Status-Q

What is this strange exotic mix of natural textures flowing past the domed obstruction?

And the answer is…. chicken wire!

At least, it’s a fence post to which chicken wire is attached. I photographed it twice using a macro extension tube in the low winter morning light, then stitched the two halves together before doing a reasonably high-contrast conversion to black and white.

Here’s a more conventional view taken a bit later from further away – using the same lens, as it happens, but without the macro tube.

This morning on a frosty Grantchester Meadows.

I bought this old copper telephone in a Delft antique shop many years ago. I think it’s probably Belgian or French and dates from around the 30s. I re-wired it to work on the UK phone network – not very well, I must admit – but the ringer was a pleasing sound. However, it’s many years now since we had a landline, and it’s just been gathering dust, so I’ve been taking some photos before putting it on eBay.

I can’t help feeling, though, that there must be a lot of history behind this shot. What did those labels mean to whomever wrote them? Whom did they call, what did they talk about? It has a few bumps and scratches, and I wonder where and when it got them? In some office move during the war, perhaps?

How fun it would be to have a time machine…

Cregennen Lakes, Wales

North Wales is very moist. But very pretty.