Time is growing short. There are unexplored adventures ahead of you. You can’t live the rest of your life worried about what other people think. You were born worthy of love and belonging. Courage and daring are coursing through your veins. You were made to live and love with your whole heart. It’s time to show up and be seen.
Brene Brown
In 2011 I started this blog. My life had meandered between a love of creative work and a need to pay my mortgage. Like a lot of artists paying the mortgage mostly won out. But by 2011, I had reached a decision. I would simply re-start. I would begin some kind of longer term creative project. I would start somewhere, anywhere. I would just start and not stop!
I can’t remember who was blogging at the time or how they might have influenced me. All I know is that one rainy Sunday afternoon, when I was fully sick of myself and my procrastination, I opened my laptop and uploaded a photograph. That little post Raining cats and dogs, the one that started off this blog, is still there.
Now I am not a commercial blogger, I’m not an influencer, and I am certainly in a very small niche. But none of that matters. What counts is that I have rekindled my photography practice, I have created a space to journal and share. What matters to me is that I have kept going.
What eventually outweighed the terror and the anonymous blogging, was the excitement I felt at reclaiming my earliest creative habit. It came back to me that I had made a book before I even went to school. I filled it with drawings and writing. I carried it around and felt proud of my work. Essentially I am still doing exactly the same thing.
While it’s very personal to me, it makes me happy to bring you all along for the ramble. The daily walks, the peering into ditches and hedgerows while never lonely, can be isolating. I linger, I have seen some small thing that I want to show you!! Tangled ferns in a state of decline, a trail of toadstools in the forest, golden late autumn light.
And all of it touches me. Connects me. Stretches time like a web of delicate layers. And some of you come with me and these golden moments stop us in our tracks.
And although I’m delighted to have won this glittery Gold Award for Best Photography at the Irish Blog Awards, the main task is the same as it was in the beginning, to keep going. To be golden in time……….
Ooh congratulations!
I am still at the 101 battling stage, and enjoy gazing at your photos, imagining what you set out (successfully) to capture.
Thanks Diane. Ooo now I’m pondering over what the 101 battling stage is for you!!!?? I probably have the habit of not really setting out to capture anything in particular. As I ramble I am always presented with some kind of small treasure. Other times I try to predict what’s coming, like a great dawn or I search for special clouds…..that’s good too!!
Endless material to capture – from weekly hikes especially.
What I lack are the simplest technical skills, beyond point and shoot. Baby steps still.
Fascinated by that leaf, where you have captured just a strategic sharply detailed section.
O yes I get that now! One of the things I have learned is to delete a lot of what I take. So I am usually left with a very small selection. This has helped train my eye a bit more. Also I find if I slow down with each small thing I’m looking at and think about angles and eye levels I usually figure something out. Maybe it’s just the light, or maybe it’s about the shapes……Try something different! Maybe just pick one thing and photograph it to death. Not literally!!! Although I have been known to enjoy the decline of plants a lot!! Haha!
When I do my monthly garden post, I do, go back and try again … till I get something acceptable. But deliberately photographing to death, practice makes perfect – that I still need to do. Thank you.
O dear, but maybe not to actual DEATH!!! Haha!
Bravo to you for stepping up to the plate and swinging for the bleachers! There are always things that we can use to dissuade us fro our creative endeavors, but you pushed them to the curb and ventured forth I’m reading “Creative Strength Training” which is helping me to stop procrastinating and start using the gifts I’ve been given. You’re an inspiration.
Way to go Zooperson!!! I’m also now doing physical strength training which really helps too. Just keep at it!!
Delighted for you. Well done. Another accolade for your great work. Love the ferns BTW 🙂
Ah thank you Andrew! Look how far we have both come!!! Let’s keep going in our little niches……to be honest when I saw all the fashion and beauty bloggers I couldn’t quite figure out how I got that Gold! But natural beauty won the day. Big bear hug to you!!
Congratulations, Catherine!
As always I’m in love with your creations. And your words resonate. ♡ I feel the same way when I lay on the ground, excited about the light on a flower or the color of a leaf, “heartographing”, and feeling an urge to share the beauty.
You are inspiring, thank you ☆♡☆
Dear Ida, that’s just lovely to hear! I’m with you all the way…..lucky us, laying on the ground and being happy doing it!! xx
What a fun, golden recognition! Congrats! I appreciate the golden hue of the tangled ferns. I our recent (first time) travels of Southern Ireland, it took a couple of days to figure out the golden brown caps on the abrupt mountainous hills we would pass by. Quite a few photos were taken of the hedge/stone-lined green fields that would suddenly transition into this golden brown cap to the top. Eventually I was surprised to see it was mostly ferns!
Although it would be my nature to figure out why there was no agriculture above this line on the hills (which I never did)…I continue to appreciate the unknown visual magic of it all. Thanks for sharing, Catherine.
Well thanks Harvey!! That’s wonderfully observed!! I reckon there isn’t a patch of land somewhere that doesn’t have the remains of subsistence farming, but not now thankfully!!! I’m so curious as to what your highlight was from your trip?!
We really respected the agricultural lands and felt the beauty of it all. Traveling the small “N” roads and the “L” roads, particularly south of Kilkenny to Carrick-on-Suir/Clonmel/Cahir/Cashel, took our breath away. It is hard to describe one particular place as being a highlight, as it really was our whole trip of 21 days! My wife & I have an expression called WTPOA (worth the price of admission), which we experienced on a daily basis. If we only came to visit and experience one thing that would be worth the trip, we would be satisfied. It was like that every day, somewhat like being in a fabulous national park the whole time!
Hi Harvey, that’s so delightful to hear. I am the very same myself when travelling, I love to find the ordinary everyday places and be a little surprised. Everyone marvels at the Leaning Tower of Pisa but feels happiest in the meandering hills of Tuscany. I know the route you mention very well and yes it has a special kind of magic. Thrilled to hear you and your wife found the place WTPOA!!
Clearly this post touched quite a few of us! I was mesmerized by the fern at the header, and then it just kept getting more and more unique. Red toadstools? Who knew? I have actually used some of your photos for inspiration, particularly the browning of the weeds here. It was lovely to read everyone’s comments, and I add to the other thank yous that you started this and continue to keep on creating.
Well, our paths have crossed many times over those years, haven’t they! Delighted you are taking some inspiration and like myself you keep on going and creating. Thanks for being along for the stroll. x
Wonderful! Congrats!
Thanks Robin x