few shots in the afternoon light. 

Here is a ride that takes me past Ludlow, where Prince Arthur died and changed the history of England forever, as this lead to Henry VIII becoming King and severing ties with the Catholic Church and forming the Church of England. 

But first I pass through wooded hills and sheep dotted vales and past stone cottages, over creeks and streams, and past country pubs, and a water treatment facility so small it could fit in a back garden.  English rural life is attractive in it’s simplicity, and in it’s beauty.  Of course, the region I am travelling in can barely be called England at all, for I am at times barely five miles from the Welsh Border.  I pass over the River Onny and near a pond, behind which there is a castle like fortification that turns out to be a house that it still used today, but obviously predates the Tudor times. 

From the train I can see Ludlow now, its castle looming over the town like a dark master whose ghost still subdues those over whom he recently ruled.  A recording announces in a Welsh Accent that “We are now at Ludlow.  The next stop is Hereford.”  Smoke arises from the trees from among the trees on the south hill giving a feeling of what it must have been like in ancient times as we pass out of Ludlow and into the Welsh Border Region over which the Castle once stood as guard of England. 

Clee Hill is not in sight.  I have been up there once.  From there you can see the back of the Malvern Hills, and from there you can get a feel for what Yorkshire is like.  Clee Hill is on the left of the train, and a giant Radar listening station consisting of a set of towers from which cables are suspended, make up two parts of a Cold War era listening station that is now part of a modern listening station that I believe is used be the Americans. 

Only fifteen minutes left on the train.  From here I can see it is cloudy in Wales. 

Off in the distance at Leominster is a beautiful stone Victorian house, left of the train as it pulls in.  This is not a scheduled stop! 

Finally we go forward.  Whomever did have a scheduled stop or a pass on the rails, must have gone ahead. 

Cadbury has a facility out this way that probably processes milk before sending it over to Bourneville.  Tudor houses, stone cottages, wooden bridges, and a dark tunnel fill the rest of the journey before reaching the five miles point where I have only a little way to go.  Green valleys and wooded hilltops surround the way into Hereford, and a 12th Century church spire pierces the sky. 

These are the memories of England I want to always keep, and the3 parts of England I will always love. 

Hereford was a matter of stopping in and shooting some interior shots of the Cathedral.  I have been many times before, though I admit I have not stopped in to see the Mappa Mundi yet.  I did just what I had hoped to and got those interior shots, and especially the little chapel under the Naive.  Then I walked over to Castle Green and also past a house called the Fosse.  Anyone from Hereford who knows it can see why I like it quite easily, but I think the best part of it for me is the conservatory which is on top of a floor that is over the garage.  The house is obviously well tended for and in very good condition.

After walking back to the tow
n centre, I found my right foot playing up so badly that i was not sure if I would make it back to the train station.  Of course, I did, and look forward to the ride across Hereford and Worcestershire, past Ledbury, Colwall, and Malvern, and a few other places I have enjoyed visiting over the years. 

It is 6:31 PM and I don’t expect the train for another 10 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, Worcester party kids are queuing up to get on, and the trip home may not be as peaceful as I hope for.  Never mind.  they are heading to Wales. 

The ride back to Worcester was fine, but the light was a bit low, not too many pictures. 

Some years back, when we were quite a bit worse off financially, we had to really be creative about decorating and furnishing.  We had a door on the box room upstairs which had a massive gap under it, and it all but closed.  Finally, one day we needed to get the door’s issues worked out once and for all so it would close, so we called in the help of the local council, from whom we rented the house, and they came along and replaced it with a new door.  Being the council, they did not remove the old door, but rather, left it here for us to dispose of.

Meanwhile, we had been searching high and low for a desk that would fit the alcove on the west end of the living room downstairs for some time, and were having no luck as everything we found was either slightly too big, or way too small. 

In the end I cut the bottom two panels off the door and cut them in half.  I also got hold of a massive board, maybe 3×5 inches by several feet long, that I have cut out of our attic as it seemed to serve no purpose other than to get in the way every time we went up there to put something in storage. 

Using the top half of the door for a surface, and the long 3×5 for legs, I made a desk that was anchored directly into the brick at the back of the alcove, and whose outer edge was supported by two legs cut from the 3×5, and placed at an angle so they came to the floor where the floor came to the wall.  This configuration positioned the legs so I could anchor them and they not get kicked loose, and so they were more out of the way for my legs as I sat.  It also made the desk strong enough I could sit on its outer edge with no fear of it coming loose or  breaking.  It was a very strong desk! 

The two panel halves from the bottom were turned into a shelf, and into a tray that slid out from under the desk surface on drawer slides I got out of the old kitchen cabinetry.  This tray was a perfect fit for my computer mouse and keyboard. 

When it was done, my wife looked at it with a scowl and said that it was not very much to look at.  I had sanded all the wood down on the top surfaces, exposing bear cedar, and I loved the smell.  There was no place left to compromise, and I let her tough it out. 

Over the years since, she has suggested a couple of ideas to decorate the desk, from paint to skirting which would hide the large legs.  But I still let her tough it out. 

Finally, as we are preparing to move house from here to America, I almost ceremoniously took down the desk yesterday.  After several years stood strong, and proud, it only took undoing five screws from the wall, and it was off once and for all.  As the pieces came down, and I broke the legs from the desktop, my wife watched in silence.

When I had finished breaking the desk to the point of no return, my wife looked at the heap on the floor and said, “you really did do a good job of that thing.”  Had she been speaking of my breaking it down, I might have been relieved.  But she was speaking of how I had built such a strong desk to serve my needs from only a door and a couple of pieces of wood. 

