I have a feeling that we have been here
before, you and I. If that is the case, please forgive me.
Trundling around the countryside
seeking that that we seek (if it had a name it would be quite helpful
but, as you all know, it doesn’t) could be quite boring when your
prime function is to act as the chauffeur. It isn’t – and in part
that is because if I am anything I am the elephant’s child. That
means I have moments when something that has caught my attention
grips me and I become a temporary fanatic. Once I have satisfied my
appetite I can move on quite happily but until then I am stuck with
it. “It” at the moment is corrugated iron.
It started, I suppose, when we were
living the other side of the moor and there, to the north east and
about a mile up the valley, was a barn. It had a red roof – rusty
corrugated iron – which would glow in the evening sun. Then it was
painted. That was a tragedy.
We have a painting titled “The Red
Barn” by David K Stead so I am not the only rusty red roof nutter.
This hangs on the wall beside the chair where Marcia writes. He is a
local artist and we have bought another of his paintings which
depicts The Narrows in Totnes.
This one, which hangs beside me as I
write this blog, shows the castle at Totnes in the background with
The Bull public house in Rotherfold in the foreground. You can
compare that with my photograph of the same scene. I am sure you will
agree the painting is the better of the two.
While we are in Totnes, as it were, another painting versus photo may interest you. Chaos rued for about six months while the main road through the town was torn up so that some pipework that was long passed its sell-by date could be renewed. I took a few photographs as the work progressed.
Anyway, in Totnes this morning pausing to gather breath in Rumour staring at the paintings on the wall I realised that these were of that time. So, I took a photograph of one of them and here it is. The artist is Stephen Bower.
Anyway, back to corrugated iron. It is
fascinating stuff and you find it in all sorts of funny places. I am
going to try to create a short video all about it in the not too dim
future. If it works, I’ll let you know. Meanwhile, just for fun,
this is a link to a short film showing Queen Canute on Torcross beach
illustrating that retreat is better than defeat.
Having already confessed that I have
lost my notebook (the one in which is recorded the names of the dog
blog) here is another which should be anon. However, by some freak of
memory I think this could be the one called Zeta. That is not to say
I am sure for I am not. If this is complete nonsense, I do hope that
all involved will forgive me.
