Monthly Archives: June 2017

Squirrel

This male grey squirrel was foolish enough to climb a local three-phase power supply array, meeting an untimely death and blacking out several properties near Waterbeach. Photo: Grey Squirrel, Waterbeach, Cambs 170624

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Docwra’s Manor

This seat by the Main Lawn at Docwra’s Manor has been given an aged weather beaten textures and is slowly being taken over by nature.  Unusable now, it looks never to have been very comfortable.  The uprights of the back … Continue reading

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Hull City of Culture

Hull City of Culture, dancing fountains switch on in May 2016: ‘Mel Chantrey, a former Turner Prize nominee, came up with the circle-inspired design two years ago and he was delighted to see his brainchild finally being given its moment … Continue reading

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Things Past

I’ve been writing a very rough biographical memoir to leave to my children and grandchildren.  The narrative reflects the changing world since my earliest memories from the 1950s. Sometimes the passage of time is crystallised in the realisation that there … Continue reading

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The Nature of Photography

Two observations on the nature of photography. ‘Studying Arbus’s pictures, Leider [Philip Leider, founding editor of Artform] concluded “that Diane’s work accomplished for photography what we demanded be accomplished, under the needs of modernism, for all arts: it owed nothing … Continue reading

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Roadway Observation Society

Crossovers between culture, art and media fascinate me.  I’ve reproduced below a panel of text from ‘The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945’ exhibition at the Barbican (photos are my additions). Vernacular In recent years, architects have found a … Continue reading

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The Japanese House

‘The Japanese House is the first major UK exhibition to focus on Japanese domestic architecture from the end of World War II to now, a field which has consistently produced some of the most influential examples of modern and contemporary … Continue reading

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Beechwoods Extension 2

I commented on the differences between the new and mature woods in my post on the 4th June .  Apart from the size of the trees, the most distinctive difference now is between openness and enclosure.  The mature woods have … Continue reading

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Beechwoods Extension

The newness of the westward expansion of the Beechwoods gives it a very different character to the mature woods.  How different will it eventually be? This five hectare wood was planted in 1992 to improve the environment for wildlife and … Continue reading

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Beechwoods Setting 2

On 9th April 2017 I posted two colour pictures, ‘Beechwoods Setting’, trying to show the context within which the woods are set.  They put the woods in the middle distance and show the contrast between the massing of the trees … Continue reading

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Houghton Trestles

On 17th August 1847 the railway line linking Cambridge with St Ives and St Ives with Huntingdon was opened to traffic. The line ran on trestles across the River Ouse at Houghton.  The St Ives – Huntingdon line was closed … Continue reading

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The Manor, Houghton

Recent walks have taken me through Hemingford Abbots and Houghton.  Both have a fascinating mix of houses, one on the most intriguing being the rather forbidding Manor at Houghton.  The Listing (grade II) text describes it as: ‘Dated 1905 on … Continue reading

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