Kelsey J Bacon

Worcester, England

28 March 2010

I am one who finds Facebook friends to be a big list of friends that are in some cases insincere, and in other cases genuine.  So there is me, today, sending out two more requests.  Well, let’s see what happens.  One is a man who was married to my step-dad’s older sister.  He still is.  It is just that my step-dad is not my step-dad anymore, so I did not know what to do with that side of the family.  Much water under the bridge.  The other was to my aunt, Jeannie.  Trouble there is that her husband, who was my uncle, has died a few years back.  Would she want that sort of connection?  Who knows yet?  I will find out soon, I am sure though. 

Kelsey

Yesterday my grandmother called to tell me that she was making photocopies and then mailing off the paperwork we needed to get the family moved over to America.  I expect it in about a week to ten days.  We are also waiting for something from the Embassy, then we are good to go for the paperwork we need to send to tell them we need an appointment for a VISA interview.  Then we spend that month or so gathering up all our paperwork, and we are done and ready.  Depending on when we get the papers back from the embassy, we could be approved in as little as two months, and of course much longer. 

Date night with Missus tonight.  Something is on her mind, and I don’t know what.  But whatever it is, it has got her down in the dumps.  I wonder if this is all getting too close and too real for her.  But then, it may be nothing related at all.  Or it could be looking into an insecure future and not knowing what is next, is will happen in the near future.  I don’t know.  The big thing will be to make tonight a time when she is relaxed and feels easy and open to talk. 

KB

Today Katrina and I went down to the Post Office with a load of papers in hand and a pile of money to send off to London to the American Embassy.  The paperwork was for the boys’ VISA applications, and the money for them was the last big and unbearable hurdle before we have to ship our stuff and pay our airfare.  As we stand now, if we can go before 15 July, we will be able to get on the plane without paying an extra fare for the baby.  However, after we will have to come up with something like £700 more.  Maybe less, if we can get lucky on the fares. 

So, as of now, we need to get confirmation from the Embassy on what we have sent in today, then there is the bio info for them, and the letter stating we are ready for the interview.  We also have a pile of things to produce our end in the mean time, and then we go in and do the interview and we get Kiry’s birth registered, and her passport and SSN, and we are set.  If we get through the interview, then we are at last good to go..!! 

Today’s packet was a huge thing to get out of the way for us..!!  HUGE..!!

Kelsey

Worcester, England.

Today is like so many other days here in the UK.  It is overcast and the sky is pretty much white.  There are no bits of direct sunlight causing things to glow with golden hues and red tones.  Both the boys are sickly today, with bad bellies.  I need to get to a chemist to see what can be done about this.  Kiry will need a feed and freshening before departing, and Dylan will have to come with, though I am told to leave Jordan behind as he is old enough now.  So, there is a silver lining..!!  :-)  I am sure he will be thrilled not to have to walk..!!

The sounds of any cars can still be individualized, if there are any at all.  Also, the birds chirping and the sound be a breeze blowing a pop can down the street could as easily be in America as in Britain.  They sound exactly the same.  It is rare to find anything that really is the same. 

I am of two minds.  When I was in middle school I took some Stanford test to tell me if I was right or left brained.  I took a Facebook quiz a few days ago that tested the for the same, and both had the same results.  I am nearly dead centre minded thinker, which, according to the test, means I think creatively and analytically.  The example of Middle Brain Thinkers the Facebook quiz cited was Leonardo Da Vinci.  I am sure he had a much higher IQ though, even though I score pretty well there too.  So, when I say I am of two minds, I mean I think with two types of approach to things.  This creates a situation of paralysis by analysis for me because when I look at a problem, I see the solution from both approaches.  This means that while I can see a practical and creative solution, I also see all the pitfalls of it, and then destroy it be over analysing it.  This is a problem in and of itself that I need to solve, without tearing the solution to pieces. 

Intellectually, I know I am a snob.  I tested on another quiz that told me one of my greatest fears was stupid people taking over the world.  Funnily enough, I had already written that almost verbatim on my Facebook profile about 6 or 8 months before I took that quiz. 

Despite that, I do believe that there needs to be a space for everybody in the world.  This does of course include a space for me, which I don’t feel I am in.  Success does not always come to those who actually are capable, but also to those in the right situation and who are invited in by those who hold the keys.  I need to work my own lock and get it opened though. 

Of course, there is that two mindedness I spoke of at the beginning.  You would think that finding a solution to my marketing issues would be easy for someone who wants to work in art as I want to.  Photography is the greatest thing I can personally spend my time doing.  However, despite its rewards, I am also in need of money.  Money does not always come to a photographer unless he sells his work.  That is where the marketing issue comes to bear. 

One of the solutions obviously is to see how the successful pros do it.  But I know that by looking at a webpage, I won’t see the back of the plan, and what is being done in addition to the webpage.  That is where I need links and contacts who can help out.  Maybe it is time to mine Linked-In?  I need good tips from people who have made it, and tips that may be available to someone on my current income. 

Then again, if there is by chance anyone out there in the whole world who actually DOES read this little blog of mine, feel free to drop in a suggestion in the comments section!  Meanwhile, I will get my hat and boots, and my pick-axe, and my shovel and go a mining! 

Kelsey J Bacon

Worcester, England

(Curves and Levels adjustments done in GIMP, a free alternative to Photoshop.)

What could be lovelier than the lamps at Great Malvern in the snow?  It is as though I have just gone into Narnia.