7/8/9: Documenting A Day And Playing About With Time

I've never thought of this blog as a journal - if I were to use it to tell people what I do each day it would read something like this: "Got up, had breakfast, read some Radio Times, went back to bed. Got up again, put on washing, fed birds, did a bit of weeding, checked my emails, had lunch, read some GW magazine, hung up washing, went back to bed. Got up for third time, looked at message boards, watered some pots, had a shower, had dinner, watched a video, did some ironing, read some blogs, went to bed." It wouldn't vary very much from day to day, and it would be very dull.

Today though, I decided I would try, just for once, to make a record of the way I spent my day. This was inspired by VP's idea of getting people to take a photo of whatever they were doing at 12.34.56 on 7/8/9. But is it possible to do this accurately? Or is it inevitable that there will be some amount of faking?


This photo was not taken at 12.34.56 - I changed the clock.

"I can fake a time stamp for you if you want" R said when I told him what I was doing. "That would be missing the point", I replied. He did make me think though - is it possible to take a photo of what you are doing at any given time? Don't you have to stop what you are doing in order to take a photo? So if you take a photo of what you are doing, it will always end up being a photo of you taking a photo.


This photo was not taken today - although the kitchen hasn't changed since it was taken, so who would know?

Putting aside deliberate cheating and metaphysics though, It's quite likely that anyone trying to take a photo of any given time will, whether deliberately or subconsciously, chose what they do based on the likelihood that they'll be taking a photo of it. For instance, I was cleaning the kitchen this morning, it being a bit wet to garden, but honestly - who wants to see a photo of a kitchen?! - so at about 12.30 I went outside instead.


View from lounge window - I didn't realise the tomatoes would get so tall - we can no longer open the rotary airer!

I do usually go out at about that time, so while I was trying not to get a photo of the kitchen, I wasn't doing anything different from usual. I put out food and water for the birds


This photo was obviously not taken today, but I this is what I do at about 12.30 most days.

I checked my flower pots were all OK, inspected the tomatoes (unlike R, I'm not actually counting them every day - let's hope he's not counting his chickens before they're ripe - I'm just checking they haven't fallen over or succumbed to blight or anything like that)


This photo was taken today, but not at 12.34.56

I pulled up a couple of tiny carrots for lunch and picked a helping of dwarf beans for dinner


This photo wasn't taken at 12.34.56 either

Then I went back inside, finished the kitchen, did my usual email-checking and lunch eating, and listened to a radio programme about Guerilla Gardening which R had recorded for me some time ago.

This afternoon found me visiting a rather shabby looking warehouse in one of the less salubrious areas of Cambridge, something I do on a Friday afternoon about once a month.


Now that you know that this photo was taken well after 12.34.56, you'll realise that the one at the top of this post was too. Did I fool you into thinking that because it was up there it must be the subject of the meme?

It's the home of Daily Bread, a co-operative selling mainly organic and fairly traded goods, and the unprepossessing exterior hides a wonderful Aladdin's Cave of dried fruits, nuts, seeds, cereals, flours, pulses, and all sorts of other things. If you're ever passing Cambridge on the A14 (or Northampton, where there is another branch, on the A45), it's well worth a visit. It also has a cafe, though we've never stopped there for a cup of herbal tea, as it doesn't seem far enough from home to be worth it!

I was too shy to ask whether I could take a photo of the inside, but I did snap my haul when I got it home


This photo was taken mid-afternoon

That was about it for me for the day, apart from the usual resting, reading of message boards, etc.

Did you work out which photo was taken at 12.34.56? It's the only one which I haven't said wasn't taken either at that time or today, the view of the tomatoes from the lounge window. It's a little fuzzy because I was trying to hold a camera in one hand and a clock in the other, to make sure I got the time right to the second!

This post was not written at 12.34.56 - I've changed the post time.