Gypsy Carriage

Let me show you where we stayed earlier this year.

 

An old railway carriage, converted into a tiny home.

Painted in bright colours, like a gypsy caravan.

 

But more special, more unique.

 

It had a double bed up close to the ceiling.

 

 

 

And a chair to stand on to help you clamber in.

 

A roll topped bath.

 

Hand painted wood, the Somerset hills.

 

A recently planted orchard in the garden. 

 

 

 

Young trees pushing their spindly branches up towards the sky.

 

 

 

Everywhere, green life reaching out, striving to extend itself.

 

 

 

Strengthening itself against the oncoming blows of the wind and the rain.

 

 

  

Over time to bud and flower, to wither, to renew itself or to die.

 

 

 

 

 When we stayed there, I wondered what the railway carriage might have seen in its hundred years.

 

 

 

As it moved through the changing natural landscape, and changing human landscape too.

 

 

 

Who were the people who travelled within it

 

 

 

to their many destinations,

 

 

 

 

carrying the weight of their disappointments and losses behind them.

 

 

 

Driven forward by hope, and the light of the present moment.

 

 

 

 Those flashes of joy.

 

 

 

 

Driven, too, by their dreams of what might happen next in their lives.

 

 

 

I wondered, of those who found what they'd wanted, how many felt it to be enough? 

Perhaps some. Certainly not all.

 

 

 

And those who felt they hadn't enough, did they keep moving on with the propulsion of the railway carriage, forward forward forward until grinding to a halt, hoping finally to be restored?

 

 

 

 

 

 

These photographs were taken at the gorgeous Orchard Carriage near Frome, Somerset UK.

The carriage is available for holiday let, and you can contact the owners and make a booking at:

http://www.canopyandstars.co.uk/britain/england/somerset/strap-lane/orchard-carriage