in our room there were loads of lovely old books ...

... and we found big volumes of profusely illustrated victor hugo novels ... the hunchback ...

... and les miserables ...

... & in the bibliotheque nationale, where you are not allowed to photograph les globes du roi soleil, some more light reading, as enjoyed by m.proust

the patron saint of club doormen

place vendome .. every one we met was asking about you ...

proust's little river "vivonne" at illiers-combray

i meant to write to you all ...

... but there just wasn't time ...

it's an acquired taste ...

home again, home again, jiggity-jig !

one night in paris ...

we're off to the land of temps perdus on this coming saturday ....


i'll be wearing my lon chaney wig ... so don't miss next week's exciting episode !

... and six nights in chartres

... where i hope to emulate chaney's heroics, climbing both steeples by moonlight without a rope ... even now, with this stupendous goal in mind, i am strengthening my fingernails by soaking them overnight in a homeopathic concentrate of hot sperm oil and dapper dan ( made from baby seals )

tree surgeons have been thinning the lovely trees between the tenements ... most of the greenery went in to the shredder

http://www.british-trees.com/treeguide/oaks/nbnsys0000003843.htm

gaudier than thou

bridge over the river wye ... at chepstow

no wonder the chepstow lads looked so wide-eyed

cutting a groove in the clouds on the approach to LHR

yatton keynell's new shelter ... timber frame by adam whittle

yatton keynell churchyard

lassco ... architectural re-cycling at vauxhall

no danger of re-cycling this in the near future

sadly, i'm not there ... but i'm glad to pass on the news ...

http://blog.burningman.com/

thic goddyss of smalle thyngs hath brungen home whyte flewers

"rosebud"

the salt air at brighton rusted the original buzz bike





eventually, the front wheel collapsed and, as soon as i'd replaced it, the handle bars snapped off




i'd been using it every day for a year or two while i was collecting materials for the magic beach

hungering for knowledge in midhurst

they'll be thirsting after righteousness a very long time in midhurst

empty teapots in midhurst

'ats wot changed 'istory

i had a hat like this in 1981-82 ... it had an already thirty-something-year-old brass and enamel badge with the tiny two-tier slogan: BUTLIN'S/SECOND WEEK ... it went AWOL during a punch-up in the Dug-Out, a rarther grimy club that i loved in Bristol ... so, wherever you are, whoever you are ... GIVE IT BACK !

... and just in case Butlin's isn't part of your ancestral mindscape ...

a well-intentioned fairy with an outsized heart of gold ...

... generously sent some birthday cash ... but because she has forsworn the internet, she'll never know that i've wasted it on prosecco and new reading glasses

ornithologically clapham common

as the dear old dog and i meander from clapham junction towards the pond on the common we are distracted by the conversation of seven magpies high in a plane tree

they seem to be trailing us and they fly on in parallel to a conker tree in which they discover two jays

monosyllabic insults are exchanged without recourse to violence

further on, at the pond, the resident heron leaves immediately but they see a young cormorant roosting on a dead bough and, possibly with typical curiosity, they settle quietly around him before sidling closer until he feels obliged to leave

the walk around the pond is quiet this morning and the council have belatedly posted notices warning of the algal bloom that started nearly three weeks ago

pillow talk ( from the master bedroom )

She: Is there anything you'd like me to do for you tonight ?

He: Would you like to move the ( ENORMOUS ) fridge from the kitchen in to my bedside ?