they don't make them like that any more

 

sign at horsted keynes station

 

station porter at horsted keynes

 

sign at horsted keynes station

 

snargate church in romney marsh, kent

i screeched to a halt on a country road after spotting this remote & dilapidated church hidden in a clump of tall trees

at first all seemed sad and despoiled, but there are a few things that will please painters and connoisseurs of vernacular art ... not least the postcards showing this 1986 painting by john piper

 

an improving text in snargate church, one of a set

 

at snargate church ... i apps, carpenter, and all his jolly men, 1780

i wish i could have been there !

 

anonymous painting on boards at snargate church, about four feet by three

 

glenn to the rescue

after a nocturnal someone who shall remain anonymous had left me two broken sacks of flour to deliver, glenn dashed upstairs to the dry goods store & returned with two replacements ... net weight equals 2x32 kilos equals 64 kilos equals 141 pounds by my calculations

just out of bed in my second best pyjamas

 

rex whistler

wake up, gels !

there's still time to get down to brighton for the magnificent rex whistler exhibition

early to rise

cycling down the wide empty pavement of west hill towards wandsworth just as daylight shows ...

the wind shaking the trees and my tyres cutting a crackling swathe through drifts of fallen leaves

a neglected field besides the A24 at warnham

 

is this giant hogweed ?

i think it is about eight feet high

 

in the hedge besides the A24

 

you can't blog the smell of damp sawdust in a wood

 

i cannot pretend to be vegetarian

we know a chap called inyaki who herds iberian pigs on horseback in the dehesa between oropesa and candeleda, he's a great tennis player and all-round naughty boy

buenos dias, senor !

WARNING: IT TASTES EVEN BETTER THAN YOU HOPE

sir john caryll and family at warnham church in sussex

 

sir john caryll's boys at warnham church in sussex

 

queens ... sheba and esther

at warnham church in sussex, to commemorate victoria's fiftieth anniversary

 

we'll go no more a roving

 

george iv looking unconscionably smug

 

one of my favourite lamp-posts

 

posh monogram on a brighton pillar box

 

we went to a tea party ... there were nice guests such as david and eejay, real bone china teacups, and real cucumber sandwiches with no crusts

 

pocket money

i remember when ...

it cost seven pence old money to get in to the athelstan cinema on a saturday afternoon

for which you saw

1. the trailers

2. if you were lucky, a western in colour starring james stewart or roy rogers or whoever ...

3. a serial, most of which were black and white pre-war stuff like flash gordon, and all of which ended with the clash of cymbals and the same words every time ...

"see next week's exciting episode !"

sometimes i dream that i'm playing soccer again ...

in last night's dream i was part of a village team that was assembling in a churchyard amongst the tombs and memorials

to our great discomfort it turned out that the opposition was going to be the italian world champions

we immediately sent the verger into the graveyard to create a few rough patches with a fork, hoping to even things up a little

but from the first moment of the match we played very badly ... and then i woke just as canavaro was about to shoot

window in memory of octavia hill at crockham hill church