This week’s theme over at The Gallery is At Peace.

Now this can be interpreted, as Tara did when announcing the theme, as personal peace and quiet (“a quiet corner with a book, or sitting in the bath by candlelight”) or in the sense of beyond the grave. I’ve chosen the latter interpretation.

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This is the grave in churchyard of St Nicholas, New Romney, Kent of David Masey (10 October to 28 July 1882) who was my great-great-grandfather and his wife Mary. Also commemorated are a number of their family members (none in my direct line). We know from the census returns that David Masey was a fisherman, but I’ve been told that he was also variously a greengrocer, fishmonger, boatman and a lifeboatman at Littlestone.

St Nicholas, New Romney is an interesting church in a small country town and has the usual peaceful and rather idyllic churchyard. When I searched there last I was unable to find any other Masey graves, although sadly very many of the headstones are so weathered as to be unreadable.

Now we have nice warm Spring weather I spent some time today sitting quietly on the patio photographing the parakeets on the seed feeder some 10-15 meters away.

Out of around 300 shots (couldn’t have done that back in the days of film!) I got a dozen which, after cropping and some light post-processing, were anything like decent. Here are a couple …

‘Ere, was that your camera I heard?”	Oi, haven’t you finished yet?!

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They are very tricky subjects! Not only are the birds themselves constantly moving but the seed feeder is swinging back and forth; and they were in dappled shade – even with the camera on a tripod too many shots were still blurred. I had my big 80-300 zoom lens at full stretch and have still had to heavily crop the frames.

And there are more shots on my Flickr photostream.

This weeks subject over at The Gallery is Extreme Close Up.

Hmmm … this is something I always try and I’m not always very successful at although my little point and shoot Panasonic Lumix TZ18 is especially good at very close range — much better than my big Olympus E620 dSLR! So I took a few close ups specially for this week’s challenge. Here are just two.

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The first is fresh Waitrose French baton. And the second is a nylon strap on a cool bag.

Why not visit The Gallery to see what other people have come up with?

Another in my occasional series documenting some of the underbelly of Britain. Britain which we wouldn’t like visitors to see and which we wish wasn’t there. The trash, abused, decaying, destitute and otherwise buggered parts of our environment. Those parts which symbolise the current economic malaise; parts which, were the country flourishing, wouldn’t be there, would be better cared for, or made less inconvenient.

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The country is in a pretty poor shape when even the pawnbrokers can’t stay in business! But then I’ve seen quite a few dodgy businesses come and go at these premises over the years.

This is by the Petts Hill bridge, near Northolt Park Station.

The Gallery had a week off last week, hence there was no posting. This week we’re back to normal and the theme is Colour

Hmmm … there’s so much to choose from in my Flickr photostream. So maybe we’ll play it easy and pick a recent (like last week) photo:

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This red primula was growing in the municipal flower beds about a couple of miles from home. The whole bed was a lovely splash of colour in the Spring sunshine made up of lots of shades of winter pansies and primulas — everything from pale lemons through to deep purples and bright reds.

Another in my occasional series documenting some of the underbelly of Britain. Britain which we wouldn’t like visitors to see and which we wish wasn’t there. The trash, abused, decaying, destitute and otherwise buggered parts of our environment. Those parts which symbolise the current economic malaise; parts which, were the country flourishing, wouldn’t be there, would be better cared for, or made less inconvenient.

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This is the main street only a few hundred yards from where I live. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture does it. Overflowing recycling/rubbish bins. Poorly maintained roofs. A buggered advertising hoarding. Lamp-posts so overgrown with creeper they’re falling over. Traffic and street furniture as far as the eye can see. Downtrodden people. And what you can’t see is the scruffy parades of useless shops (Chinese medicines, nail boutiques, Polish delicatessens, empty eateries) most of which change hands every 6 months or so as their proprietors can’t make a go of it. It used to be a nice area but can’t now support even a charity shop.

This week’s request from The Gallery is for us to post a photograph of something important to all photographers: Light.

So as usual I’ve dug one out of the archives.

This was the sunset on 9 December 2010 which I took from the passenger seat of the car travelling homeward from central London; we were on the White City flyover at the time. This chimney is on a new building on the left going westward; I’ve no idea what the building is for but it seems strange to put such a conspicuous chimney on an office block and I don’t think it’s a hospital — maybe it’s something to do with the nearby BBC?

I love sunsets and sunrises. And travelling west out of London on this particular route, with its elevated sections, often gives good views of the sunset and cloudscapes.

With this shot I like the subtle pinks and greys of the sunset and the cloud patterns contrasted with the darker metallic slab of the chimney.

Number 2 in my occasional series documenting some of the underbelly of Britain. Britain which we wouldn’t like visitors to see and which we wish wasn’t there. The trash, abused, decaying, destitute and otherwise buggered parts of our environment. Those parts which symbolise the current economic malaise; parts which, were the country flourishing, wouldn’t be there, would be better cared for, or made less inconvenient.

This derelict factory/warehouse is in Park Royal by the A40. It’s been in this state for over 5 years, has been half demolished and then just abandoned again.