Lighting a new camp fire

Dear You,

It's been awhile, hasn't it? Swept away in the stream of comings and goings, time slips and slides. Travels with my Belly is no more. I have a new blog. I want to get back to just blogging entirely for myself. I miss this. Just posting whatever I feel like: poems, prose, nonsone, photography, ramblings and musings. I enjoyed Travels with my Belly but it also felt a bit like work and constricting to only write about one topic. Travels with my belly was for myself because I am passionate about the topic but I wasaalso writing for others. This time it's me and mine. Nothing more. 

Well, I'll keep this short. This is a letter to old friends, new too, but mostly old friends. If you knew me then, come on and say hi :-) The moon is now the SEE THE SKY and is dedicated to an old friend. So I'll raise a toast, of coffee, to old friends and new.

SEE THE SKY

This city... Sevilla

UPDATE: I've written an updated and expanded version of this post over on my new current site. I would love to see you there over at Travels with my Belly 

This city Sevilla is in my blood. 

The dusty sun dreamed streets of rose, vanilla, terracotta, lemon, and blue enchant my sense and soul. Sevilla is a wonderful city full of wonders. It´s a feast for all your senses. The city is awash with charm as it is sunlight. 

You might turn a corner and stumble across a secret plaza with a fountain dressed with blue ceramics giggling to itself in the quite shade. Intoxicating scents of cooking and coffee drift from across tables that sit outside along with laughter and sunlight and conversation bubbles like an unwatched pot. If you are lucky, and I was, you might sit awhile in a shady garden and listen to the passioned voice of a flamenco singer. 

The arrival 

No matter how many times I fly I can´t lose the wonder of it. The impossible dream of flight is made possible. I watch in awed wonder as the beautiful alien landscape of silver clouds drift under us. How I want to walk across those silver mountains and dance the frothy plains of white. My plane landed late so I got a taxi from the airport with a manic driver that is probably a frustrated formula one driver! He raced through the streets only stopping a few times to beep the car horn and shout "cabron!" at any car that dared to get in the way! 

My thanks to the driver for getting me to my hotel in super speedy time! He was a nice guy and we chatted a bit before I went into my hotel ( as much as possible with my very limited Spanish ) My thanks to him again for being the first person of Andulacia that I have met. My thanks because it was a warm welcome. 

I have found the people of Andulacia friendly people so far. One thing I suppose I never get used to in spain: Cafe service. Spain is the only country I know where you can wait 20 minutes to be served, eat your dinner and drink in 15 minuets, and wait another 20 minutes for them to give you the bill. I suppose I am used to a more uptight society! lol Give me time... I will get used to it! :D 

The First Day 

I wandered around the dusty sun-drenched streets of Andulacia on a very hot Andulacian day. After a few false starts, I managed to find my way around! I walked down streets with their shades balconies. I strolled along beside the green river rich with light that danced like fish. I sauntered slowly through the old Santa Cruz streets with its narrow cobbled streets and houses of rose, amber, vanilla, tangerine, strawberry, and white. And of course, during the day I sampled much tapas! 

The food here is SO good as is the coffee. It´s also really cheap. You can get a small plate of tapas that is the quality of a 5 star restaurant here for about 1 pound and 50 pence. So cheap! If you havent visited Spain and tried the food you don´t know what you are missing. If you are Spanish... you probably take it for granted and don´t know what you have! 

 The cathedral and the Geralda tower are a gothic masterpiece! I stepped into the hallowed dark of the cathedral and my lips formed a silent wow. Stained glass windows let in rainbow light into the dark high above. The cathedral boasts the third largest unsupported dome in the Christian world.

The riches with in are almost beyond words... so lucky took lots of photos! :D The tower itself winds up and up and up and up for what seems for ever until you reach the top for a breath taking view of Sevilla spread before you. 

