Under a Cumulus Sky

Posted on May 11, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Just a peaceful shot taken in my backyard recently.

This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. The next one is hosted by Brian of Bushboys World and he has chosen “Streetlights – by day and at night” as his theme.

This photo was taken in spring, though it doesn’t feel much like a spring photo.

This challenge is open to all, and I recommend joining in. If want to, check out more information about it here, and include the tag “monochrome-madness” when you share your photo. If you’d prefer not to join in, then at the least check out Leanne’s photography, and what other people submit.

I hope you enjoy.

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Soft Structure

Posted on May 11, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

The focus being on the bollards was a total accident. When I took this photo, I thought it was on the structure (here’s a sharper photo). I was wrong.

This is my submission into the three hundred-and-forty-seventh Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “Break the Rules!“.

Very much a happy accident, this one and I feel it fits the challenge well enough.

The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:

Tina

Patti

Ann-Christine aka Leya

John Steiner

Sofia Alves

Anne Sandler

Egídio

Ritva

This one is curated by Ritva. The next one is curated by Egídio.

I recommend joining the community and participating in the challenges. They’re pretty straightforward, allow room for interpretation, and provide a good way to think about photography in general. If not, however, then at the very least you should check out what others submit to the challenges.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1499: Not a Pleasant Week

Posted on May 11, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

The week that was was not a pleasant week. Good things coming, which is great. Bit of misery too. It’s cold today and I’m cold and I’m not feeling great, but I’m alive and that’s a good start. That’s a good way to be. But I’m also cold and unhappy.

So what? Who cares? There’s still stuff to do at the moment, after all. Things need to keep on moving and grooving and all of that, and they are. I’m getting things done where I can, but the week has just left me drained and down, I guess. Good news doesn’t mean good times, which is to be expected, but I still need to keep getting things done and all that. I don’t have much time to be lazy. I don’t have much time to do nothing, but nothing is on the cards and by golly, I am doing it to the best of my ability at the moment.

So I’m sitting here, waiting for food to arrive. It feels a bit pointless, but I am waiting. I am waiting for it to get here so I can shove it in my gullet, and then I’ll get on with the day. But before then I’m doing nothing. I’m taking it easy, and I’ve done so for too much of this week. I have been active to be fair; shoving things into a storage unit does take time and energy, but there’s still so much to go and perhaps not enough time to get it all done in, and maybe I should be more active. Maybe I should be more on my feet and moving right now. But I need rest and I’m unhappy and feeling pretty down at the moment, because I’m saying farewell to a home again. Not a house; a home.

I’ll probably touch on that when I do move out, but right now it is upsetting. I got dumped and that is hard. I have to still navigate that, and from it all I’m forced to move again, and I just want to sit still. I wouldn’t have stayed in this place forever, but I certainly would have liked to not be in a position where I’m leaving it due to being forced to. But that’s the way it goes, sometimes.

At the very least I know there’s a good day ahead of me, and a lot of catching up to do, and I’ll do some of it and then the rest of it later. But it will get done, as will the moving of everything into storage, and I’ll get on. I’ll survive, and this will pass, and maybe the day will end alright. Unhappy now doesn’t mean unhappy later.

At the very least things need to happen today. Not much, but a lot, and it’s going to be a day of peace and rage, and quiet pain and all of those other things. But it’ll probably end alright, and that’s something to look forward to.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:20:35

Could’ve been better; could’ve been worse.

Written at home.

 

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Early Morning Ad

Posted on May 10, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Here’s an ad for Young Henrys that I saw a number of weeks ago and decided to take a photo of for some reason.

I hope you enjoy.

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Wet Clifftop

Posted on May 9, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

Was a long day, so here’s a photo of a clifftop that is wet.

Bit of a dreary photo, now that I think about it.

I hope you  enjoy.

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Nitsua: Sunset

Posted on May 8, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

One listen.

I’m really tired from moving stuff, and I’ve been meaning to do this for most of the day. Just forced myself and it’s a bit of a mess, but a lot came forward, which I’m happy about.

Nitsua’s “Sunset” is from dayscape.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Warm waves. Soft, nostalgic, bringing everything to an end. The steady beat comes in, kicks hard and soft at the same time, and this seems set to relax.

Perhaps sentimentality carries upon the tune, but I’m not sure. It’s certainly of a specific type and form, and it doesn’t care to offer anything different. It also carries nice and easy, and it’s steady in its delivery. It feels purposefully designed in perhaps the best way, and without lingering it lingers on each of its moments.

When the beat pulls away there’s a bit of a transformation, but it’s what carries on naturally from what was before. The sounds keep drawing out in their muffled way, and this seems like a dramatic moment, but it’s so low and unwilling to become dramatic, and that’s nice.

This moment doesn’t last long and the tune returns to where it was before. The sounds continue their little drift and flicker; they waft and soon keys come in and provide a little more definition. They play gentle; they seem to sway and move about the space, looking to have some joy whilst building on the relaxation. They look and smile upon a scene they bear witness too, alone and among many others, and the romance starts coming through. The romance dances and sways and swings, and it takes it easy. It takes it easy to travel through the air, still almost, all the way to the song’s end.

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Moving stuff

Posted on May 7, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

It has been a few days, and it certainly has, but I’m going to try and focus on today.

I’ve been basking a little in the news that I have a job locked in, as well as a room. The job is for six months, and that’s good for me. It’s time and it could be extended. Likely won’t, but could be. So… happy days, but also tentative happy days.

It will be a period of scrounging hard. I’m aiming to keep expenditure to an absolute minimum. Just survive, live low, get myself into a position of safety. Make it easier for me to weather another period of potential unemployment.

