and so it continues
Well, it's Tuesday evening. So, what happened today? I woke at 03.45 this morning; I chose not to find out why. Except for one thing - my dream up to that moment was about standing up and doing something - now! And the words of a Leslie Bricusse song I discovered a few days ago came into my mind - the title? "This is the Moment".
I slept on, and woke after first light - but didn't dare look out. But when I did - no smoke! Hurray! Plenty of cloud, though. And my mood didn't lighten much when I caught the morning press conference on TV at which the local health officer said "Watford, beware! The smoke is coming your way today". Wonderful.
But instead we got sunshine - until midday when I caught sight of a cloud that looked darker and more smoke like. A few minutes later - more sunshine. What's going on? After lunch I went out food shopping and found the answer. The fire was by then much reduced - only 3 storage tanks instead of the 20 ablaze Sunday morning. The plume was much smaller and was being drawn by the gentle northerly breeze in our general direction - but even as I watched I could see breakaway puffs that would go to the right and then to the left of my house. And then the breeze would drop away completely, to pick up a whisper later.
Later, I went to see a neighbour and his wife; both are senior citizens and are in one of the age groups the health officers had advised to stay indoors. They had noticed the same as me - clouds going first one side and then the other. And we found that each had heard the thunder early on Sunday - and we agreed it had seemed to be much earlier than the explosion. Who knows what it was?
But one thing seems clear - all over the area people are reporting that their loft hatch covers popped open when the first blast happened - even at a distance of 10 or 15 miles. Wow.
Now it's after 10pm. All the tank fires are out; some flames still burn - apparently it's spillages and valves burning. Enough for a friend to see flames from the motorway in the dark as she drove by. Enough!
This evening I went to a meeting I'd have missed if my class hadn't been cancelled. And am I glad I went! It was a small group of fellow graduates of the Life Talent Programme getting together with our tutor to hear how he's improving the course for the new intake. And we got to brainstorm some of the ideas - and built up some of the creative energy the course was so good at generating. And I got to show off some of my new prints - the photos on A4 - some one to a page; some 2 or 3 to a page. The great compositions and colours drew much praise - hurray!
And I got a business idea - to put some onto the kind of websites where people can order copies - and I get some of the money. Nice. Balanced perhaps by one of the group chiding me for not publishing a book of my poems - she'd been planning to buy several copies and give them out as Xmas presents to her friends! If only I'd known.
But seriously, it is my dream to publish poems and photos together. I've had the idea of making it an online shopping experience in which buyers can select which poems and which photos they want in their book. I don't know yet how to make that happen.
And I'd love to open up the tap and let the creative voice write more poetry - it's been very quiet recently.
Simon
I slept on, and woke after first light - but didn't dare look out. But when I did - no smoke! Hurray! Plenty of cloud, though. And my mood didn't lighten much when I caught the morning press conference on TV at which the local health officer said "Watford, beware! The smoke is coming your way today". Wonderful.
But instead we got sunshine - until midday when I caught sight of a cloud that looked darker and more smoke like. A few minutes later - more sunshine. What's going on? After lunch I went out food shopping and found the answer. The fire was by then much reduced - only 3 storage tanks instead of the 20 ablaze Sunday morning. The plume was much smaller and was being drawn by the gentle northerly breeze in our general direction - but even as I watched I could see breakaway puffs that would go to the right and then to the left of my house. And then the breeze would drop away completely, to pick up a whisper later.
Later, I went to see a neighbour and his wife; both are senior citizens and are in one of the age groups the health officers had advised to stay indoors. They had noticed the same as me - clouds going first one side and then the other. And we found that each had heard the thunder early on Sunday - and we agreed it had seemed to be much earlier than the explosion. Who knows what it was?
But one thing seems clear - all over the area people are reporting that their loft hatch covers popped open when the first blast happened - even at a distance of 10 or 15 miles. Wow.
Now it's after 10pm. All the tank fires are out; some flames still burn - apparently it's spillages and valves burning. Enough for a friend to see flames from the motorway in the dark as she drove by. Enough!
This evening I went to a meeting I'd have missed if my class hadn't been cancelled. And am I glad I went! It was a small group of fellow graduates of the Life Talent Programme getting together with our tutor to hear how he's improving the course for the new intake. And we got to brainstorm some of the ideas - and built up some of the creative energy the course was so good at generating. And I got to show off some of my new prints - the photos on A4 - some one to a page; some 2 or 3 to a page. The great compositions and colours drew much praise - hurray!
And I got a business idea - to put some onto the kind of websites where people can order copies - and I get some of the money. Nice. Balanced perhaps by one of the group chiding me for not publishing a book of my poems - she'd been planning to buy several copies and give them out as Xmas presents to her friends! If only I'd known.
But seriously, it is my dream to publish poems and photos together. I've had the idea of making it an online shopping experience in which buyers can select which poems and which photos they want in their book. I don't know yet how to make that happen.
And I'd love to open up the tap and let the creative voice write more poetry - it's been very quiet recently.
Simon
posted by Simon | 10:35 pm
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