There are times of year in the grey cold and damp months in Britain when I don’t care where I go on holiday as long as there are blue skies and a little sunshine. My sister-in-law lives in Malta for most of the year and was reporting temperatures of 28 degrees today and what do we have? 14 and dull!
The world appears to be a more pleasant place when the sun shines. I truly understand all the oldies packing their bags and heading off for some winter sun in Spain, Portugal or the Med. The world is in in economic turmoil, the Eurozone threatened with collapse, there is very little cheery news about, so I’m joining the pensioners and looking for that winter escape where I can wander in search of good photographic opportunities. It isn’t even as if I am a good photographer. The ease of taking thousands of digital photographs and selecting the lucky shots means that I manage to take a few photographs that please me. On a typical day out I take at least 500 shots. I seem have a compulsion to document what I see. Will they be of any value to my children and grandchildren? Probably not. The chances are that my enormous photographic library will end up in a skip with everything else. If there is anyone out there who would like photographs of Britain, do let me know.
In the meantime I will continue to do what makes me happy. Back to ‘anywhere will do’. I think we have all at some point agreed to go on holiday somewhere that we have not really wanted to. My husband wants to visit the Canary Islands, something I have resisted for a long time because I have seen photographs of acres of concrete and hotels. My preference is for villas set amongst woodland that trails down to a secluded beach, the type of scene that one finds in Greece. I think I will indulge my husband and go to the Canary Islands. I am sure that I will find beautiful scenery away from the resorts. Another of my failings is limited tolerance of beach holidays. I can amuse myself on a beach for 2 to 3 hours without complaint, especially if I read a book or photograph people, sunbeds, palm trees, the sea, shells and everything else around me. After that I have to go and see something, anything, as long as it is somewhere else. I am the perpetual tourist. I find most things interesting and am always on the look out for local colour; that man with an overloaded donkey, children climbing trees, lovers intertwined, street vendors, architecture, the colour of markets….. the list is endless.
In the meantime, I don’t really care much about where I go, as long as the sky is blue and I can take my camera. A few of the photographs that have given me pleasure are below. The one on the left was taken at the fruit and flower market in Funchal, Madeira.
