Category Archives: photography

books, memes, personal, photography

12 Favourite Books Meme


12 Favourite Books Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s Flickr meme is to share 12 of your favourite books. This is hard; I love books and to have to choose just 12 is a real challenge. Anyway here’s a selection that would at least get in the frame.

1. Anthony Powell; The Military Philosophers. I figured I wouldn’t choose the 12 volumes of Dance as a single item for once!
2. Lewis Carroll; Alice in Wonderland
3. Anthony Powell; The Valley of Bones
4. Riehl & Baensch; Aquarium Atlas
5. Lewis Carroll; The Hunting of the Snark
6. Oxford English Dictionary
7. Florence Greenberg; Jewish Cookery. As good a cookery book as you’ll find.
8. John Guillim; A Display of Heraldry (4th edition; 1652)
9. Simon Barnes; How to be a Bad Birdwatcher
10. Latham & Matthews; Diaries of Samuel Pepys (yes all 11 volumes, please!)
11. Evelyn Waugh; Black Mischief or alternatively Waugh in Abyssinia
12. Gabriel Chevallier; Clochemerle

“Blimey mate, ‘s all a bit eye-brow, innit like!”

As always the photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.

1. 100_7347c, 2. alice in wonderland cake, 3. Petrified Mangrove Trees in Whale Bone Valley, 4. 100 Litre Freshwater Aquarium, 5. indian princesses, 6. Lustre, 7. Jewish Cookery, 8. Jeffrey Hedgecock’s Coat of Arms – Lions Rampant, 9. Birdwatching, 10. The Olde Cock Tavern, 11. Afar girl Danakil, 12. Pissoir

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

memes, personal, photography, sexuality

12 Things I Love About You Meme

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12 Things I Love About You Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s Flickr meme is to share 12 things we love about our significant other (the clean version, of course!). So here is a selection:

1. Still sexy after all these years
2. Shared sense of humour & the ridiculous
3. Another foodie
4. Love of cats
5. You’re an artist, but science doesn’t overly scare you!
6. Support when I’m depressed
7. Love of books and learning – the more esoteric the better
8. Sharing my interests but keeping your own too
9. Allowing me to be lazy
10. An interest in the esoteric highways and byways of history
11. Shared interest in early music
12. And you’re still here after all these years – tho’ I still don’t understand why!

As always these photographs are not mine (except for #11 which is mine) so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.

1. So…, 2. Day 225: Cock Soup, 3. Avocado Heart, 4. I’d love a cat …, 5. star leaf fringed in moon gate, 6. Herbs For Depression, 7. Hf30He63Dg12²Ob276, 8. Florida Fragments, 9. lazy, 10. The Writer’s Soul, 11. Shawm, 12. dance class for meerkats

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

history, personal, photography

Bryan Jackaman Ellis


Bryan Jackaman Ellis, originally uploaded by kcm76.

I’ve been looking at some old photographs and thought this was interesting.

This is Bryan Jackaman Ellis (16 November 1900-3Q1979), aged 4 in 1904. Bryan was a friend of my parents, having met them Youth Hostelling during WWII. I remember him from my childhood in 1950s as a funny old boy, very Edwardian and ascetic who I thought looked like Mr Punch. He was a confirmed bachelor, with a stammer, who always wore a kilt (I think I only once ever saw him in trousers). He always said he wanted to live to be 101 as then he would have lived in three centuries! He expected small boys to speak only when they were spoken to and I’m only surprised I wasn’t required to address him as “Sir”, as I believe he had to his father.

When I knew him he worked as a surveyor’s mate for the Ordnance Survey at various places in the west country, he always lived in lodgings. He was passionately interested in architecture and steam trains – he would go anywhere in UK to look at a church or ride a rural train line. He spent most weekends off somewhere Youth Hostelling until well after his retirement. Consequently he had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Brit sh Isles; there were few places he hadn’t visited at some time or another.

He often visited us at Christmas, staying just a couple of days between other visits to friends, visits to churches etc. I also remember that every week he mailed my parents the latest copies of Punch and Country Life after he had read (and annotated!) them.

Every year he held a birthday lunch, in a different town, on the Sunday in November nearest his birthday. All his friends were invited, usually a dozen or so went along, and between them they stood him lunch; every 5th (or was it 10th?) year he returned the favour. I went to several of these lunches as a youngster; I remember lunching at the newly opened Mermaid Theatre in London (early 60s?), in Cambridge and in Brighton. I think I may still have somewhere my photographs of Brighton seafront from that day in the mid-60s! I also remember the whole group of us sitting in this posh restaurant in Cambridge, rubbing our fingers round the rims of our wine-glasses to make them “sing”.

