Charlotte's Shop

Essex has many famous people and places, John Constable, Southend Pier, and setting for the hit TV show The Only Way is Essex. I will add in Charlotte Campbell's small but perfectly formed food emporium DELI @ 56 in the village of Kelvedon, just of the A12.

Called in there the other day for wonderful ham from local Priors Hall Farm, a portion of lovely cheese and hand-crafted lemon fairy cakes hand crafted Fair cakes. All of which I selflessly presented to my Father.

Wonderful and worth a visit if you find yourself in the famous county.

29 ways to stay creative

LIFE ON MICHIGAN AVE

Discovered this web site gem link on creativity! Each of the 29 ways is a a gem!

COMMUTING: Decline or fall

I was reviewing a collection of recent (in the last twelve months or so) of drawings and came across those made on the daily commute in and out of London. I was struck by how expressive the assortment was as a body of work – conveying the despair of people’s daily journey into work. Or perhaps, closer to home, my feelings about the hopelessness of commuting versus people who can walk to the office or get to where they work in under 20 minutes.

The counter point to all this is the compulsion to draw or get down on paper a pretty face/body/or pair of heels I see on my travel so perhaps commuting is a celebration of beauty.

LATE RUNNING TORTOISE

In case we sometimes feel that our local train companies are without consideration this caught my eye on the commute home a few weeks ago a notice brimming with compassion

Only two nights prior the entire Chiltern Railways network was plunged into disarray because five cows had wandered onto the line in the Gerrards Cross area.

The Ark now arriving at Platform one is the late running?

Gran Turino

Fun and excitement last Sunday:

Rise at 03:45 catch the 07:10 Ryan Air yellow 737-80 to Turin. Catch an airport bus to city centre. Arrive at the Golden Palace Hotel, typically Italian, dark marble and dim lighting. 12:30 pm work through to 01:30 am Monday with highly talented team of individuals, 23 people including me, on a new business pitch.

Arise 06:45 on Monday morning, micro-breakfast and see pitch team off on the coach to the client’s office! Catch taxi and race through cobbled streets back to airport for 10:10 Ryan Yellow back to London-Stanstead.

Fast, fun, fulfilling.

Featured pictures: Strange bridge, Chinese business man is taught how to tie a tie by his driver, picture of two lovers, taken from the airport bus

The last desolate coast

On Saturday I went down to Essex, for two reasons; to see my father and to visit the sea shore and gather such material that the time might grant. We went to Tollesbury, on the very edge of the coast some 70 miles East of London.

I have been before. It was the need to connect that impelled this visit.

From the Tollesbury village it is about 5 minutes by car to the water's edge, now grandly called a marina. Fishing boats moored or quietly decaying or being perhaps refurbished with all the paraphernalia of fishing and sailing is littered everywhere. Each item makes its own picture. I selfishly gathered material, a few drawings and many pictures.

Thence out of the harbour, up through the village, stopping at the bread shop for two iced-buns and out onto the coast abutting the farm of John Seabrook.

On the farm we walked along the sea wall, fabricated from bright rusted iron sunk deep deep into the land to hold back the sea. This deserted small area of Essex coast where the occupying Romans would sink their amphorae into the mud to collect the sea and evaporate it into salt. The water was to high to collect the shards of their pottery which are so plentiful at low-water.

The light was flat a leaden sky spread flat upon choppy sea and May-green corn land. Wind from off the sea chilled us and made re-gaing the car a pleasurable moment.

The last special place.

Happy Monday, check your diary

Yesterday when visiting my father in the badlands of Essex I saw this not five minutes walk from his house. Truly, the Only Way is Essex.