Pictures of People Taking Pictures

... and a few pictures of people taking pictures of people.

Adding a few more pictures, taken near Tower Bridge and on a boat on the Thames. This was in the beginning of August.

These were taken in London, mostly around St. Paul's Cathedral on July 25, 2016. It was around the lunch hour and there was a pleasant mix of tourists and young bankers strolling around. Altogether a lovely day.

The following don't strictly belong in this set but I feel like sharing them nonetheless.

Young banker wearing an elegant blue suit and fine English shoes, subtly accented with LGBT inspired rainbow socks.

A perfect spot to enjoy lunch outdoors on a beautiful summer day in London, the steps at north portico of St. Paul's Cathedral, copious seating, thoughtfully provided with backrests by Sir Christopher Wren, inspired architect. (I'll be doing another post with photos of some of his other London churches.)

Classic Movie Review - Kiss Me Deadly

"Kiss Me Deadly" by Mike Hammer... a film noir masterpiece, an absolute must see. The photography is classic, with great location shots around Los Angeles. The soundtrack, not just the music, but the way ambient sounds reinforce the mood, is haunting. The acting is modern in the best sense. Really powerful performances, especially from Gaby Rodgers, the waif with the heart of ice.
Warning, there are several scenes of really excruciating violence. It takes place mostly off screen. Nonetheless, if you're sensitive to that sort of thing it might give you nightmares.
This movie is the last word in Cold War nihilism and angst.
Here's the IMDB page for it.
And it can be found on Youtube.
I'll spare you the details. They can be found on the IMDB site. Here are a few stills.

Nightmarish and disorienting opening shot of Christina (Cloris Leachman) running down the highway panic stricken and naked except for a coat.

Nick (Nick Dennis) one of several thoroughly fleshed out supporting characters bringing a lot of vitality to the story.

Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) and Velda (Maxine Cooper), more than just an assistant and able to be quite ruthless in her own right.

fist fight at night, ending with the assailant falling to his death down this vertiginous flight of steps.

Lily Carver (Gaby Rodgers)

Charlie Max (Jack Elam) not happy at all at what he just saw Mike Hammer do to his fellow henchman.

One of the many great location shots. Much of it was filmed in Bunker Hill, all of which was torn down in the 1960s.

Saturday at the Farmers' Market

- Saturday at the Farmers' Market -
Couldn't have asked for lovelier weather today. Don't expect it to last since the reports show rain on Monday and Tuesday. But today is Saturday and it's Market Day! So forget your troubles. Come on. Get happy. (Yes, I stole that last line from the Arlen/Koehler song.)

Here are a few photos. Hope you enjoy.

A bientôt!

The corn is growing fast. These have doubled in height in the last 3 days.

The tide was low this morning.

Stuff.

Everybody enjoys market day.

More stuff. Brightly colored.

A beautiful antique wood boat has taken up residence in the port.

The chateau is lovelier than ever, a grand dame who is more beautiful with every passing year. The place has been subdivided into apartments. There's a spacious 1 bedroom for sale right now, asking 67K euros.

A glass of wine BEFORE dinner. Am I turning into a lush?

Warm Days and Cool Nights at Rancho Escargot

Warm Days and Cool Nights at Rancho Escargot -

Well, warmish days anyway, when the sun comes out between cloudbursts. This is, after all, Brittany. And even though we're teetering on the leading edge of summer it's still a very mild place.

Three months away and I return to find the wild and weedy things thriving better than ever at Rancho Escargot. Some of the brush reaching up to shoulder height I decided it was necessary to take action. Time to pull them out by the roots (again).

They're kind of pretty, in their own way, and they provide habitat for all kinds of creepy crawlies. But a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do... and that means pulling them up by the roots in preparation for taming the landscape with a "real" garden. None of this haphazard nature stuff.

But then new information appears and priorities change.

It seems the town will be laying a new sewer line in the street and we're going to be hooking up to it. That means they'll be excavating right at this corner of my garden, where the stone wall is at its most precarious.

It's a corner I've been planning to work on for a while but have been putting off. Now it's top priority. So that means clearing out all the brush behind it.

Nothing a strapping young fellow of 50 (51 in a few days) can't handle in a couple days of work. The corner in question is at the far right. At the left is a small section of wall that was plastered long ago. Just to the left of that, between it and the corner, I'll be taking the wall all the way down to the ground and building some steps from the street up to the garden.

Next step, clear out the stuff growing in the wall itself. The disassemble the wall to about 2 feet above street level. After that I will go back to the garden side and dig out some of the dirt from behind the wall, mounding it behind, and rebuild the wall, leaning slightly into the garden. This will be more stable and will look very nice.

Last problem, the telephone pole at the corner is completely rotted out and is now leaning on my wall for support. I need to call the phone company and get them to repair it. They really should put the lines underground. They did that in most of the neighborhood but skipped our little corner for some reason.

