competition time

a double first question, indicative of the author's distasteful curiosity about the enigmatic gender:

about the lady who wore this dress ... might she have swayed ? or wriggled ?

and a question of taste for the aesthete:

which of these teapots from the same small room in the V&A might she have chosen for brewing the first cup of the day ?

giving fenchurch a drink at sheffield park

in the sidings at sheffield park

a good friend retires tomorrow ...

... so i've borrowed two of robert crumb's immortal images for this "cheapskate's card"

mens' talk ... instead of thinking about the dishes, he's thinking "lucky arsenal !"

1001 uses ... anti-tilt storage mechanism

1001 uses ... safe storage of little pointy scissorzez

3BT, well maybe 2not-quite-soBT at the V&A last night

A Dickensian/Gothick tableau in the darkened cafe ... an actor face-painted in red personifying Death, sits down at long straight table with an imposing retinue of sinister companions, some of the men with tall hats, the women plumed or tiara-d, each one strikingly elegant and sinister in black.

In the Japanese gallery, a treasure house of joyfully aspirational marvels and perfections, a row of very young people, too young to properly know the tragic passions and the deadly sins, sitting cross-legged in eager anticipation to watch an old black-and-white fillum of the visceral Japanese ghost tale, Onibaba.

The luminous and never ending life-stream of interesting bodies and faces and fashions and fancy-dress entering this great museum as if it were their second home.

shiny objects on the station at horsted keynes

light at the end of the tunnel

first class, non-smoking, yes please !

carriage restoration at horsted keynes ... its easy when you know how

oatmeal stout ... only two and six a dozen !

save yourself a lifetime of scholarship and bathe yourself in the reflected warmth of jenny uglow's brilliance

a little slice of ashdown forest

possibly the smartest doggie on the common

i wear my classical scholarship lightly

the child that books built

i felt myself drawn to the open door of a charity shop which usually fails to entice ... i spotted this book immediately and remembered the author's name being favourably reviewed elsewhere in recent years ... it is deeply engaging and occasionally challenging ... what's more ... the bbc have archived the author's reflections on the writing of it in five very short talks totalling about twenty minutes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/speechanddrama/workinprogress/spufford.shtml

a tinge of frost

paint it black

paint it red

i've always imagined these interiors had erotic possibilities

but for a purer kind of nostalgia, listen instead to flanders and swann ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6OHD2uCpfU

little known chicago photographer re-discovered ... my thanks to metafilter

http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/

inside the oranges and lemons church, saint clement danes

rootin' around

i've been plodding through the internet thingy, trying to discover the name of a girl, or girls, who sang a reggae version of the cliff richard hit "the young ones" back in the early eighties

no luck so far

but i did stumble upon a theological critique of popular singing that shouldn't have taken me by surprise, but quite startled me

http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=1786&CATE=142

'ow vexatious !

i'm still perplexed by this painting, a multiple portrait of the saltonstall family

second wife is sitting at the right holding the new baby, detached, expressionless

first wife, deceased, lays on the bed with eyes open holding out her hand

the tate gallery say she is gesturing towards her children

but every time i look at the painting, i think he is about to drop that glove into the palm of her hand

and if he was, then what did the glove or the action signify ?

the artist, thought to have been david des granges, left no explanation

the tate gallery website carries two descriptions of the work ...

http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999968&workid=3821&searchid=15051

https://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=3821&searchid=10739&roomid=false&tabview=text&texttype=9

Maybe this item on the symbolism of gloves in Freemasonry offers a clue:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/mas/sof/sof22.htm

... and this one by a glovemaker ...

http://www.glove.org/gallery/mirianna.php

Etc., etc.

So I've reached a point where I'm prepared to believe that both ladies are dressed in white to show their innocence before their "Maker", and that the glove itself may possibly symbolize the honest and legal transfer of their property when the ownership of various estates was changed by marriage.

Much, much later ... THINKS: possibly, the dead lady is gesturing a request that he continue to care for their children after his second marriage, and maybe  the white glove signifies his honourable assent.

librarianette's corner, chez micawber

old father tempus fugit at cranbrook in kent

posh brass in cranbrook church

thomas webster asleep in cranbrook church holding his artist's brushes

he was famous in his lifetime for this painting ...














http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1159_grand_design/popup.php?img_id=241

hops on the vine left over from cranbrook harvest festival

a bit of local colour in cranbrook churchyard

kent cobnuts on sale in cranbrook high street

sunrise in withyham churchyard

"... put me on a highway, show me a sign, then take it to the limit one more time ..."

consoling ... and funny