jonath.co.uk

Monday 3rd May 2004

So, yes . . . fortunately, I wasn't at all hungover this morning (p'raps on account of not drinking anything alcohol- based the night before) and it was such a gorgeous day, me, Anna, M**** and Liz decided to go to Harewood House (well, the park anyway). I took loads of dull pictures as usual, but there were a few good 'uns. This would have been at 14:03, when we had sat down next to some kind of lake for lunch.
Some sunglasses . . . on a blanket . . . I bought these in Australia. They're made by a company called 'Dirty Dog'. The blanket they're resting on belongs to M****. She bought the blanket from Ikea.
14:37 . . . 14:41 (left to right). . . and there was this gorgeous cherry blossom stuff everywhere . . . M** tried to take a picture but my expression is on account of the fact that the line of sight was right across a rather busy path. I was trying to tell M** to let the people pass and THEN take the picture. N'e'er mind.
14:42. Another of M****'s pictures . . . seems to be out of focus. Shame.	14:53. Grass. Trees. Lake. Anna. Liz. M****. A bench.
Godamnit. Now it just looks stupid. I've got pictures everywhere and there's no . . . there's no layout and it's just a mess now. Grrrr. erm . . . 14:55. I like this picture. There's water and trees and stuff.
So, left to right . . . we have Harewood House itself (16:53) and some gardens (16:56), more gardens (16:56). . . blah, blah, blah, and on the far right is a time-delay picture (16:59) with (just about) all four of us. You can just make out M**** (between me and Liz). Yeah, okay, so it ain't brilliant, but it's the only I have with all four of us.
And, erm . . . I think I was sitting on the steps, in the shade, whilst M**** ran around taking pictures.
. . . and various other pictures (to the right), taken between 17:04 and 17:11 (am I obsessed with time or something?)
and it seems M**** went a bit crazy, taking loads of close up pictures of flowers, using the macro lens with varying degrees of success.
It's just a building, I tried to tell her . . .
pretty much finally (17:23/24), we popped into this graveyard and church (now out of service), had a bit of a wander around, signed the guestbook and then off we went . . . I'm not sure why my camera freaked out with all the sunlight like that. P'raps I didn't give it time to, erm, you know, 'adjust'.
17:26. I took loads of pictures of that blossom tree . . . they all looked awful though. I'm not saying this one looks any better, but at least it's a bit more interesting than just a tree, in a picture, on its own . . . you know? We went back to the car and were waved off by Noddy and friends. See, erm . . . that's the thing with Harewood House and the accompanying park: it's seen very much as a 'family day out', so you have all these children covered in urine, vomit, mucus (?! somehow looks wrong), phlegm and god knows what else, screaming at their parents, "I WANT AN ICE-CREAM! I WANT AN ICE-CREAM!" and it can get a bit much, as you rest your coffee cup on the plastic table, trying to avoid the detritus of the previous occupants (remants of a chocolate muffin, half a packet of Skips, empty drink cartons, ice-cream wrappers), when your voice is drowned out by the screaming horrors reverberating around what would otherwise be a gorgeous little courtyard. Am I ranting? Well, that was pretty much my opinion of this place: fine, if you can get away from the children.