I would have been about 10 or 11 when we went to the Mermaid. I asked if I could have the trout starter (trout was a fabulous beast then and I’d never had it). My father explained that I’d probably get a couple of small pieces of trout on some toast; was this what I wanted; I insisted, determined to try this rarity. When it arrived, much to my father’s disgust, I got a whole trout! I’ve loved trout ever since.

memes, personal, photography

Favourite Shops Meme


Favourite Shops Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s Flickr meme is about shopping: name your 12 favourite shops. This is quite hard for me as I don’t do shopping; with a few exceptions (most notably food and shoes) if I can’t buy it online I don’t buy it. But anyway here is a selection of the ones I do use:

1. Waitrose (UK, top of the range supermarket)
2. Ocado (the home delivery arm of Waitrose)
3. Marks & Spencer (mostly for food as well these days)
4. Any bookshop (better if it’s a secondhand bookshop tho’)
5. Any produce market (we are foodies; we always cook from scratch; so good produce is always on the schedule)
6. Hiltons (our nearest “wholefood” butcher; lots of organic, free-range and humanely reared meat; seriously good meat; and a wide variety including game too; but not cheap)
7. Amazon (books again, but also lots of other merchandise)
8. George’s (men’s outsize clothes with a shop in Chester and an online shop; very helpful; good quality tho’ not cheap)
9. eBay (is there anything you can’t buy on eBay?)
10. Abebooks (more books! Abebooks is in my view the best of the secondhand book aggregators; watch the postage costs tho’)
11. Clive’s (my barber; always a friendly chat; never stressed or hurried)
12. Borough Market (the place in London for fresh produce especially on a Saturday morning; worth visiting just to look! And next door to the delights of Southwark Cathedral)

As always these photographs are not mine (except for #11 which is mine) so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.

1. Waitrose’s Green Nanas, 2. 28 Days of Gratitude: Feb 1 (YIP), 3. Mussels from M+S, 4. Zafóns Bookshop?, 5. http://www.flickr.com/photos/adevlinphotography/2849393569/, 6. Traditional butchers, 7. Amazon Cat, 8. Gremlin or Mogwai?, 9. Upay with Ebay!, 10. Divine Comedy, 11. In the Barber’s Shop, 12. Borough Market

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

memes, personal, photography

Household Meme


Household Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s Flickr meme is about how your household runs; here are some questions and answers:

1. When does your garbage disposal happen? Early Friday morning
2. What special jobs are assigned to other people in the house? All of them if I could get away with i; but seriously we don’t tend to assign special jobs, except that I always do the finances and Noreen always does the garbage
3. Who is responsible for bathroom cleaning? Both of us
4. Who cooks? Mostly Noreen these days; but it should be me
5. Who washes the dishes? The electric scullery maid
6. What temperature is your heating set at? Comfortable for nudity, usually about 20 Celsius
7. Who does the washing & ironing? The resident costume curator
8. Who pays the household bills / is financial controller? Me; well most of it anyway. We have our own bank accounts and our own money but I pay most of the bills as I earn the more
9. If you have a garden (or houseplants) who looks after it? Both of us plus Tom the gardener who does the heavier, and more boring, work
10. Do you replace commodities when they run out, or do you keep a spare? What do you keep a spare of? We keep spares of most things we commonly use; like everything from toothpaste to garlic paste
11. When is your heating on; some hours or 24/7? Morning & evening during the week; morning ’til night at weekends; unless it is bitterly cold of course. And yes, our house is naturally warm
12. Are there special jobs done on particular days? Not really except for the garbage and the finances on pay day

As always these photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.

1. Chicago, early morning, 18 April 2008, 2. ColOurs… all of tHem…, 3. Just the two of us…, 4. KC the wundermutt upclose, 5. AKIBA Scenario, 6. day one hundred five, 7. Musketeer, 8. I’m sick as a dog….., 9. Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. –Marcel Proust, 10. What do you call Romanian toothpaste, 11. Good Morning, 12. O.P. (Organizing Principle)

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

memes, personal, photography

Bucket List Meme


Bucket List Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s Flickr meme is again simple: share 12 things you want to do before you die.

