Tail End - Lizard Days at Middle Head
Is the ratio of lizard tail to lizard body an inverse to weight to length? This fine fellow with his red hue and poise, sports three ticks, but what that might for his well being is a mystery. Is it a question of tick-dose or tick-time? One hopes the ticks leave quick smart but why do I have empathy for the host but none for the tick? A squeamish question?
Is the ratio of lizard tail to lizard body an inverse to weight to length? This fine fellow with his red hue and poise, sports three ticks,...
Is that the Kagoshima Choo-Choo? Gas hop on
Yes, that is the Kagoshima Shinkansen coming in, past Kagoshima’s very own puffing volcano.The painter is there at cross-maintenance purposes, and seems to be keeping up. If you buy a gashopon at the station, and really there is no why you shouldn’t, the train series will always deliver a train to to you on time. And yes, from Track Number 9.
Yes, that is the Kagoshima Shinkansen coming in, past Kagoshima’s very own puffing volcano.The painter is there at cross-maintenance purpos...
Bart Brassica’s Whittled Down Family Crest
Bart Brassica has for some time now aspired to the notion of a Brassica Family Crest, ever since Granny Eggwhistle observed he looked Crest. Fallen. So in order to address this lack, and get back at Frank Winkler who said, or so it was reported via Mavis Eggwhistle, that Bart was whittle-less, Bart has taken up whittling in a big way, and so he now has in addition to an axe that is grindless, various wooden tools of the trade which he has tableau-ed ( Bart’s term for anything laid on a table ) this Brassica Whittled Down Family Crest. Next project will be the Brassica Family Tree.
Bart Brassica has for some time now aspired to the notion of a Brassica Family Crest, ever since Granny Eggwhistle observed he looked Cr...
A Palimpested Shopping List Shows off its Lighter Side
While any list is good, here even the un-list - that tracery of pen on cheap paper leaves a feint imprint but first prize in the Best On Page show is the shadow thrown down by the sky-light blind. Will any remnant of the image remain outside of this one? Apply to the page for further information.
While any list is good, here even the un-list - that tracery of pen on cheap paper leaves a feint imprint but first prize in the Best On Pa...
Hole-some Cover Ups : The Underfoot Foundry Art of Japanese Cities
While looking around and up is what you mostly do on holidays, in Japan it is good to keep a weatther-eye out for each city’s emblematic man...
Whiter Shades and Vintage Linen
Getting into bed with fresh white sheets, pressed pillow cases, a cream wool blanket with a satin edge, under an vintage embroidered Fren...
Two Dragons walk into a Bar
No, just joking, but it’s a two for one dragon fly event, the shadow dragon showing its best angle on the the yellow railing. Nothing bar the sun can do this.
No, just joking, but it’s a two for one dragon fly event, the shadow dragon showing its best angle on the the yellow railing. Nothing bar ...
In a Flat Spin, Top Speed Origami
If you happen to be in Kagoshima, on the island of Kyushu, in Japan on the overhead walkway to the Aquarium, you might be lucky like I was if you stop by a handicraft shop run by seniors, and even if their very good aprons don’t fit you, they didn’t fit me being made for and by lovely diminutive women, they will make a fuss about you as if you were Quite Something, if you ask after their health in Japanese - O-genki desu ka - will do the trick - and give you one, or two if there are two of you, of these excellent origami spinning tops, that turn into a blur of colour, which may be a metaphor for the passage of time, or just a nice use of centrifugal force.
If you happen to be in Kagoshima, on the island of Kyushu, in Japan on the overhead walkway to the Aquarium, you might be lucky like I wa...
Rice Miles, or Wry Smiles - The train from Imari to Fukuoka
To get from the wonderful pottery town of Imari in Saga prefecture Kyushu, where lovely pots and porcelain have been despatched to far flung...
In the Shadow Forest - Kiso Road Stories
On the Kiso Road, along Nakasendo Way, at the top of the pass at Yubuhara, this group of deities stay shadow quiet but, like a moment of k...
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
Food markets are the hero of any locale, and while Makishi Public Market is small and the ground floor seems to be just seafood and pickles, the fish include the requisite Suess-ian colour scheme of Red Fish Blue Fish - and if you’re wondering about that glaucous eye on the lower right, and think it is quite toad-ish I am totally with you. Puff Puff. In case you might want to know, my very poor reading of hiragana translates the red fish as aka -ho ( here i guess) - chi, and the blue fish as Irabucho, though here I might be quite off-piste. As someone with truly dreadful handwriting I feel I have no purchase on complaint, and so can only commend this Fishmonger’s good characters.
Food markets are the hero of any locale, and while Makishi Public Market is small and the ground floor seems to be just seafood and pickles...
