The Pursuit of Mediocrity

2011-03-13T07:45:00.000Z

Swan at Barnes WWT wetland centre

2010-07-04T15:04:00.000+01:00

Ducklings!

2010-07-04T14:56:00.000+01:00

Swans on Virginia Water

2010-04-25T18:53:00.000+01:00

Look! A picture that isn't of Isobel, or a swan. This is a Jay that landed on our shed today. I think it's rather super.

2009-09-06T22:07:00.000+01:00

Lily in the Cow Pond, Windsor Great Park.

2009-08-08T11:38:00.000+01:00

Young Isobel Rose.

2009-06-26T23:07:00.001+01:00

Baby Isobel Ferguson, born 26th June 2009. Isn't she just the sweetest of the sweethearts? If you liked this, you might be interested in the link on the right entitled 'Pictures of Isobel'.

2009-04-23T23:03:00.000+01:00

From what, you may ask. You may also ask whether these are sheds being stolen or sheds being stolen from. My curiousity is almost, but not quite, enough to prompt me to buy the Staines News.

2009-04-23T22:53:00.000+01:00

This is one of the chaps who eats all the stuff Joanne plants in the garden. Looks harmless enough to me.

2009-04-17T23:50:00.000+01:00

We went to Cornwall and it was ace. More of this sort of thing at this link here.

2009-04-07T23:00:00.000+01:00

The totem pole by Virginia Water.

2009-04-05T16:31:00.001+01:00

Matt and Vicki's house in Bradford Leigh in Wiltshire. I know, it's outrageous. More of this sort of thing here.

2009-04-05T16:30:00.002+01:00

Fergusons small and smaller.

2009-04-05T16:30:00.000+01:00

Some flowers, and chez Matt & Vicki.

2009-04-05T16:29:00.000+01:00

Depth of field. Everybody likes some depth of field. This in Matt and Vicki's garden in Bradford Leigh.

2009-04-05T16:27:00.001+01:00

Bath Abbey, obviously.

2009-04-05T16:27:00.000+01:00

Mrs F in Bath, by the weir.

2009-04-05T16:26:00.001+01:00

What Bath looks like nowadays, only in black and white.

2009-03-29T21:11:00.000+01:00

Some rather over-due swans, in Bristol. I was so pleased with my pictures of Bristol I stuck them in a web album thing -->http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/fergup/Bristol29032009?feat=directlink

2009-03-29T21:08:00.000+01:00

Chris and Katie both showing their better sides on the ferry in Bristol.

2009-03-29T21:03:00.000+01:00

Some cranes, Bristol.

2009-03-29T21:01:00.000+01:00

Slightly pretentious shot of the SS Great Britain taken to show off my new Nikon P90, which I must say I'm very happy with indeed.

2009-03-29T20:55:00.000+01:00

Yes, this is a picture of me reading the paper.

2009-03-29T20:50:00.000+01:00

They like me in Bristol. They really like me. Also, see below for various pictures of Bristol and Chris and Joanne and some piglets.

2009-03-29T20:32:00.000+01:00

2009-02-27T23:46:00.000Z

Texas Capitol building, Austin.

2009-02-27T23:44:00.000Z

A door leading into the Texas House of Representatives.

2009-02-27T23:42:00.001Z

Inside the dome of the Texas Capitol building in Austin.

2009-02-27T23:42:00.000Z

This is the chamber of the Texas House of Representatives. I rather like it.

2009-01-04T17:26:00.000Z

A very cold Joanne at Claremont Landscape Gardens.

2009-01-04T17:25:00.000Z

Birds on the ice and on the wing at Claremont Landscape Gardens near Esher.

2008-12-07T16:49:00.001Z

The luchadors of a touring Mexican Lucha Libre show that came to the Roundhouse in Camden. Keen viewers of this blog will remember we saw this bunch of masked musclemen and midgets in Mexico City (see link). This was a bit less exciting because we weren't looking into a cage with a load of lunatic Mexicans.

2008-11-22T15:28:00.000Z

Joanne displaying the full range of Scottish food from the sublime (porridge) to the ridiculous (burgers in batter).

2008-11-22T15:25:00.001Z

I may have mentioned that I like trains. Sometimes they're quite photogenic, as this one is. This was somewhere outside Willesden on the Sleeper on its way back to Euston - more observant viewers will be able to spot the Wembley arch on the right-hand side.

