Category Archives: photography

personal, photography

Alphabet of Me

For some time I’ve been working on the idea I saw a long while back, “an alphabet of me”: something about me for each letter of the alphabet. Som people do this one letter at a time, often in random order. I’ve chosen to do it as a single entity, with an appropriate image from amongst my photos for each letter.

The first and last images are the dust-jacket; A-Z runs through images 2 to 27 inclusive. Below you’ll find a key and links to the original images on my Flickr Photostream. Here then is the finished product.

  1. Me
  2. Anthony Powell: Anthony Powell Society Members at Wysall during a trip to the Widmerpool area of Nottinghamshire
  3. Books: Work in Progress
  4. Cats: Tabby Tiger
  5. Dora: My Mother at 92, (she’ll be 96 this October!)
  6. Eccentric: Deckchair Love
  7. Family History: David Masey Grave at New Romney, Kent. (David Masey is one of my great-great-grandfathers
  8. Girls: “Now I think we go that way …”
  9. Heroes: Dinner Party Meme showing people who are my heroes
  10. IBM: Office Reflections; one of the places I used to work
  11. Jessie: My Aunt Jessie with Portrait of her Mother (my Grandmother)
  12. Kent: Bales by Brenzett; land of my grandfathers
  13. London: Westminster Night. I was born in London and have lived most of my life in London.
  14. Marriage: OMG! Wedding 1979. Yes, this is our wedding. Scary!
  15. Noreen: Noreen in Rochester. See marriage!
  16. Obesity: With & Without. Nasty; maybe I should have banned this!
  17. Photography: Rose: Maiden’s Blush; I’ve been taking photographs for 50 years. Eeeek!
  18. Quirky: Self-Portrait of a Foot. Yes, I’m mad.
  19. Romney Marsh: Prospect Cottage Panorama. More land of my grandfathers. This is Dungeness.
  20. Sexuality: Reading in the Sun in the Bishop’s Garden. Yes, let’s not deny this is part of all of us.
  21. Trains: Double Departure from Alexisbad.
  22. University: University of York Cricket Club Tour 1971; taken at the end of my second year as an undergraduate. I’m in back row, third from right, in the full sized image.
  23. Victoria & Albert Museum: Megalopoda vitreum. Important because Noreen made her career here, which kept us living in London.
  24. Wine: Anti-Depressant; or beer!
  25. XY: In the Hotel. Guess what?! I’m male!
  26. Yummy Food: My Meme: Thanksgiving 12-Course Banquet
  27. Zen Mischief: Rites of Passage Meme. My motto!
  28. Me
food+drink, memes, personal, photography

[23/52] Logs

[23/52] Logs by kcm76
[23/52] Logs, a photo by kcm76 on Flickr.

Week 23 entry for 52 weeks challenge.

At the King’s Head pub, Bawburgh, near Norwich.

The King’s Head has been known for many years for it’s good food. It’s well worth a visit for good gastro-pub food. Chips to die for! And for a good selection of local real ales – the Adnams is especially good.

Bawburgh is a pretty, small village just a handful of miles to the west of Norwich, just off A47 outer ring road.

amusements, current affairs, history, natural history, photography, quotes, sexuality, thoughts

Quotes of the Week

This week’s collection …

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
[Mark Twain]

Now I know foreigners do things strangely but …

The 31-year-old king of the tiny Himalayan country of Bhutan announces his intention to marry this October.
[BBC News report]

Oh, that’s alright then. As long as he’s not marrying last October. That would be necrophilia.

I masturbate because it makes me feel warm, embodied, juicy, alert, calm, self-possessed, and fulfilled. I masturbate to celebrate my body and my sovereignty. I masturbate and am not ashamed to do so. There are other things I do when I’m alone that are far more embarrassing.
[Allison at http://thesexpositivephotoproject.blogspot.com]

One really shouldn’t laugh at other misfortune, especially in wartime …

9 May 1941 … We’d just got down to the Victoria in Turners Hill when there was a whoosh and a bang as a [250kg high explosive] bomb fell where the Fire Station is now – it was old Bertie Simpkins’ junk yard then. Mrs Whiddon who lived opposite had an old lavatory pan come in through her front bedroom window!
[Peter Rooke, Cheshunt at War 1939-1945]

Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul.
[Luther Burbank]

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.
[Dorothea Lang]

Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]

books, photography, topographical

Rye

Rye, in East Sussex, is another of my favourite places because of its history, its friendliness, its proximity to the sea and to Romney Marsh and of course because of its “olde worlde” charm and picturesqueness.

St Anthony's, Rye
St Anthony’s, Rye, © Copyright by Keith Marshall, 2010.
Following on from my post of a couple of days ago about Fairfield church, I came upon this poem by Patric Dickinson (the poet, 1914-1994, not to be confused with my friend Patric Dickinson who is currently Clarenceux King of Arms and still very much alive).

Rye

It seems solid enough
As you come through the Landgate
And the streets climb up to the church
That, like a stranded ark,
     Straddles the hilltop.

But Time is different here.
The streets are full of beggars
You cannot see, who speak
The tongues of centuries
     To the deaf tourists.

‘We have always been perverse
And unprofessional beggars,
For we want to give, not take,
To offer you this town’s
     Particular nature.

‘It is not what you see
As you trip on the cobbles
And say the houses are quaint,
Nor was it ever like that,
     It is our presence.

‘The town keeps whispering
Its history – fishermen, merchants –
Lifetimes that have been built
From unimportant scraps
     To construct a clement

‘Enclave and sanctuary.
Once you have understood this,
You will feel Rye within,
And be disposed to come back,
     If you ever leave it.’

amusements, food+drink, memes, personal, photography, thoughts

Listography – Products

2 Comments

Slightly late with this week’s Listography entry, as proposed by Kate Takes 5. This week it’s all about products — specifically those top five products you couldn’t live without.

So in the interests of not frightening the horses natives, here’s my sensible list:

Laptop or PC. I don’t mind if I have a laptop or a desktop PC; I’m happy using either; both have advantages and disadvantages. But I’m a fish out of water without instant access to the intertubes and all my documentation.

Bed. I need my sleep. I need oil tanker loads of beauty sleep and even then it doesn’t do any good. Bed for me is a haven; not just somewhere to sleep but somewhere to relax, read, think and even on occasions watch TV. Yes, we still live very much in student mode, even 40 years after the event!

Camera. I always carry a camera. You never know what you’re going to see. Mostly it’s dull, but very occasionally it isn’t. And I like photographing people and the odd things that go on around me; especially people. Even at home my camera sits to hand on my desk.

Beer. Well we’d better have something to sustain us. I don’t drink a lot of beer these days; I’ve switched mostly to wine in the interests of trying (and failing) to lose weight and control the diabetes. But I love beer and couldn’t do without the occasional fix. And anyway, what else does one really want to drink with curry?

Glasses. As in spectacles. I’m as blind as a bat without my glasses, which I’ve worn since I was about 14. They are such a part of me that I don’t know I’m wearing them, so I’ve never even bothered to think much about having lenses — and not too much point now as I’d still need reading glasses. I like my varifocals; unlike many people I’ve never had problem with them.

So there you are. What are your top five things you couldn’t do without.