The Bank Holiday spent with good friends – sun-drenched conversation and epicurean feasting in their drowsily gorgeous garden. All (for now at least!) well with the world…
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The great beauty of the Fuji X10 is that it is small enough and light enough that it can simply be carried over my shoulder pretty much everywhere I go. It is also at the same time both versatile and yet simple to use. As a result I can quickly fire off shots whenever I see anything that tickles my fancy. The great step forward that digital represents, of course, is that one can execute as many such as one desires – with no cost implications and the ability to rapidly lose any results to which it is just too embarrassing to admit. Goodness knows how we managed in the days of film!
Herewith a few more snaps from our recent travels.
For our recently (and most sadly!) concluded sojourn in the Perigord we stayed in a beautiful apartment at a wonderful old manor house not far from Périgueux. Our hosts there – Catherine and Maxence – go out of their way to make their guests feel welcome, to the extent of introducing them to – and involving them in – the delights of life in the small village that is their home. The house is called Le Maine and I encourage anyone seeking a tranquil and delightful stay in the region to investigate. We were in ‘La Cuisine d’Alice’ and we loved it! I can’t recommend it highly enough…
Herewith some images – although those on the site above (taken by Catherine – a professional photographer!) do the house and grounds considerably greater justice than ever I could.
In addition to being a professional illustrator, Maxence (who teaches art and who also curated a splendid exhibition of Perigordine artists – to the opening of which we were invited) plays a mean harmonica! On our first night in the village he enticed us to the tiny but ‘happening’ local bar – Le Cube – where a completely splendid Anglo-French duo called Buckshee entertained us to a wild evening of French, Irish, Cajun, bluegrass, swing, rock and roll, calypso and soca musics. Great and sweaty fun!
The band’s website gives some idea as to their multi-instrumental capabilities. Not content simply to display their own array of talents they invited a local English lad (who is blessed with a great swing voice!) and Maxence onto the tiny ‘stage’ area to belt out a stomping version of Van Morrison’s ‘Moondance’. No photo could do this justice. This is a close as I could get…
Herewith some images captured with the trusty x10 as we made our way south through France. Just off the ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe (a crossing that I had not previously tried but which was really most easeful – not to mention being as smooth as a millpond on this occasion) we spent a night in Rouen:
…where we witnessed a splendid Son et Lumiere projected onto the frontage of Rouen cathedral – inspired by the works of Monet.
On the second night we stayed in the Loire Valley at the Chateau des Arpentis. For a B + B this is one pretty cool place – and one which we loved!
The evening was completed by a wonderful al fresco dinner at Les Closeaux near Amboise.
The next day saw us in the Dordogne. More to follow…!
Having basked for a week in the heatwave by which the UK is currently somewhat unexpectedly engulfed (not complaining, you understand!) I have been obliged today – somewhat reluctantly – to return to work after my jolly splendid week at home.
Herewith some images of the Arcadian English countryside slumbering in the heat…
With sweet timing the weather gods have chosen to grace my brief sojourn from the rigours of work with blazing sunshine and temperatures soaring into the high 20s C. The Lions expedition to the antipodes reached an explosive climax this very morning with a thoroughly satisfying drubbing of our friends down under – Andy Murray has made it to another Wimbledon final and the first of the back to back Ashes series is about to commence.
Things are looking up!
On Friday I met the Kickass Canada Girl and one of her work colleagues for lunch in Reading. I arrived first at our chosen rendezvous – an outsized retail ‘park’ which occupies much of the centre of the town and the name of which I will refrain from mentioning since I have no desire to furnish them with more advertising than they get already.
The centre of this excressence features a large open space by the canal, and it was here that I whiled away a quarter of an hour in the sunshine looking for interesting images to snap with the Fuji X10.
As I lowered the camera – after being thus engaged for a while – I found myself face to face with a recently pubescent ‘jobsworth’ (closest Canadian equivalent might be a ‘brown-noser’ – apparently) who regarded me humourlessly.
“You’re not allowed to take pictures here”, he informed me drily.
I was so taken aback that I couldn’t think what to say, but I eventually summoned up a stunned “Why not?”
“Company policy”, he rejoindered. “Inside the stores or out”
I was amazed. “That makes no sense at all. What on earth could they object to? It’s not as though I was taking pictures of people.”
Apparently had I been so doing that would have been alright. What I wasn’t allowed to photograph was the ‘architecture’. When I expressed incredulity at this deranged policy the jobsworth muttered something about people posting things on websites, before shrugging his shoulders and shambling off to annoy someone else.
You will be unsurprised to hear that I was not impressed.
Anyway – here are a few images that I am not supposed to post here and you are not supposed to see…
Tags: England, Modern life, Photo
Well – almost…
This is my very favourite time of year and though the weather has been particularly unreliable this spring we seem to have been blessed with the odd good day at just the right time. This last weekend was the second bank holiday weekend of May (you have to love the Brits – a dearth of public holidays and the two in quick succession!) and – somewhat contrary to expectations – we had three pretty decent days.
What do I like to do at this time of year? I like to look at azaleas! We paid a visit to Ramster Hall (love the name!) near Chiddingfold in Surrey so that I could get my annual fix…
OK – so there are two possible explanations for the preceding and somewhat grouchy post on the subject of the current state of the British weather… The first is that my natural optimism had temporarily deserted me – prompted in no small part by the dogged insistence of our forecasters that the immediate future – in meteorological terms if no other – looked grim. The second is that I was actually practicing a subtle form of climatic voodoo – the intention being to goad the weather gods into an antithetical response. If this latter were indeed the case… well, it worked like a charm!
Contrary to all of the forecasts – including those on the day itself – the clouds cleared from the sky, the wind dropped to a balmy breeze and the temperature soared by a good five degrees. The ground – previously unknown to me – was pretty as a picture. Our opponents were good-natured and sportsmanlike – and we contrived not to lose. To be entirely fair we managed only what might be considered a losing draw – a concept almost certainly completely alien to anyone not conversant with the arcane nature of the game. I will happily explain should anyone so desire…
Today – naturally – it is once again grey and cold!
Anyway – here are a few snaps…
Long stormy spring-time, wet contentious April, winter chilling the lap of very May; but at length the season of summer does come.
Thomas Carlyle
Spring has finally arrived with an unexpected suddenness that took many of us unawares. Over the May bank holiday weekend the UK has found itself basking – however temporarily – in warm sunshine. Without remotely approaching the amazing 29C degrees that Victoria has been enjoying we have nonetheless experienced a 10 degree hike in temperature over the space of a few days and – after the winter that we have recently endured – we are jolly grateful for it.
At the School the Surmaster – giddy at the unaccustomed appearance of the solar orb – has hastily declared that it is time for summer dress, presumably fearful that the expected onset of the next cold front tomorrow could well steal his thunder (or possibly provide some of its own!) and prorogue our summer revels for the foreseeable future.
I took some drowsy pictures in our Berkshire garden over the bucolic holiday weekend:
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