Never judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins
Native American proverb
Hi I’m Sarah, often known online as Toonsarah. People tend to assume that ‘toon’ has something to do with cartoons, but it’s not, so let’s deal with the name first. Although I’m a Londoner by birth, and have lived in that city almost all my life, my husband is from Newcastle upon Tyne in north east England, a city called the ‘toon’ (that is ‘town’) in the local Geordie dialect. I consider Newcastle something of a second home because of our numerous visits, and have become a keen supporter of the local football team, Newcastle United.
Now, Newcastle is what we would call a one club city (unlike London, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Milan …) and the football club is pretty much synonymous with the city. So, fans call the team the Toon and themselves the Toon Army. Hence Toonsarah.
Enough about the name, what about me? In addition to being a keen football fan (‘soccer’ to any US readers), I’m passionate about travel and about photography, and never happier than when doing both, capturing images of the places I’ve been privileged to visit.
And travel IS a privilege. Those of us with the means and inclination to do so are rewarded with amazing opportunities to learn about different cultures, different landscapes, different environments. And in seeing those differences I think we discover something very important, which is that however different our lifestyles, at heart people have more in common than you might think. We learn to value diversity, to respect other viewpoints and to rejoice in our similarities.
As to photography, apart from my focus on travel, I don’t feel I have a photographic style. Certainly I don’t restrict myself to a single genre. I love landscapes, wildlife, street photography, architecture. The only thing I don’t do is formal portraiture!
So in this blog you will find my personal ‘snapshots’. Snapshots both visual and verbal of things that have caught my eye during my travels – people, places, ideas …
It’s likely to prove an eclectic mix, with writings and photos from all over the world, so hopefully everyone will find something of interest. If you enjoy what you find here, agree or disagree with my views, or have insights of your own to share, please do use the comments section. It’s what it’s there for and I’d love to hear from you!
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