Erosion

Hard mortar and soft stone. The mortar is always going to win.

Bomb damage II

South entrance to Tate Britain, London on Atterbury Street.

Eleanor Antin

100 boots, Eleanor Antin and Google Earth

Just built

This little shed, for the gardeners at Hope Park in Keswick, Cumbria is just a mixture of odd bits, that have been altered over time, with little additions, perhaps badly done, certainly not designed but I find it really beautiful.  Even the felt shingles, which are surely just a cheap replacement for natural slates look beautiful here.

Exposure

The effect of weather on even a hard and durable material like concrete. This is part of the Hayward Gallery on London's South Bank.  The bottom photo showing the original shutter finished concrete, left natural and undecorated. The top shows the south side of the same column, all the texture has gone leaving only the edge of the shuttering boards just visible.

Metal stitch repairs to cast iron grating over heating ducts in the Palm House at Kew Gardens.

Lime pointing

Last week I ran a two day lime training event organised by the NECT HSI. After a lecturing about lime mortars, slaking some putty, mixing several mortars with different sands, having a good look at the existing pointing on the barns at Low Luckens, we eventually got our hands dirty and did this.

From left to right; raked out, pointed and knocked back about four hours later.

Common furniture beetle - Anobium punctatum

Boulevard De Raspail

 Man Ray, 1930.

Google Earth, 2010.

Rietdale Chair

Rietdale Chair by Harvey Wilkinson. More info here; Grizedale Arts.

Graffiti No.2

On a backstreet in Nelson, Lancashire.  The painted wickets have many layers from decades of regular repainting.

V&A

 Acknowledging historic damage can be an important part of social history...

...but thoughtless temporary fixings are not.

Carrock Fell, Cumbria

Images from Google Earth and and survey by Collingwood 1937.  Site of an Iron Age hillfort.  It is believed that it was never occupied as a settlement.  At 640m it must be the highest hillfort in the country.  Apart from the boundary embankments which are massive and made from massive stones there are few distinguishable features.  There are some ridges and dips but these are hard to make any sense of because of the extent of moss and peat.  It's a 450m climb from the valley but only about 1.5km distance from the road.  The valley is covered with fallen boulders, many as big as a van and some the size of houses.  Appropriately it's named 'Apronful of Stones' and it's a well known place for climbers to practice bouldering.

The effect of frost on stone

These naturally cleft rocks are at the top of Carrock Fell.  They look like they could be jemmied back into place, with a bit of effort, like a giant geological jigsaw puzzle.

Signage

I like just about everything about this. The black and white checkers along the top look like part of a film strip, like it's a small clip from a road movie. The dots on the arrow and letters are 'cats eyes' so they reflect the headlights. I can imagine the driver of an Austin 7 squinting through his rain soaked windscreen at the faint shine of the numbers.  I don't often wish this, but I hope it's listed.

You can hide a house behind a tree

Appropriate signage

I 

Has this been recognised yet for its historic value?
Brougham Castle, Penrith.

Graffiti No. 1

This isn't about gang tags or fashionable slogans but rather looking at historic graffiti.  Things that might be hidden under modern decorations and might be a single mark or might be a whole fleet of aircraft.  I mention this because one of the most emotive pieces of graffiti I have ever seen is the silhouettes of German bombers penciled onto dado paneling of an Oxfordshire church tower.  It is always exciting to find this sort of graffiti.  It raises so many question and for me at least, becomes a direct link to an individual, a time or event.  But it also presents the problem of whether and how to preserve it.  After all, it may well have been done clandestinely and quickly covered up.  It was almost certainly never meant to last.

This curvy figure was hidden under some nasty, inappropriate and badly done matchboard.  Before that it had been partly obscured with blackboard paint.  It's not the usual builders scrawl, the chalk lines have depth and texture and the proportion and shading show some skill.  But it's not part of any design within the building and in chalk, it is probably not possible to consolidate and preserve in any way.  Does this matter?  Here, I think not.  But I would like to think that whatever happens next might allow it to survive for someone else to find.

Invisible Green

Invisible green is a green so dark that it renders itself invisible and appears black.  So you could call it black but that's not very poetic is it.  It's origination is attributed to Humphrey Repton for use on railings in gardens.  It was apparently used on the door to No.10 Downing Street.  Coincidently, invisible green is also used at Hughenden Manor, the home of Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister and resident of No.10 in 1868 and later from 1874 to 1886.

You can't hide a house behind a tree

In front of every building is a space to stand and look at the building.