phenomenal ostentation at worships hill, riverhead

a little local colour just after dawn in nine elms

the ghost of edward hopper woz 'ere ...

your golden carriage awaits you ...

an inquisitive hostess at bailiffscourt

from the roadside at turner's hill towards the south downs

high above knightsbridge ... the twin goddesses of temptation and persuasion

i believe they may have been christened avarice and meretrice ... i'll have to check the parish records

A modest request

There is no afterlife, I’m sure, yet I often daydream there might be an infinite labyrinth of old passageways and winding staircases, connecting interesting sunlit kitchens to interesting moonlit bedrooms, candle-lit libraries to star-lit beaches. An eternity to watch and listen and understand any thing at any time in any place; I’d like to look over Debussy’s shoulder from writing his first score to his last, and have the time to follow every annual migration of every migrant creature that ever existed. And please, in my heaven, can I have the opportunity to dine and sport with everyone and anyone who ever was and to understand every word and every nuance of their conversation ? That’s all.

An important announcement ...

The loved one called me back to the bedroom this morning because she thought I'd like to know that a major lifestyle change is imminent,

"I'm going to let you do more for me, darling !"

a bit of local colour on a very gloomy morning

so i said to her, if you really loved me ...

... then you'd have set your alarm to kiss me every five minutes

plutarch's magpies and four perfect cartwheels

plutarch ( aka joe hyam, now's the time ) mentions magpies

as i was walking the short distance from the green man to the flat, along the northern edge of putney heath, at a point where the new greenery completely overarches the road, there was a furious screeching and croaking up among the trees and two birds who were literally locked in combat crashed down on to the road through several boughs of new leaves, a furious magpie clutched in the talons of an equally angry crow


as i drove slowly down through ringmer past the green, on my way from lewes to cowbeech, a young man who slumped on a park bench was apparently looking sideways to avoid the eyes of a tall & slender young woman who stood straight in front of him, "bolt upright" as if at attention

she was high-waisted with long straight hair and long straight legs

she didn't appear to speak, but she raised both arms with palms facing up, bent her waist sideways at an impossible angle, and then slowly turned a cartwheel with arms parallel & hands close together, coming upright some way off in the exact posture she had begun the move ... then she instantly performed the mirror cartwheel to arrive back at that point in front of him where she had started

and then ... she lowered one arm and repeated the first cartwheel one handed on her right hand ... and then changed arms, and cartwheeled back to him on her left hand

and then i had passed them and necessarily returned my attention to the traffic

a bridge over the river mole at mickelham

a small viper in ashdown forest

i'd like to have taken more pictures but she was blocking the traffic and i had to help "her" across to the other side with a twig

they'll be smirking in heaven ...

... now that the guardian have re-printed nye bevan's suez speech

http://www.guardian.co.uk/greatspeeches/story/0,,2060161,00.html

wem-ber-lee

the rusty bridge by battersea park station

one handed photo whilst waiting for the lights !

clever crow on the river mole downstream from leatherhead

may

the derelict post office at maidstone in kent