fence

Ipswich, suffolk




school bus stop fence












Nr. Brick Lane, East London



All south London fences, except the ones labelled.
Look here for more Theme Thursday Fences

sepia Stan

My great-uncle Stan was a designer for Ford, and cars were his great loves.

Well, one of his great loves - his greatest love was my Aunty Queen, his other loves included music and tennis / table-tennis.

I was never too much interested in the cars - I'm still not too much interested in cars. But the cars I like are usually vintage - and I would love to have now one of the cars which Uncle Stan was so proud of back then.

Here is a selection of photos of Stan and family, and his racey car-rallying friends and their vehiculars. Stan is on the left in this first photo




and thats his grandmother in the car and his mother sitting on the running board.










And finally, a photo of Stan driving the first Fordson motorised tractor in the UK.





This is a Sepia Saturday post - you can enjoy more over here and there are some earlier posts about Stan and his family here and here.

stre-e-e-e-etch

as seen by me


in Williamsburg, New York. By Nick Walker.



in East London. By Mark Amehling


and as felt by me:






both photos by taken by a photography student.


More Theme Thursday stretchiness over here.

Beautiful Kerala 2

Backwaters are a particular feature of Kerala - interconnected lakes and rivers, lagoons, inlets, canals... there is a map here.





We had a couple of boat trips around some of these beautiful waters during our visit.



As well as wonderful trees - coconut and banana everywhere - and flowers - pond weed and lotus in the water, orchids on the banks -





there was wildlife everywhere : kingfishers, cormorants and kites, cows and goats wandering around,



beautiful butterflies and dragonflies / damselflies.

And there was also human life by, around, in and on the water.



There are houses along the banks of the various waterways





and the landscape was peacefully busy with colourful washing fluttering and people washing themselves, their clothes



their food



their pots and pans



and generally coming and going around on their everyday business.

revealed...

.... glimpses of my LG's art coursework, being worked on further even as I write this.

bless the child for helping me out as I was quite stuck with this Thursday's Theme.



And the theme of her coursework is serendipitously "Pandora's box"

Beautiful Kerala 1

Some pictures from my recent visit to Kerala, India.

For the first few days, everywhere we went we saw these beautiful creations



made from flowers, petals and leaves



sometimes berries


(the writing here says Happy Onam)

and on this one, the dark red is grated beetroot.




These flower carpets are carefully created (sometimes a fresh one each day) as part of the festival of Onam, in honour of Kerala's most loved king Mahabile


This man came over from the festival procession where he was representing Mahabile, and said hello to us in our car.

Mahabile is believed to return once a year to see how the people he so cared for are getting on.



It is also a harvest festival and the rice and coconut represent plenty and prosperity.




We shared a special feast - a Thali - with local people as part of the celebration. The various delicious dishes and chutneys are served in a set sequence on banana leaves - we ate with our fingers which was easier than I'd expected, I came to quite enjoy doing without the cutlery.



As well as the flower carpets, we saw onam flowers for sale in the streets






and I quickly realised that London, on my return, was going to seem somewhat grey....

why?

well, why not?



Williamsburg, New York



Eastbourne, South England



London, Southwark



Islington, North London



Glasgow



Greenwich, South London





More reasonable - or irrational - stuff, over at Theme Thursday