conker tree in hyde park : count the blossoms 

hove, little boxes for bathers 

newnham in kent, looks as if it might have been plastered around 1710

polo tree 

may nettle flowers 

may in kent

i drove along a bit of the Pilgrims Way & over the North Downs on the way to Canterbury, thinking of Chaucer and of of the lovely subtle & witty Powell & Pressburger film, A CANTERBURY TALE

everything looks green & lovely but it was so cold !

found a funny tree with a hole in the trunk, more like two trunks around a hole

and some lovely old plasterwork on a timbered building in newnham

glyndebourne alpacas - the aliens have landed 

travellers tales: a walking haystack at glyndebourne 

rampant bluebells near the lazy lobster 

cheese drivers riposte

the nice lady at the lazy lobster signed for their delivery today with the words, "is it all there ?"

"i used to be a choirboy" sez i, "you can trust me !"

am i grumpy with new labour ?

i just had a "personal" letter from the labour party signed by someone called tracey

a few weeks ago a bloke with a mid-european accent phoned from the labour party to check my voting intentions and i expressed the view that tony blair should have resigned a long time ago and that i was troubled about voting labour again

who the hell is tracey ?

i've sent an e-mail to the address on the letterhead which reads as follows ...


i've just had a letter, headed with your address and signed by tracey, no second name, referring in the vaguest possible terms to a conversation between us that never took place

i'm quite used to the new labour party insulting it's voters collectively, but this is the first time you've managed to do it on a one-to-one level

as far i'm concerned, tony blair bears too much PERSONAL responsibility for the destruction and waste of human life in Iraq & I still consider him & Alistair Campbell to be a real & genuine threat to World Peace ... and I therefore consider you, Tracey, by association, to be in collusion with them

best wishes, if and only when you ever grow up to discover the fragile and transient one-ness of life & the universe

tristan forward

sunday breakfast chez micawber en hangover square 

we all sag in middle age, but note how the ears are still pinned back in listening position 

priorities temporarily mislaid

we were driving through a monotonous part of west london at the beginning of a long journey

"not much scenery here ... " sez i

"I'm here, darling !" , sez the loved one, before I'd even added a full stop.

something fishy on the banks of the thames 

emotional blackmail alert

it's a bit like a computer virus alert, only the threat is ten times more insidious ...

after i had uttered an apology for some minor faux pas,

the loved one's reply was typically incisive, as follows;

"thankyou, i might let you make it up to me later"

nurielle's petit pain 

the smallest loaf in sussex

a weekly highlight of the cheesedrivers toil is a peep in to the kitchen of ockenden manor

and if one is a really lucky cheesedriver, then the bread that nurielle bakes will have just emerged ...

siamese gas holders at vauxhall 

cheese drivers LIKE getting lost in Kent in April !

painter and pianist roy hewish having a crafty smoke 

ninety year old aunt mavis flaunting her magnolia 

hype the aged

my energetic aunt mavis was ninety last week

i phoned for permission to visit and she said she needed a couple of hours because she was planting some seeds in her immaculate and lovely garden

we visited her, and as we were leaving i saw, with my very own eyes, that she was skipping up the garden steps back to the house

contented inhabitants of bexhill-upon-sea

this would make a nice cover for that virginia woolf book about the lighthouse ... 

vieve forward's medal showing colin and sylvia relaxing in arcadia 

colin and sylvia forward modelled in wax 

family stuff

i cycled to fulham after work to meet my sister at a foundry

she's designed a medal commemorating our parents, colin and sylvia forward, and we met the gentlemen who will change her wax model into bronze

the medal shows the parents in profile on one-side, and relaxing "en-fete" on the reverse

i think my sister is pretty amazing

more news of this work in the next few weeks, as and when ...

we went to the borough market next to southwark cathedral ... cheese spotting 

this time last year ... this time next year 

spring springing in putney 

someone forgot the thames is tidal but we tried not to smirk 

gone to lunch !

we walked beside the river the day before the boat race

someone had left their pride and joy on the slipway, perhaps not realizing the river is tidal, not just low

of course, we tried not to smirk

an illuminating juxtaposition in battersea