Round and around...

We have gone around the world and back, and the sense of circling and encompassing and wrapping around sits with me on return.

I have been trying to loosely organise my photos - very loosely - and once again am intrigued by the circles I see as we wander the world...

I don't think I use circles that much in my work, yet I am drawn to them in the world around me. They offer a sense of wholeness, or of a void; they seem to be complete, and rather calming.  No doubt there is a world of writing on "The Meaning of The Circle" but sometimes I just like to look at them.

In Scotland, this beautiful work at Dovecot (Caroline Dear, Moss circle/square)

At Cullen Bay, a wreath of guinea fowl feathers

In Stockholm, a rusted ring

A gold record by ABBA! at the ABBA Museum in Stockholm

And colourful balls of braid in Stockholm as well.

To Krakow, candles at a cemetery on All Saints Day.

Outside Krakow, a salt chandelier in the salt mine.

Part of an assemblage artwork in Krakow, outside the National Museum.

Remnant of horror, Auschwitz.  So sinister in its barbed electricity.

We saw a lot, enjoyed a lot and were forced to think, consider, probe and try to understand a lot.  For whatever reason I am a person affected by place, by being, sitting, standing, walking in a place. I get a different experience from it, a different understanding. By no means the same understanding of being in a place for a long time, following the seasons and the years; but I think differently when I am in a place rather than just reading about it or looking at it thru a book or a screen.  I am grateful for the opportunities to travel.

I am more grateful to be able to circle home.

To the coaster where I rest my mug...