UPDATE (13th October 2011)  – Following this blog entry I received a tweet from Jessops saying they would get their customer service department to contact me first thing on Monday (10th October 2011); so late that Monday morning I received an email from Jessops customer services asking for my telephone number so they could call and discuss any issues. After spending nearly two weeks waiting for an answer they wanted me to sit around and wait by the phone to discuss something which doesn’t need discussing, either they overcharged or they didn’t, the slow/poor service in the shop is another issue and not one I really care about given that I don’t intend returning to the Trafford Centre. So I replied that they could contact me by email or post if they wished. Now, I know I shouldn’t but I did find their response amusing – they are upset they cannot apologize over the phone but they are still waiting for a response from their regional manager? So they wanted to apologize but as they had not spoken to the regional manager they didn’t really know what they were apologizing for, which makes it a bit hollow really. To me an apology means they have looked at the issues and have found they are at fault and have something to apologize for. Anyway, I want a job as Jessops regional manager, they’ve had two weeks now to respond to the issues and have yet to do so, looks like they don’t have any pressure on them to get answers or results.

Okay, we didn’t storm it, and it may not have been a dark tower, but the mind works in strange ways at times Anyway, after the dark tower and a wander around Beverley we visited the Minster.

Anyway, we visited the Deep in Hull, it was an excellent experience and a fun way to spend a morning.

Okay, we paid a visit to Whitby during our weeks holiday, we didn’t find Dracula (though rumours abound that he was off rock pooling nearby), we did see a statue of Captain Cook (though given the treatment the statue had received from the local seagulls I decided to rename him ).

When I was looking at the photograph of the Abbey above full screen in Photoshop I spotted a nice little joker in the distance and had to enlarge it well, you have to really.

Then it all clouded over and looked a little boring for a while – well, boring for landscape photographs or sketching that is. We ended up having a run down to Kirkby Lonsdale, I took the camera along more out of hope than anything else not expecting much from the weather to allow photographs. When we arrived in Kirkby Lonsdale the weather had changed again and the clouds had broken to reveal a deep blue sky dotted with clouds. So we had a wander round the back of St. Marys Church to look at Ruskin’s View. It was a painting of this view by Turner that led Ruskin to comment ‘I do not know in all my own country, still less in France or Italy, a place more naturally divine’

The weather sadly did not stay like this for long and shortly afterwards we were dashing back towards the car getting soaked, the roads turned to rivers and I was glad for that fleeting glance at a place so naturally divine.

First one of the Three-Farthings Stone in the Shire -

Then there was one of a couple of Hobbits returning home after a wander -

Not sure if it helped plan the painting, but they were fun to do

Now to me, and probably no one else, I immediately spotted an arrow pointing off into the next field. This triggered a few things in my mind, but mainly it started me thinking about who may have carved an arrow in the stone and why. Now, a few hours later the nucleus of a short story is bubbling away somewhere in that grey matter I tend to pass off as a brain

Wandering along the lane this morning I noticed how green everything was looking, but as I noticed the green my mind made a few random jumps – almost like a word association game. From green leaves I jumped to Niggle and from Niggle I jumped obviously to Tolkien and the Shire, and from there I was lost to the realms of fantasy and other lands that are of course not exactly real but are none the less green and pleasant

So, for all those that like a bit of ‘green on the screen’…

Speaking of green, I spent much of this morning trying to find just the right green for a painting, I find green a difficult colour to get right, it’s either too blue, or too bright and tacky… one day I’ll mix the perfect green, I just hope I remember how I mixed it afterwards.

A sketch that really got out of hand, the Forgotten Gate

You wander down an old cobbled road, passing on the way a row of grand looking houses with well tended gardens stretching out in front of them. Slowly the grand houses give way to smaller houses that are in need of some T.L.C., their small gardens are overgrown with long grass and weed and the cobbled road is in need of repair. The smaller houses end as does the cobbled road and in front of you there is a dirt track with lined with gnarled oak trees draped with ivy, it’s a dry day and the wind keeps blowing tendrils of dust from the ground into your eyes. You’re about to give up, run back to civilization then you notice the trees stop abruptly as the dirt track winds its way up a small hill.  As you approach the top of the hill you notice a wooden fence running across the hilltop and a broken gate dangling from a single hinge.  Then the memories come flooding back, you’d been this way before, what feels like almost a lifetime ago. This is the road that leads to a World of adventure and exploration, a World of mystery where every step reveals new opportunities and possibilities. You try to think back to the last time you came this way, but the mists of time have blurred your memories, but you feel a pang of regret for all the times you could have opened that old gate and stepped into that other World. With a sigh you turn from the gate meaning to make your way back along the lane, then you pause and step up to the gateway, well, one more adventure can’t hurt