Colliers Wood - Bright idea

As I was due to meet Bob in Mansfield Y decided to have a morning in Nottingham to carry on with Xmas shopping and to take her books back to Bromley House.

One day I'll do a photo of Bromley House interior because it is well worth it. An 18th century gem and we have been library members for well, not quite since it opened. When we joined the membership was strictly controlled to under 400 and one had to have references AND then wait for someone to leave or die. Even though it isn't so strict now it is still a super place and very photogenic. There is an open ironwork spiral staircase inside the main room, and they still enter one's books in an old-fashioned ledger. Also there is a beautiful reading room overlooking the square.

Y managed to 'cop-hold-of'' both The Spectator and Private Eye to read while she had her coffee. After dropping her at Phoenix Park I came back via Colliers Wood and photographed Picture 1, which needs no description. I misinformed you earlier about the opening date, which was in fact 1998 - It just didn't seem that long.

I had promised Bob a basil plant and, as he was on the 'bus, it's transportation presented a minor problem - to stop it dripping everywhere, to stop it tipping over and losing its compost and damaging the plant. When I got home and before setting off for Mansfield I spotted in the kitchen an empty 4 pint milk container. Bright idea 6,321 hit me. Cut the container roughly in the middle and round 3 sides and then the 4th side will act as a hinge ! Pop the plant in, and then close the lid and secure it temporarily with sticky tape.

Its reference no. is based on the calculation that I have had two bright ideas a week for the past 55 years - at least. Although not a work of art, the picture is a record shot. Bob and I discussed these over lunch and I advanced the notion that, for the benefit of future historians, there ought to be some way of distinguishing between photos. that are 'as is' - and those that have been extensively doctored. Because in a couple of hundred years, people won't have a clue as to how the 21st century actually looked. Bob astutely made the point that it has always gone on, even in portrait painting. Henry V111 sent Holbein to bring him back an image of Anne of Cleves. He received a flattering picture of the lady, who he subsequently described as that Flanders Mare - and we know how it finished up. Poor Holbein, he needed to please both 'sitter' and King, and it didn't work out too well. But the plant-transporter worked faultlessly!!

Good night on the telly. Strictly Come..... followed by Tim Marlowe..... followed by Heston Blumenthal.

Must go. Going to cook bacon sandwiches !!

Catch you tomorrow .......................