a river of sheep ...

... flowing to the market

i should be doing the compulsory hoovering ...

... but a combination of weekender's inertia and whimsicality provoked me to copy & paste an old blog into google translator ... which will then read it aloud for you in a foreign language once you click the audio icon at bottom right  ...

this was the text i copied, and the translation was instantaneous

"Breathless thoughts provoked by the excitement of an impending trip to Madrid and my dream of introducing a new dimension of transcendant spirituality in to the great game ... the magic sponge might become a relic ... the thrice-blessed universally-revered holy sponge, permanently floating in a silver bucket suspended over a holy well, to be carried in procession on match days by a team of hand-picked virgins ( or tv weather girls ? ) wearing translucent classical robes, chanting every step of the way from the bishop's chapel to the stadium, to the accompaniment of thumping drums and wailing flutes ... the water would, of course, be genuine certified holy water, not yer ordinary bottled stuff, and might be paid for by the donations of pious widows and spinsters of the parish ... in fact i see no reason why the sponge shouldn't be administered as a kind of unction by a priest, and/or by the mother superior of the nearest holy order, with the blessed hem of her robe rolled up and tucked into her formal suspender belt as she kneels to give succour to the distressed combatant, whilst singing nuns and choirboys encircle the injured player to protect his privacy and to soothe away his pain with a medieval psalm, or an uplifting medley from rogers and hammerstein’s sound of music ... we could even send on a military brass band to escort the bucket & lend further ceremonial dignity at this difficult moment ... and then, once the magic has taken effect, the star player could leap on to an ornate mobile pulpit, drawn to the centre of the pitch by a team of prancing white horses, grabbing the microphone to give up a suitable prayer of thanks for his deliverance, followed by a vote of gratitude to almost everyone present, and to the various sponsors, for their kindness and consideration ... except for the stone-faced blue-chinned piratically-cynical back four of the visiting team, of course ... i'm not sure if i want to raise the crowd to lord leighton's lofty ideal of elegant and fashionable piety ..."

... and i rarther enjoy the thought that my script is probably being read by a top actress ...

POSTSCRIPT: my other dreams are shattered ... i've discovered that her indoors has been moving the fluff that was under the bed and hiding it behind the sofa

apropos de nuffinque

last year, i was rarther pleased when a friend gave me this old plate ...

... and then i spotted two new planters in the window of the belle vue by clapham common underground station

redbrick

today is martin luther king day .... say what you will .... he did !

http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/17-martin-luther-king-jr-quotes-you-never-hear

putney heath in winter ... if this goes on i might have to eat the neighbour's dog, or the neighbour

nice design ...

http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2012/12/13/optical-glass-house-hiroshi-nakamura/

apropos de nuffinque ... centaurs

... to be continued ...

3BT

At first light, almost an an hour before sunrise, I am driving up out of some darker than black woods into the deep blue sky, and as I emerge on the highest part of Ashdown Forest there is just the smokiest glimmer of red on the horizon before the road winds inky blue down again towards the next mass of trees ... and a big headed owl flashes fast across my path in the headlights.

Later, Radio3 are playing an Astor Piazzola big band sort of tango from a concert in the early 1980s, just as the truck is rolling and yawing along a humpy-dippy Wealden village street and, for three blissful seconds, sending my arse and shoulders right out of the seat and twisting and bouncing my whole body exactly in time to the music.

At mid-day, an old oak stands thickly frosted in the middle of an unploughed field on the Downs above Merstham and it casts an oval grey shadow some distance across the ochre-coloured stubble, in the middle of which shadow the remaining thick frost somehow reflects the sky's pale blueness.

the thing i like most about small children is how very easy it is for me to steal their sweets

crossword hero araucaria allows the stiff upper lip to carry on smiling despite the most difficult circumstance

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/2013/jan/11/crossword-araucaria-reveals-dying-cancer


http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/cryptic/25842


http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,438558,00.html

art is a lie ... the full quote

http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/post/19467113501

reluctantly, i'm putting off "the light of amsterdam" until i've finished kahneman's "thinking, fast and slow"

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

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/04/light-of-amsterdam-david-park-review

nostalgic for utah, i googled "factory butte", and "discovered" ian parker, rare gent & exemplar

http://parkerlab.bio.uci.edu/nonscientific_adventures/Bio.htm

http://parkerlab.bio.uci.edu/images_movies_presentations/Node_antigen.htm

etc, etc.

dean potter ... nuff said

http://vimeo.com/56298775

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

Foxy ... RIP

for no particular reason, other than my pleasure ... utamaro

glueing day in SW15

you don't have to be saintly to be spanish ... but this man knows when to do the right thing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/05/pamplona-spain-banks-homes

outbreak of egotistical tweeting in dorset ... culprit brilliantly photographed by marilyn peddle

fearful symmetry ?