Tuesday 28 June 2011

Lily

Lily is one of our three remaining cats. She is reluctant to pose in our new garden and this was the final photograph of 25 taken recently! She can be a right little madam!

Sunday 26 June 2011

Posing for the Camera

Is it me or do some of these young children look slightly sinister. The images were all taken by an Edwardian photographer and have been reprinted from the original glass plate negatives.

A gigantic whip for such a small pony!

Another whip for a wooden horse

Anyone for Tennis?

Does the book indicate she can read?

Do you think she might be related to Gulliver?


Hang on. The carpet is showing!

Saturday 25 June 2011

Reject the Demon Drink!

I am temperance, but I never got one of these. It was given to a young child who joined the Band of Hope union. The organisation began life in Leeds in 1847 with the aim of teaching children the importance and principles of sobriety and teetotalism. According to Wikipedia, it was set up in an era when hard liquor was generally viewed as a necessity of life, next only to food and water, the Band of Hope and other temperance organisations fought to counteract the influence of pubs and brewers, with the specific intention of rescuing 'unfortunates' whose lives had been blighted by drink and teach complete abstinence.

Another Face in the Bark

I arrive early for an open air concert by Van Morrison and went exploring the parkland around the stage. I found this face in the bark and it reminded me of an owl.

Tuesday 21 June 2011

Hungry Trees that Devour Objects!

I saw some strange photographs in today's Sun newspaper. Click HERE to see them!

New Book Blog Launch!

I caught a glimpse of a new blog from a book-lover which has a introductory post that has left me desperate for more. If you like books, then you ought to go over to A Book-Lover's Journey and sign up to follow its progress. Click HERE to visit the blog.

Friday 17 June 2011

Ouch!

I found a catalogue of surgical instruments the other day. Some of the items on sale frightened me no end. Well, to be quite honest, nearly all of them did so! Here are some sample pages. Ouch! Click once, and then again, for an enlarged view of the instruments!



Tuesday 14 June 2011

Help solve a Puzzle!

I found this photograph at a car boot sale recently. It came with some postcards. I am wondering what sort of people they are. So far, I have imagined they might be prospectors, explorers, quarrymen, but I don't think they are cowboys. Can anyone suggest what their occupation might be? Click once and then again for a close up view. I first thought the location was America, but it might be Australia. Why? Well, the chap on the right of the three blokes at the rear seems to be wearing an Aussie hat, but the man on the extreme right (front) looks is wearing a pith helmet - sometimes known as a sola topee.

Can Photograph Albums survive the Digital Age?

Here is a link to a fascinating article  described as 'An evocative survey of photo albums captures the history of American photography - and asks whether we'll ever impose order on our sprawling digital collections?' Click HERE to read it.

Reading the article lead me to think about my own photographic collection. I have more than 20,000 images on my MacBook laptop which take up no room at all. Pre-digital collections are different. I have boxes and boxes and boxes of prints and negative wallets, each of which contain 36 photogaphs. I also have boxes and boxes of 35mm transparencies. Together they take up huge amounts of space. Oh, how I wish there was a Scanning Fairy who overnight could transform them all into digital images. I have not come across one yet, but if you have one with time on its hands, please send it over!

Sante Fe 2002

The Banned List

Read about the Banned List - the top 100 words or phrases to avoid HERE. How many of them do you use?

Monday 13 June 2011

Long Live The King!

On Coronation Day 1901, nearly every town and village in Britain celebrated the event with their own pageants. Here are three views of one such event, somewhere in England. Look how happy these new Edwardians are. Wonderful!



Friday 10 June 2011

Taking a Leak!

I was quite surprised when I noticed what this statue represented. Just by chance, I had pressed the wrong button and shot two seconds of video. That said, you have to quick to see it! It is at the end of the post. Outrageous!









Thursday 9 June 2011

Spiders on Speed!

Have you ever had one of those days when you step outside and see that a heavy overnight dew has highlighted the webs of spiders. But has it ever happened when the spiders have switched into overdrive and gone berserk. I was amazed at how busy they had been! Click on an image and click again for a close-up view.






Wednesday 8 June 2011

Tuesday 7 June 2011

St Francis gains a new Friend

Rather annoyingly, because of the passage of time, I cannot remember where I came across this statue of St Francis of Assisi. It might have been Wilmington NC or Fredericksburg. Moments after taking the first shot, a bird landed on his head. No doubt one of you will be able to tell me what it is!


Sunday 5 June 2011

Psst!

Psst! Look out! They are here again. Those damn visitors with their cameras . . .

Through the Picture Window

Through the Picture Window. I wonder what is on the other side? Do you know?

Arm Rest with a Difference

The arms of this garden bench are pretty impressive by any standard. I always wondered where Aslan went we he wasn't need by the Pevensey children!





Friday 3 June 2011

Ratko Mladic stirs memories of the Past

Watching Gen Ratko Mladic make his first appearance in court on television this evening stirred some unwanted memories. I saw for myself the destruction of Sarajevo and the fighting between Bosnian Muslims and Croats - houses burning, graves, the mercenaries and much, much worse.

Quite by chance, as I was scanning a collection of cemetery snaps that had arrived from America, I opened a battered wallet of photographs. It had a sticky label on it, marked Bosnia 10. I remembered that  I had taken hundreds of Kodachrome transparencies and even more 35mm negatives recording what I saw. They sit in the attic waiting to be looked at.

Here are few of my images. These are just snapshots and not my best work, but they do illustrate a little of the massive destruction that took place. Remember to click once on the photos, and then again, for a really close up view. I used to describe such snaps as record or evidential shots. Think of them as a rare glimpse into one of my previous lives!

Not wishing to bore you, I will recount just one tale of the inhumane acts that took place in the conflict. The second image shows an overgrown garden in front of a wrecked house. It reminded me of an incident that affected me greatly.

I recall being driven up country from Gorni Vakuf. On the outskirts of the town, a woman was hanging up her washing on a line in the garden that surrounded her home. Her toddlers played by her feet. When I came back from the front two weeks later, I was shocked to see that the house had been torched and there was one freshly dug adult grave and two smaller child-sized graves on the lawn. The washing still hung from the line. I passed that way six months later and the washing still waved in the breeze, albeit faded by the sun and in rags. There were red roses in bloom by the front door. The memory still troubles me still . . .

As I clutch my trusty Canon T90 camera, behind me is a large hole blown in a bridge. Such immense damage

A little overgrown, but the shape of the garden still exists

Ruin after Ruin

Street after Street

A striking example of the ferocity of the fighting. Riddled by bullet after bullet!
A grave in an abandoned village cemetery. This person is probably of Serb descent as the headstone is undamaged

Not like the grave on the right which has seen it's headstone smashed by the occupiers