avatarSusan Alison

Summary

The website content is a personal photo journal documenting the author's observations and experiences from May 26th to June 1st, 2021, featuring nature, historical architecture, and artistic installations.

Abstract

The author, Susan Alison, shares a week-long visual diary through her photo series "A Photo a Day," capturing the vibrant blue blooms of Campanula adorning garden walls, a late nineteenth-century cast-iron public toilet, a car handle infested with baby spiders, and the flourishing wildflowers in unmown council areas as part of No-Mow-May. The narrative includes a visit to a new local hospital where the presence of a grand piano played by volunteers and life-size bronze animal sculptures, part of the "Patient Patients" series, adds a comforting and welcoming atmosphere. The author reflects on the evolution of pen pals in the digital age and expresses gratitude towards her audience as her modern-day counterparts.

Opinions

  • The author expresses fascination with a well-preserved, ornate Victorian toilet, appreciating its aesthetic and historical significance.
  • The sudden appearance and disappearance of spiders on a car handle is met with curiosity and a decision to avoid using that door temporarily.
  • The author approves of the council's No-Mow-May policy, which allows for the growth of buttercups, daisies, and cow parsley, enhancing the natural beauty of the area.
  • The use of a grand piano in the hospital, played by volunteers, is praised as a thoughtful and effective way to uplift the spirits of patients and visitors.
  • The "Patient Patients" sculptures outside the hospital are seen as a brilliant addition, serving as landmarks and providing a friendly, comforting presence to those navigating the large hospital site.
  • The author feels a connection with her audience, likening the interaction to the traditional pen pal experience, and appreciates the role of social media as a contemporary form of this connection.
Photo by Susan Alison

A Photo a Day

26th May to 1st June 2021

The walls around people’s gardens are coming alive with the distinctive blue of early-year Campanula now.

Photos by Susan Alison

This is a loo. It’s from the late nineteenth century, built from cast-iron. It’s round with a curved entrance screen. It has, as you can see, decorative panels, the top parts of which are pierced. That kind of roof is known as a ‘raking roof’ with a filigree dome topped with a small bowl filial. It’s a listed building.

I’m always fascinated when I come upon it, just up the road from my place. It’s just there, minding its own business, doing nothing.

Photo by Susan Alison

One minute the car handle was clear and the next it had all these tiny, tiny spiders living in it. I assume they’re baby spiders, but don’t know for sure. I’ve had a quick Google but am none the wiser. I won’t use that door for a while and see what happens.

I checked that handle the following day and they had all gone! (I hope they haven’t actually got into the car …)

Buttercups, daisies, cow parsley — photos by Susan Alison

Buttercups and daisies, and cow parsley, growing apace on areas unmown by the council. In recent years No-Mow-May has become a welcome addition to the council’s landscaping policy.

Photos by Susan Alison

I had to visit the local hospital this week — it’s a fairly new one and the ground floor has enormous spaces throughout its length. Along the way there is a grand piano and volunteers come in to play it to entertain and distract patients and visitors.

What a great idea!

My pic is a bit blurry because I had to take it from quite far away to save the pianist’s blushes.

Lion with injured paw sculpture outside the hospital. Photos by Susan Alison

I spotted this ‘Lion With An Injured Paw’ outside the main entrance to the hospital — this is such a brilliant piece.

It was only when I got home and looked it up that I discovered that outside the other end of the hospital I could have found ‘Three Monkeys.’ There is one with a cast on its leg, another with a bandaged arm, and one with a sore head Apparently, there are more of these life-size bronze animals to come.

They are collectively known as ‘Patient Patients’ and are to welcome people to the hospital and become key focus points for finding the way around. It’s a very large site.

The animals to come are: ‘Bear With A Sore Back,’ ‘Elephant With A Lump In His Trunk,’ and ‘Prairie Dog With An Injured Neck.’

Altogether, I’m impressed with the efforts made to make the hospital more ‘friendly’ and welcoming.

Painting by Susan Alison

It’s National Pen Pal Day on June 1st. Pen pals were always such a fab part of my childhood. I feel that SnapShots, and some elements of social media, are today’s ‘pen pals’ for me. It’s fab. And I thank you for being my ‘pen pals’!

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