a little bit of local colour

outside the old bull ring at el barco de avila

santa maria de los caballeros ... north-east of el barco de avila

what the only rotten apple sees when he gazes up from the bottom of the barrel ...

wisborough green again ... on the way from gatwick airport to portsmouth harbour

classical spanish iconography ... presumably, this ubiquitous graphic image was "idealized"

los escobazos 2008

the escorial

Three beautiful things last weekend

The unusual radiant grace of a fifteen month old boy who drinks in each new experience through enormous eyes and seems to consider every possibility in each moment with calm concentration and quiet wonder.

The ecstatic expressions of people in a packed bar dancing themselves closer to exhaustion whilst they sang the ancient anthem of their village’s fiesta.

The look of astonishment and delight on the faces of a young Spanish couple whose car was stuck in the snow as night began to fall when a stout party turned his car around near the top of a mountain pass and came back to help them push it out.

tillington church tower

phenomenally posh glass in tillington church

turner's famous view of petworth park ... tillington church tower is on the horizon ... it was new then

another dash in to trotton church

wisborough green, sussex

new balls, please ? has anyone mentioned christmas yet ?

fruit fish

... like the first morning ( insomniac photography between sneezes )

christmas ! did any one mention christmas ?

this morning, i was in a well-known "pile-'em-high, sell-'em-cheap" supermarket ... inspecting the half-price christmas decorations ... a few feet from me along the aisle stood a well-spoken country-wife in a puffa jacket and elastic-sided equestrian boots ... she picked up a toy turkey, less than half life-sized, which was made of felt, and was dressed as father christmas ... and it instantly began to sing jingle bells ... quite loudly, like a rather jolly man, kevin spacey perhaps, but it gobbled just like a real turkey at the end of each line ... blushing like a whole garden of roses, the lady looked around at the smart women behind the pharmaceutical counter, and then at me, and sounded quite panic-stricken when she said, "I don't know how to stop it !" ... so i put on a sympathetic smile and sidled over, a bit like vincent price playing the surgeon in the tingler, only not so well-spoken, or nearly as nice ... and murmured ... "maybe you should wring it's neck !"

trotton church in sussex

... its pews enlivened by kneelers with nifty needlework