Aileen Donan castle near Lochalsh. It's in sepia mostly to disguise the big yellow construction machinery in the middle of the bridge. Also the heavy rain.

A horse we saw whilst taking the scenic route from Portree to Broadford in Skye. We also saw a salmon farm.

This is what Scotland (or at least the West coast of Skye) looks like in November.

2008-11-22T15:16:00.000Z

Our Joanne looking suitably weary and ethereal on the way to see the Old Man of Storr on Skye.

Some washing up with steam coming off it in our rented cottage in Portree, Skye.

This is Kinloch Lodge, where Claire MacDonald of the Clan MacDonald does the cooking. Apparently she's famous in Scotland. I must say I've never heard of her, but I have been to one or two of the chain of family restaurants run by her better-known cousin Ronald.
This is a waterfall on Skye. I know, I know, I couldn't resist.

2008-11-22T15:09:00.000Z

Joanne, pictured through the window of the Caledonian Sleeper train to Fort William. She likes trains. But then, who doesn't.

The Caledonian Sleeper itself at London Euston waiting to go to Fort William, Aberdeen and Inverness.

Portree harbour on Skye, featuring the lifeboat and a seabird of some kind.

Joanne by the harbour in Portree, Skye.

2008-10-24T18:29:00.000+01:00

Saw this in a garden centre in Kew. It was over a grand for this ageing piece of unprepossessing junk. And the metal recliner chair was extra.

2008-10-24T18:28:00.000+01:00

Car in the car park by the shops on the Beaver Estate. There isn't a sticker in the back window saying 'I've been to Lovely Hounslow' but there should be.

2008-10-24T18:26:00.002+01:00

As part of my occasional 'Lovely Hounslow' series, I offer the latest view of The Beaver pub, now sadly boarded up and unlikely to be the target of a Gordon Ramsey gastro-pub takeover any time soon.

2008-10-01T22:04:00.000+01:00

Apples in the porch of St Mary's, Ashley.

2008-10-01T22:02:00.000+01:00

Figure on the wall inside St Mary's, Ashley.

2008-10-01T21:58:00.000+01:00

A grinning Mark in St Mary's in Ashley. And, no, I'm afraid that's not mistletoe, ladies.

2008-10-01T21:57:00.000+01:00

Harvest festival offerings at St Mary's in Ashley.

2008-10-01T21:56:00.000+01:00

The outisde of St Mary's church in Ashley.

2008-10-01T21:55:00.000+01:00

This is the fabulous church of St Mary in Ashley near Winchester. Chris and Mark and I cycled out there on Sunday in the rare late sunshine. It's 11th century and is preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust .

2008-09-15T21:53:00.001+01:00

Dahlia at Anglesey Abbey.

2008-09-15T21:53:00.000+01:00

Cyclamen at Anglesey Abbey.

2008-09-15T21:51:00.001+01:00

Lovely Dahlias in the gardens of Angelsey Abbey in Cambridgeshire.

2008-09-06T16:02:00.000+01:00

This is a flower that Joanne's very proud of growing. Mostly this is because she managed to prevent me pulling up thinking it was a weed. I think it's from New Zealand.

2008-09-06T15:51:00.000+01:00

These posts aren't in any particular order but this is a castle we came across in Shropshire. It's called Hopton Castle and is conincidentally located in a village called Hopton Castle though it sits in a farmer's field and as such is entirely inacessible to the public. There was a massacre here during the Civil War - 30 or so Parliamentarians were killed after a lengthy seige and supposedly had their hands cut off and thrown in the moat. They have a website which says that English Heritage are taking it over from next year.

2008-09-06T15:38:00.001+01:00

We went on a steam train in Yorkshire. It was all a ruse cooked up by Joanne using her cousin's kids as cover; she said 'we'll say we're taking the little 'uns on the railway and no one will know we're actually desperate train nerds ourselves'. I think it worked out quite nicely.

2008-09-06T15:34:00.000+01:00

Steam train on the Keighley and North Yorkshire railway.

2008-07-05T09:40:00.002+01:00

I went on a work jolly to the Hurlingham club the other day and that Chris Evans off the telly was there in his over-priced Ferrari.

