zero de conduite

remembering music ... blimey ... how did a choir of country boys sing this whilst unable to read music properly ?

the answer is ... we probably sang it quite badly whilst thoroughly enjoying our few short moments of pure joy and spiritual ecstasy

norman townsend, the wretch, was a great choirmaster and trotted his unruly tribe of trebles through two choir practises a week in the echoing shadows of malmesbury abbey before driving off to his night shift at the railway works in swindon

i am still grateful to him, despite my subsequent agnosticism and anti-imperialism,  for bequeathing this "stately" music and this "triumphalist" language which still reside comfortably as welcome guests in sunlit attics of my memory

his good taste in church music was unerring, so this is the one in B flat and not the one in C

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbaz9T-RW-M

apropos de nuffinque ...

back to rural retreat ... the trains no longer stop but there's an airfield close by

http://www2.tricities.com/news/2012/feb/06/90000-needed-save-rural-retreat-va-train-depot-ar-1666759/

http://www2.tricities.com/entertainment/2011/oct/09/depot-icon-towns-railroad-heritage-ar-1368024/

temporary pub sign at clapham junction ... where trains do still stop, but not for long

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

lord and lady alabaster cobham with their unusual pets in lingfield church

the first lord cobham in lingfield church ...

Zhoen ...

finished her blog today with this sentence ...

"Church bells pealing, a wonderful sound, like train whistles and ship horns. "

so it only seems natural to plunder this picture from Shorpy ...

... and then add a link to another aspect of my most favourite railroad photographer's work ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbzAJoW34DM

... headphones if you have them !

schrodinger's old tom cat drops by to cash his weekly reality cheque

schrodinger's old tom cat re-considers HIS options

kamouflage klasses

"pooh ?", said christopher robin, "do you suppose the french spread marmite on their hot buttered crumpets ?" "almost certainly" said pooh, "& we'll ask the sommelier to recommend a good wine !"

steve bell goes for the jugulars ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cartoon/2012/oct/17/obama-romney-debate-steve-bell?INTCMP=SRCH

word verification troubles ...

I made eight unsuccessful attempts to leave the following simple comment on the FÜNFFINGERPLÄTZE's blog after she'd written about a pang of food nostalgia ...

"Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit"

Grrr !  I just can't read those wobbly letters ...

mother nature's riposte ... a second flower twenty-four hours after the first

... i had to stand on tiptoe with one foot on the dog's lead and arms stretched uncomfortably high to get this picture

health and safety

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USoFfr4K13Y

you'd think mother nature would have better things to do ...

someone has catalogued the inscriptions on the beams of montaigne's library/study

http://lazenby.tumblr.com/post/1599204509/a-catalog-of-montaignes-beam-inscriptions

temptation rears its pretty head in danehill

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

portals in lavender walk

Old age never comes alone…

I might be turning out like my grand-dad after all … much of his life seemed to be spent criticising and complaining, grumbling about the youth and its culture, and fidgeting with a bible.

As the bus lurched past Clapham Common this afternoon with me slumped against the window on the top deck, I glanced out and noticed a young woman striding away from the stop and wearing some very tight shorts with that common and conspicuous attention-seeker's combination of very long smooth naked legs and longish silky blonde hair that swung with her rhythm.

And then I caught myself thinking, “Dear oh dear ! If Clapham Common were the Garden of Eden, that hair would never even hardly cover her nipples.”

this little bronze statue from ancient crete greets you at the "superhuman" exhibition in the wellcome collection's gallery

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/superhuman/image-galleries/what-is-an-enhancement.aspx

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/superhuman.aspx

photography was forbidden at the british library so i took this picture by the door ... kerouac's scroll manuscript of "on the road" was unfurled ... well not quite all of it as it was too long !

what was particularly enjoyable for a man with new glasses was that you could get right down close to the glass and see the texture of the carbon ribbon in the text, a bit like looking over the writer's shoulder

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19811219

some info about the owner of the scroll ...

http://goodvibesmedia.com/2012/01/20/irsay-insights/

and this borrowed picture gives you an idea of the thing ...

http://www.ashmontmedia.com/releases/release_images/scroll_pics/scroll-layout_lg.jpg

a bit of local colour ...

... and a bit more local colour

i thought it was an exquisite post-modern designer's joke ...

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/superhuman.aspx

... until i saw the date on the label

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display.aspx?id=92105

they went that'a'way ...

ring of brodgar just a little bit older and just a little bit bigger and more sophisticated than you were thinking, maybe ...

this photo via Jeanne Bouza Rose

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/06/orkney-temple-centre-ancient-britain

http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/

http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/propertyresults/propertydetail.htm?PropID=PL_233&PropName=Ring%20Of%20Brodgar%20Stone%20Circle%20and%20Henge

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

blogger's afterthink ...

cultures and civilizations often dissolve, or are destroyed ... too many to list

usually because of catastrophies such as war, disease, environmental degradation, earthquakes, climate change, etc, etc

ours will possibly become the first one to have been SYSTEMATICALLY DISMANTLED, unnecessarily in the most part, piece by piece, by a bureaucracy motivated, not so much by religious dogma, but by crooked accountants and bankers, and by financial advisers and property owners worrying only about their percentages and their tax bills

last month in barcelona we watched a huge parade of schoolteachers protesting about government cuts which they described as cultural genocide

investment opportunity ...

triple purpose utensil ...

excellent for cooking pasta or porridge

useful as a poor man's ear trumpet

and lastly, if i don't like what i hear ...

speed the plough ...

photographed at ladies mile, just east of withyham, soon after sunrise ... on the morning after the ploughing competition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVjT1FCfIgg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXkgXLiJH6w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ3mFhoec2U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTV-pRimCf4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NH74ptUDyU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M28g1xfGU7E