Autumn Colour Stourhead

On a perfect autumn day what better than to go and see the autumn colour at Stourhead Gardens in Wiltshire. The place was heaving with happy photographers.

Pavlova dancing

Waiting for the bus at Victoria in London I noticed this dancer on top of the Victoria Palace Theatre and wondered why I had never noticed it before. I clearly had not been that way since 2006 when Wikipedia tell me it was installed as a replica of one erected in 1911 and taken down in World War II in case it fell on somebody in the bombing. It shows Pavlova. What fun they had with buildings before the dread Puritanism of the Modern Movement in architecture infected the world. The modern National Theatre sites like a grim Atlantic Wall bunker with it back to the Thames.

The Dancer for TVE

I have donated this table top sculpture The Dancer to be auctioned at a charity dinner at the Kuwaiti Embassy on November 10th in London in aid of TVE Television for the Environment, a charity specialising in making and distributing films about the environment across the world. The sculpture was made from a an old lamp stand recovered from the town dump. The coating is black copper slag, the head a piece of driftwood from the beach near Weston-super-Mare, the hands are old bottle openers. I might have called him The Skier.

Kingston Lacy Tree Root

I snapped this tree root appropriately in the Japanese Garden in an old quarry in the grounds of Kingston Lacy House in Dorset. It looks like some crouching monster.

Blue Bird

I have added a blue bird to this tableau as well as the small figure facing the camera. It is rather a sinister bird, some sort of vulture.

Monster Hedge in Indian Summer

I took this two days ago in my garden in the Indian Summer which now seems to be over as it is quite chilly. The hedge is beech. The yellow flowers are Rudbeckia good for late colour.

Imber Ranges

I exercise my terriers on the edge of Imber Army Ranges. They used to bark at helicopters but take no notice now. Squaddies with huge back packs still send them demented. The mound is a prehistoric one. The Army looks after the numerous prehistoric sites very well with markers (which you can just see in this photograph) to keep out tanks and other heavy vehicles. The sites are all preserved but never likely to be excavated unless universal peace breaks out one day. The helicopter flew over me after I took this and maybe because I had. They are all rather twitchy up there - on another occasion the byway was blocked by a crash barrier. I parked before walking the dogs.. On leaving I had to drive my car briefly towards the barrier to reverse. The squaddie, with whom I had chatted earlier, pointed his very big gun at the car. Well I suppose they were on high alert and terrorists come in all forms including local dog walkers. Would he have shot me or just my tyres if I had continued?

Indian Summer

It has been a glorious Indian summer despite bouts of heavy rain. This part of my garden springs to life in October after being dull for a couple of months. The stainless steel sculpures are made with industrial lamps from a recycling centre in north London. I can do abstract.

Pond restored

My ponds totally dried out it in the long dry spell in the summer. The water is back and I have cut out a lot of vegetation - literally with a saw through the matted roots. So my frogs again sit by water as frogs should.

Somerset Open Studios

Still two days to catch Somerset Open Studios and see this dragonfly by Fiona Campbell and the centaur by Ian Marlow along with other sculpture by them in their intriguing gardens.