now i have two headaches

 

mud, glorious mud !

 

cognitive dissonance and incipient aphasia ?

I had a little trouble with the quick crossword in the Guardian this morning.

The clue was "Landlocked anchorage in the Orkney Islands (5,4)".

The words that stuck in my head for two whole minutes were Sullom Voe.

The correct answer was, lurking behind the wrong one, and on the wrong island, Scapa Flow.

Then, on my way home along the river bank, I stopped to admire some Thames mud and only half-remembered Flanders & Swann's song, "Mud, Glorious Mud!", unable to complete the tune in my head because it had temporarily fused itself together with the tune and words of "Food, Glorious Food!" by Lionel Bart.

As the old used to tell me in Wiltshire when I was a boy, "Old age doesn't come alone."

salvaging a sunken boat on the thames at putney

 

i think i'll renounce truck driving for religion ...

the loved one brought this picture from the wallace collection for me

it shows saint hilarion, the leader of a bunch of palestinian reclusives, resisting temptation

i've just been reading up on his life but can't find a clear description of this particular episode though many travelled to visit the recluse in his cave

am i to assume it is allegorical ?

can any one supply some dialogue ?


 

alarming !!!

walked in to the kitchen at beautiful old ockenden manor to be confronted by nurielle in her immaculate white pinafore brandishing the biggest pointy stainless kitchen knife in the world in her right hand, and warming it up with a full-on roaring blue-flamed blow torch in her left ... all part of her benign confectionary technology and not the premature vasectomy kit i was fearing ... but she's a proud artist and refuses to be photographed ... so far

lively farm sign near forest row

i've only just noticed this jolly sign, though i've probably driven past it a zillion times

perhaps it is newly revealed since the undergrowth was cut back

hugh thompson

can i commend to you this obituary of a real hero ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5371551-103684,00.html

... safely grounded at battersea heliport

 

late arrivals dropping in at battersea heliport

 

i imagine the birds get pretty desperate at this time of the year

 

welding team repairing battersea bridge

 

battersea bridge under repair, the barge is servicing a gantry beneath the arch

 

nice detailing on battersea peace pagoda

 

lazin' on a sunny afternoon ...

 

itchycoo, er , i mean wandsworth, park !

 

the ideal gift ... for the gentleman whose arse is wider than his ego

 

thank god i don't have life insurance ...

 

the new pigeon net seems to add something to this allegorical group outside waterloo station

 

ellen rrose forward's halo tilting