shed 3

A friend of F has given him part of an allotment to try out. I went along with him earlier this year to have a look round and of course there were plenty of sheds. I love the variety and personalisation of sheds on allotments. Must take some more photos.

pont croix b&b

Have to make a mention of Sue's b&b in Pont Croix, Finistere. It's not been open very long but she's getting lovely comments from the people who've stayed. She offers a really characterful room with en suite facilities, situated in an interesting old town beside the river Goyen and she's a great host.
Being on a peninsular, Pont Croix is only a few minutes drive to a variety of sandy coves, dunes, rocky coasts and cliffs with a wealth of tiny, ancient villages inland. All year round there are stunning coastal walks and most weekends throughout the summer there will invariably be a traditional Breton fete in one of the surrounding villages.
I'm hoping to start loading some photographs of the area here.
A stay is highly recommended.

number 10

Not quite suitable for the shed section although it could fit. A great little wooden house in Oracle, Arizona. An earlier photo on the Flikr site shows that there is, in fact, a row of several of these. And the trees are brilliant.

from the bookshelf #2

Another gem from my sister's bookshelf. Beware of those illness germs.

from the bookshelf #1

From my sister's bookshelf. Rebecca - the Cheap Edition - published by Gollancz in the '40s. It struck me that, in the current financial situation, designing things to look cheap is going to become very popular again. There's also a '1st Cheap Edition' of Rebecca for sale online at £299 - cheap indeed!

i'm too sensitive

Sorry, i'm just too sensitive.
>>>Sensitive Artist

today's special

Dustysevens just posted these three really nice short films by director Paul Kelly about London's disappearing cafes. Obviously made a few years ago. Today's Special Nos 1, 2 and 3.

2010 reading

Just getting to the end of An Ice-Cream War and thought I'd list the books I've read over the last year so that I don't forget.

Mathew Kneale - English Passengers
Hanif Kureishi - Love in a Blue Time
Jim Crace - Being Dead
Joseph O'Connor - Star of the Sea
Joseph O'Connor - The Salesman
William Boyd - Any Human Heart
William Boyd - Ordinary Thunderstorms
William Boyd -Brazzaville Beach
William Boyd - An Ice-Cream War
Kazuo Ishiguro - Nocturnes
Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go
Ali Smith - The First Person and Other Stories
John Banville - The Sea
M J Hyland - How the Light Gets In
Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones
David Mitchell - Black Swan Green
David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas
Michael Frayn - Headlong

I think my favourite reads have been Black Swan Green, Nocturnes, Star of the Sea and The Sea.

new year sales

It's time for the New Year sales and we can all go shopping for clothes - maybe a smart new suit. Make sure you've got enough credit tho'.

The Coasters - Shoppin' For Clothes

Happy New Year and happy shopping.

it's a goal

So, we lost the race to host the 2018 World Cup. Not that it matters much to me as I'm finding football is becoming more and more disappointing. It did remind me tho' of this great track about a football match. It features (from around 2'45) an introduction to all the players followed by a commentary on the match. Love it.

The Real Sounds - Tornados vs Dynamos

From the Rough Guide to the Music of Zimbabwe available here

rooftops

Was listening to a BBC programme today about the Blue Nile's album A Walk Across The Rooftops. Full of great songs. What a track for a first try at uploading music onto my blog.

A Walk Across The Rooftops

Hope it works (it starts very quietly!), and thanks to dustysevens for the pointer to Box.

junk

Didn't get out much during the recent trip to Brittany. It fell at a difficult time and I had to take work with me. Checked the post one morning and these thirteen!! booklets were waiting for me offering a whole range of cheap food, cheap furniture, cheap tools, cheap toys, cheap bathroom and kitchen fittings, cheap wine and cheap clothes. It's not unusual for this amount of rubbish to appear through the letterbox. I pity the poor postal men and women who have to carry it all and mourn the trees that have given their lives in vain.

victoria letters

Recently came across these great hoardings in Victoria Street, London. Designed by Hat-trick Design, each letter relates to a short story about the area researched and written by Nick Asbury. For example: W – Westminster Abbey "Technically, Westminster Abbey no longer exists. Its real name is the Collegiate Church of St. Peter, Westminster. It continues to be known as Westminster Abbey even though no monks have lived there since the 16th century". You can see more photos here.

Some more picture of our day out in Aldeburgh. We always enjoy walking up and down the sea front and the high street, ice cream and fish and chips, people watching, the breeze off the sea and the strange way it subdues the sounds along the beach. Looking forward already to next year.

plenderleiths

The annual pilgrimage to Aldeburgh took place on Sunday. We go to visit our good friends the Plenderleiths who exhibit their wonderful jewellery collection there for a month or so each summer. They'll be at the Darfield Gallery on Wentworth Road until 4th September. If you can't make it then visit their website here.

snape

Picked up this great little booklet in Aldeburgh yesterday for the Snape proms. The front cover caught my eye in a shop window. Checked out the designers and found them to be Silk Pearce who, as well as producing concert season brochures for Snape for the past 10 years, have done lots of other interesting work. Worth a look.

sign 1

I liked this road sign from just outside Pont Croix. Nice bendy arrow, nice soft cast concrete, nice shadows. All very gentle.

altercola

It's difficult to buy Coke or Pepsi in the local supermarket at Pont Croix. They like to offer Breizh Cola instead. The 'cola of Brittany', as it's called, is the local alternative. It is one of many types of alternate cola, or 'altercola', competing with the more established and widespread brands. These colas are currently produced in small volumes and are generally readily available in local markets only. I like their smaller glass bottles and I must say that it tastes good (if you like cola, that is).

quick trip

So to Brittany again recently. What fun!
Ryanair couldn't land at Brest because it was raining so they diverted to Dinard. S was due to collect me at the airport and, as this had also happened to friends last week and it took them hours to get back to Brest, she decided to drive to Dinard. After two hours sitting in the plane on the runway at Dinard we were informed that the staff there were not prepared to accept us so we would be flying off to Nantes. Quick call to S who was almost at Dinard by now. She said it would take just as long to go back to Brest as it would to follow me to Nantes so she would drive on and pick me up. An hour and a half after landing at Nantes S arrived with a very sick car. Just outside the airport we stopped and discovered there was no water in the engine. Several calls to the insurance company, a tow by a very nice man to his Citroen garage, a wait in the bus shelter outside his garage, a taxi back to the airport, a hire car to get us the 270kms to Pont Croix and we were back by 1.00 in the morning - a total journey time of only 16 hours.
Back to work now for a rest.

singapore mosque

It's been some time since the last posting. Have been sorting lots of stuff for Dad (maybe more of this later).
I happened to be looking on his book shelf and found an album of old postcards that I have not seen before. This one caught my eye because a friend has a love of Ovaltine images. Odd to see this sign beside a mosque in Singapore.