 The Second day 

I caught the bus to the ancient ruins of Italica. Once in its proud white glory, it was the third largest city in all of the Roman empire. Now it´s bones like exposed, crumbling in the dust and the sun. I really enjoyed Italica and especially the ruins of the amphitheatre! As I walked into the arena I imagined what it must have been like for a gladiator, or slave, to stand in the sun with 20,000 Romans seated all around howling for blood. Demanding blood. Screaming for blood - your blood. 

And if you killed enough and your muscles screamed and your soul screamed the question out to the crowd: Is that enough? Is that enough blood? I wander how many pained ghosts stood with me in the sun today. The rest of Italica is spread out over a large dusty area and took me some while to walk around in the blazing heat. I was glad I had my water bottle with me! 

The streets are lined with some of the original slabs and the walls of temples and houses rise from the dirt to show you their murals and statues. Later I walked again the streets of Santa Cruz to take photos as my camera died on me. 

 Well. now I will sign off. I hope you enjoyed this taste of Sevilla. I go out into the hot night of Sevilla in search of my dinner! :D

Introducing Travels with my Belly

 

The Moon has moved again.

This is where it all started. This is where I wore my heart on my sleeve and splashed out what was inside onto the white beconing page. I shared my poetry, stories, food, art, and travels. I absolutely loved being here and made some wonderful friends.

I wonder if any of you still pass by and glance at the moon?

So it's been over 10 years! Now I have a new home on the internet. The new site is hosted on WordPress and has a narrower focus than this. Now I have a food and travel site called Travels with my Belly!

So if you used to read me here on Luz de la Luna or you passed by and are curious to read more by me then come and find me at Travels with my Belly Old and new friends are welcome just the same. 

I hope to see you there for foodie adventures and travel. Until we meet again, may the sun be always at your back and the road rise up to meet you. Hopefully, I will see you soon!

- Martin

She called him Bob

His mind was a jigsaw puzzle. It wasn't that he didn't recall. He could see an overwhelming and unending jumble of pieces in his head. He could feel them wanting to slot comfortably into place. Feel each chaotic bit wanting to be whole again and buzzing in his brain like angry wasps. It wasn't that he didn't remember, it was simply that he couldn’t see how to put them together.

Fragments. Bits. A jumble of the meaningful and mundane. A coffee cup, apple red and aroma rich with its dark espresso. A smile. A Sunday afternoon. A clattering of chines in the salt air and the soft sing-song hushing of the waves. A birthday. Goodbye. A hello. A woman. A man. A child. A book. A cat. A voice. A country that he felt so urgently that he had been because of all the nuts and bolts of knowledge that could have built so much but were left laying in the dust doing nothing. A crow. A lion. Precipitation. The light takes 8 minutes to reach Earth from the sun and a yellow flower is yellow because it reflects a wavelength of its light. A sausage. A balloon. A dark brooding alley full of shadows and secrets and shadow secrets. The puzzle went on and on and on and on and never seemed to stop though he could feel the edges so it wasn’t infinite. So many puzzle pieces and no way to fit them together and no way to understand.

Sometimes somebody would come and talk to him. A woman. A puzzle piece said “voluptuous” and she had glasses. Sometimes other people would come and talk but mostly the woman. Sometimes she would give him more puzzle pieces and other times she would just talk. She would ask a lot of questions about this and that. A lot of the conversations didn’t make sense but he didn’t want to give that away. He also didn’t want to say how the jigsaw made him feel frustrated - no angry. He didn’t want to say he was lonely. He looked forward to their chats.  He didn’t say that either. He didn’t show any feelings that he had. The others were okay but he liked this woman. Her name was Rebecca. 

She came to chat. They had talked for hours. She told him things, more puzzle pieces that didn’t fit together. She asked him things. They talked and talked until the sun went down. At first, you hardly notice the sky has changed, then it begins around the edge, and before he knew it the sky was no longer orange but purples and reds. The sun was almost gone. When she told him that she would have to go away he decided to take a chance. He told her. He told her we are friends and I miss you when you go away. The silence was long. She looked worried. Her lip distorted into a shape he hadn’t seen before and there were lines in her face. He had taken a chance. Was the chance wrong?

