Seb Palmer

Whilst out delivering today, I passed through Three Holes. A place whose name has always made me chuckle. But today, for the first time (at least as far as I’m aware), I spotted the village sign, as I drove through. It’s a bridge, with three arches; three holes… of course!

And then, later, I had a look at a church I’ve passed several times now, but never stopped to admire. St Mary The Virgin, Ryston. Just outside of Downham Market.

Whilst I was snapping away outside – roundabout when I took the above photo – a chap who lives opposite came out, and offered to open up the church for me, if I wanted… Of course! And thanks Fraser, you’re a gentleman.

Thanks to Fraser, I learned that the church had serious WWII connections… which always fascinates me.

Apparently all the former servicemen have now passed away, save one, an 104 year old former bomber!

Apparently there was a time when the priest or vicar (or whatever he was called… parson!?) lived up in the tower. Apparently accessed at the time by a rope ladder, not the metal ladder that’s there now. Mad, eh!?

I’ve been trying to gradually make our home look more attractive and at the same time less cluttered. It is quite a difficult balancing act. Putting up pictures, whilst not over cluttering the space visually.

There’s also a slight irony in the choice of images. I’m not a massive sci-fi, reader/fan. And most of these postcards are chosen purely on the aesthetics of the postcard book covers. And even then I was actually quite disappointed with the covers that Penguin chose for the set of postcards I bought. 80 or 90% of which I don’t like enough to want to use at all.

So I might reproduce some other book-covers, and frame and hang those? Stuff that better reflects my actual reading habits. Or that I like more on a purely aesthetic level. An example of the latter might be so-and-so’s cover for the 1970sBallantine Books paperback edition of The Worm Ouroboros.

I might describe this top row as a slightly psychedelic selection.

The lower or bottom row, meanwhile, is more in the ‘classic’ vein.

* Which I don’t own. This cover is from an edition for sale on Oxfam’s website. For £75!

I have read some of the old sci-fi classics, like Journey to the Centre of the Earth (this one several times, including on a honeymoon in Italy!), and The Time Machine. Not sure if I’ve read 20,000 Leagues under the Sea?

I binge-watched the entire Police Squad tonight. Only six episodes. The show was cancelled by dumbass execs.

Leslie Nielsen is sublimely ridiculous as straight-faced clown, detective lieutenant Sgt. Frank Drebin. Alan North is his boss, Capt. Hocken. Other regulars inc. police scientist Doc. Olson (Ed Williams), officers Norberg (Peter Lupus), and Al (‘Tiny Ron’ Taylor), and ‘word on the street’ guy, Johnny (William Duell).

Each episode has a pointless celebrity guest star, who expires during the credits. The humour is very broad, and both visual and verbal. It’s great fun.

The gags are often very formulaic. But the formulae are hugely enjoyable. Drebin is always crashing his beautiful and very long green car (a ‘73 Plymouth Continental?) into trash cans, bicycles, other cars, etc.

Whenever he gets word from his source in the street, shifty shoe shine Johnny, the next customer is a specialist of some sort, and Johnny always has the required ‘info’, be it gossip column advice or heart-surgery.

I believe the show only really works as well as it does because in Leslie Nielsen the Zucker Abrahams Zucker team found the perfect actor for their brand of humour. All the other actors are like lesser planets in orbit around the sun that is Nielsen’s gift for comedy.

It’s such a shame the Columbia TV dullards axed the show. As it’s a simple but effective premise; the TV ‘Cop Show’ being absolutely ripe for spoofing. And as slight as the ingredients may be, it could’ve run forever.

As a wee footnote… I love Frank’s wheels! Green is my favourite colour. I think the paint colour of his Plymouth is Amber Sherwood (metallic). Whatever it is, I adore it! I’d love to have a car like this! It’s pretty huge though. And left-hand drive, of course. And no doubt a real gas-guzzler. Oh well…

After work, and after the sojourn at the Sue Ryder Hospice, I spotted St Botolph’s, and nearby, Longthorpe Tower. The church was open. The tower wasn’t.

