Today the air was cold; the cotton-clouded cerulean skies bright and sunny. After lunch we took a drive as far as Hatchet Moor and back, enabling me to tramp over the burnt gorse Nash battlefield beside the lake. Beaulieu Road is lined with pools surrounding the rooted feet of trees which are generally dry inContinue reading “Preening Swans”
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Rough Sleeping
This afternoon I scanned a few more recently rediscovered colour slides from August 2008. These are from a visit to Kew Gardens. Beside the lake huge gunnera grow; upon it plays a splendid fountain. The Titan Arum, or Amorphophallus Titanum, otherwise, on account of its putrid pong, known as the corpse plant, a native ofContinue reading “Rough Sleeping”
Bleeding Heart Yard
After two more chapters of ‘Little Dorrit’ I scanned two more of Charles Keeping’s excellent illustrations. In ‘He ate all that was put before him’, Keeping has accurately depicted the character Christopher Hibbert described as the ‘one truly evil character in the book’. ‘You got out of the Yard by a low gateway into aContinue reading “Bleeding Heart Yard”
An Unknown Soldier
Just before I spent the week in Eymet with Maggie and Mike in September 2008, culminating in agreeing to buy their house in Sigoules, I enjoyed various locations with Mike and Heidi, Emily, Oliver, and Alice. One of these was at Onesse in Les Landes. Oliver doesn’t seem to be in this family shot fromContinue reading “An Unknown Soldier”
The Father Of The Marshalsea
This morning I received my Covid vaccine invitation in the post and booked my appointments at a centre less than eight miles away by telephone. The first jab will be in one week’s time. The whole process went very smoothly. The service has been quick and efficient. I have now read the first 6 chapter’sContinue reading “The Father Of The Marshalsea”
West London Gardens
‘Little Dorrit’ is one of Charles Dickens’s great novels. My Folio Society Edition of 1986 is, at 834 pages with 72 of Charles Keeping’s exquisite illustrations, so great that I intend to deviate from my normal approach to books in this blog. The tale has been reproduced so often in books and films and thereContinue reading “West London Gardens”
Sigoules and Eymet
I spent most of the afternoon scanning and labelling another selection of colour slides from the recently rediscovered boxes. Apart from the two of Michael and Heidi, which I now think were taken twelve months later, these were all made in August 2008. During that summer I spent three weeks at various French bookings withContinue reading “Sigoules and Eymet”
Hard Times
Early yesterday morning Jackie photographed some of our current garden blooms. Each is labelled in the gallery. We decided to hold these back to today because of the quantity we had published of the St John the Baptist Cemetery photographs. Later, Elizabeth e-mailed me a selection of hers. This is her take on the insertedContinue reading “Hard Times”
Nature’s Palettes
On a bright and sunny afternoon we drove to the Parish Church of St John the Baptist on Church Lane, Boldre, where we met Elizabeth for a wander round the cemetery. These two images are Jackie’s. She also pictured largely lichen-covered arboreal delights, and various gravestones and crosses, including the Burton family memorial to father,Continue reading “Nature’s Palettes”
Notting Hill Carnival
When Brian of https://equinoxio21.wordpress.com/2021/01/12/carnival-of-carnivals/ posted his Brazilian feature a couple of days ago his photographs sent me on a search for a set of my own colour slides from August 2007. I spent rather too much time on what seemed a fruitless exercise until, overnight, I remembered some forgotten boxes. This was the year ofContinue reading “Notting Hill Carnival”
