Please Remain Seated

Travelling On

Last week in my post The Road I mentioned that I had begun reading Cormac McCarthy’s novel of the same name. Well, I finished reading it just a few days later and I have to say that it was, indeed, brilliant. Telling the story of an unnamed father and son traversing an ashen, post-apocalyptic America, The Road is deliberately slow-paced and somewhat monotonous. Yet McCarthy’s prose ensures that you never want to put it down. There’s a quote on the back cover that describes the novel as ‘mesmerising’ and I honestly cannot think of a better way to put it; The Road tells a bleak yet ultimately beautiful story that leaves you spellbound.

I’ve now moved on to another of McCarthy’s works in the form of Child of God. However, as much as I have enjoyed it so far, I’m not entirely sure if I’ll actually finish it; I’m on holiday next week and feel that, if I don’t finish it before we set off, I might find it quite difficult to get back into it when we return. I shall keep you posted.

And whilst I’m on that subject, it’s worth pointing out that I’m not intending to post anything whilst I’m way but am instead planning to do a lengthier post (essentially a week’s worth of posts in one) upon my return. A presto!

The Gas Lamp Monument

Whilst taking a scenic walk through the Lymington marshes today, I passed the curious memorial pictured above. The monument is dedicated to Sir Admiral Harry Neale, a once-famous naval officer who served as Lymington’s member of parliament for a whopping 25 years, and celebrates his role in bringing gas lighting to the town by means of paying for the lamp standards. Despite having never heard of him before, it turns out that the admiral was very much a local celebrity in his day and, if you’re interested in learning a little more, you can find a great summary of his achievements on the Friends of Sir Harry website.

It’s always incredibly easy to walk straight past monuments such as these (it’s certainly something that I’ve been guilty of in the past), but if you take just a few moments to stop and look you might just uncover a fascinating piece of local history.

Christchurch Priory (Reprise)

Blackwater Arboretum

Whilst catching up with a friend today, we decided to take a leisurely stroll around the impressive Blackwater Arboretum. Boasting some of the largest trees in the New Forest, the area consists of a vast variety of different tree species gathered from across the globe, many of which were planted during the reign of Queen Victoria. Pictured above is a giant sequoia that is supposedly one of the largest in the area; unfortunately, I neglected to take a picture of the information board that accompanied it and thus can provide no more specific details. What I can remember, however, is that it has a mass approximately equal to that of eighteen elephants.

Southampton City Art Gallery

*The Coliseum at Rome by Moonlight*, Frederick Lee Bridell

The Canadian Memorial

Whilst walking through the forest near Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary, not far from the Portuguese Fireplace I visited last week, I stumbled upon a striking memorial (pictured above) to the Canadian soldiers who were stationed in the surrounding area in the lead up to the D-Day landings. The cross marks the location at which soldiers would routinely gather for church services, and is accompanied by a plaque that reads as follows:

On this site a cross was erected to the glory of God on 14th April 1944, by men of the 3rd Canadian Division RCASC

75 years later and a cross still stands, providing a poignant reminder of the countless lives that were sacrificed all those years ago.

The Road

In a previous post, ‘Books and Beaches’, I announced my intention to read one book every week over the course of the summer. The book I was reading at the time was Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a collection of interconnected tales inspired by his experience as a foot soldier in the Vietnam War, and I promised that I would update you on my thoughts once I had finished it.

It was excellent. You should read it.

O’Brien masterfully uses the English language to paint a powerful and vivid portrait of the human experience of the war; he is not interested in the ideologies or political machinations that fueled the conflict but instead the emotional turmoil of the young men forced to fight it. And this results in a work that goes far beyond the war itself to grapple meaningfully with universal themes of truth, courage, memory, death and love, to name but a few.

It may well be a masterpiece.

Whether you’re fascinated by this senseless chapter in American history (as I am myself) or couldn’t care less about it, I would highly recommend The Things They Carried.

I’ve now moved on to reading Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road. I’m only a third of the way through at the moment, but, from what I’ve read so far, it’s looking to be another brilliant book. Inspired by McCarthy’s writing, I thought I’d edit the above photo from today’s walk to vaguely depict the post-apocalyptic landscape of The Road (i.e. I made it greyer). I was secretly hoping I might stumble upon an overturned grocery cart at the side of the path to get the perfect image, but alas it was not to be.

(But, of course, I am immensely grateful to the Forestry Commission for preventing the abandonment of grocery carts in the forest.)

Photography

After meaning to do so for far too long, today I finally got out my DSLR again and began practicing my photography skills. Despite having had the camera for a good few years now, I’ve never really put in the time to learn how to use it properly and that’s something that I want to finally address this summer. As such, I’m hoping that in a few months’ time, when this project reaches its conclusion, you might be able to observe somewhat of an increase, however slight that might be, in the quality of the photographs accompanying these blog posts. Of course, I won’t always have this camera on me and so I’m sure there will be plenty more images simply taken on my phone, but I’ll be doing my best to try and practice with it as often as possible.

To start myself off, I headed down to the (surprisingly tranquil) beach at Barton-On-Sea and captured a plethora of images, with the above being one of my favourites. I have no clue who these folks are, but I have major respect for anyone bold enough to glide off a cliff.

An Update

Hello again! It’s been a few days since I last posted on here but don’t worry, everything is fine. Well, except for the fact that my original goal, as outlined in my introductory post, was to post something every day and in that respect I have failed miserably. But that’s not to say that I haven’t still been sticking to the ethos of ‘The Summer of Exploration’, it’s just that the things I’ve been doing these past few days didn’t feel ‘blog-worthy’; my vision for this project is not simply to create an online diary, but instead to highlight anything interesting or unique that I discover during my daily ‘explorations’. As such, I think it’s safe to say that going forward it’s unlikely I will be posting every single day, instead doing so purely when I feel I have something interesting to share. I’m hoping that will still be the majority of days over these next few months, but I just thought it would be worth clarifying. With that said, let us return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast…

Bowling

It has probably been at least five years, if not longer, since I last stepped foot in a bowling alley. There is no tragic reason behind this, it’s simply something that it hadn’t occurred to me to do for a while; one of those fun things you do as a kid that are subsequently forgotten amidst the pressures of adolescence. However, more recently (potentially as a result of watching The Big Lebowski) I remembered just how much fun bowling could be and found myself wanting to take a trip back to the lanes. That desire was today fulfilled as, sharing a similar sentiment, my friends and I finally got together for a couple of games. I don’t really have anything profound to share about the experience except to say that you should totally go bowling! It’s good fun!

Now I just need to see if there’s an episode of Stuff You Should Know (the world’s greatest podcast) covering the history of bowling, because, when you think about it, it’s actually a pretty bizarre activity.