12 September 2010

A Spitfire, Some Grapes and a Folly

Today I decided to take my camera and walk a route I frequently run. It took me at least ten times longer to walk one stretch of path than it normally takes me to run it, owing to periods of 'stopping and staring' as well as stopping to take photos.

As I was strolling along contentedly, I suddenly heard an engine. An aircraft engine. Not just any old engine though - this was a Merlin engine. A Merlin has a completely distinctive sound. A Merlin means that something special is in the vicinity. So I rushed out from the hedges to where I could get a clear view and saw - a spitfire! It streaked across the sky in the distance while I struggled to get near it with the medium zoom on my camera, all the while thinking 'please come this way!' (as if you can somehow send a telepathic message to an aeroplane).

Telepathy or no, it shot across the valley right in front of me, made a wide turn and came roaring back, before doing a roll which caught the sun on it's wings, and then disappearing out of sight. The sound of that fabulous engine faded away and I was left peering at the screen on the back on my camera, trying to see if I'd managed to get a single reasonable shot. The pictures I got certainly aren't great technically, but they will remind me of the moment when an ordinary Sunday walk turned into something exciting.

I would've been just as thrilled to see a spitfire even if I'd left my camera at home. If I had been running as I usually would have been at that time on a Sunday, I would have stopped to watch it. Some things are just worth taking time to enjoy - even without a camera!

Feeling very cheerful, ok to be truthful feeling rather 'hyped up' and restraining the urge to jump about and yell in a rather childish manner, I continued on my walk. After taking several of the sorts of pictures I'd set out to take (such as the one shown left of the local Folly) I walked back along a road I must have run along hundreds of times. At the edge of this unexciting country lane came the second surprise of my walk.

I've often noticed the shrubs growing up and over the stone wall which runs alongside the lane. Today I noticed the fruit. Grapes? Really? Yes, grapes! It really is the case that less than half a mile from my house is a vine, with ripening grapes growing just above the pavement.

I would have said that photography has made me look at things more closely, but perhaps that isn't always the case... Note to self: 'Could do better'! It just goes to show that you may come back with some photos you didn't expect the next time you set off for a walk with your camera!

I nearly didn't do this morning's walk at all. Just one decision made differently, and I would have missed so much more than a few photographs.

8 September 2010

Book Review: Choosing to SEE

There are some books I talk about because it's my job. There are some I talk about because they are wonderful books. This is one of the latter. (Though in fact it is also one of the former!)

In Choosing to SEE Mary Beth Chapman talks very frankly and openly about her life's path, and the ways in which things didn't go to plan, despite the way everything looked on the outside. Her family has had to walk through a Grand Canyon sized valley of the shadow of death. Yet this book is not depressing. Sad, yes, but often joyous too. Sometimes I laughed and cried reading the same page. I found the chapter covering the meeting with their first adopted daughter deeply moving, and the love which is shown there clearly binds the family together during the dark days following Maria's death.

Their faith is inspirational - not least because Mary Beth is very honest about asking the hard questions which many of us run up against. Hers is not a 'champagne lifestyle' faith, but one which has been shaped by hard work and hard knocks. All in all I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's the best biography I've read in ages and ages.

Read it. You won't regret it.

More information, including sample chapters and an author video can be found here.

Price: £7.99
ISBN: 9780800719920
Published by: Revell (Distributed by Lion Hudson)
Available through any good bookshop or online