it wouldn't surprise me if these cats weren't conspiring to create christmas chaos ... i'd better hide the cask of amontillado down in the cellar

alberto manguel's "the library at night": contents page

the loved one came home from the library with alberto manguel's "the library at night" and tentatively enquired if it might interest me ... not realizing that i had relished and devoured his "history of reading" when it was published not so long ago ... i couldn't begin to explain my delight and gratitude ... just skimming the bibliography makes me weak at the knees !

frost

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 )