honestly ! 

the railway viaduct at borde hill 

marvels of nature and engineering

from bexhill to brighton, diverting via beachy head because the sky was so very bright

astonished to find the cliff edge between beachy head and houns-tout was teeming with hundreds of migrating house martins

even more astonished to see, for the first time and probably the only time, an all-white one; absolutely white as far as i could tell in the brief two or three seconds of focussed perception

hoping to catch him or her on camera, i just held it at arms length and scanned the cliff edge for a second glimpse, with my eyes wide open

i was lucky, but the image you see is just a much enlarged detail in the wider scene

i had a third glimpse but the wings were folded back and the image too non-descript

later, making good of some spare time, i took an unscheduled diversion to see the marvellous brick railway viaduct at borde hill near balcombe, on the london to brighton line

badly camouflaged cats 

jacques tati 

orgasms in yer mouth 

greater love hath no woman ...

we stayed in this afternoon and watched jacques tati as monsieur hulot, on holiday

i'd seen & enjoyed it nearly forty years ago in the little theatre in bath but suddenly it makes me squeal out loud with astonishment, with huge jokes sandwiched between moments of surreal beauty, and a marvellously inclusive tenderness for the world and for people

then she gave me a chocolate, my sixth from a box of ten ...

walter crane's red riding hood: it is saturday ! i think i'll just take a stroll along the riverbank ... 

young oak in ashford forest 

autumn acorn in ashford forest 

clever lantern at cuckfield church 

in cuckfield church porch 

undecided starlings at cuckfield 

prejudiced ? moi ?

i had a brief conversation with an even older cheese driver, shaun, about the merits of high-speed film noir dialogue, having just seen a dvd of otto preminger's fallen angel, made very cheaply in black & white in 1945 & currently available from the nft

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037691/

we didn't have much time to talk after too long a day, so shaun ended a condensed diatribe on modern film by saying, "i'm an intellectual snob, really !"

"no, shaun !", sez i, "you read the daily telegraph and that makes you a reactionary snob; whereas i read the guardian and that makes me an intellectual snob !"

putney cormorants hanging out at low tide 

battersea boatery 

kent sheep and oak 

kiss spain for me ...

spanish civil war memorial by the church at the north side of putney bridge

sweeter than average

aaah!

a very nice bit of sign-painting

not far from chelsea