2008-06-30T22:08:00.001+01:00

This is the auditorium at Garsington near Oxford, where we saw Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress on Sunday. It was excellent and hilariously full of posh people, even more so than Glyndebourne. Apparently there won't be any opera at Garsington after the 2010 season so if you have a country house you're not using, let them know so they can have have an opera festival in your back garden.

2008-06-30T21:25:00.003+01:00

Our Kid and Our Joanne at Clare's farm in Oxfordshire. It has strawberries and everything.

2008-06-23T22:40:00.000+01:00

People in Englefield Green really don't like other people parking their cars in their way. I have to say that, living there, I'm surprised this sort of thing doesn't happen more often.

2008-06-15T19:19:00.001+01:00

We were just walking about in Windsor Great Park, in our habitual Sunday afternoon fashion, minding our own business when we heard some noise. We followed that noise and came upon a car park. It was a car park full of Porsches and Bentleys and Aston Martins. We saw that the people were there for a sporting event, one that seemed to involve horses. We went to investigate further and found that it was a polo tournament and it seemed to be coming to an end. The winning players gathered up to get their awards from an old lady in a purple dress. I had a look over the crowd and saw that the old lady was in fact the Queen. This is not the sort of thing we used to find in the park when we lived in Shepherd's Bush.

2008-06-15T19:15:00.001+01:00

The band of the Irish Guards, who we stumbled upon in Windsor Great Park doing their stuff at a polo tournament.

2008-05-26T22:54:00.001+01:00

This is me on the beach in Thornham in Norfolk at the weekend leaping about and trying to fly and stuff. I like the shadow in this one, less so the look on my face.

2008-05-26T22:47:00.002+01:00

Here's some pictures of our trip to the States - Joanne is standing in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, and is looking concerned about a waterfall. We know how she feels about waterfalls (see Venezuela). The chap is Thomas Jefferson and the rotunda is in the Library of Congress in Washington DC.

2008-05-26T22:45:00.001+01:00

Windsor Castle through the gates. Note chaps in bearskin hats. People were describing them as Beefeaters but we knew better; naturally we didn't say anything.

2008-04-03T19:44:00.003+01:00

I scanned this one in off the DVD box set of the West Wing.

2008-03-02T21:27:00.000Z

This is Windsor. It has a castle, also signposts.

2008-03-02T21:23:00.001Z

This page seems to have become entirely devoted to churches we've been to. This one's in Winkfield, which I'm guessing is in Berkshire. We tried to get into neighbouring Warfield (as recommended by our spirit guide, Mr Simon Jenkins) but it was all shut up and when I asked a chap who was walking through the churcyard about getting hold of they key, he looked at me like I'd asked to borrow his squirrel gun.
There was a very nice old lady inside Winkfield church laying tables for serving Mothering Sunday simnel cake on. she told us about the peculiarly clean tower (built in about 1629 but tidied up and re-pointed in about 2006) and the whole-tree wooden pillars holding the nave up which were donated by Queen Elizabeth I from Windsor Great Park.

2008-02-14T22:57:00.001Z

JP enjoying the remarkable 'Sound of the Sea' course at the Fat Duck in Bray. There's an ipod in there which plays soothing sea sounds. They give you a glass plate on a tray of sand and on the glass is an array of fish and seafood, edible shells and rocks and edible fishy foam stuff. We got to the restaurant first of the people having lunch there that day so every bizarre thing on the tasting menu turned up to us first meaning we generally had no idea what it was going to look like. No one was playing it cool and eating off the a la carte menu.

2008-02-14T22:52:00.000Z

We went to the Fat Duck in Bray for our wedding anniversary and it was marvellous and peculiar in approximately equal measure. This is the course featuring a tray of moss with dry ice poured on it.

2008-02-03T23:08:00.000Z

This is Dorchester Abbey in Oxfordshire, just opposite a nice little antique shop where the owner beas a more-than-passing resemblance to 'Cash in the Attic' star Jonty Hearndon. I only know this because there was a Jonty Hearndon book in there and the chap on the cover was also the proprietor. Fours stars from Simon Jenkins for the church, which was pretty good and had a 12th century knight in 'action effigy' drawing his sword on his tomb and some spectacular windows but lots of oddly dead space.

2008-01-29T17:55:00.000Z

I took this picture by accident while I was - no doubt inadvisably - using my phone while cycling home form work.

