1/5th of a second - # 34/2011

Expressionism let loose in Kingston Market Place - # 08/264

A wet, grey day, a slow shutter speed and a market stall about to close: rust on the bottom edge, and a couple of late shoppers rushing by. Kingston upon Thames market square on the last day of September.

A few tweaks on the "curves" in post - processing, and conversion to "greyscale" produce a n interesting effect. Perhaps you won't like it.

(Kingston is 5 miles up river from Richmond. It's an ancient town where over 1,000 years ago Saxon kings were crowned.)

Fruits of Autumn # 2- # 08/252

26 October....thick grey clouds and rain. Hmmm......seems like Summer, except that the rain's rather fresh and bracing: less warm than it was in the Summer. But the grey cloud! Well, at least it's "seasonal" now, whereas in the Summer it was just a miserable unseasonal nuisance blocking the sun. Wouldn't it be nice if I owned a villa in the South of France, or perhaps in Kerala, South India (yes, very nice indeed). Dubai is too hot now and in any case it's just "London in the Desert with Funky Buildings": interesting but..........??? Australia or New Zealand would be OK, or perhaps Argentina by the South Atlantic.

So, here are the fallen apples, all raked into neat piles for the squirrels and large birds to devour. They are hard at it and the fruits will soon be gone.

Both safe and sure - # 08/238

The umbrella dumped in the rubbish bin was one thing, but this takes your mind into another realm altogether.

30 days hath September - # -08/234

On the last day of September it rained. That is an understatement! Today, 5th October, it's raining again......hard!

Anyway; the benefit is a nice shiny surface, coloured leaves dropping, and at the far end a market trader sitting glumly inside, deprived of customers. His neighbour has already shut up shop and gone home.

The scene is Kingston market glimpsed from the church yard. Kingston is next door to Richmond. The town was the place where Saxon Kings were crowned over 1,000 years ago.

Off-piste Cool - # 08/59

Bywater St. London SW 3, in heavy rain.

Those in the know will be aware that the street cleaners sheltering under the tree are in fact secret servicemen on duty.

38 years ago I shared a flat off the Kings Road, near Bywater St. Saturdays I would see George Smiley in Safeway doing his weekly shop: err, I mean Drop.

For those who do not know the delights of London (which is a collection of villages each with a very different character) this is a typical residential street off the Kings Rd, Chelsea, a few steps down from Sloane Sq: home to stars of stage screen and fashion.

England's grey and pleasant land - # 321

We have all heard these stirring songs and poems about about "England's green and pleasant land and "This jewel set in a perfect sea" (hope I got that line right), and so on, but on a grey, wet, wind-buffeted, chilly day I find it hard to see what is so lovely about this "sacred isle".

Certainly we do not have mosquito infested malaria swamps (like they had until relatively recently in the South of France) and our financial centres can function without air conditioning, unlike in say Dubai, where nothing much could function if it were not for air conditioning (yes,yes: I know that Dubai has a long and excellent history as a Gulf trading centre - just don't pester me with specifics, when you know that my general thesis is sound, and I am an admirer of Shiekh Mo)...................but, on grey days like this it is very easy to see why Britain is a nation of sea farers and world-travellers just itching to get away!!

A very successful Garden Show - # 123

The Police Sergeant put on his full uniform

The boys had great fun cutting cake and serving the teas.

It rained!!!!

The gardens were wonderful

Les parapluies de Ham - # 122

May I remind you of the delightful film starring Catherine Deneuve "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg"....a classic of the French "nouvelle vague" cinema, made in 1964. See it! It's a fine film.

On Sunday my village held a very successful event in which several houses opened their gardens to visitors. The rain stopped for 3 hours and a large number of visitors came. All the wonderful cakes (you saw some of them yesterday) were sold, because the teas were also in high demand.

Anyway, here are some nice English people doing what they normally do when rain sweeps in from the Atlantic.