Strange church this. Feels like it’s been looked after. Possibly a bit too much? Very mixed bag, stained glass wise. some of which is blocked (e.g. below), so it isn’t illuminated by any light, natural or otherwise. Odd!

The above is the best of the stained glass windows. Very Pre-Raphaelite! Loved the flowers – lilies? – so zoomed in on ‘em:

Lots of varied sized windows. From the big to the cutely small.

Some of the stained glass windows are totally blocked, light-wise. Others just partially so. Such as the one above. At least enough light gets through you get an idea of it. And another close up, this time winged cherubic heads!

And from St. Botolph’s, to Longthorpe Tower…

This tower is apparently famed for some wall paintings it contains. Must go back and check it out when it’s open.

* Note happy faced reflection!

These are in fact the same double-sided poster. Or rather two thereof. So I can display both sides in separate frames.

The frames arrived today. And the posters fit absolutely poifeckly. Step three will be find the right place to hang these beauties.

I’m much more of a fan of the MkI Tom Waits, or the pre Kathleen Brennan version. I don’t doubt that she – his wife – saved him from self-destruction as a caricature Beatnik. But I loved that early version. it was pure Jack Kerouac, in musical form, and then some.

I can constantly go back to the ol’ Jack, er… I mean the ol’ Tom. Not so for the latter day version. His latest album? I haven’t even made it through the first track yet.

After I’d finished my delivery shift, I wanted to visit Thorpe Park, Peterboro’, which was nearby. I couldn’t see how or here to park and get access. But I spotted a Sue Ryder Hospice, with signs for a shop, on the edge of the park.

So I visited that. And I’m very glad I did. I’ve been wrestling the ol’ black-eyed dog, just recently. And the hospice had a nice garden attached. I stopped in there for a while. And it was very restorative.

There maintenance work going on; stone block paving is being restored, or renewed. So parts of the hospice grounds are like a building site.

But the gardens were fine. Indeed, where the snowdrops were, and the lovely old walls, there are some trees or. She’s that are giving off a beautifully fragrant aroma. That and the birds chirruping away was lovely.

I noted that there’s a workshop in the grounds. I wonder if they make the benches on site? They all differ slightly, and have a slightly rustic rough n’ ready vibe.

This was the nicest. Or er if the garden section that I was in. The. Knob of gravel paths, beds of snowdrops, the old walls/gate, and the trees and bushes, all added up to something very charming.

I sat here for about… we’ll, I’ll be honest, I lost track of time. Might’ve been 10-15 minutes. Could’ve been a fair bit longer? Some of the time I just sat. Listening to birdsong. I also had Shelby Foote with me, and read some of that.

And I bought a few books from the shop. Yep, they had a Sue Ryder charity shop on the site as well! I got one for Teresa (a Scrabble dictionary), one for dad’s forthcoming birthday (74!), and one on Trafalgar, for me.

A guy just delivered these. The books themselves appear to be fine. But get a load of this:

Knowing Taschen, I think this box has been opened and ‘re-packaged’ (the black ‘tape’). And it’s obviously been pretty roughly handled. And the paperwork in the plastic doodad on top has been removed. What’s that all about?

I think I’ll email Taschen about this, see what they say. Plus I want to find out who the carrier was. As I’m not too happy about their handling of my goods. At least the books themselves appear to be alright.

Very strange!

I think what really lifts this to the heights of prole dining is eating it with a spoon, out of a lunchbox.

The macaroni and a kind of mince hotpot were already cooked. By ‘er indoors (or, truth be told, outdoors… more than me!). I just made a nice big serving of cheese sauce.

The added touch of class here is a decent powdering of nutmeg.

My delivery shift took me to Hilton today. it rained constantly. Not the best weather for appreciating the prettier aspects of this, in parts, very picturesque place.

There are some really lovely properties dotted round the completely gorgeous old village green.

My grim mood, and the rather horrid grey rainy weather combined to make for a fecund day, poetry wise. I penned four pieces, during the dank and dreary downpours of the afternoon!