Castles in the mind

Give me a castle and I'm away with the fairies (and Princesses, Knights, Wizards and other motley members of such a fortification). They are clearly on the mind this week - if I'm not watching Camelot or Game of Thrones, then I'm writing metaphorical stories and knocking down walls with sheer determination.

This is my favourite castle. Interestingly I dreamt about Warwick last night. I had bought my dream house there. It was incredible (though I got lost on the way back after a little exploration around town). I have a feeling about this dream - it's not the first time I've had it. If we take the literal interpretation, maybe it really is my dream house and one day I'll find myself living there. Symbolically it's about new beginnings. At least there weren't any zombies in it, which frankly makes a change. I seem to have the (paranormal) lion's share of undead in my night time imaginings.

I've been writing articles all day and creating all night (with a little bit of monster-bashing on an MMO in between!). Painting with my just received delivery of new Golden acrylics (sigh - those colours just blow me away). Then I took myself off into romantic-fantasy-land for the Inspiration Avenue weekly challenge.

I took the photo when I used to work an arrow's flight from these battlements. A bit of layering, some playing with brushes, textures and applying a little trickery and we have Warwick Castle - with a couple of twists in the telling. Can you spot them?

How could romantic intrigue not but happen in a place such as this - forsooth?!

Spooky Halloween...

Mirror Mirror on the wall... who's the bravest of them all?

With all the excitment of the past few days I haven't had a chance to tell you this most spooky of tales. Myself, the boy and the sweetheart set off on a perilous quest - a journey back in time to a castle besieged by spirits and overwhelmed with pumpkins and... tourists....

We fortified ourselves with garlic and carried sharpened stakes aplenty as we ventured into the cobweb strewn secret pathways. What evil was afoot in these darkened corners?

What cast of characters waited to greet us on our macabre journey?

Are you scared? My son was - quaking in his boots bless him! Warwick Castle's seasonal spookiness well worth a visit!

Tomorrow I begin an online photoshop course run by Susan Tuttle (one or two spots still available) where I will no doubt learn how to make these pictures even more ghostly...

For now, this will suffice as my entry to Inspiration Avenue's spooky challenge!

PS - Never mind the skeletons and gargoyles, that creature coming out of the mist looks really scary... Wouldn't like to bump into him on a dark night...

A time-travelling artist's date

I do like a spot of time travel in my lunch break. And what better way to remove oneself from the tedium of modern transmission than a stroll through the centuries.

Following the winding cobbles down this street, the years peel back as you pass every quaint house and the noise of traffic thundering through Warwick fades. In fact, if you listen not terribly carefully you can actual capture the sound of a jousting contest floating to you from the other side of the river (and that's not actually a flight of fancy, I really could hear one!).

Coming from here... the view at the bottom of the road.

For the uninitiated, an 'Artist Date' is an hour or so a week where you take yourself off to soak up creative inspiration; to 'fill the well'. It's all part of a 'creative finding of yourself course' I'm taking through Julia Cameron's book. Regrettably, I'm a little over-committed at the moment - there's only so much of myself I can handle finding at one go - so I have stuck on Chapter 1 but with a definite ambition to move further once a few of my other creative projects have taken flight. I will however, endeavour to keep up my weekly date. This was actually last week, it's just taken me a while to post. This week was spent in HobbyCraft and cost me a King's ransom. No photos there but hopefully some creative output!

And so, where did this first date take me? Did we wander romantic battlements or lurk in haunted dungeons. Actually none of these, for the castle was merely decorative backdrop to a wander around a quintessential English country garden in a setting of such beauty as to send any pre-Raphaelite painter into a frenzy of oil and canvas.

Imagine what trysts and assignations were carried out in the shadow of this bridge. Did you ever see anything quite so romantic? And how kind of that swan to just glide by at the precise moment I chose to click my shutter. Then, dear readers, if you've not swooned enough over ruined bridges, how about diving in, all guns blazing into this riot of colour!

... all the more dramatic when you spend a patient time in Photoshop

I feel quite wistful composing this posting. Tomorrow I return to work after an absence of a week nursing a minor illness. I feel the garden calling me again. I want to envelop myself in the soft scents and drink in the magical elixir of colour and then stand, bankside and dream of ghostly knights in shining armour galloping over long-gone bridges fresh from slaying evil demons and back to claim the fair lady's hand. This lady of course would have been busy in his heroic absence saving the castle from the torment and starvation of a lengthy siege. By her wit alone, was she able to defeat.... Yeah, yeah, another time perhaps.....

And was the date with my creative muse a success? Is my well over-brimming? Well, actually YES, IT WORKED! Tune in later this week to see the output of what happened when I immersed myself in a magic garden and mixed it with an ear infection!

Who's that new girl?

Well, I have been slack with the posts this week. Blame the new job syndrome. I am just not used to getting up with the birds and driving half way across the country before 9am. Shall I tell you all about it?

Well firstly, I work at a place called Wireless House which sounds terribly modern. However, I have found it strangely disappointing and something of a contradiction in terms as, since I've arrived, I've had nothing but trouble with wires - either not plugged in, unpluggable or not electronically connected. Then, once you are up and running you discover that the only wireless hotspots in the building are in the canteen and reception. Add to this the startling discovery that some mobile phone networks don't get a signal here without climbing onto the roof and you start wondering if the 'wireless' refers back to those old-fangled radio things you used to listen to the Top 40 to back in your youth!

Despite this confusion, I am settling in and making new friends. I've been left on my own a bit and, to counteract the lack of someone to talk to, plus the need to quickly build a new network, I was tempted to wander up to random people and introduce myself. Whilst I would actually be quite happy to perform this sociable exercise - being a gregarious soul - I have from past experience discovered that the unsuspecting colleague can be a little un-nerved when greeted by a cheerily smiling stranger and subjected to what they perceive as interrogation (but I prefer to call simple curiosity) about their levels of engagement with their employer. It may be wiser to break them into my approach a little more gently.

Warwick itself (for that is where I am based) is really delightful. It's like stepping back in time. The office (with no wires) is just a cannonball's throw from the castle, so if I fancy a spot of jousting at lunchtime I shall be sorted. The walk into town is a brisk, but picturesque 20 minutes, taking in a cowslip-strewn footpath, above-mentioned very impressive castle, river (with boats for hire), parks bursting with spring blooms and picture postcard historical buildings. It boasts a number of extremely interesting looking (and no doubt expensive) boutiques and giftshops and even a deli - very upmarket with ne'er a chav in sight!

Indeed, while walking into town this lunchtime, I struck up a conversation with some ducks loitering by the footpath (it is a little-known fact that I speak 'water-fowl' - though I have been called quackers a few times!). Typical with most of their species though, they were only interested in talking about food and expressed a preference for M&S multi-seeded break should I wish to feed them on the way back. Clearly a better class of bird than their Sunblest-favouring Northampton cousins.

Tune into the wireless again soon friends and find out what happens when I visit the Earth Station and Teleport - do you think I'll meet Darth Vader or maybe Mr Spock?