SOMERSET

Somerset: The levels and land then rises to Glastonbury Tor with its monument in silhouette against the sky. The countryside around the manor house is criss-crossed with ditches and dikes. Green places enclosed by wooden fences; cows turn and watch and then return to their grazing.

Somerset: Original lino cut 20 x 13 cms

Old manor houses and country homes are the colour of honey framed by hollyhocks and dahlias. This is summer and the reed beds are still high before the basket makers take their harvest.

Churches in this same honey-stone with their tall towers seen from miles away, Somerset church towers ornate with gargoyles and filigree work are testament to the stonemasons work with materials that were floated down on broad rivers to the building spot.

This atmosphere, this flat but soaring landscape I seek to capture in my lino montage of this county.

CHRISTMAS DAY AT CASTLEMANS FARM

There was a brief respite from the rain storms, for about two hours around midday the sun shone. 

Two miles south of Beaconsfield the roads were all but impassable to my bicycle and I. We made it through, sharing the roads, axel deep in water, with the ducks and geese from Castlemans Farm! 

I pulled up to make a drawing and had a word with the farmer, busy about the yard. He reckoned that the water table was just about back to normal!

http://www.castlemansfarm.com/index.html

MEXICO CITY FOR FOUR DAYS

This building is nicknamed

 "The Washing Machine Building" (or "Lavandería")

December 3 - 7 

Each day I look out from my hotel room on the curious building called by locals ‘the washing machine’ 

Each day the sky is deep blue and as I walk to the office it is only slightly cool, rather like those warmish autumn days in England.

Santa Fe, is the ‘money’ shot of Mexico City, the financial district.

It has tall tower blocks that line the two freeways that snake up from the centre of the city and eventually the traffic from the centre reaches here.

Over the last twenty years tall towers imaginatively designed and as I look down from the 7^th floor office window I see a deep hole, the ground works for ‘The Garden’ that stretches a block each way and will soon be the next edifice to rise up and catch the sun. Workers in red hard hats and yellow hi-vis vests swarm around this site with dumper trucks and bulldozers at their heals like outsized pets.

Santa Fe was developed in the early 1990's on the remnants of an old landfill a rubbish tip that has become a business district.

It is a radically different part of town from the rest of the city, because of its ultramodern architecture and contrasting wealth lifestyle signs. The ninety-minute ride back to the airport confirms this as you re-enter older parts, more run down.

Workers in red hard hats and yellow hi-vis vests swarm around this site with dumper trucks and bulldozers at their heals like outsized pets.

TELEVISION CENTRE: A NATIONAL TREASURE

TVC shines bright on a dark day for British media

November 29: Thursday morning, early and I emerged from White City Underground Station.

Television Centre stood out against a bright blue sky bathed in the sun.  A media icon opened in 1960 a place where Doctor Who, Blue Peter Fawlty Towers first came to life.

As the BBC shift back into central London or up to Salford Manchester is TVC looks for a new mission. Now it is a listed building (announced by the Labour Government 2009).

At the time the Labour minister said "It has been a torture chamber for politicians, and an endless source of first-class entertainment for the nation - sometimes both at the same time."

And later today the Daily Mail, the nation’s rabid read (along with other beasts of the press beasts cheer) David Cameron as he consigns the Levenson Report to the waste paper bin.

THE SAUSAGE TREE

Just of the London Road at the back of Wycombe a pub that looks posh and ready to take our money. Inside is the gold honey colour of a welcoming establishment. On table 12 the rugby club have just ordered, another round.

Cutlery wrapped tightly in thick paper napkins adds to the sense of good order and crisp ‘we are here to serve’ Huge TV screens ensure we don’t miss the game Leicester versus Salford

We five sit as a scrubbed table with nachos and garlic bread starters and much discussion over who is to have which style and flavour of sausage.  In the end Leek and Potato, Welsh, Somerset and Bratwurst for me with mashed potato and cheese all round. The rugby club order another round.

Our drinks arrive too, diet cokes and for the Mamz a ginger ale and a Brooklyn Ale for me.

At last and in time our plates arrive each pair of sausages with its cocktail stick banner proudly confirming their favour and measure. Appreciative munching all round and mustard for me on mine

We order another round of drinks. 

A so do the rugby club.