here there and everywhere

The trouble with trying to squeeze more than one photograph (and that one photograph being of Mr Grass-Head, obviously) into a blog posting is the endless wrestling with the limitations of the blog format in order to have the photographs adding to the prose rather than getting in the way and popping up in the wrong places, merrily scattered here there and everywhere.

Clearly, I lost yesterday's wrestling match, hence the somewhat slapdash appearance of my witty, pithy, etc critique of London, the Open House event and all manner of other subjects about which I am opinionated while knowing very little. You will have to take my word for it that I entered the field of battle with valour but, in the final reckoning, was defeated by the fact that the window into which I type my pearls of wisdom and position my photographic works of artistic merit operates to a wholly different agenda than the one on which the posting is finally viewed. Yes, it's the old story that "it looked okay on MY screen" or WYSIWYG where that "I" in the middle actually stands for "isn't".

I also feel that it was unfair of me to give no attribution to the 'Hope' photograph. As any Handel expert would immediately have known, this beautiful trompe l'oeil feature (yes, it's a painting not a sculpture) is in the Church Of St Lawrence in Stanmore. Take the tube to Canons Park, turn left as you leave the station and it's a short walk along Whitchurch Lane. Medieval tower, eighteenth century church and Handel used to play the organ - what more could you want from a trip out to zone 5?

Mention of zone 5 reminds me that a few years ago I found a website, written by Quin Parker, describing his adventurous excursions to stations in zone 6. Clearly Canons Park would be worthy of inclusion if only it were slightly further flung. At the time, I found his writing hilarious and, searching for it a few days ago to see where he had been lately, all I could find were Google links to pages that no longer existed. Where has Mr Parker's travelogue gone? If anyone can find it, please let me know.

And finally, I'm sure that you have been missing him and have been anxiously awaiting news of his progress. Yes, without further ado, I hereby present you with another lovely picture of our favourite gent who has gone to seed (ha ha).

Notwithstanding the fact that his lipstick is running, his nose is turning blue and his hair is made of grass, S feels that he resembles Kevin McCloud more and more each day. You, the reader must decide - opinions in the usual place please (i.e. nowhere, but one can always dream of dialogue).