Tony Woollaston , aka ‘Doove’ , a former student with me at Manchester College of Art, has died after a three and a half year battle against Motor Neurone Disease. Why he called himself that in those days, is a mystery to me these days, but it was a name he thought up at the time, the late 1960s. We shared a house together for a year in Whalley Range in Manchester. He had the sub basement and I had the front first floor bedroom, others in the house were Alan at the back bedroom, Jim in the sitting room, … Continue reading ‘Doove’ has died.

I went to boarding school, many years ago. At meal times, if you could call them that as the cooking was a not the very best, but there was alway bread and ‘jam’ to fill up on. The bread was thick white sliced, the butter was margarine in a plastic bowl, and the jam was normally red stuff that tasted of red stuff. No fruit was harmed in the making of this product, except for the year they had a glut of rhubarb and to save on costs, someone in the kitchen had made rhubarb jam. This, like the margarine, … Continue reading Butter on the ceiling

…but it says a lot about living in LA. To the right of the small house is an apartment block. Probably as LA prices go, they might be quite cheap to rent. I’m not sure quite how old the small house in the centre might be but if it’s pre 1926 then it would have been built before Freeway 101 was built. The small road to the left of the house is an entrance to Freeway 101 that cuts through this area. That is around ten lanes of moving traffic. In front of the house is Laurel Canyon Boulevard, which … Continue reading This might look unremarkable…

Continue reading It’s a sign…here in LA

In this district of Studio City, so called by the fact that film studios liked to locate here, there are streets of houses away from the main roads that are quiet and peaceful. The area has a number of quite old houses for LA, old being the 20s and 30s . It’s a desirable place to live especially for families but the housing is not cheap. I’m told it’s not cheap almost anywhere in LA. The demographic in this area is fairly young professionals. Most houses have a two car garage attached or to the side of the house. Generally … Continue reading House rules…

Another great sign just a short walk away from where daughter and Co live in LA. Always helped by bright blue skies of course. Many of these might not look quite so good on a wet day in Wolverhampton. I could almost be tempted to try ten pin bowling, almost. Continue reading Bowling

This wonderful entrance and pay booth is now the Barnes and Noble bookshop on Ventura Boulevard. Continue reading Bookshop that used to be a cinema

A return trip to LACMA, one of the art galleries in LA. Closed on Wednesdays, so caught it this time. Loads to see in spacious airy galleries. I’ve often wondered what it must be like to be employed to watch the people looking at the pictures. If you’re a natural people watcher then to be surrounded by them and fine art must be good, but I suspect, by the miserable people on watch on this day, that this is not a job full of joy. Could be worse, they could be working for inland immigration whose natural demeanour is enough … Continue reading Art revisited…

On our recent stay on a ranch near, well sort of near, Ojai , North of LA we met Albert. He’s from Texas. The owner of the ranch: Richard, made our stay interesting and our grandsons loved all the animals and Albert in particular. You could say that Albert was rescued, but normally a rescued animal is free, they paid to rescue Albert. He lives on the ranch amongst dozens of goats and in perfect harmony. He doesn’t bite you, having only one decent set of teeth, but probably wouldn’t if he had them all. He really was quite lovely. … Continue reading Albert from Texas

Thanksgiving. An event here that’s bigger than Christmas. Getting into the swing of it, son in law and I went off with a shopping list. No thousand yard stare at a grubby handwritten note for us, we had the digital version on the phone, so problems with shorthand like wu liquid and stuff instead of stuffing did not arise, but still ‘men shopping’ with inherent danger of off piste decisions. We very proudly returned with all the right things in the right order. I know, not much of a story, but we were proud of ourselves. And a comparison to … Continue reading Bigger than Christmas…

Just a seed head. Location: 30 minutes out of Ojai which is a 2 hours drive north of LA. More about this trip within a trip later, but for the moment please let me know if you know what this might be. Seen on a long walk in the hills. Continue reading A gem in the hills

We are now in an area North of LA which could best be described as cowboy country. Staying on a ranch which a has loads of goats, sheep, ducks, birds, horses and a camel called Albert. So we’ve got away from it all when we’d already got away from it all in LA. ‘It all’ is perhaps everyday life, or a change is scene, so we are changing scene and scenery yet again. This area is dry and stunning, a victim of fires but where we are was not itself affected, just surrounded by them. It’s a flat area of … Continue reading Getting away from getting away…