Tuesday, July 31, 2012

you might say i was fond of music ...


3BT


Wages are credited to my empty account.

I turn off the engine in the dairy farm yard and sit quietly watching the resident swallows flying around only six inches above the concrete.

I stop the truck and switch off the engine once more in a narrow country lane as seven schoolgirls squeeze by on their nervous ponies, and I try not to smirk as I recall those Thelwell cartoons.


Sunday, July 29, 2012

Thursday, July 26, 2012

no more lon chaney nights !


















... that nice doctor frankenstein up at the castle says the package-deal lobotomy with free personality transplant should come in to effect well before the next full moon

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

i was adamant ...


















... but after much tearful argument with older and wiser heads in the drivers' rest room, i have reluctantly conceded that these ladies are neither

a) royalty

nor

b) star players in england's olympic hockey team

picture taken at five o clock this morning opposite norbury nick

Monday, July 23, 2012

lost in the post



















a few months ago i bought, piece by piece, here and there, a set of tunnicliffe's four "what to look for ... " ladybird books

i posted them to spain for some small boys whose father was english

they never arrived

i've assembled another set now but i'm photographing every page before i post them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Tunnicliffe

Monday, July 16, 2012

elliott school in putney

















... is a bit of fifties architecture that needs to be knocked down because the fabric is so grievously dilapidated, but it is to be conserved as an example of design from that period

they are going to sell half their land for 34 million ( they hope ), and then spend most of it on the restoration

its a nice idea BUT ...

whilst the work proceeds they will need temporary classrooms and so they will stack them up right outside our kitchen window

and we shall lose our distant prospect towards the low slopes of the chiltern incline, beyond the edges of london

they say the buildings will be temporary ... three years only ... because the space they occupy must be made available for a play area

hmmm ! wasn't hadrian's wall temporary ?

http://www.elliott-school.org.uk/_files/66D14D277842D144432DA00E5A121604.pdf

Saturday, July 14, 2012

a word of warning ... don't buy her prosecco from valdobbiadene ...



















... she'll only want to drink it again !

busking by stealth in sabadell















http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBaHPND2QJg







Seid umschlungen, Millionen!
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Brüder, über'm Sternenzelt
Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.
Seid umschlungen,
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Freude, schöner Götterfunken
Tochter aus Elysium,
Freude, schöner Götterfunken
Götterfunken!

Be embraced, you millions!
This kiss for the whole world!
Brothers, beyond the star-canopy
Must a loving Father dwell.
Be embraced,
This kiss for the whole world!
Joy, beautiful spark of the gods,
Daughter of Elysium,
Joy, beautiful spark of the gods
Spark of the gods!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

anton chekhov wrote ...






























I am neither liberal, nor conservative, nor gradualist, nor monk, nor indifferentist. I would like to be a free artist and nothing else…. Pharisaism, dullwittedness, and tyranny reign not only in merchants’ homes and police stations. I see them in science, in literature, among the younger generation. That is why I cultivate no particular predilection for policemen, butchers, scientists, writers or the younger generation. I look upon tags and labels as prejudices. My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love and…freedom from violence and lies, no matter what form the latter two take.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

great heavens, holmes ! the ruthless devious cunning mastermind has installed her own plan chest ...























and she's just written out the labels for the drawers ...

"rule the world in easy stages, one to six ... "