renaissance man
This amazing building gets its own post.
What an amazing building. I can’t help feeling that these awesome and inspiring spaces need to be repurposed somehow. Perhaps, in the vein of Alain de Botton’s Religion For Atheists, as secular spaces for ‘sociology-spiritual’ well-being?
Kings Lynn is graced with a great deal of fabulous architecture. I was in town to flog off a Tanglewood guitar, at Cash Converters. Alas, times are hard.
I got £80 for the axe. Which was a good result. I got the guitar for nothing. It’s bridge had come away from the body. And the owner didn’t want the hassle or expense of fixing it. I was keen to try my hand at making and fitting a new bridge. Which I did very successfully.
Until I examined it more closely, I didn’t know what this building was.
I do love these old doors. Esp’ when they’re green.
Sounds like there’s more to The Guildhall than meets the ear.
This metal plate on the pavement is interesting. I’ll have to look into the whole Kings Lynn whale thing.
The town prison has a museum. I didn’t go in, cause it costs, and I’m broke. But get a load of those shackles or manacles, or whatever the Hell they are.
I saw a poster advertising an event at the Duke’s Head Hotel: A Jazz life, featuring a drummer I know, John Petters. What a great venue for such things.
As I was thinking of leaving, I passed the above tower. It’s set in a lovely little park. Some photos of which I include below. The tower was originally at the centre, kind of, of an enormous complex of buildings.
On another side of the park, the above walls intrigued me. Going round to the from one sees the building pictured below. A library. What a terrific building. If only modern libraries – and other municipal buildings – might be so beautiful.
Look at the doors below. Now these are proper portals!
Inside there’s this atrium, and a stained-glass feature in the roof. Exquisite!
And just off the atrium, there’s this fabulous spiral staircase.
I finally headed home, satiated, with a bellyful of architectural indulgence. En-route home the heaven’s opened. And there were, afterwards, some very impressive cloudscapes.
As I drove out, headed to Downham Market and Kings Lynn, today, I spotted this monster Buick. Well, okay, so it’s hard to miss! You don’t see cars like this very much round our slummy end of town.
The from is quite something. lol at all that shiny chrome! And the grill? Just beautiful.
This monster has a kind of prolapsed ass! And it really literally does look like an add-on, or bolt-on. Crazy. The spare wheel cover (‘tonneau’?) is fab.
I always wanted to fake white wall tires on my MX5, but never did get around to it. These beauties also have a wee thin band in the body colour as well. For added bling/class!
We went to see Rick Stein give a talk, on his current publicity junket tour, at Ely Cathedral. He’s promoting his latest book, Simple Suppers.
We got a signed and dedicated copy, as you can see, above. Everyone was required to jot down what they wanted Rick to write. I went for ‘To Seb & Teresa, with love, fish, and poetry.’
Teresa had popped to the loo. I had to drop back a few places in the queue, to give her time to return. And when she did she did her customary shy bit. Took a fair deal of coaxing to get her up alongside Rick and me.
As a result of Teresa’s absence/reticence, all I got to say to Rick was ‘thanks’, as we left!
The book looks good. And I like the basic idea: food that’s quick and easy, but delicious.
Book talks of this sort are a little odd. Especially so, to me, the greater the celebrity factor. A Nigella event we went to some years previously was, to my mind, really not my bag.
This was better. But it still wasn’t what I’d call a ‘great event’. Merely just fun. But just look at Teresa’s face… priceless!
The cover, the photos inside, and the little mini essays, all look terrific. The cover visually equates to the idea of the book itself; simple!
On an evening delivery shift I did a few days ago, I was in Wansford, and surrounding g villages. The rivers, streams, and meadows were literally steaming. A good layer of fog slowly built over the course of the evening.
Very picturesque, but the very Devil to deliver in! In the dark of autumn eves is bad enough. But with added fog!?
As has become normal for me now, as I drive around I snap shots of stuff that looks good to me. Beautiful houses, churches (lots of these!), and, of course, the countryside.
I’m enjoying being out and about, and not cooped up in pokey little (or even large) rooms.
The bridge at Wansford, over the river Nene, is lovely. As the view atop this posts attests. Wansford is/was on the Great North Road. It is also a stop on the Nene Valley Railway.
I recently had an Amazon delivery route that was 90% based in Stamford and environs. A very beautiful town and surrounding area. A couple of my packages were for someone at Rennet & Rind (view their website here), purveyors of bespoke cheeses!
Being a cheese nut, I had to sample their wares. And I wound up buying small taster portions of Lincolnshire Poacher and Montgomery Cheddar. Both utterly delish!
I also bought some lovely Netherend Farm butter.
These cheeses are best enjoyed on their own, perhaps with some red wine and suitable crackers. Maybe some quince jelly? Etc. But today, for lunch, we skimmed it, with cheese on supermarket white bread toast.
But, like Sting’s Englishman In New York, ‘I like my toast done on one side’!
Rennet & Rind take cheese seriously. They describe themselves as ‘cheese pioneers’, and there’s an ‘academy of cheese’ link on their website. My kind of people!
I was out delivering in Stamford, again, when I came across these two beauties, parked very close to each other.
I’m no expert on such cars. I just love how they look. Classy curves!
As already mentioned, I know zip about these marques. But, boy, I sure do know I dig ‘em! Just look at the long nose in this beautiful. And those wire wheels!? I always wanted to find wire wheels (and white walls!) for my MX5.
Not quite as good a looker in the derrière department!
Wow! Ok, from behind she’s ok. But from the front? What a stunner. Seeing cares like these reminds me that I’d rather hang on to my ol’ MX5, see if I can resurrect her, and not scrap her. Hmmm!?
Today’s addition to the Tiger I are these two pairs of fans. Part of the tanks cooling system; I’ve always love this element of German panzers.
A great deal of time and effort went into making these! At times – e.g. attaching the individual fan blades – I was questioning (and/or testing) my own sanity !
The above three pics are all me trying to find an angle that does justice to all the effort.
Thanks are due to Jonny Trunk for the ‘heads up’ on this one. The ‘Angle are caught here on film, in glorious colour, playing Sally Go Round The Roses, from an ITV show called Songs From The Two Brewers…
The audio of the whole – well, more of it (if, perhaps, not all of it; it starts after the first number of the set, Pentangle!) – can be heard here.
The BFI have some scant info on numerous episodes (view a page about them here; click each entry to find who the performers on each episode are) of this show intriguing show in their archive. But they don’t make it easy to access/view!
For a bit of rock’n’roll trivia intersecting with Peter Sellers, here’s a link to a real party Sellers three, in L.A., 1975, for his 50th birthday.
