symbiosis?......

This photograph captures a most mutually beneficial relationship

But note to the left..... it is a pharmacy.. 'so the drugs don't work!!'.... and to the right a newsagent where folk can check out your obituary!!

Neat hey??

hey hey 'tis summer.......

I am aghast! We have had 3 days uninterrupted sun.
In the UK up North this is certainly a result. Sad as it may seem but each sunny day is cherished and remebered.
A few weeks ago I visited the Manchester Science Museum and witnessed a 'talk' (along side a league of different nations) about the Manchester cotton trade in the 1800s.
This area was ideal for spinning cotton as it was so damp apparently!!
Gosh why didn't I know this before I bought my house here and settled in the area??

Yesterday, I ventured back home to Southport and spent a great few hours on the beach there. The sun shone hard and the sea?? Well the sea was absent. I had quite forgotten this,as in the summer months the tide goes so far out you can't even see it.

We walked .. under the Pier and beyond and still we could not see the sea.

down in the tube station at..............

I am not a lover of the tube.
I prefer my feet on the ground and not below or above the ground for that matter!

But I had to travel on the London Tube system and my eye was caught...... some great sights on 'click, walk, click'

click, walk, click.. london style....

Point, click & walk with just a bit of resizing and cropping






What did I miss up there?
horses behind lol

lust for london...

I was in London yesterday.
My meeting was for one hour but I did a 10 hour day!!!
I love visiting our capital but it is only these days on a day trip as the train can get me there in a little over 2 hours.

I took my camera and did a walk, click, walk.
But that can wait for another blog or two.

Our London offices are nestled in Whitehall a stones throw from Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament but most importantly 10 minutes from the National Gallery.

I have not been there since I was a teenager, nor have I had time to pop in on other trips to London. As I had 1 1/2 hours to spare before my train I thought 'why not?'


The gallery was packed and it didn't strike me for ages, until I heard another UK English voice just how many foreign tourists were there. Many Japanese, French, Spanish etc and so many Americans (which I thought unusual due to the state of the $ to the £ just now).

My first 'oo' 'ah' there was Cezannes ~ 'Bathers'. Love the simplicity yet depth of this painting

Then dear Van Gogh and his 'Chair' & 'Sunflowers' 'Sunset in Wheat Fields'.. how we had to draw 'The Chair' in that style aged 16.

Some great Lautrec's ...

Moroni ~Portrait of a Lady ('La Dama in Rosso')

How sumptuous is that fabric on her dress?

Dirck van Delen from 1634 and Architectural Fantasy.. simply wonderful in composition & imagination!

Rembrandts 'Anna and the Blind Tobit'

Rubens 'Minerva Protects Pax from Mars'


Velazquelez ~ The Toilet of Venus' an odd title, love this along with a contemporary postcard 'Life imagining art!'

Drouais ~ 'Madame de Pompadour' sensational. the lover of Louis XV (15th).. no image I could find could depict the fineness of the fabric and lace on her dress.. it is exquisite and like a real life image or photograph.. had my nose pressed up to her skirts!!

Loved this image of 'Antoine Paris' by Hyacinthe Rigaud. (oh not a woman painter but a man!) how contemporary is this guys face (not his dress or hair) in comparison to other portraits in the 1700s?

But finally I gazed on a painting I have admired for many years, having it hung in my bathroom...

Georges Seurat, ~ Bathers at Asnieres.

I hadn't realised just how large it is? Approx 5ft x 8ft.. and even more sensational live :-)

Ahh! My inner soul is recharged again :-D

Our body's what more do we need?...

My mate Krees has not been convinced to start a blog... he says he would lose interest after a few posts .... but has allowed me access to a load of photos that he has taken (and I must say they are fabulous)

I have always been acutely aware of body language. As much as we try to disguise it, the real me/you comes out. It tells a wealth of information. The folded arms means you are not comfortable in the situation you are in so you choose to protect you body. The flight or fight when your face reddens, your body naturally pumps with adrenalin for the fight or maybe the 'get on your heels and run away'. This part I really had to recognise in my former job... was he/she about to run or punch me square in???


There are also the comforts you adapt when faced with talking to huge room of strangers (if you look at Prince Charles he always holds or touches his cuff when delivering a speech)
Mine is putting my hands behind my back and holding my hands together.

It is fascinating to watch people in public how they interact.. the formal business type meetings in public places and the flirty pick up scenarios..... we really are an exquisite species to behold.

So this brings me (albeit in a round about way) to Krees's photos. This batch are of footballers .. doing what they do ... playing, smiling and confronting .. also the crowd when there is nothing going on. How bored do they look????

This made me laugh.. a great photo for 'Spot the Ball'