53809 at sheffield park

no tripods allowed in the courtyard of somerset house ... i was politely chivvyed by one of their security staff and departed in deepest despondency

bush house

a theatre reflected in black marble

a rainy night in putney

minor distractions during a diverted journey to work

after the remembrance service at upwaltham

a "saving grace" on a damp dark day in lee-on-solent

lovely video of cartoonist iconoclast/iconophile steve bell hard at it

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2008/nov/13/prince-charles-royal

the goddess of small things hath brungen home a second-hand postcard carousel ... every home should have one

NB we are living in a time when one of the great paradigms is "shifting" ...

our changing understanding of mind and brain were "illuminated" in this week's "in our time" discussion on BBCradio4, which was about neuroscience

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00fbd26

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_change

fortnum and mason's xmas window 1a

dear diary ... to fortnum and mason's at four in the morning to photograph the window display ... it is the best time of day because there are few passers by along the narrow pavement, and because the darker street doesn't present such a complication of reflections ... even so, you have to wait for traffic to pass, but can't avoid the reflections of the brightly lit shops across the street, a vast black screen held behind the camera by a team of assistants also wearing black would be helpful ... i made a technical mistake and should have used a smaller aperture, so sometimes the camera has autofocussed on the window pane rather than on the tableau within ... i'll go back soon and try for some sharper images ... click on these pictures for fuller detail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Christen_Andersen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snow_Queen

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17860/17860-h/17860-h.htm#Plate_02

last years christmas windows were on november 10 2007 and november 17 2007

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-mason-windows-on-less-windy_17.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-mason-windows-on-less-windy.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-masons-twelve-drummers.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-masons-ten-lords-leaping.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-masons-eight-maids-milking.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-masons-six-geese-laying.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-masons-four-calling-birds.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-masons-two-turtle-doves-and.html

fortnum and mason's xmas window 2a

fortnum and mason's xmas window 3a

fortnum and mason's xmas window 4a

fortnum and mason's xmas window 5a

fortnum and mason's xmas window 6a

f and m's xmas windows 1b

f and m's xmas windows 2b

f and m's xmas windows 3b

f and m's xmas windows 4b

f and m's xmas windows 5b

f and m's xmas windows 6b

just as in real life ... she's got her eye on you

ah ha ! i see that joe hyams has generously donated his last bottle of krug to the raffle ...

insomniac photography ... fortnum and mason's cafe

insomniac window shopping in jermyn street

sorry girls !

this is not a declaraton of intent !

the winged springbok outside south africa house

popped in to saint martin in the fields, as you do ... and found a small orchestra in rehearsal

a bit of fancy street lighting behind the royal festival hall

prelude to the embarkation for cythera

quite early one morning ... do you think they'll have built a bridge over the river styx by now ?

today we have naming of parts

ah ! that must be their tea-bucket

antique lettering revealed during a refit at 91 lavender hill, apparently carved

a very special exhibition

an art exhibition at croydon clocktower with a specific historical text featuring some wonderful paintings by former patients of psychiatric hospitals in the area, notably richard dadd and louis wain, but with many other works that engage, delight, perplex, and even move one to tears

i include a link to bethlem hospital's short page on william kuralek and the leicester gallery's and the wikipedia article on the same

http://www.bethlemheritage.org.uk/gallery/pages/LDBTH149.asp

http://www.leicestergalleries.com/art-and-antiques/detail/10306

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kurelek

http://www.croydonclocktower.org.uk/tempbeta.aspx?ID=360

first to arrive at the nft for time and the city

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2008/nov/10/terence-davies-of-time-and-the-city

a beer and a millenium wheel

singing or whistling ?

as a child in north wiltshire, i would stand beneath the telegraph posts besides a quiet country road and listen to the soft whistling of the wind in the wires, believing it to be the composite sound of many voices whizzing back and forth between malmesbury and tetbury, faster than the invisible jet fighters ( hawker hunters from kemble ? ) that sometimes used to break the sound barrier far above us on sunny days

domestic frivolity, clapham common north side