St Mary's Church...

Licensed today: St Mary's Church, Long Sutton, Lincolnshire...

With God on our side...

“I knew God was with us”, said Lionel Messi, after Argentina scraped through to the knockout stage with a last-gasp goal against Nigeria. Did God really express a preference for the Argentinian team? What about the members of the Nigerian team, who ‘crossed themselves’ before the start of the game: did God forsake them? And, if so, why? I’m assuming that religious people really think that God can (if he so wishes) intervene in our lives… otherwise why would they invoke his name? Yet surely it would only take five minutes of clear and objective thought to reach the conclusion that God may have more important things to attend to, and that the fortunes of individual teams in the World Cup are unlikely to catch his attention (or, following a little more thought, that God is entirely fictional).

Armies, throughout history, have marched “with God on their side”: the same wild presumption. “Gott mit uns” was the legend embossed on the belt-buckles of Nazi soldiers, which gives the lie to the widespread notion that Hitler’s crimes againgst humanity were committed in the cause of atheism.

We hear so often this idea that God is on our side that its very familiarity renders us immune to what it really means. As innocuous as it may seem, the phrase has motivated crusaders, inquisitors, witch-hunters and, in recent times, suicide bombers. When God is on your side, you can behave like him; and, since God sanctions the killing of infidels (who may be guilty of nothing more than worshipping the ‘wrong’ deity), his followers may feel emboldened to follow his example.

Kirkdale Minster, North Yorkshire...

Germany...

Oh dear… Germany are out of the World Cup. Taking pleasure in someone else’s misfortune: if only the Germans had a word for it…

What is...

Another timely thought from Krishnamurti which arrived in my email in-box today...

"Surely, a man who is understanding life does not want beliefs. A man who loves, has no beliefs—he loves. It is the man who is consumed by the intellect who has beliefs, because intellect is always seeking security, protection; it is always avoiding danger, and therefore it builds ideas, beliefs, ideals, behind which it can take shelter. What would happen if you dealt with violence directly, now? You would be a danger to society; and because the mind foresees the danger, it says "I will achieve the ideal of non-violence ten years later which is such a fictitious, false process...” To understand what is, is more important than to create and follow ideals because ideals are false, and what is is the real. To understand what is requires an enormous capacity, a swift and unprejudiced mind. It is because we don’t want to face and understand what is that we invent the many ways of escape and give them lovely names as the ideal, the belief, God".

Licensed today: the Padiham postie...

Scarborough...

Ended up on a grassy knoll yesterday evening, within the walls of Scarborough Castle, for the launch of a new book - The Dragon: Fear and Power - by my old friend Martin. He sold, and signed, the forty books he’d brought, and said, ruefully, that he could have sold another forty. A woman fire-eater performed, a Chinese dragon walked among the literati of Scarborough and a good time was had by all.

Licensing quite a few Lakeland pix this month, including this shot of Patterdale...

Frampton Marsh...

Had a few productive hours, photographing around Boston. I noticed a pair of peregrines flying around the tower of the Stump; inside there was a screen linked to a camera which offered visitors a good view of the nest. Then I called in at Frampton Marsh, an RSPB reserve, without expecting to see very much, so was pleasantly surprised to see a couple of spoonbills, and half a dozen ruff (with one coming out of its elaborate breeding plumage). Best of all was a pair of spotted redshanks: almost black in their summer plumage.

Spotted redshank (pic: Creative Commons)...

Observation...

This extract, from Krishnamurti, arrived in my in-tray this morning...

"You know, to perceive something is an astonishing experience. I don’t know if you have ever really perceived anything; if you have ever perceived a flower or a face or the sky, or the sea. Of course, you see these things as you pass by in a bus or a car; but I wonder whether you have ever taken the trouble actually to look at a flower? And when you do look at a flower, what happens? You immediately name the flower, you are concerned with what species it belongs to, or you say, “What lovely colors it has. I would like to grow it in my garden; I would like to give it to my wife, or put it in my buttonhole,” and so on. In other words, the moment you look at a flower, your mind begins chattering about it; therefore you never perceive the flower. You perceive something only when your mind is silent, when there is no chattering of any kind. If you can look at the evening star over the sea without a movement of the mind, then you really perceive the extraordinary beauty of it; and when you perceive beauty, do you not also experience the state of love? Surely, beauty and love are the same. Without love there is no beauty, and without beauty there is no love. Beauty is in form, beauty is in speech, beauty is in conduct. If there is no love, conduct is empty; it is merely the product of society, of a particular culture, and what is produced is mechanical, lifeless. But when the mind perceives without the slightest flutter, then it is capable of looking into the total depth of itself; and such perception is really timeless. You don’t have to do something to bring it about; there is no discipline, no practice, no method by which you can learn to perceive".

Licensed today: where William Wordsworth was born, in Cockermouth...