I'll add to this blog post as I get farther with the work.

Click, click, click... There's no place like home

Well it worked, I closed my eyes, clicked my heels 3 times, then bought a plane ticket, train ticket, packed my bags, took a taxi to airport, a plane, a bunch more trains, another taxi... and when I opened my eyes I was home, not quite magically transported, but transported nonetheless.

Here's one of the many reasons I love it here.

This morning I went out and stocked the larder. I had to as the kitchen was empty. What you see before you is all local produce (except the tea), organic and delicious ... and here it's the norm, what you get at the local market.

Starting top left and going clockwise:
Croissants and whole grain bread baked this morning at the bakery down the street.
Pont l'Eveque cheese from a local dairy in ... you guessed it ... the village of Pont l'Eveque
Organic local strawberries over yogurt from a local dairy
Golden Delicious apple, locally grown
and in the center of it all TEA from Ceylon.

Today I'll devote the day to cleaning the house. It's in pretty good shape, not too musty from having been closed up. But I'm finding evidence that a mouse moved in during my absence, so a thorough cleaning is in order. Tonight I'll set up the "humane" trap and see if I can catch the little fellow. Hopefully he's not the clever one I had a few years back who figured out the workings of the trap.

Rancho Escargo is thriving. The heavy rains of mid-Spring combined with some recent clear weather have been exactly what was required to make the assortment of wild stuff thrive.

So tomorrow I'll don the gloves and get out the sickle and start clearing the jungle again.

Eat your heart out Martha Stewart

Work as a Spiritual Practice - Or Musings on a Water Bottle

This evening I checked into the InterContinental City hotel in Doha. Let's just say that it's everything a 5 star hotel should be and it is so in large part because the staff knows exactly what they need to do and they do it with consummate skill.

In the restaurant this evening the waiter demonstrated the perfect balance between being there the moment I wanted something and not hovering. He would just sort of materialize in front of me the moment the thought entered my mind that I wanted something. Then he would disappear again a moment later.

Since every blog post is supposed to include photos I've added one of my very comfortable room at the hotel

At one point I asked for some water. He vanished, then materialized again with a small bottle of water which he set on my place mat. It was a simple, natural gesture on his part, seemingly and perhaps actually, unconscious. As he placed the bottle on the table, he turned it so that the decorative part of the label faced me and the bit with all the random details was facing away. The water was bottled especially for the InterContinental and had their custom label on it. That is what I saw when I looked up and reached for it... NOT the random fine print on the back.

This little gesture on his part, and his service overall, was an example of someone who was immersed in doing his job with absolute skill. The only way to perform consistently like that is to be completely "in the moment", to be completely present "in the now". He was so attuned to his environment that he was able to pick up on the signals and changes instantly. And his own responses had the practiced skill that rendered them unconsciously correct. He just did the right thing without thinking about it.

and here's a view out my window

I've experienced this myself a few times in my life, most intensely when playing chamber music. It is impossible to play Mozart well without being completely present in the moment. The seemingly simple perfection of his music demands the balance of a tightrope walker. Let the attention wander for an instant and a great abyss opens up below.

This intensity of being present, existing "in the NOW", is described by mystics of all spiritual traditions as a prerequisite or basic practice. Self-transformation seems to depend on it.

It can reveal itself in the simple act of placing a bottle of water on a table.

Isn't life marvelous?

Life in the Land of Megaliths - or Brains, Brawn, and the Use of the Lever

It seems, ever since I made my home in Brittany, the land of megaliths, that I've been moving big stones.

I'm back home for a short vacation. A few weeks back a section of the stone wall around the garden fell into the driveway. My neighbors were kind enough to move the offending stones to one side. But then a few days before my arrival for vacation a storm passed through and another section of stones fell.

So I'm spending part of my vacation ... moving big stones...

Here's the mess that greeted me when I arrived.

I cleared out some of the ivy and all the dry blackberry vines. Then moved most of the stones out of the way so I could begin reconstructing the wall. But there was one stone I couldn't handle, a monster I estimate at 500 pounds.

Here you can see the offending stone, the big one in the center. At this point I gave up. I was really frustrated to be able to handle all but ONE stone. I was considering contacting a mason with power equipment and making an appointment for them to come out, probably months from now, to move the one stone.

Anyhow, I gave up for the day and forgot about it. Then the next morning, feeling fresh and reinvigorated, I realized it was nothing I couldn't handle with brains, brawn and the use of a lever.

I found a piece of scrap lumber and used it to lever the stone, propping it up with smaller stones, until I got it tilted and raised up to the level where I could nudge it back into the right location.

That's done now. Tomorrow I'll wrap up the remaining work and update this blog post.
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Okay, it's done, at least, for now. Today I got the main pieces back in place. When I come back out again, hopefully in July, I should be able to tie up the loose ends. Eventually the sections of wall on either side will have to be rebuilt too. But they look stable enough for now.