The Constant Gardener

New Year's Day. Visited my parents in the sleepy village. I took Tom and Alex to see them as they had not been to Tamano for a while, and also my older brother and his wife, eldest daughter and her daughter would be there. Good chance to catch up with family over the festive period.

Before the traditional steak pie lunch, I took my lads for a wander around the garden; 6 acres of wood and grassland - in an effort to burn of excess energy and blunt the keen edge of boredom the festive season can hone for young, boisterous boys. This is Alex taking a wheelbarrow for a walk.

It's worth recording why I am back at blipping after trying to do this some years ago. An acquaintance blips and I liked the look of it; I felt that I would enjoy taking a picture every day and recording life this. I had tried to blog about being a father with limited success, and wanted to try another way of noting what was going on.
About 2 weeks after I signed up for blipfoto, I was (rightly if harshly) taken through a disciplinary procedure at work, and my wife took this opportunity to grab power in the relationship.
Blipfoto was seen by her as an example of me wasting time online, messing about with photographs and other such fripperies, and because I had done wrong and was putting her through hell (there was a considerable pressure on us and the threat of dismissal was there, if distant).
From that she bullied (or more accurately ramped up the bullying) and as she increasingly used my indiscretion at work as a stick with which to beat me.
The very long story cut short is that in the intervening few years have seen the relationship founder and ultimately die, with us having separated and me moving from the family home to my own place towards the end of last year.
So, 2014 is the year of moving on, forward. Rediscovering some things, discovering others. And blipfoto is something I am back to.
Since I signed up for blipfoto, I have moved from an office based job to doing pretty much the same job, but as a mobile worker. I know get to spend alternate days out of the office, and I tend to cycle, so suddenly the opportunity to stop and photograph random things you see, or indeed take slight detours to ensure you get to take the shot you want is there in abundance.
So, 2014. A record of my move from married man to single father and journey I take......