Fell Fall and Fen at Shiraito no Taki - White Thread Waterfall in Karuizawa
Waves, waterfalls and fountains, all types of white water, are the perfect counterpoint to green scenery, an anodyne for the eyes, a breath of fen air, and this Shiraito Falls, is an exemplar of its kind, with its long arc of continuity, its water has spent six years seeping from the rain fall on Mount Asama, slightly warmed by the geothermal heat of the mountain to form the springhead of the Yukawa River. And yes, each strand is a white thread working, stitching the world together.
Waves, waterfalls and fountains, all types of white water, are the perfect counterpoint to green scenery, an anodyne for the eyes, a breath ...
Kodachrome Dusk does its Thing Okinawa Style
Here a pixel fine slice of an Iphone photo delivers the non-contemporary - perhaps it is the salt air, the storm rolling in from east, or a wave of ‘70’s nostalgia that has rendered this image of Nashiro Beach on the south west side of Okinawa so very Kodachrome, or it might be that land remembers everything.
Here a pixel fine slice of an Iphone photo delivers the non-contemporary - perhaps it is the salt air, the storm rolling in from east, or a...
Gingham Style ! Black and White Dog Couture
It’s not Gangnam Style but Gingham Style for this checker be-decked Poochie who is being taken for a ride in uptown Karuizawa. So many questions , but there is no shadow of a doubt that this is not a a black and white case.
It’s not Gangnam Style but Gingham Style for this checker be-decked Poochie who is being taken for a ride in uptown Karuizawa. So many qu...
Is This the Line for the Chattanooga Choo-Choo -Bart’s Busman’s Holiday
Bart Brassica is, it seems, on holidays, and while he has gone singularly Dutch and Dining Out (Stand Up Stood UP ) and as been spotted at a diner, how does he get around? Here the mystery not so much thickens as coagulates, those with keen eyes will see he is a Oberndorf, a previously undiscovered railway station in Hunterdon County, and at least two of the locals seem to have have taken Grey Zombie potion, while Bart looks at perky as he ever will. This will take some pondering.
Bart Brassica is, it seems, on holidays, and while he has gone singularly Dutch and Dining Out ( Stand Up Stood UP ) and as been spotted a...
The Stone Water Basin and the Bamboo Dipper at Rest
Inside the New Otani Hotel in Tokyo there is an incredible 400 year old Japanese garden, among all sorts of lovely things is this stone basi...
Next Level - Roof Top Gardens in Tokyo
Yes, here we have levelled up with Ginza’s famous Seiko Clock, having found Mitsukoshi Department Store’s level nine roof top garden. A...
Winning Ways - Twin Stars Sparks
Back in the day when my children were small, I read loads of children’s books, and had been known to be so engrossed I would unintentionally stop reading aloud, to go into the top gear of reading silently. But last Sunday I settled into a sunny spot on the deck, and read Twin Stars, Volume 1 of Charlotte Clutterbuck’s first novel for pre-teens. Charlotte is a fine poet and friend, so off we set. Two cups of tea and a half a chocolate slice later, I let out a long sigh of satisfaction . Twin Stars is a terrific read, the characters are complex and engaging, the plot rips along, the social mores are resonant and relevant, the detail is wonderful and of course there is more coming. If Volume 2 was out already I would have bought it straight away. Twin Stars reminded me of the joy of reading children’s books, and this one is a gem.
Back in the day when my children were small, I read loads of children’s books, and had been known to be so engrossed I would unintentionally...
Many Hands Make Light Work - In the Photon Field
Granny Eggwhistle says she is sure the new Farm Hand might be a member of an occult, because under hand is one thing but Over Hand like this is unnatural. But why has Farmer Bart Brassica taken on an extra Hand? It seems, as he is away on a faux holiday (see double-double-dutching-bart-fakes-fancy.html…) and has applied the adage Many Hands Make Light Work, though in this case he is thinking the rocket needs to work harder at photosynthesis, and with all this light work, some of it must inspire the Aragula to go for it. There may be a nothing under handed about the Hand or it could be there is more to the Hand than we can see.
Granny Eggwhistle says she is sure the new Farm Hand might be a member of an occult, because under hand is one thing but Over Hand like thi...
The Fleeting Fineness of Flowers Down
Double ruffled tulips are fine examples of the under rated ephemera of fading flowers, they have a wabi-sabi all their own, here the tulips’ touch down reframes their faux Kutani-ware Wedgewood vase - itself a floral fiat of form and pattern. Something about the surrounding crowd of bijou here suggests World of Interiors, and makes me wonder why photographs of wilted arrangements, with their mandala ethos, are not a genre of their own.
Double ruffled tulips are fine examples of the under rated ephemera of fading flowers, they have a wabi-sabi all their own, here the tulips...
The Sea in Two Minds and an Undertow
It’s easy to forget, or maybe not realise, that like turning the heel for a sock, the ocean knits itself around corners into bays, here the...