Ray's Photos

[Rayge]

Just the one post today, from around the end of February 1988.


Avenue
Gladstone Park


Prospect
Of what, I'm not at all sure but it looks like the West Country, certainly nowhere near London


Serious Orange
Clive's younger daughter, Emma, visiting the Mansions


Red Brick
Mansion block off Shooter's Hill


Dragon Finial
As above


Posh Pub
Hampstead


Another Prospect
Also Hampsteadish, I'm guessing Waterlow Park


Georgian
Hampstead/Highgate


This Time with Front-Lighting
As above

Back soon

[Rayge]

In part one today, more from 1988 around this time of year: and in part two, a few from the first two weeks of this month, slim though the pickings be



Cork Pagoda
Something that was all the rage in the 80s: still have one (not this one, which went before) somewhere. Carlton Mansions


Pulse

Rainbow Sunglasses
We hippies were very fond of our prisms. both also at the Mansions


Madonnas

Next time, Highgate Cemetery (the usually closed bit)

[Rayge]

Part Two
One of the reasons for the absences is that I'm project managing the work in the new house, where there is as yet no wi-fi


A Sense of History
Stripping back the layers of wallpaper


Elephant Dancing in the Desert under the Stars


Work in Progress


Stripped for Action


Weren't Me, Guv


Carl

back Wednesday, maybe

[Rayge]

OK, Thursday. On the Green some time in the last week in part one, while part two goes back to early March 1988 and Highgate cemetery


Jam


Dog Heaven


Smile
Three views of the stream in the small wood where Scrap and I have spent many days'-worth of happy hours


Transitioning
A fallen tree returning to the earth


Tea Break
The Green volunteers take a rest from their labours


Dog and Boots
Scrap engaged in hoovering up flapjack crumbs. He does love a messy eater.

next, primrose time in the garden

...

[Rayge]

Part Two


Guide
Back then, the High Victorian part of Highgate Cemetery was closed to all but would-be magicians and vampires who could climb or fly over the fences, but the odd guided tour was allowed, and I went along with my sort-of pal, Chris P, and some strangers, few of them stranger than the guy expatiating here in front of a one-legged horse


Mausoleum


The Catacomb of William Drew, Esq., of Edmonton (Just North of Tottenham)


Nature Always Wins. Eventually


Round Arch and Spire
That's Chris in the fetching blue pullover


Faithful

next time, whenever that is, out and about in London and Brighton

[Rayge]

Next time has arrived...
Part One is out and about in the early spring of 1988, part two is in my garden last week.


Magnolia
Some London park or other


Once Was
The frontage that's all that remains of a 1908 cinema in Ealing, West London, just up the road from the studios that produced the Ealing comedies


Twilight
Moon over Chichele Mansions


Mr B at Home
By this time Bill had moved from his room near Seven Dials to Flo's house just over the border in Hove


Fireplace
As above


1920s
also as above

...

[Rayge]

Part Two


Primula and Muscari


Climbing Colour


New Bed


Floriferous


Housed


Patch

Back Wednesday, maybe .

[Rayge]

Part one is taken from around ten days ago, part two from the bran tub, featuring some people and places from the early 1980s
- all the first few months of 1982, I think


Waiting


Clowns and Beasts
Both from an antiques shop in Crediton


Back from the Beach


The Other Way


Sunburst


Leaving

...

[Rayge]

Part Two
Warning: contains family



It Says Here...
Ma's dressed up, but not for a funeral, and Aunt Ciss has come up from Bounds Green, so I'm guessing it's the former's birthday,
maybe her 60th in January 1982


Amused
Ma's other two sisters, (Hatchet-faced) Hilda and (Not Very) Glad(ys) share a joke. Hilda's Husband, Ed, probably told it. Quite the cut-up, was Edwin


At Home
Billy in his flat. He was 68 yesterday, if he's still with us. I loved him like a brother, and still feel the grief of not having seen him for more than 16 years


Just Visiting
Tony T at the Mansions. My third-oldest friend, since we shared a house in 1970. Still in touch with him, I'm thrilled to say