2008-01-20T19:00:00.000Z

The school at Ewelme. It's the oldest church school in England or something.

2008-01-20T18:13:00.000Z

Swans on the very swollen Thames at Henley.

2008-01-20T18:09:00.001Z

Gloomy-looking chap in brass on the floor of Shottesbrooke church.

2008-01-20T18:09:00.000Z

Shottesbrooke church. It was built in the 14th century, the chancel's bigger than the nave and the visitor's book goes back to 1980.

2008-01-20T18:06:00.000Z

The giant key to Shottesbrooke church with my not-small hand.

2008-01-20T18:05:00.000Z

The sign on the door of Shottesbrooke church directing you to a giant key.

2008-01-20T18:02:00.000Z

Our Joanne at Shottesbrooke Park clutching Simon Jenkins' 1000 Best Churches book.

2008-01-20T17:59:00.000Z

Ely cathedral on Boxing Day.

2008-01-13T17:33:00.000Z

Christmas lights on the South Bank.

2008-01-13T17:32:00.000Z

Sometimes the Evening Standard just downloads its headlines from the National Enquirer website.

2008-01-13T17:29:00.000Z

This is what happens when you get your cement mixer from Sellafield Tool Hire.

2008-01-13T17:28:00.000Z

John O'Neill (who works on the bins) with the lovely Christina outside the British Museum.

2008-01-13T17:27:00.000Z

It looks like a Tube sign, but it's really a sign for the suburban trains out of Moorgate. I knew you'd be interested.

2008-01-13T17:24:00.000Z

The British Museum, which we went to in order to see some Chinese warriors made of clay. It would've been better if they were made of china, but you can't have everything. I'm mostly posting this picture to demonstrate how jolly good the 5 megapixel camera on my mobile phone is. It's a Nokia N95-8GB, since you ask.

2008-01-13T17:22:00.000Z

I had a wander round Parliament the other day and I saw this, which amused me. It's David Marshall and the people in the Library Intake Office I feel sorry for.

2008-01-13T17:21:00.001Z

Another entry in the occasional 'Lovely Hounslow' series.

2008-01-13T17:21:00.000Z

Given my own dubious spelling and grammatical skills, I probably shouldn't really be pedantic with other people but this van in Hounslow really showed some persistence with their misplaced apostrophes.

2008-01-13T17:19:00.000Z

St Clements and St Barnabas church in Finsbury. It was looking a bit run down, despite the magnificnet columns and what have you, and the doors were locked. The vicarage next door looked quite new, though.

2007-12-21T10:16:00.000Z

The ice skating rink at Kew Gardens

2007-12-21T10:12:00.000Z

JP ice skating at lovely Kew Gardens last night.

2007-12-16T17:01:00.000Z

The quad of the Founders Building at Royal Holloway in Englefield Green.

2007-12-16T17:00:00.000Z

Georgina in a fur coat and Joanne in a sporran.

2007-12-16T16:59:00.000Z

It's all about depth of field with the Nikon D70.

2007-12-16T16:57:00.000Z

Virginia Water, Nikon D70 style.

2007-12-16T16:51:00.000Z

Swan in Virginia Water, taken with Tim's Nikon D70.

2007-11-19T22:52:00.000Z

This chap was in Tideswell church ('The Cathedral of the Peaks') in Derbyshire.

2007-11-11T17:00:00.000Z

I went to Amsterdam. There wasn't an underground, but they did have trams, so that was something.

2007-11-11T16:58:00.000Z

Slightly out of sequence, this is Jo's wedding in the Gower on 3rd November.

2007-11-11T16:54:00.000Z

This is Becca. She's quite shy.

2007-11-11T16:49:00.000Z

The outside of Lavenham church. See below for details.

2007-11-11T16:48:00.000Z

This is the interior of Lavenham church in Suffolk. It's an exceptionally pleasant church in a remarkably preserved Tudor town. The local museum, housed in a 16th century guildhall, has a whole section devoted to the railway that used to run through Lavenham until 1965. Imagine my delight.

2007-10-20T19:46:00.000+01:00

Stoke Park golf club clubhouse as viewed from the other side of their lake. It's next door to the memorial garden attached to Stoke Poges church and, judging by the number of Aston Martins in the car park, a place where you might go down with a bad case of affluenza.