So anyway, got the news of everything being locked in yesterday. Was good timing. Spent a lot of yesterday being tired, used it as an excuse to relax. The car was full of stuff that needed to go to storage, but it wasn’t happening yesterday. Took care of other things instead. Today comes around, laze about a bit, then got to it.

It took longer than I expected, and it was tough as I’m watching my life go into storage once more. The plus side is I’m not losing my history this time. I get to continue on with my stuff, though I do need to get rid of a bit, and that’s a relief. It’s all too close to the edge and this is definitely a position I don’t want to be in again.

But after I put the last of the load into the storage unit, I sat on the trolley I’d used and zoned out a bit. I want to cry. I want to cry badly, and let loose, but I don’t feel the need to do so, and I’m tired. I was sitting there, being tired, thinking about nothing, zoning out. Staring off into my phone and looking at nothing, and I rested for a number of minutes before I went back to the car to go somewhere for breakfast.

I went to the Bakehouse Quarter as it was close to where I was. As I was driving over I remembered Ewe’s ‘Holy Smokes’ shirt. Messaged him about it after I parked. Not sure why I remembered.

When I was a teenager there were a few times I cycled through the Bakehouse Quarter. I wouldn’t be able to say why beyond it being where I ended up on those particular cycles, when I’d go explore places that were near home. It was a quiet place back then, or at least it seemed to be. It probably wasn’t. These days it’s a different thing. It has been gentrified and filled with eateries and grocery shops, among other things. It’s fine and it’s good to have something so centralised, I think, but I feel much like an outsider, thinking about it. But so is most everyone visiting an area that’s changed from their history.

But it was nice to sit at a café and read. It was nice to just sit there and eat and enjoy a coffee, and then get on with it.

I went home, and it had been about three hours since I left. I didn’t take much to storage, and I was a bit surprised it took as long as it did, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. It was time that was needed, and it was probably less than what most people take.

I got back to packing things and doing washing and trying to get as much out of the house as possible, because there still is a fair bit to go. This isn’t over and it’s going to take a lot of time, but it’s happening.

When I started this, I thought something more deep would come forward. Apparently that’s not so much the case, but sometimes the dullness is fine anyway.

 

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Nitsua: Seaside

Posted on May 6, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

One listen.

Trying to bounce back and it’s tough, but I was able to throw myself into this, and that’s good, I think. I have a few tracks I want to do, so there will likely be a glut today, but this is the start and I got something out of the song that is pretty obvious if you know this type of music, but still meaningful.

Nitsua’s “Seaside” is from dayscape.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Percussive count before the song kicks in with its smooth melancholy. Beat remains steady, of course, and these sounds flow along whilst another lowers down steps, looking across the waterscape. The beat shifts and the bass pulls away, but everything remains steady. The flow continues, and in this spaced moment, a voice speaks.

It is quiet, soft, gentle, perhaps. There’s something in it, maybe about memory. Maybe about longing. Who knows. The bass returns and the melancholy continues. Maybe it doesn’t need to be melancholy, however. Maybe it’s just something pleasant, relaxing. Something at ease and knowing, and it’s all sorts of pretty and gentle.

The bass pulls away and keys are there, twinkling across the space. Twinkling across the scene, shimmering as brief moments filled with experience. Filled with memory, and it’s all easy. It’s all relaxed, and nice, and peaceful, and it all stops and the song ends.

 

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 1498: Life Feels Transient

Posted on May 5, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

A long day of not much in the morning followed by a lot in the afternoon. Packing, packing packing, owing, getting the place cleaned up. Or rather, getting the place into a state where it can be cleaned up. Tomorrow there’s moving boxes into storage, and who knows when they’ll be opened again. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Today, though? Just about preparation.

There’s been preparation on prior days of course, and there’s still more to go. There always is. It never ends. you keep on going and then you’ve a nice box collection, and with that, your life is now all in boxes. It’s boxed up.

Boxed.

It’s taking some time and I could be going faster, but I feel it’s better to not overexert myself right now. I need a good sleep, and hopefully that comes to me tonight, because I am exhausted. Not sure if it will, however, and so I’ll keep taking my time. Try to do six boxes a day. Not sure how achievable that is and I did slip a little today, but if I keep at it, I’m sure I’ll have everything done in a few days.

From there, I will then be sleeping in a place with little else beyond what is essential. As hard as it would be, it’s better to get to that point. Clear everything out. Spend less time looking at the things that are part of my life, have them all gone. All hidden away, taken to elsewhere.

In a way, life feels transient. I’m seldom in a place for long enough to feel fully anchored, and what I leave behind are ideas of what was. A history that doesn’t really exist. It’s tiring and I’m tired, and I want to stop. I just want to be able to stay anchored for a while. Tend to my garden. Read a book. Write. I just want to write and not have to worry about continually moving. I don’t want to have to worry about how long I’ll be living somewhere. I’m tired of it, but its what I have to deal with, and so I keep dealing with it to the best I can.

You know, put on a brave face, get on with the getting on. Keep trudging through it all and finding where the small victories lie. Push on a little more. Maybe one day I’ll finally be able to settle, and I mean properly. I’m not too old for this, but at the same time I’m feeling like I’m getting there.

When I was a kid, the idea of the security of roots was something I never thought about. It just kind of was, though at the same time there were often some tough, uncertain times. As an adult, I don’t know what’s going on now. I don’t know if anyone else feels the same way. It’s all just lives floating away, floating together, trying to form community and only finding it away from their dwellings.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:48:35

Still a bit of a sad time at the mo, which I feel came through quite heavily here.

Written at home.

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Visible Backrest

Posted on May 4, 2025 by Stupidity Hole

I’m not sure why I thought it’d be a good idea to demystify this photo, but I like this version of it too. The backrest is more obvious, but the seat itself could almost be anything. It could be the stars.

I hope you enjoy.

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