Project: Anything Other Than Hamilton III: Country Music Edition.

A little recap seems in order, since it has been so long since my last one of these. Project: Anything Other Than Hamilton is a project I started earlier this year to try and force myself to listen to things that aren't just the Hamilton cast recording over and over again. I am having varying degrees of success.

I don't expect anyone to remember but in the last Anything Other Than Hamilton I mentioned that I love country music but I don't think I listen to enough country artists. That's something I am definitely trying to fix, so yes, I'm afraid today's albums are all country. And, spoiler alert: I love every one of them.

Road Between - Lucy Hale

Lucy Hale is probably best known for her role as Aria in Pretty Little Liars but, much as I love that show, now that it's coming to an end I'm very much hoping that a second album might be on the cards soon. Of the three albums in this post I think this one is my favourite, which is saying something, because these are three really good albums. Although it's definitely country, there is something of a pop leaning to Road Between and I think fans of Taylor Swift's earlier albums would definitely like this one.

Favourite songs: From the Backseat, Lie a Little Better, Love Tonight

Same Trailer Different Park - Kacey Musgraves

Same Trailer Different Park is a little more chilled out than the other two albums here but that doesn't mean I love it any less. In fact, these are actually the only three albums on my iPhone currently. I still keep all my music on an old iPod Classic but I've had these three on my phone so I can listen to them whenever I want and Same Trailer Different Park is probably the one I've listened to the most. It has really quickly become one of those albums that I put on whenever I'm not sure what exactly I want to listen to and I'm always happy with it.

Favourite songs: Silver Lining, Blowin' Smoke, Follow Your Arrow

Start Here - Maddie & Tae

You might have seen the music video for Maddie & Tae's song Girl in a Country Song, which made the rounds on the Internet when it came out a couple of years ago for the hilarious way that it sends up the role of women in a lot of country music videos. Honestly, even if you hate country the video is totally worth a watch, I promise. And if you like that then I also recommend Shut Up and Fish, which has a similar fun sort of message. Start Here mixes these fun, jokey songs with the more traditional, emotional country songs in a way that never feels odd and I'll definitely be looking forward to any of their future albums too!

Favourite songs: Girl in a Country Song, Shut Up and Fish, No Place Like You

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The Camel Trail.

Just a short post today, with just a few pictures from a little walk my parents and I went on so long ago that I genuinely can't even remember what part of the Camel Trail this was. Once I'm caught up with all these posts please remind me to never let myself be this bad at editing and posting photos ever again. Thanks.

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Tintagel Castle.

These pictures have been sat on my computer, unedited, since April. My friends and I had originally planned to go to the zoo on this day but when we woke up that morning the weather was just awful so we decided to go to a castle ruins on a clifftop instead... yeah. Luckily for us the weather had cleared up beautifully by the time we actually got to the castle.

We ended up getting to Tintagel a little later than planned so the first thing we did was grab lunch at the appropriately named King Arthur's Arms and then we started the very long climb up to the castle. (It's steep. There are a lot of steps. I need to do more cardio.) Unfortunately the tide was in when we got there so we didn't get to see Merlin's Cave or the carving of Merlin that caused such a fuss in the local news in the weeks before our visit, but that's okay. I got to look out over the beautiful blue ocean, with the sun on my face, and tell my friends the story of King Arthur's beginnings at Tintagel. And they let me. So I really couldn't have asked for anything more.

The story goes that Tintagel was once the home of the Cornish Duke, Gorlois and his wife, Igraine. They lived there happily together until the king, Uther Pendragon fell in love with Gorlois's wife. Igraine refused to become the King's mistress but, as was often the way with kings during these times, Uther eventually found a way to get what he wanted.

Slighted by Igraine's rejection, Uther declared war against Gorlois and one night, while Gorlois was away fighting this war, Uther asked the wizard, Merlin to help him. Merlin agreed on one condition - that Uther would allow Merlin the care of the child Igraine would bear him. Uther agreed and so Merlin used his magic to make Uther appear as Gorlois so that he could enter the castle at Tintagel and go to Igraine, without anyone knowing his true identity. Merlin's plan worked and that night Arthur was conceived.

