The journey home was so much less emotional than I had anticipated it to be... Perhaps because now it is all familiar again... I did not go home expecting my childhood house to be standing... or for there to be old friends still in their homes of days gone by... Perhaps because there were no expectations... Just a little old town... Population approx. 500... long, narrow streets spotted with old, sometimes abandoned houses... paddocks unused... Filled with old wrecked cars and trucks... or beautiful horses...
New people... To whom this is now home... To whom I am a stranger...
Perhaps it is because this time I was visiting as a photographer... not a woman hoping to recover something lost in her youth... or a child trying to capture something in her adulthood...
Perhaps this time I was able to see the things I had forgotten... the beautiful things I left behind fourteen years ago when we left there... when we did not look back...
The things I took for granted until I have lived so long without...
Open skies... Uninterrupted... Stunningly beautiful... Real...
Paddocks of golden straw... like a field of golden silk... stretching out to the horizon... Endless...
Trees... adorned with beautiful tiny leaves of green... Reaching up from the Earth in all their glory... With crisp pink peppercorns... That will inevitably fall... But not from Grace... To the soil beneath... Where a new life will blossom...
And suddenly... I am sad to bid farewell... To say goodbye to this town... as I look back... Finally.
10 comments:
Hayley this is so lovely. I just love the way you write. You write in a way that just touches a soul. Beautiful photos too.
Is there anything you CAN'T do? Brilliant journalling and photographs
Katie Little
What a beautiful trip down memory lane. You have a gift with words (and pictures). Thanks for the kind comment on my balloon post.
Beautiful shots! Gorgeous part of the country.
I agree with u and the no expectations(i went past our old park and our swings have been replaced with new equiptment)time moves on and the words and pictures in the post are beautiful!!
I have been blog stalking you for a little while now and I must say that I am such a fan of your work. You should totally write a book!
Karen Porter
I have just spent the last couple of hours reading through your blog. It is fantastic! I wish I was in Aus, I would ask you to document my family. Absolutely stunning blog. I will be coming back again and again! Well done, you should be so very proud of yourself!
Just beautiful
Fran Burton
OMG HAYLEY YOU ARE SO TALENTED! Honestly, you are so incredibly talented. You are going to be HUGE, girl! You jump on this ride and don't get off!
Beautiful, talented, strong, uber creative, smart and humble, YOU ROCK!
Awesome photographs and beautiful words!!
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