you know its summer when the elderflower pollen gets right up yer nose 

how do i know its summer ?

i know its summer when i step outside after a cool damp night and my nostrils are scoured by the smell of elderflower

when there is a traffic jam of people wanting to buy plants outside every d.i.y

when i see hooray henry types in pressed shirts and creased trousers drenching other with ice buckets after a champagne binge in the kings' road

the distinguished artisans, sam and damon 

v's medal 

v's medal 

the medallists

the large medal my sister v modelled in wax to commemorate our parents has now been cast in bronze

the two halves were welded together ... with some difficulty i should imagine

all that remains is for the guys to polish and patinate or vice versa !

more pictures when the job is done, hopefully in about a week

the captive white boy, santiago mckinn, by camillus sidney buck fly 

anonymous ? 

black history mystery

if you go to

http://www.indianwars.org/images/AI/cwb001.jpg

and study the picture ...

you'll find a little boy who was surrendered after five months in the company of injuns

BUT who was the little BLACK boy at the left of the picture ?

was he captive too ?

this picture was taken in a desert canyon, twenty five miles south of the arizona-mexico border, fully twenty years after the American Civil war had ended

a great bit of skyline from the approach to tower bridge 

i'm a government child-beater and i'm here to help ! said the ice-queen 

hans christian andersen

did you hear those lurid but compelling radio plays ... golly, it set my mind racing and i tried to visualize my time at school through the filter of anguished fantasy ... see above

tower bridge at five thirty in the morning with the mayors office and the gherkin 

tower bridge

i never normally get an opportunity to stop and photograph this scene when i'm on my way out to essex, so i nipped back to tower bridge after i'd dropped her at waterloo in the early quiet of saturday morning.

i haven't done the scene justice this time as it needs a bit of sun, but you have to catch these sorts of skylines before someone builds in the space in front

everything the loved one needs is here 

on her holidays ...

the loved one has gone away for a week to practise yoga for five hours a day in the south of france

she's very organized and this is ALL of her luggage

kentish tiles at lenham ... you can buy killer chocolate brownies in the local bakery 

here's a feller i often nod to as i cycle to work ... 

they've changed our livery at www hbfoodprovisions dotco dotuk this week 

does my 'ed look big in this ? 

kit's coty - arguably the oldest building on this cheese driver's rounds - and right besides the pilgrim's way 

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.