British combat operations in Iraq will come to an end in an hour’s time at 1215 GMT today.
This morning at breakfast-time, I watched with sadness the Iraq memorial service being transmitted live. The long list of names of those who died on the UK’s Operation Telic were being read out and included Italian, Dutch, Danish, American and Romanian troops.
Here they are: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3847051.stm
Yesterday was a beautiful day.
I popped down along the canal and into the office to do a bit of admin and count money. Looking at the money in front of me, I remembered that you used to be able to fold one banknote with another and make a picture of John McEnroe but I think the notes have been updated since then. Strange how often I use money but rarely give it a second glance.
In the afternoon Mr Dancing and I went to Lacock and visited the Fox Talbot Museum, the gardens, abbey and cloisters where the sun cast sharp shadows on the stone floor and we admired the magnificent door into the brewery.
Then it was back home to patatas bravas with chorizo and eggs for four.
Last evening around 6pm, I was supposed to be getting dinner ready. Instead I had a quick flit around the house to see who was doing what … unfortunately the photo of Mr Dancing (watching tv) was badly out of focus! I’ll get him next time though.
Last evening Mr Dancing brought my attention to a tv programme about photography … what a gem it was.
The programme was about James Ravilious and his stunning black and white photography recording life in a remote part of North Devon – a way of life that was being and is now lost.
In the early 1970s, “John Lane, director of the arts centre in the neighbouring village of Beaford, invited James to contribute some work to the newly set up Beaford Archive, intended as a photographic record of life in a largely unspoilt, but vulnerable, country area. What started as a short-term project grew into a seventeen year obsession. In that time James took over 80,000 black and white images of all aspects of local life: landscape, farming, everyday life in the local towns and villages, and their special occasions.”
” … probably the most intensive record of any rural area in England. But it is more than that. Though never posed, James’s pictures are composed with the eye of an artist, and they capture subtle qualities of light – the result of years of experiment with pre-war Leica cameras and uncoated lenses. Above all, they are warmed by his affection and admiration for the people whose lives he recorded. His pictures reveal real life as it was being lived in late 20th century rural England when the country traditions that have been handed down for hundreds, if not thousands, of years were still part of everyday existence.”
For copyright reasons I have posted links to these photos:-
Ivor Brock rescuing a lamb in a blizzard, Millhams, Dolton, Devon, England, 1978
Alf Pugsley moving a shed in case of flood, Langham, Dolton, Devon, England, 1978
Archie Parkhouse with ivy for sheep, Millhams, Dolton, Devon, England, 1975
Olive Bennett and her Red Devon Cows
The programme featured the characters who had appeared in his photos. It was a joy to see and hear them with their thick Devon accents and dry sense of humour.
Some of my ancestors are from North Devon, some of my family still live there and I went to school there from 11-18. In the early 1970s I worked for the South Western Arts Association in Exeter and had contact with the Beaford Centre, although mainly organising travel and accommodation for classical musicians – so I felt a strong link to the programme.
To top it all, the film was dedicated to a man who shared my father’s name.
Amazing … the film, narrated by Alan Bennett, is on YouTube ….
