That’s a quote from a book I was given at Christmas and it’s a good one. I do write from time to time about ‘art bollocks’: that way of talking about art where you do not have a single clue what half of the words used mean. The word juxtaposition usually joins these words together in some way. It’s a way of explaining art that leaves me clueless. Well, the custard phrase, as we shall call it, was used in the book: Unquiet Landscape by Christopher Neve whilst talking about an artists called Mary Potter. It’s a simple way to … Continue reading ” There is no dazzle on custard”

Couple of pictures of Orkney, cos I like them. Taken a while ago, but I bet it looks the same today. Continue reading Orkney Green Beach

Here are a couple of images of one of the Cathedral Masons working on a gargoyle that is now installed. This photo taken some years ago now. If I remember right this is Ollie working on the final stone carving. It gives some idea of the size of these pieces. Behind him and in the image below this is the clay model of what he is doing. It’s got a bit of collateral damage where the clay has dried out, but you can see just how close it is to the final piece. If you are in the Gloucester area … Continue reading Cathedral Mason at work…

“Wherever possible people should work from home” I don’t expect the people who worked in this office would mind that directive these days, it’s got to be better than this. Hopefully this office is no more, as the image was taken in 2008. This was taken when we went on holiday to Greenwich on the banks of the Thames way back then. We took a walk down by the river and this and other sites greeted us, most were a little more cheerful than this. I used to have a couple of clients when I worked for the printers who … Continue reading “Wherever possible…”

Some years ago, possibly as many as 8 or 9. I went with a good friend who had a printing company in the Midlands to take a look at his printing company. I was familiar with what the inside of a printing company looked like as I’d worked as a salesman for one in Gloucester for a while. My friends printing company had been in business for many years and had a fine reputation in the area. The company I worked for had a similar reputation in the Gloucester area and beyond. Both had been family businesses, the one in … Continue reading Caslon Tray: A short tale of two printers.

About a year ago one of my twin grandsons described something as “gankie”. For a four year old this word invention was new to me and I’ve been puzzling about what it means. It’s not good. My own view is that this Christmas Mince pie from the Coop could easily be described as “gankie”. Many years ago a good friend of mine at college invited me to Hull, which is in the wilds of East Yorkshire and almost far enough from everything to be declared a separate state. When you get to Goole you think you might be nearly there, … Continue reading The meaning of “gankie”

I’m not sure if this is an ex brick factory, but it might have been. It’s in Crete and the image was taken some time ago now. Perhaps I should have described it as a pottery factory and then could have used the old joke about a Cretian Urn, but I cannot remember it properly. So let’s leave it as a brick factory. Like sheds, I like old industrial buildings too. Many have been taken down and some just fall down, it seems to me like this one was just gradually falling down but that they could not persuade Fred … Continue reading Brick Factory: Crete

One morning at the office, when I went into my office at the printers I worked for as a salesman, I had a call from a Mr Price who was an engineer. He ran a small engineering firm with his dad, the family lived on the site of the engineering business and he said they needed some ‘compliments slips’ to put in with their invoices and ‘the like’. He advised that the design needed some updating as they still had a Gloucester number as a telephone contact. They had not even got as far as the area codes, which indicated … Continue reading Mr Price and Mr Price: the Engineers

Some years ago this was taken on this beautiful Mediterranean island. It’s a shephers’s hut, but a shed to me. Very solid lower stone construction and no doubt all materials from the local area, then the parched wood atop. I assume with those very thick walls it would have made a cool place to drop into, that is cool as in temperature, rather than cool in its now borrowed meaning of being “The shed to be seen in” type of cool. Whatever, it’s cool in both meanings of the word. Continue reading Shed:Crete

Some years ago we took a holiday in Scotland and were heading for the walking places. The day before the organised walking we had the time to visit Nairn, where we came across this really brilliant statue. You can read more about it here. Statues have been much in the news of late either because they are unbelievably awful or they have links to the grimmer parts of our history. Some of the awful ones are footballers or former footballers, outside stadia, and frankly they do nothing for either the subject or the Stadia. Then one comes across one that … Continue reading Fisherwoman : Nairn, Scotland.

Caught this a few years ago on a drive towards Stroud, one of my favourite towns in Gloucestershire. The Slad Valley is one of the five valleys around Stroud, made famous by writer and poet Laurie Lee and his book “Cider with Rosie”. This shed is on the main road through Slad and was still there just a few weeks ago when I did the same route. “Cider with Rosie” is a very good read, sometimes described as a love story about a time when things were simpler, with no modern gadgets and very little traffic through the village, but … Continue reading Springtime Shed in Slad

A somewhat grainy image of a former factory from 2007 in the midst of its demolition to be replaced by a Shopping Centre in the docks area of Gloucester. As my memory serves me this was taken at Christmas time when there was little going on in the site and it was one of those bright winter days, a little in short supply as I write. This was the Fielding and Platt building, manufacturing all sorts of hydraulic heavy lifting gear and if you want to know more they have a brilliant website right here The only heavy lifting around … Continue reading Before the Shopping 2007