‘Composition IV’ (2026) Steel plate, Yorkstone Flags, Granite Cobbles, Tarmacadam

Window, or not window? On the Thames at Iffley

Christchurch College Oxford really is extraordinary

St. Mary’s on The High, Oxford

The house by the river

Nuffield College Oxford last evening

We went to Sissinghurst.

@theabingdontaxi.bsky.social thank you for letting me know that this is available to see at Keble - I went today

Red for danger Hollyhocks, Oxford

June Landscape 1964 John Piper – I think that must have been a hot day too

Nice clouds last evening

Down the pub – I haven’t been to this one for 40 years. Hasn’t changed much

Ruskin went to the #Alps with #Turner in mind. In 1842, among Chamonix peaks & changing weather, he found the vision that would become Modern Painters: art must be judged by truth to nature, not convention. J. M. W. Turner, The Blue Rigi, Sunrise, 1842, Tate #RuskinSociety @alpineclub.bsky.social

And willows, willow-herb, and grass, And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry, No whit less still and lonely fair Than the high cloudlets in the sky. And for that minute a blackbird sang Close by, and round him, mistier, Farther and farther, all the birds Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

Wall explosion – in the garden

Thessaloniki? No, Epsom. The weather also tries to copy Greece

Very fine columns

Home-counties Byzantine

Thinking of changing my name to Hapax Legomenon

Red green and blue Mahonia and yew

Cool! I expect

Thessaloniki? No, Epsom. The weather also tries to copy Greece

I’ve been reading about Anendophasia, the absence of an internal monologue, and thinking how much people in the past assumed that thought must be spoken to really count. Did silent thought derive from silent reading, said to have been a novelty in the fourth century?

Dutch church interior painted on glass by Thomas Jervais, 1777

Disgust imputes to the other a subhuman nature. How, by contrast, do we ever become able to see one another as human? Only through the exercise of imagination.” — Martha Nussbaum, From Disgust to Humanity

Sunlight veiled

If John had written Blackbird rather than Paul

It’s 112 years since Edward Thomas took a journey during which his train came to an unexpected halt. (Four days later Archduke Franz Ferdinand met his own unscheduled stop, which, one way and another, also brought a premature end to Edward Thomas)

Reza Aramesh - Study of the Renaissance Garden: Action 729: At 2:30 pm, Saturday, 13 August 1977 echos of Childish Gambino

This is not a political post

A niche interest - places to sit and enjoy a garden Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire

In the late 1970s, the car rental company Avis commissioned a special stick-on cover, before providing new staff with a copy of ‘How it Works the Motor Car’. This was to ease staff embarrassment at being seen reading a Ladybird book.

I’m not sure I should have gone for a retro style loo

The red shed Baddesley Clinton

Shocking! Actually a sincere response, not a James Bond quip

A moment of reflection Baddesley Clinton Hall, Warwickshire

A bit of Monday morning calm understatement At Croft Castle, Warwickshire

A shady spot for a sunny day Baddesely Clinton, Warwickshire

Sunday morning Denbeigh Ware Like an early evening moon

Proper signwriting Noris Cafe, Leominster

Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire

A typical Friday night in central Oxford

I’m a what? A lion! I’m not sure I can be a lion

Ceramic press manufacturing sinks.

Here’s a peek into last Monday evening’s practice in Bovey Tracey. (We’re a mix of long-time ringers and learners! There may alsbe a few visiting pets in the video…)

'to undertake a narrow investigation of a solitary miller may seem paradoxical or absurd, practically a return to handweaving in an age of power looms' But he did it anyway. Saddened to learn of the death of Carlo Ginzburg, one of the greats.

If New Zealand can have the Haka, surely the England team can do this before every match?

Looks like it’s been too long since I sat in the sun

Echos of Barbara Hepworth in a twenty-first century way

All ballets should include cats…