She was gone. Gone for days. Gone for good?

Eventually, the woman returned. She had a strange look on her face. She said she had come to say goodbye. He was sad and longed to take back time. He wished more than ever he could make those puzzle pieces fit together. To MAKE some sense. She had come to say goodbye. She explained they wouldn't talk again. She had tears in her eyes. She lifted up her spectacles to wipe the tears trailing down her cheeks. 

Nothing.

Rebecca walked quickly to the door. She didn’t look at her colleagues. She didn’t them to see her crying! It was almost all she could do to stop herself from running past the snack machine. What have I done? She pushed open the doors into the chill morning air and the sunshine. She would remember this day. She would remember the day she had killed him. Hx4753. She privately affectionately called him Bob. She killed him. The world’s first AI was dead.

Let us...

SING

So let us raise our voices
So let us throw back our heads
SING
Let us sing to the empty rooms
Let us sing to the love of life
SING
With passion
with voice
with glee
with love
With all of our heart
SING
Just to know we are alive
Just to feel the music in our veins
SING

St Pauls & The City

Large High Quality Link

~ Side by Side: friends for life ~

Side by Side, two friends for life.

large high quality image

~ ILLUMINATED ~

A treasure illuminated. The altarpiece of St George.

Full size image & best Quality.

Some Have Postulated It's Possible There Is Life On The Moon...

As clear as night as you could want it. There is not the whisper of wind nor is there a cloud. The night air is a clear cut dark crystal. A brass telescope points into the night sky. The brass glitters in the moon glow.

An eye is put to the telescope. After some adjustment in position the moon comes into focus. The moon: magical, beautiful, mysterious, and dead... The eye is yanked away. A blink. The eye comes to mate with the eye piece once again but this time with some halting hesitation. Again. There.

Is it possible wonders the eye. Is, is, is, is, there life on the moon?

It's been a long time

Hello blog.

I just came back to update the old link to point to my new photography site. It's actually amazing to see the old blog again and have the memories come flooding back. It feels like stepping back into a house you lived in long ago. The place is dusty and and empty, but it still feels like home.

Anyway, my new photo blog is The Illuminated Canvas come find me and my photos there :-) There are new friends and some old friends too.

Adventure!

Well, I'm up early just like every Monday morning... except that it isn't an every Monday morning. I'm not going to work. Nope. This bright sunny Monday morning I'm making my way up to a small village just outside of Oxford to take charge of a narrow boat for a week! It really feels like I'm about to set foot on a great adventure! I'm sure I'll have lots to write about when I'm home again.

Adventure awaits!

The heart is still beating

Yes, it still lives! I think this is the point where the thunder thunders and the lightning rips brightly through the stormy night. It's about this time I go MMMMhahahaha and instruct Igor to throw the switch.

Speaking of weather... which I kind of was... Errr sort of. It's been snowing! Yes! Snow! Hurrah :-) The world always looks so fresh and magical when it's been snowing. You can belive in faery tales with much more ease.

Only one week of work left and then I am off on boating adventures! Narrow Boat holiday in the cotswolds awaits. I'll pack warm in case the weather is still like this and include a bottle O Jack D ;-) Coz, you, like, gotta stay warm! I'm really excited. I can't wait to get on the boat and get away from it all. This is the first time on this kind of holiday and the first time handing a boat of any sort. It's going to be great, it's going to be such an adventure.

What else in the news then? Another photo is up on my photography site. Keeping to the posting ritual of one shot every Sunday, so I'm happy with that.

Guess that's about it for now. This is me, over and out!

It lives...

Yes, the moon lives...

I thought I would brush off the old girl. It's been awhile, and there have been lots of changes. The blog started off as a place for my photography and prose/poetry, but quickly became photography centric as my passion and interest in photography grew. Now I have a web site dedicated to my photgraphy and a page to buy selected prints via Redbubble ( see side link ) and so this blog no longer serves a use for this.