Boston...

Had a day in Boston. Took a few pix, did some writing and watched a bit of football. Licensed this pic today, of a bus labouring up Honister Pass in the Lake District...

Bourne...

England v Tunisia turned out to be a decent game. The England players didn’t look, as they usually do in major tournaments, like rabbits caught in the headlights. They’d had quite a few chances, and spurned them all, before Harry Kane had a simple tap-in. Tunisia won a penalty, which seemed harsh, and the game looked to be heading for a draw until Kane, unmarked, diverted the ball into the net with a well-timed header in added time. Two scruffy goals mean that England have a very good chance of getting out of their group and into the knockout stages. A collection of England fans paraded through the streets of Bourne after the game, and a few drivers joined in, with blasts on their horns.

Just licensed this shot of Ambleside youth hostel (actually at Waterhead)...

Eng-er-land...

Back in Rutland, by chance, having breakfast in Oakham. After a day’s writing, I’ll find a congenial pub where I can watch England’s first game in the World Cup, against Tunisia. I hope we win, while acknowledging that we might not… so the best attitude to adopt, while watching, will be a zen-like calm…

Just licensed this shot of Preston's iconic bus station...

Coventry...

An enjoyable couple of days with Chas in Coventry. Instead of a card for Father's Day, or Sunday lunch at a Harvester restaurant, he allowed me to mow his lawn.

Just licensed this shot of Kendal...

World Cup...

Had a couple more days in a friendly, bijou campsite near Rutland Water. Having edited and uploaded 148 pix, my eyes ache. The World Cup starts today, and the England flags are starting to appear… to mark ‘fifty two years of hurt’.

Classrooms at Uppingham School...

Father James...

Wandering around Uppingham School, I popped into the chapel, just after a service had finished, and had a chat with Father James, a young chaplain with a puppyish enthusiasm for the school. Later, having got all the pix I wanted, I was collared by the bursar, who reminded me that the school grounds were private property. After we’d exchanged ’a few words’ he sent me to the headmaster to be beaten. It was just like old times.

Father James striding across the quad...

Scotland v England...

Had a couple of sessions yesterday, photographing around Uppingham, my old school, and catching some cricket on the TV of a pub in the marketplace. Scotland v England didn’t sound very promising - England should win easily, I imagined - though it turned out to be a hell of a game. The Scots batted first, and carted the best of England’s bowlers all over the ground. They ended up with 370, which looked like a winning total. England kept up with the rate, thanks to a rapid century from Jonny Bairstow, but wickets kept falling. Joe Root was run out needlessly, and a couple of other batsmen offered easy catches. In the end it was Moeen Ali and the bowlers who tried to see England home… only failing by 6 runs. The Edinburgh crowd had seen a memorable Scottish win and 736 runs scored in a day. I wonder if the foootball World Cup, beginning on Thursday, will offer as much excitement.

Another supermarket shot, licensed last week...

Back in Rutland

Another quiet day, driving north to favourite haunts around Rutland, followed by a productive session editing the book. At this stage I feel the need to find somewhere with electricity and wifi, for a few days of intense editing. I need to finish the book before I start getting bored with it…

Licensed last week: a supermarket in Blackburn...

Beer delivery...

I seem to license quite a few pictures of pubs, like this shot of the Jolly Sailor in Farnham with a guy delivering beer...

Headingley cricket...

Licensed this pic today of the new media centre at Headingley cricket ground (for a fee which just about paid for my day watching cricket)...

Winchester Cathedral...

Attention...

A quotation from Krishnamurti's Book of Life, which arrived in my email in-tray this morning...

"Have you ever sat very silently, not with your attention fixed on anything, not making an effort to concentrate, but with the mind very quiet, really still? Then you hear everything, don’t you? You hear the far off noises as well as those that are nearer and those that are very close by, the immediate sounds—which means really that you are listening to everything. Your mind is not confined to one narrow little channel. If you can listen in this way, listen with ease, without strain, you will find an extraordinary change taking place within you, a change which comes without your volition, without your asking; and in that change there is great beauty and depth of insight."

A couple of pix from the gardens at Great Dixter, Northiam, Sussex...

Romney Marsh...

Had an enjoyable few days exploring Romney Marsh with Helen. We visited RSPB Dungeness to gaze at distant birds through the sea mist, and spotted a lone spoonbill in Rye Harbour. Spent a day at the gardens of Great Dixter, an arts & crafts house constructed around a much older building. The gardens were beautiful and informal, and I doubt there’ll be a time in the year when they look better. We met up for lunch with Kari and Chas at the Cricketers’ Arms in Hartley Wintney - with a game in progress on the pitch nearby - and finished our jaunt with a walk though the lythes at Selborne, passing the ponds where Gilbert White believed that swallows spent the winter.

Sold this pic, of Winchester, over the weekend... as I was walking along this same street...