A Random Collection of Improbable Occurrences on a Chiffon Tablecloth
Mansions, likewise


Winging It
On my way to (or from) Salonika in April 1982, visiting Sarah, Phil, and Clive's son by Sarah, Matt. Phil and Sarah were spending a year teaching English as a foreign Language in Halkidiki: it's the one and only time I've left the country as an adult, using a temporary visitor's passport, which was a thing back then.

back when I can

[Rayge]

Life continues to be intense chez Rayge, no time for processing things, so just a single offering today from the spring of 1988


Red
An Acer palmatum rubra. This, and the next three, from a visit to Geoff the Diva plumber in his house in Cork Street, Bath.


Small But Perfectly Formed


Laughing Boy


Double Trouble
Bella (Geoff and Karen's shih tzu)and Sally come in for a cuddle


Blossom Time
Geoff and Chip wander down an avenue of cherries somewhere in Bath


Dying Light

Lord knows when I'll have time to do some editing and post again. Sorry.

[Rayge]

two-parter today: wonders never cease. More from the spring of 1988 in part one: part two from a couple of weeks or so ago


One More Sunset
No idea where, maybe south-west Bristol somewhere. Same applies to the next three


New Leaves


To the Woods!


Eye


Freesias
Definitely back in the Mansions


Metroland Sunset
West from, I think, Willesden Green Station

...

[Rayge]

Part Two
Seeing as I only have a couple of months, at most, in Sandford, and am ferociously busy besides, all my pictures seem to be looking at familiar places with a faintly elegiac tone...


Look Back in Impatience


The View from the Stream
Yep, I'm actually standing in the stream in my wellies


Inspector of Works


Throwing Shapes


Normal for Devon


Ownership
The cat that claims the best seats in Ashton's Coffee House, Crediton

Back on Saturday

[Rayge]

Well, I didn't say which Saturday . Both parts from late last month


Yay, Blossom!


Stalker


King Cups


No Rush


Ponder

...

[Rayge]

Part Two


Curating


Bending


Greying


Chomping


Inviting

[Rayge]

Part one is still pottering around deepest Devon in the sector of springtime that occurred late last month. Part two is in London in April, maybe May 1988


Treasure Island


Woodland Way


Busting out


Blackthorn


The Only Good Trumpet


Fanfare

...

[Rayge]

Part Two

All at the Mansions unless otherwise noted


Bunches


Parting Lips


The Prodigal Returns
JDO'D, back after more than a decade in the USA, just a hop and a skip ahead of the DEA


Bedtime Story
Laura, Ed & Daphne's, Ladbroke Grove


Cloudbursting
From my front room window

Next time, holiday snaps

[Rayge]

Part one is from a holiday in Cornwall in May 1988: part two is from late last month in deepest Devon. I'm not sure exactly where we were staying, somewhere down near Falmouth and/or the Lizard...


Inlet


Churchyard


Coast Road


Sally Round the Bend


Rhododendrons


Temporary Home
Self-catering 'cottage' we hired for the week


Blue Fuchsia

...

[Rayge]

Part Two


The Old Oak...


...And Its Sister


Climbing


Mill Lane


Wall Flowers
Daffs and dogwood peering over the garden wall


Brave Show
Forsythia


Farewell Appearance
I've been living with this pieris for at least 25 years. It won't be coming to the new garden, there just isn't room, and it's got its roots well down out of that pot into the soil.

[Rayge]

Part one today continues the long, tortuous goodbyes to Deep Devon and last month: part two continues with a holiday to Cornwall in 1988, and gets all coastal.


Twins


Bunch


The Waiter at the Gate


Woodland Way


Burst into Blossom


String of Pearls

...

[Rayge]

Part Two


Vertigo
Looking over a cliff (lying down, not standing up - I'm no hero)


Splashdown


Breaking New


The Better Part of Valour
Sal puts on the brakes as she realizes the outgoing wave she was pursuing as just turned back on her


Western Edge


Grumpy

...