I've not been out with my camera much recently. The weather having settled into a warmer pattern and the leaves out on the trees I have lost the feeling and need to grab whatever sunny day I can. They have been and will continue to be generally sunny and so the urgency has fled as the pollen has risen. I also have been busy painting and doing other less interesting but just as vital things. I have a deadline coming up and although the paintings for it are close to complete I also have half finished paintings and a backlog of images that could make wonderful paintings. But I am getting that itch again to go somewhere.
It was a violent itch today. I was doing one of the many journeys I am very familiar with. Happily this one had one unusual change in it, instead of a local stopping service on the train I ended up on the slam door, high speed service. Not only that, it was a high speed service with many prebooked seats and lazy asses that liked taking up two seats with bags and feet and small children (I am kidding about the small children)and while this would normally annoy me I was only standing up for 30 mins or so and I got an excellent view by the open window of a door.
For a while I thought about trying my luck at taking photos through the window but instead decided to just enjoy the view. Unlike the last time I had undertaken this journey on a sunny day (see previous post) It was most definitely summer but had a closeness about the atmosphere rather than a flatness and openness. Maybe it was the abundance of green and the leaves on the trees compared to last time, maybe it was just the more natural seasonal weather, I'm not really sure.
What I continue to notice is that on a speeding train (and boy this one was going fast, I am not at all used to it being someone who lives in a small village and uses local stopping services all the time) many things that are usually decidedly unattractive can look really beautiful. I can only assume that this is due to them passing by so fast as not for you to be able to define any detail nor have the option to go investigate further. A good example is the rails of the other train lines. Look at them up close and you have a lump of iron, often rusty and very samey. Sometimes it has a certain charm, when you juxtapose the black iron and pure white snow or when plants and flowers grow around the rail but this is purely a contrast thing, another beautiful and/or unusual object does all the work. However if you are looking for beauty in the rail itself try watching them while you are zipping past. They become almost organic snaking along past you (yes I realise that is an optical illusion, not the point), they also if it is sunny become a duo-tone of reddish mat and shining silver brilliance.
Maybe I just like industrial things.
This journey wasn't about getting to place to take photos but in fact a journey of happy necessity to visit friends for the weekend. But as they tend to do, any journey can evoke me to thought.
