Saturday, February 23, 2008

chelsea embankment marker post


































boy and dolphin by david wynne



crosby hall



thomas carlyle lived 'ere


































The Conflux of Eternities
Carlyle's expressive phrase for time, as in every moment of it a centre in which all the forces to and from eternity meet and unite, so that by no past and no future can we be brought nearer to Eternity than where we at any moment of Time are; the Present Time, the youngest born of Eternity, being the child and heir of all the Past times with their good and evil, and the parent of all the Future, the import of which (see Matt. xvi. 27) it is accordingly the first and most sacred duty of every successive age, and especially the leaders of it, to know and lay to heart as the only link by which Eternity lays hold of it and it of Eternity.

a souvenir from woolworths




Monday, February 18, 2008

the driving force of the global economy ... after which i'll try never to return to this subject

i recently mentioned the spice trade

it is always difficult to comprehend large numbers and unseen quantities

but one should never risk losing one's perspective

which is why i maintain an on-screen shortcut to this website

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/

Thursday, February 14, 2008

valentine's day ... and she remembered my star sign !


















and so on and so forth

not my photo of rip cronk's famous mural ... but, in an ideal world ...


... the getty foundation would step in and move it up the hill from venice beach in to their nice little museum


Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Monday, February 11, 2008

centuripe and gangi

last year, as we flew away from catania across sicily, i was intrigued by the distinctive "site-specific" layouts of two hill-top towns

i tentatively photographed them through the triple-glazing

yesterday afternoon i spent a long time using google earth to scan that rugged terrain and eventually was able to identify them as ...

centuripe
























and gangi

i looked up and there she was ... gliding with an accompaniment of unnecessary birdsong


Sunday, February 10, 2008

cardamom, fenugreek, fennel

i took the lid off each jar in turn to breathe in their magnificent aromas

i wondered what it might have been like to explore one of the great spice warehouses by moonlight, perhaps opening different rooms and only guessing at their contents

we forget that the spice trade was once a driving force of the world's economy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice_trade