Friday 15 March 2024

ADA!!!


I got FaceTimed by Green Eyes this morning. The first thing I saw when I answered was my hours-old Great Grand-daughter. 

She is called Ada - a nice traditional name which reminds me of imagined peaceful Edwardian days.

The only trouble is that one of the people who I work with has a Border Collie called Ada, and I am constantly having to shout ADA!!! when she wanders too close to the road. It is going to sound strange now.

Tuesday 12 March 2024

Why is this image so pleasing?


I thought I would do some analysis on the photo, but this time entirely objectively. I cannot remember if I consciously thought about this at the time, but I don't think the composition was an accident.

The image is square (not usually a naturally pleasing shape) and H.I. is exactly in the middle.

It is horizontally bisected (also exactly in the middle) by the thick line of blue, and the top half is dominated by vertical lines which indicate the vanishing point that is also in the middle of the image, but higher. The path (a blend of complimentary colours between the greens and blue) begins at a Golden Section ratio point of the lower edge and curves in to the middle where it meets H.I. 

That line is drawn on by the diagonal branch of the closest tree and continues up to a similar Golden Section point at the left edge of the square.

Can you think of anything else?

Friday 8 March 2024

Getting on with our lives


I love this photo of H.I. from last year and it will soon be bluebell time again, so I am using it now. The most pleasing of my photos of her often seem to have her standing on a curved path and walking away from the camera.

I heard this morning that a lot of Jewish people are avoiding the middle of London at weekends, when demonstrations in support of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are being held. We can thank Suella Braverman and The Evening Standard for deliberately spreading fear and disunity in Britain. We are being lied to again. 

There is no more anti Semitism in England now than there ever was, but a few stupid and nasty people feel they can openly give vent to their racism thanks to other people's reaction to Netanyahu's determination to stay in power by prolonging the disgraceful war until he crosses a red line which has yet to be drawn. This was never ever about Jews versus Arabs. It has always been about Israel versus Hamas. All is not fair in love and war. 

Putin is loving all this.

Wednesday 28 February 2024

Party people


For the past month or more I have been waiting for someone to turn some stone which is too large for my little lathe, and after the last couple of posts I really want to use some light-hearted words - too many for Instagram users to tolerate.

In effect, I have not worked since before Christmas because the client's agent took a couple of months to confirm the order and thereby broke the flow. At last it seems I have fulfilled a life-long ambition to take an entire winter off. I kid myself I deserve it.

H.I. has turned me on to a couple of things on TV which I never imagined I would enjoy (if 'enjoy' is the right word) - football and Milan Street Fashion. We all know what football looks like, but let me tell you about the Milan street fashion videos.

Basically, someone sets themself up with a camera in the area of Milan where all the shops are big-name, chic fashion outlets and simply films people passing by in the streets. There is usually some ambient music playing and occasionally the video will go into slo-mo, concentrating on one particularly flamboyant man or woman, or their particularly flamboyant shoes, coat, dresses or trousers. That's it.

There are dozens of these little videos and they each last about a quarter of an hour. The first time I wandered in and found her glued to the screen, I sat down to take a look. She has been watching them for ages, but I am not normally home when she does (see above), so I didn't know what I was missing.

I found that I love them - in a mindless sort of way - and quickly realised that this is the sort of thing I have been doing every day since the first lockdown. I will park the car then sit in it for half an hour, just watching the passers-by. Almost every day recently I will sit outside a coffee shop doing the same thing. The big difference is style. I know Bath is considered reasonably trendy, but compared to Milan it is East Germany circa 1970.

There is one other little difference. Whereas H.I. concentrates on the clothes, I find myself distracted by the stonework of the buildings, manhole covers, cars, motorcycles and the shocking disregard for pedestrian crossing places.

You have to bear in mind that H.I.'s wardrobe is very extensive. That is an understatement.

Friday 23 February 2024

Out of service


There have been a lot of deaths in my circle of friends over the last couple of years. It is not to do with growing old either, as almost all of them have been people much younger than me.

Every few years I go through my phone numbers and delete the ones ascribed to people now dead. I usually haven't the heart to do it for a few years so there are still a few on my phone which will not be answered ever again. Sometimes I have called them and found that the numbers are never given to anyone else to use - at least not in the same arrangements. There must be an almost infinite number of combinations on six figures. There is scope for a good ghost story there.

My brother died about ten years ago but I did not have to delete his number because we had lost contact with each other. That was my decision. When he was alive and still out of contact, I was working in Buckingham on the old Chantry. One evening I tried to call up a friend in a town about 100 miles away.

I dialled the wrong number - just one digit different to the right one - and someone answered. The voice was familiar and the man sounded surprised at being called at all. It was my brother.

He had just moved to the area, his phone had just been installed that very day and he had not given the number to anyone. Nobody believes me when I tell them this story and I understand why they don't, but things like this confirm all sorts of irrational beliefs which I have held since childhood, when nobody believed me anyway.

Shortly after both my parents died - they died one year apart - I was at my workshop using a noisy air-hammer, when I became aware of a couple of people at the open doorway. I looked up to see my parents standing there, just smiling benignly at me.

I turned the hammer off and removed my mask and ear-defenders. We did not say anything and I don't remember smiling back at them. I just looked at them in silence until they gave a little wave and walked away. I knew there was no point in going after them, so I sat and thought for a while then got on with my work.

That night I called their number which was still on my phone, but an out of service tone was all I heard.