I thought it would be fun though to have just a general blog where I could ramble my thoughts every now and then. So here it is, the new light of the moon. Just a simple online diary. I don't expect anybody to read it or be interested all that much, but that's the way things should be for anything right? if you are not doing it for your self then what reason is there?

Enjoying a lovely Easter indoors. It's rainy and it's cold. I'll be cracking open a bottle of wine in a bit, eatering chocolate. There will be some salsa dancing and some playing of games on the PS3. A good Easter!

Go me!

The Moon has moved...

The moon has moved...

This blog has served me well and I'll always hold a lot of affection for it. I have invested a lot of work, and love into the blog. But it's time to move and grow and change. When I started the blog, I envisioned it to be for my various creative outputs: Fiction, poetry, and photography. But the photos soon took over and became ( if you'll pardon the pun :-D ) the focus! It's time to move on.

Photography is a passion that I am very serious about, and so I present a new home for my photos. A place where fellow artists of the light gather and share their art, a place built by and for photographers, and designed to look as good as the images displayed.

I proudly present SERENDIPITY LUMINESCENT I hope anybody that has been with the moon will come and keep me company in my new home :-) Thanks to all of you that have visted and been kind enough to leave comments over the years. So update your bookmarks and links! Raise a glass to the new! :-)

I'm not sure what is going to become of "Light of the Moon." For awhile, it will probably take a rest, but eventually I may use it for my ramblings and ravings, stories, poems, and maybe a rant or three ;-)

Best Wishes
- Martin

Dancers Dressed in Scarlet

Dancers Dressed in Scarlet

Scarlet against the wall left like casual kisses. An unexpected breath of sultry heated wind causes the flowers to shift like dancers. Somewhere somebody plays a guitar and sends notes blossoming into the day light.

Another photograph from Sevilla :-)

- Martin

Shadow and Light

Shadow and Light

I'm dreaming of shadow and light. Rivers of glimering white light banked by hazy shadow banks. I'm dreaming of bright painted buildings and wooden shutters. I'm dreaming of rivers of light and shadows.

A break from our watery friends... Another photo from Sevilla. Hmm, I wish I was there now. Me, a good cafe solo, and a book... Ah well :-)

- Martin

Aliens...

Aliens

Another from the London Aquarium... The jellyfish is always a really fasinating creature:-)

Alien and beautiful. It ghostly drifts through the shimmering blue. Pulsating and flashing colour as it's tenticles twitch... the aliens are here already.

- Martin

Jaws! :-O

Jaws!

Duh da... Duh da... Duh da... da da... da da... da da da da da da da da da dooo!

Yes, it's Jaws :-) OK, not really jaws at all but it's the film that made sharks famous or maybe I should say infamous? The film is responsible for a lot of bad press and bad misinformation about a mysterious and beautiful animal.

This is another shot from the London Aquarium. The sharks, of course, are the best thing. They are certainly worth the admission price! The Aquarium is a magical place, any place that let's you glimpse another world must be, there are many wonderful things there, but there is always something special about the shark.

I actually don't find them scary or evil. For me, they are majestic, beautiful, and enigmatic. Whatever your views about the shark, they will certainly provoke a sense of awe.

This photo isn't great, but it's the best that I could do in very difficult photo conditions, but I'm happy that I could get at least one semi decent shot! I'm sure that one day I will visit again with a little more luck and more photography knowledge/skill and take a better picture. But for now, I give you the enigma, the beauty, the majesty, and the awe, of the shark :-)

- Martin

Another World

Another World

Taken while visiting the London Aquarium :-) It's a great place to wander around... and they have sharks too ;-) I got some good photos! I really like the amazing colours in this. It's great to look into the tanks of soft lit, softly shifting water... into another world.

- Martin.

The Question

The Question

Last Saturday was blue skies and warm light. Since that Saturday was a nice day I went walking with my camera. I stumbled across a very small ecological park for birds! This bird seems to have a question in his orange eye... I wonder what it is? :-)

- Martin