the tallow chandlers' guild

fishmongers hall by london bridge

Azure three dolphins naiant embowed in pale argent, finned, toothed and crowned or, between two pairs of stockfishes in saltire argent, over the mouth of each fish a crown or, on chief gules three pairs of keys of Saint Peter in saltire or. Out of a wreath argent and sable two cubit arms, the dexter vested or cuffed azure, the sinister vested azure cuffed or, the hand argent holding an imperial crown proper.

MANTLING Gules doubled argent.The mantling shown in the exemplification in the 1575 patent is: Dexter, gules doubled or and sinister, azure doubled argent. Either mantling is admissible. Granted by Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter, and Thomas Benolt, Clarenceux, 19th October, 1512.

SUPPORTERS Dexter a merman armed, holding in his right hand a falchion and sustaining with his left hand the helm and timbre, sinister a mermaid holding in her left hand a mirror and supporting the arms with her right hand all proper. Al' worship be to God only. Granted by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux, 17th December, 1575

on the brookside at bailiffscourt

glued to a phone box on lavender hill

cat update ... the cat is fine

cheese from the geometer's notepad

chipping norton ... the bliss valley tweed mill

the last old gas holder at beckton ... i'll go back for more pictures when the light is early or late

rob elliott ... our h&b midfield general ... achieves notional maturity today

a rarther grand entrance ... park crescent in worthing

duende ... a startling sign in back-street worthing

there is an essay by lorca about "the duende", often discussed on the internet ...

http://greatamericanpinup.blogspot.com/2005/04/lorca-and-gilbert-on-duende.html

outbuildings at bailiffs court hotel, climping

the low rider

free-range donkeys in hampshire ! drive carefully

putney heath by moonlight

breakfast is served ... wheat-free rye bread bought from the natural cafe in northcote road ... satisfyingly heavy

25 of joe hyam's "handbook for explorers" sonnets have gone into a glossy folder ... until he ever publishes them

http://handbookforexplorers.blogspot.com/

the loved one has brought me some posh nougat from the south of france ... now where can i hide it ?

one of my favourite trees near danehill

kurt vonnegut, r.i.p.

sandbanks in dorset ... come on in, the water's lovely !

aaah ! cool feet ! perks of the job

the mill at elstead on a perfect spring morning

wild flowers in the churchyard at east tisted in hampshire ( three miles west of selborne )

the view from the cab at the end of the road ... looking across from sandbanks towards the studland ferry and the purbeck hills

insomniac photography ... too tired to read, too excited by the evening's soccer ...

i burned the porridge ...

... whilst searching the internet for a video of lola flores

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8Sdjf4IzmU&mode=related&search=

ministry of agriculture food and fisheries in old scotland yard, whitehall ... again

easter sunday ... the bells of saint martin's in the fields were chiming in an expression of purest joy

ministry of agriculture food & fisheries ... carvings by james woodford

hop factors ... opposite the borough market

welsh congregational chapel in the borough, southwark, not far from quilp street

... not to mention marshalsea road, scenes of dickens' childhood miseries

insomniac photographer tiptoes to tripod

3bt

Yesterday morning, tiptoeing out to work at three forty-five, I forgot to take my camera. Naturally, I was assailed by beauty.

Driving west along the Chelsea embankment at six, in a clear still morning, the gold of the Battersea peace pagoda was reflected in a vertical yellow band upon the high surface of the smooth river, and beside it was the pale orange reflection of the setting moon, & as I drove further, so the two reflections gently swapped places as the moon's orange reflection, in pursuing me, overtook that of the pagoda.

Later, during a delivery in the precincts of the Chelsea football stadium, I found a long rough wall was being clad in a vinyl poster ... a massive team photo, the players at the centre, their bodies then repeatedly “photoshopped” ad infinitum to right and left, superimposed with the heads of hundreds of their supporters. In front of this larger than life-sized and perpetually silent audience, two coach loads of schoolchildren from France had just arrived, adolescent girls & boys, they had poured out of their confinement with a football & were playing their own beautiful impromptu game of soccer in the sunshine.

As I was going home on the bus, drained of energy after a difficult day, a lively teenage girl got on with a brand new push chair and a brand new baby. Sitting in the next seat, sharply profiled in the late low sunlight, she lifted him in her arms and kissed his tiny face, smaller than my fist, about twenty times, alternately on one cheek and then the other. He accepted the compliment with good grace.

whitehall 1212

legitimizing empire ... more imperialist clichés