But something else also happened that night. In the morning, after Uther had gone, Igraine received word that her husband, Gorlois had been killed hours before he had appeared to her. Igraine told no one what had happened but, with her husband gone, it was decided that she should now marry King Uther.

Igraine eventually confided in Uther her story of the strange conception of the child she carried and in turn Uther told her the truth of what had really happened that night. Months later Arthur was born and Merlin returned, to take the child he had been promised, to ensure that Arthur would grow to be a great king.

I'll admit it's a pretty creepy story, and that's probably why some more recent interpretations of the myth tend to skip over it a little, which is fair enough. Tintagel Castle also appears in the story of Tristram and Iseult as the home of King Mark of Cornwall, but maybe I'll save that story for the next time I visit.

King Arthur aside, Tintagel castle is a beautiful place and I am quite sure that I will be visiting it again. Although I will remember to take change so I can get a lift up the hill on the way back next time because, not to be dramatic, but I nearly died walking back up that hill.

Anarchy.

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Bodmin Moor on film.

Can you believe it, this is actually the first roll of colour film I've ever shot?* We always used black and white film at school, and I got my first digital camera when I was pretty young (a cute little thing that didn't even use a memory card so if the batteries fell out, which they often did, I would lose all the pictures I had taken) so, although I'm sure I took a few colour pictures when I was younger, this is the first roll all of my own. And I shot it twice...

This roll of film sat in my camera for three years. Three whole years. I took a few frames while I was at uni but last year I decided it was time to finally use it up. Only when I got to the end it kept going. And kept going. Eventually my dad took the camera into the coat cupboard at home to take a look and discovered that, as we had feared, the film had never been wound on in the first place.

For three years this film had sat in my dad's old Olympus OM-10, the camera I had used and loved so much at school, and I had not actually taken a single photograph on it.

If it hadn't been so funny I would have been furious.

Luckily, I have a good sense of humour. So when we went back out to Minions for another walk around Bodmin Moor a few months ago I decided it might be time to finally, actually, use up this film. I took a lot of pictures (and there were a lot of jokes about hoping the film was wound on this time) and these are honestly the only ones that are any good, but I don't think that's too bad going. I'm pretty pleased with them.

I'm not crazy about the film I've used though, it's honestly just the only film I had. I got a whole lot of it with a Lomography camera a few years ago and I've still got a whole lot of it lying around, so I will use it up, but if anyone has any suggestions for a good colour film to use with the OM-10 I am all ears!

Hopefully this will mark a little bit of a return to film for me. Hopefully I will find a film I like better and get better at editing the results. Hopefully the films will all, always, be wound on.

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EDIT: It isn't. I somehow forgot that I shot a few rolls with my Lomography camera years ago, even though I mention that camera later on in this post. Sorry! This is my first "proper" set of colour prints though. My Colorsplash camera is not exactly designed for serious photography. 

Housekeeping.

Housekeeping, get it? IDK my mum was washing the net curtains a few weeks ago and I was in the kitchen and I just really liked the view of our wild, fern-filled front garden beyond the washing up.

So, I'm bad at balancing things. I've been focusing a lot more on my writing this year, which is good! But it means I've sort of been neglecting blogging a little, which is bad. I go weeks at a time without reading a single blog post, spend an evening getting all caught up, and then do the whole thing again. I've been posting here, yes, but taking weeks and months to write posts and reply to comments. And, most importantly, I have photographs from all the way back in March that I haven't even edited yet, never mind posted.

So, that's the first thing I want to deal with. I need to find the balance with photography and writing. Something I have, honestly, always struggled with. I love both equally but it seems I have a hard time doing both at the same time. I'm going to fix that though! There are going to be a lot of photography posts coming up. I mean A LOT. Maybe some writing too.

Also, I'm thinking about changing the name of this blog. But that's a discussion for another post. If I ever get to it.

For now, just get ready for a lot of photos of flowers and sheep. And beetles! Well, one beetle. Whatever, you'll see.

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BookTubeAThon 2016 day seven.

And the BookTubeAThon is over for another year! I may not have read as many books for it this year as last year but I think I did okay.

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BookTubeAThon 2016 day six.

Only one more day! I'm hoping to finish Sea of Monsters and watch the movie today. Wish me speedy reading!

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