I’ve never been good at maths, and for you people in the States that’s maths plural. All of them. I just did not do the maths well. I was intimidated by teachers with no patience and who could see that I simply did not get it. I never got it at school, but can see the value of it now and since of course. I struggled to do my homework on the subject. Homework being a bit of a misnomer as we did our homework at school, we did not go home until the end of term or the occasional … Continue reading “Get Carter!”

It was an expression my mother would come out with for almost any sort of calamity. So when I failed my A levels , or almost all of them, ( I just got Art ) she’d have used it then. It always made me feel better and it might have been better if she’d been a bit more cheesed off. She was a woman who never seemed to lose her temper, if she was cross, cross was about as cross as she got, and she might excuse it by saying ‘ I’m a bit cross about ( fill in the … Continue reading ‘ Ooooh! …Never mind’

But I do rather like the look of chimneys and rooftops. We are in St Malo for a weeks walking, which is mainly round the coast. Some great days we’ve had and we splashed out on a lunch out yesterday. I’m not one to take pictures of my food generally, but could not resist these two. Top one is slow cooked beef on beans and the next one is sea bass fillet on carrot. They were truly excellent and mine gave me a week’s protein in one sitting. Holidays would not be holidays if you had nothing to tell the … Continue reading Most people look the other way

I published this about three years ago, with, not surprisingly no response. It would have been my late father’s 101st Birthday yesterday. So in a sort of celebration of that I am putting this out there again. A kindly letter to him on the birth of my brother ( on the same date as our new King Charles, but a couple of years before he arrived ) There’s something very charming about the letter and my father was so appreciative of it that he kept it all his life. —————————————————————————————————— This is a letter sent from Arlou in Belgium on … Continue reading The Belgian letter

A day out in Dinard, across the water from St Malo in northern France. We took a walk along the edge of the coast along a concrete walkway which serves as a breakwater to prevent erosion and lets one see the amazing collection of villas perched atop of the rocks. There’s a sort of signature one as you come across the water Then along the footpath plenty more. This was a place where the English first came for fancy holidays in the 1800s but they did not necessarily build these. They all seem to have that unique French feel and … Continue reading Your house is bigger than mine.

Great September skies over Painswick Beacon, where we’d gone to find a Trig point. A relative of ours likes to search these things out. They were used by the Ordinance Survey people to map the country and can usually be found near or on the tops of hills but not exclusively. Gloucester Cathederal has a couple up on the towers. Usually they are concrete blocks like the one below, and are not necessarily on public footpaths, so one has to be careful to trespass responsibly or you may get an angry farmer waving at you. The one on top of … Continue reading Taking in the view at Painswick Beacon

The book that Andy Harden and I collaborated on in aid of Kingsway School here in Gloucester UK went well and they have decided to spend the money we raised on a defibrillator. Good news, makes a change these days. Even tempted to say heartening. Continue reading Good for the heart

No apologies for featuring this image and little movie again, it might brighten your Monday. I think this field should have a preservation order on it. Robin, the chap singing, and I have visited this place twice in two years and it’s probably a walk that gets our top prize rating. We’ve been lucky enough to have bright sunny days when we’ve been there too. It’s near a small village called Apperley and rolls down to the River Severn and a pub by the river where the landlord only opens when he feels like it, so it tends not to … Continue reading Song in the Buttercups

This was drawn after a visit to Tideswell a couple of years ago, it’s in Derbyshire and I seem to remember it was this time of year too. The light was right for September. I did quite a few drawings as a result of that trip, the vivid green of the fields and the bisecting stone walls as well as the trees and their shadows gave me some good photographic material to work from. It reminded me too when I found the images that I’ve been doing these landscapes for a while now. First of all getting stuck into line … Continue reading Tideswell, ‘willy nilly’.

A recent cartoon for a company in Bristol. Used for marketing on their website. In this case the client had thought of the idea and I just made it into reality for him. I like the idea, ducks in a row and rowing ducks… He paid the going rate, but to charity, so we both feel good about it. Continue reading Get your ducks in a row

Some years ago now I was involved in a small way in a sculpture exhibition at the Cathedral in Gloucester. The print company I worked for were to print the Exhibition Catalogue. I was the interface with the client. It was a tricky job and had to be done at some pace as the sculptures had to be photographed in situ, and it was just a few days after they were in situ that the whole event opened. They needed the catalogue on the opening day. Squeaky tight brief! Uncomfortable. Happily it happened. The photographer did his bit magnificently producing … Continue reading Caught by the Cathedral

If you’ve ever been stopped by the constabulary in your car, you may well know the sign that they wish to speak to you, when they indicate that you should wind down your window, by drawing a circle at you with their index finger. You might be wise to comply. The way you wind it down is of course by pressing a button, so you don’t have the massive strain of winding it down yourself, the car does it for you. Window winders on cars went out years ago. One was in those days never in danger of catching one’s … Continue reading Wind down your window