A couple of sketches and a few photos of Canterbury today, the booksellers dilemma expressed through vernacular architecture, Poundland comes to Canters opposite the “noisy affair”, smoke over Manston, reflections on the moved blog, a ramble.

As I have said before, drawing is not like riding a bicycle, leave it off for a few days and it gets significantly worse.

Having slunk outside the cathedral after being overwhelmed by the complexity of the shapes and confused by students with tape measures, I was once again confronted by the artistic problem that there really isn’t anywhere within the cathedral grounds where you can get a decent view of the cathedral to sketch it.

Mainly it is just too big and one is too close to it, close up it is a bit too complicated for my liking,, or at least for my skill.

So here is a not very good sketch of Canterbury Cathedral.

I went and skulked around in the cloisters for a bit and inevitably wound up in The Chapter House, before the dissolution a chapter of the Benedictine rule would have been read innit, hence the name.

There was a reasonably good art exhibition in there mostly work by teachers at wot wos the tec, difficult place to exhibit because of the architecture, or is it the craft? The ceiling really, I guess speaking as one who is oft metaphorically lost in life’s maze, standing under this one produces juxtaposition inductive of inverted vertigo. It's just too much to compete with.

Anyway the words are getting complicated and I am getting to the point when I don’t really know what I am saying.

Here is my attempt at a quick sketch of the thing called the ceiling.

And here is a photo of it.

I went an skulked outside what Newman ibid Pevsner describes as “a noisy affair with plenty of half-timbering 1897-9 by A.H. Campbell” this was probably some sort of soothsaying related to removing the “silence” signs in public libraries, we all call it The Beaney.

Over the road the building, ghastly in my mind is quite deservedly to become Poundland.      

I am still trying to sort out what I would loosely describe as the arts and crafts book section in my bookshop and am continually being faced by dilemma.

Here is an example, books about thatch, do they go in the craft section or the architecture section? I have, as U C put one in each and gawn orf for a fink.

Smoke over Manston today, black though and not white, so no decision.

On the blog front things are much easier with the one thread of comment on one post situation here, comment moderation is so much easier when all the new comment falls at the bottom of the thread.

I am taking a much tougher line on deleting comment that doesn’t conform to the comment guidelines published here, I would say I have deleted about a third of the comment submitted.

Most of which is what I would describe as non commercial spam, mostly from individuals who don’t have the confidence in what they say to publish it themselves online and hope to publish here either under a pseudonym or anonymously.

Frankly writing and moderating this blog is something like what one of the Canterbury buskers was doing today, playing the violin while balancing on one leg on a tightrope. 

I may ramble on here