This isn’t necessarily the definitive set, but here goes with a selection …

1. Retire
2. Win the lottery
3. Fix my depression
4. Celebrate our pearl wedding anniversary
5. Have a swimming pool and swim nude every day
6. Be able to afford it (for any chosen value if “it”)
7. Have a naturist holiday
8. Have another 3 wishes
9. Get a knighthood (or peerage); not that there’s any chance of this.
10. Grow old disgracefully and in good health
11. Become skillful at dowsing
12. Become immortal

As always these photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.

1. retired, 2. 2009: Another Year …., 3. If my hair looks good that’s all that matters……., 4. peach bridesmaids’ bouquet, 5. swim, 6. Maybe I can afford it one day!, 7. More for friends, 8. Three Wishes, 9. Gulf Coast Renaissance Faire, 10. By the Waters Edge…., 11. Pendulum1, 12. Immortality

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

memes, personal, photography

Amended DID Meme


Amended DID Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

As most UK readers will know Desert Island Discs (DID) is a radio programme where a celebrity is asked to nominate the 8 records they would want if cast-a-way alone on a desert island. They are also allowed one book (they get the Bible and Shakespeare as well) and one luxury item (as long as it doesn’t aid them in escaping). It has been broadcast every week for well over 50 years!

This week’s Flickr meme follows the DID theme: chose 5 CD’s (to be loaded onto an iPod), 2 books, 4 luxury items and 1 food item of which you get an unlimited supply.

OK, so here are my choices:
1. CD: Monteverdi, 1610 Vespers
2. CD: Beatles, Let It Be
3. CD: Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here
4. CD: Granados, Goyescas (Piano Music)
5. CD: JS Bach, Complete Organ Works
6. Book: Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time (yes, I’ll have all 12 volumes, thank you!)
7. Book: Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
8. Luxury: Digital Camera with Assorted Lenses, battery charger, etc.
9. Luxury: PC with Internet Connection and Photoshop
10. Luxury: Prolifically Fruiting Avocado Tree
11. Luxury: Large Swiss Army Knife
12. Food: Nuts (assorted types)
Oh and I’ve mixed it up a bit as every one of the images is a collage.

This week’s Flickr meme could go one of two ways: either show us 12 of your favourites from other photographers or show us 12 favourite pictures you’ve taken! I have chosen to do the former; so here are 12 of my favourites from 12 other photographers — and not a pretty girl in sight (for once!). I might do 12 of my own favourites later in the week; or I might do 12 pretty girls from amongst my Flickr favourites.

1. Detail2 Poppea, 2. Art Project I, 3. Two lost souls, 4. The Crooked Coda: Toccare, 5. Orgelmuseum Malchow, 6. Sparkle With The Joy of Life, 7. Tales and Legends ~ Alice in Wonderland, 8. four amigos (hockney style), 9. Collage fragment3, 10. avocado, 11. Swiss army yo-yo, 12. Well Grab Your Drink And Clear A Space, I Think It’s Time To Torch This Place

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

photography, pleasures

H Asleep – Join the Dots


H Asleep – Join the Dots, originally uploaded by kcm76.

Harry the cat asleep on my study chair; he was so dead to the world he didn’t even twitch a whisker while I leant across for my camera and took photographs until I moved the chair slightly; even then all he did was open half an eye! The cropping was a bit of an experiment.

memes, personal, photography

Favourites Meme the Second – for Relaxation


Favourites Meme the Second, originally uploaded by kcm76.

I am so drained this evening after a non-stop, battering day at work that I just cannot get to do anything! Sorry to those who are waiting for emails or literary society work from me; it just cannot be did this evening. I can’t even concentrate on writing a decent weblog post! So I decided to do a second version of this week’s Flickr meme, only this time containing some of my favourites from amongst my own photos. Looking at my Flickr Photostream it contains an awful lot of crap, but amongst it the odd gem. These aren’t necessarily my best shots (anyway who is to say what is best, you or me? — your best is my rubbish) but are the first dozen I picked that I like. So have an evening off and enjoy! Now I shall go and read.

Oh and just for the record these shots span some 20+ years. #9 is the earliest; taken I think in the mid to late 80s (and obviously on film); #10 is the most recent taken just a 3-4 of weeks ago.

1. Apothecary’s Rose
2. Tabby Tiger
3. Red Shoveller Duck
4. Iris 3
5. Double Departure from Alexisbad (3)
6. Warbrook House (Rear)
7. French Lavender 2
8. Deep Pink Cyclamen
9. Floss Cat
10. Camellia
11. Armco Sundown
12. Early Morning December 2

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.