herstmonceux observatory

windmill hill near herstmonceux

a windy day at the office

fortunately the nearest man was just out of reach when this two ton steel gate was ripped away from it's restraining chain with such force that the sectional frame ruptured and bent at right angles next to the hinges ... the smallest man in the picture is about six foot four

peonies

superman would have lost

our street is closed for emergency waterworks ...

... how is it the fire brigade always arrive before the water engineers ?

battersea power station again, again ... had to try out the new camera after days of gloom ... little tower bottom right is westminster cathedral

a modest proposal

an idea that might improve the sublime spectacle that is professional soccer

given david beckham's poor disciplinary record in the spanish league this season, and his imminent move to play in america, the question will inevitably recur ... "should football introduce sin-bins ?"

the answer is clearly "yes & no" ...

instead of a boring bench where a vexed player might sit for a few minutes, we need a coin-operated touch-line X-box confessional booth ... linked to giant screens ... virtual priests for ordinary matches ... virtual bishops for the european cup ... virtual archbishops for the world cup ... players may only return to the fray when they have been thoroughly absolved ... the element of suspense as the sidelined players grapple with their conscience will lift the game to new levels of stress

... i used to be an artist's model ...

nuri ... just one of the many great guys working at H&B ... this picture is for his mum !

third in easy-to-read quartet

a brighter sunday

another dark saturday in putney

... and i don't have the heart to take down the last bit of christmas

almost instant gratification ... i'll read the instructions tomorrow

aaargh !

this evening as i was sitting down to edit today's pictures, my phone rang

instinctively i stood up to answer the call, and yanked the usb cable, damaging the socket at the side of the camera

the camera has gone to sleep & i don't know if it can be repaired

woe !

a proper lunch break with laura and nic

i was on my way back from an unexpected and urgent dash to banbury when i realized i could easily spend an hour with some friends who live near the motorway ... so i did !

lewes crown court ( i )

the old pevsner's guide to the architecture of sussex says the three panels represent Truth, Justice, and Mercy ... i'd like more of an an explanation ... any suggestions ?

lewes crown court ( ii )

lewes crown court ( iii )

oxen, pulling cart and plough, at the old lewes town hall

the lamb ... the nicest pub sign in lewes

the higgledy piggledy roofs of lewes station

to greenwich in the rain ...

... and the fabulous national maritime museum

necessity is the mother of invention

ornaments of malmesbury society, sue and james castle loitering in the national portrait gallery

trafalgar square on a rainy night in january

captain james cook maintaining a sharp lookout in front of the admiralty

garrets

the old cabbies' cabin under hungerford bridge

thames, dogger, fisher, humber ... windy and wet

nine elms moon set

fellini satyricon

not a "nice" film ... but possibly a great film

after seeing it thirty something years ago i was troubled and haunted by it's violence and amorality

i wondered if it had been made with a subtext, such as ...

"fellow italians, we've been here before ! do you really want to go here again ?"

of course, i was fatuously wrong

i now know that life and art can't offer us an either/or scenario and fellini would certainly have known that !

people don't juxtapose the words sublime and ridiculous for nothing

bought at hartfield in ashdown forest, a gentle "your turn to make the toast" reminder for the loved one

to the tate britain on millbank ...

... to see a splendidly curated exhibition of works by holbein ...

... reproductions can't to justice to holbein's delicacy ...

... i can't think of a better portraitist than holbein ...

... and then the loved one ...

... and i dined in the rex whistler restaurant

the three cats who guard our slumbers

a rambling sort of verse that has criss-crossed my life, first as an errant schoolboy, then as wandering van driver

The Rolling English Road

Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.

I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire,
And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire;
But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed
To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made,
Where you and I went down the lane with ale-mugs in our hands,
The night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin Sands.

His sins they were forgiven him; or why do flowers run
Behind him; and the hedges all strengthening in the sun?
The wild thing went from left to right and knew not which was which,
But the wild rose was above him when they found him in the ditch.
God pardon us, nor harden us; we did not see so clear
The night we went to Bannockburn by way of Brighton Pier.

My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,
Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,
But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,
And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death;
For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

a very short poem, Self-Pity by D H Lawrence

Self-Pity


I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.

a day off ... i should be out in the sunshine

end of year audit ... now where did i put my razor blade ?