Tales From The North: A Reunion Of Two Poles [III] Photograph

Lush ladies, garrulous gentlemen and chuntering children, welcome to the third slice of my fizzy-whizzy emporium of titillating tales from the coasts of the North Sea! May the boredom that you have so ruefully amassed through the day’s turnings become as extinct as the dodo bird – poor creature, why must I always take the mick out of it?! Oooops! Moving on, there really is nothing more to add to my intriguing prologue other than the assurance that you are about to be aroused once more and, I suspect by now, there is a slight tingling in your heart that speaks of the wish to want the power to be able to fly over to these northern shires and slip into these pictures, to be part of the tales and the magic and honey-glazed aura that this adventure has left in the repository of my memories. Well, for what it is worth, YOU are part of my story dear reader for without your eyes and curious mind and open heart I, the storyteller, cease to exist. So, thank you for becoming the story and, without much further digressing rambles, let us proceed…! Up first, we have an enchanting and sweetly innocent portrait of my cousin Alina sat on the bench in the town square and wearing not only a smile to melt every ice-cap ever to have floated but also, we see that she is the custodian of one very heavy-weight armour of a fur-lined duffle coat! I am sure I do not need to convince you that her choice of attire was pitch-perfect for the occasion because, that wind was brutally nippy and sharp enough to cut through the bone! What was I, the dim-witted one wearing on that day? A flimsy threadbare country tweed jacket!! Yep, I left my brain in the south and brought my body to the north – how careless of me! However, like the great British cavalry of the past would do, I just knuckled down and got on with it! No, I do not wear a military bushy caterpillar moustache to go with my working ethos - how grotesquely uncivil of you to think so…!!! In the William Turner Garden we were surrounded by medicinal plants and specimens of exotic herbs collected by Mr Turner in ages past. Like stepping into one of my favourite children’s classics of all time, ‘The Secret Garden’, I imagined ourselves as the three main characters of the story out to learn about the rhythms of nature and eager for want of spring to cast her veil of renewed blessings over the lifeless herbs and flowerless stems, and to watch them come alive with bright colours and mysterious scents that stay with you long after you have left it behind. Be a gardener in life, I say, and watch how you come to nurture your own spirit… I reckon Mahin was getting a little excited in the next frame because she figured that at some point I would dismiss my preaching over the virtues of tea and succumb to treating her to a café latte! She obviously has a crystal ball hiding somewhere up her sleeve as moments later I did indeed oblige this madam with a beverage of that precise description. I must confess there is a worrying glint of mischief in her eyes in this photograph and I am partial to the suspicion that she may have stuck a ‘Ask me if I want a coffee’ sticker on my back! Lucky no one did commit that grave crime of the century, they would have received a full-blown whack to the head with my handbag! Oh, thou shall not receive mercy on no account when the indiscretion is of such diabolical lowliness!! Giggle, giggle!!! A giant stone statue of a raging bull looms over the entrance to the shopping centre. I swear this hormonal tyrannosaurus of the fields was geared up to pounce on me when it spotted that my alter-ego was of Little Red Riding Hood! All that red must have shot his fury to the stratosphere and back! Interesting that I should remain undaunted, perhaps it is because I have Dahl’s secret pistol lodged in my garters and one foul move from the bulky blighter and I would have sent him flying back to his woodlice-munched barn!!! Mahin in a poise of self-possessed authority models another book for us and, this is as easy-peasy as they come and therefore there are no prizes for guessing who ‘Little Miss Giggles’ might be…! Giggle, giggle!! Ah, what goes round comes round! Yes, dear chaps and chapettes, it is my new best friend, Mr Talha with my cousins, Mahdi and Mahin! Flaunting his burglar-stripy pyjamas with casual smugness and natural flair and laid on his kingly bed, I bet your bottom pound that many a supermodel upon glancing at this is signing up for premature retirement! Who can possibly compete with this man whose speed of talk is nearing the supersonic and yet whose height restricts him from boarding 99% of the world’s theme park rides! Mr Talha, there was once a time when I used to display a salute of resoluteness to the camera as a child but to know that you share the same trait, albeit you have opted for the peace sign, is a remarkable testament to the power of inheritability – there is a fierce flame of integrity that flows inside our bloodline! The contemporary statue of the bird taking flight from the orb of the earth caught at a time when the midday sun was pouring through its mesh was dazzling to say the least. Symbolic of the joy of freedom and exploration, the image transfixed me on the spot. Destiny, it would seem, has done a rather expert job in placing in front of me the physical expression of two of the values that I treasure in life. I promise to you that I am not being a plain piece of thorny nuisance, although I am more than happy to oblige, in my choosing to wedge a photograph of me that is ridiculously tiny in size but, there it is between the necklace and waffles! A groupie shot taken by the waitress on Aniqa’s smarty pants phone, it is photograph that is oozing with homely family spirit but since the resolution differs from the other photos in the series, enlarging it made us horribly pixelated! Apologies dear reader if I have bucketed a dampener on your anticipations to see all of us together – simply join me next time, oh bless you, is that a smile I see blossoming on your face…? Mahin and Alina take their promised throne in the restaurant! I employed my exceptional gift of the gab and persuaded the waiter in giving us the best seats in the house. Red velvety booths that circled round, Lumiere took a seat too and, I whisper this in case the little clicker overhears us, at one point in all the feeding frenzy I slacked in my manners and sat on him! Only a slight electronic concussion and overheating, yet I was terribly embarrassed! Oh darn, he’s heard me… ahem, ahem… lets change the subject, shall we…!!! Mahin makes a sudden ruthless attack on Alina on the see-saw and all in broad daylight! Nope, I cannot bring her to court since she seems to know everyone who works in them on a first name basis! I did not do anything to challenge her for it is always a handy thing to be have good working relation with a pseudo-lawyer - I mean, it really does boost my confidence when I think of all the Haribos I will steal and – oh bugger, did I say that out loud?! And, finally, look who it is again! I asked Mr Talha in what way does he believe he and I are of the same stock to which he engineered this physical piece of theatre! I replied, “Oh, yes, of course my good fellow, we can read the minds of the people around us! Jolly good!” In a sly tone of voice he gleefully corrected me, “Noooooo! We are the same because we need human assistance to climb up and sit on the window sill!” Ouch!! Photography & Words: © Masufa Khatun | Mazzy Khatun Photo Stories | Winter Reunion Series | Northumberland | UK 2015

Photography:Color on Other

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:39.4 W x 31.5 H x 0.4 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.