Photographs are a bit on my mind because of the photo competition I have organised the family into, and I just liked this one. Not very appropriate for me though as I don't live in the city and I am not a man. It does show that you can take good photos (well if you have the 'eye') even on the worst of days.
And today it is raining - well not quite at the moment - but it is a very gloomy day. Definitely too wet to go for a walk, or weed the garden or do anything outside. As a result I have been feeling gloomy and dull. Uninspired. Also several little things have gone wrong. I'm never sure whether they would have gone wrong anyway or if it's just because you're feeling dull.
So how to cheer oneself up?
I probably should have gone for that walk anyway - after all I have an umbrella. Maybe I've still got time to fit a brief one in around the block with camera in hand. I remember a friend many years ago saying that if she had organised to do something outside with the children and it rained she would go ahead and do it anyway. She was a much brighter soul than I. But she is basically right. Mind you if that excursion included a picnic you wouldn't be able to do that would you?
Or could you? I guess you could probably find shelter anyway, or you could abandon the picnic in favour of a retreat to home. Again a memory bobs into my mind of a camping weekend we had organised with two other families up on the Murray near Echuca. We all had small children and it poured with rain. After a day of this - being holed up together with bored and fractious children in the largest tent, we all decided to pack up and go home and watch I Claudius on the television - which shows you how long ago that was. But what I remember apart from the rain on the Murray is the tremendous fun of the spur of the moment meal that was organised in our friends' home where the children could play and we could eat, drink and be merry.
In fact when I think about it some of my fondest memories of gatherings of friends and family have involved food - mostly thrown together at the last moment on miserable days - and a wonderful feeling of being warm and happy inside.
Of course, the sadness of this at the moment is that there is no get together possible. But I could venture out with my umbrella and my camera, and I could cook something cheerful for dinner. Maybe an impromptu dessert of some kind, because dinner is going to be leftover soup. Very nice but not that exciting. But it's Friday so there will be wine and maybe some cheerful television with more wine and chocolate afterwards. Because let's face it food,, especially chocolate - and drink - are often the things we use to cheer us up. Not always in a good way of course. Sad people often eat themselves into obesity. It's almost an unconscious wish to make things worse. You feel sorry for yourself and you try to make people sorry for you. Is that what they are doing?
But yes - maybe I should just embrace the rain. Like children and animals do. They don't seem to notice - why is that?
When you look at a photo like that you think - "i could do that'. But no you couldn't. Not me anyway. Because I would never have 'seen' the moment, or been ready for it, or got the light right ... It's sort of like some of the simplest looking foods - they're not that simple - like my disastrous strawberry cake.
It does prove, though that a dull day needn't be dull. Great - even wonderful things can come out of it. And it's certainly good for the food that is growing.
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