Hi. Welcome to Planet Mut. Established in 2004, it’s the perfect outlet for my more sociopathic tendencies. Email me at planetmut@gmail.com.
If you want to read the five years’ worth of archives on the old HTML site, they’re here.
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AS IT’S the end of the year I thought I’d jump on the Top Ten bandwagon. So to kick off the season of lists, here’s my favourite pics of the year; click ‘em for the bigger versions:
First off, a sunset pic I took from May Hill in October. This one was a bit of a fluke — not wanting to be blinded, I just set the camera to f22, held it up in the air, pointed it in the general direction of the sun and pressed the shutter release. And it worked. The halo effect was unexpected but very welcome. It’s just a […]
MR FEZZIWIG continues to be the most adorable thing in the universe. He’s been to the vet and had a checkup and there’s nothing wrong with him. Ev and me have decided to keep him instead of putting him up for adoption because 1) we saved his life and 2) just look at him. Although this means going up to five cats (or possibly down to four if Emric pukes on the bathroom rug again) we feel it’s worth it to give him a safe home.
There are some fun and games with having so young a kitten, though. […]
ST HELEN’S was originally a wooden Saxon building pre-dating the Norman invasion of 1066. It was rebuilt in 1238 and the tower in 1290, although the spire is a reproduction made in 865. It’s a beautiful church in an expansive graveyard, some of the graves dating back to 1700.
The north transept contains the Lamer Chapel, the part reserved for local landowners the Garrard family. The main part is the astonishing memorial to the Garrards:
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IT MIGHT seem a bit odd to take a 330-mile round trip to visit the grave of someone I never knew, but yesterday I did just that. I headed to Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire to see the resting place of Apsley Cherry-Garrard, an Antarctic explorer who I admire.
Finding his grave proved a problem as I’d only seen photos of what I thought was a gravestone, which is actually a plinth bearing a memorial cross. When I realised I’d walked past it about seven times I couldn’t believe it. “Found you,” I said for some reason. It just seemed apt.
Cherry’s father, mother and sister […]
I’VE WANTED to take pics of these ruined warehouses in Gloucester Quay for about four years and finally got off my backside and went. Most of the warehouses in the area have been turned into antique shops or yuppie flats, but the ones nearest the bridge have yet to be converted or […]
AFTER gorging ourselves silly on Chinese food at Flynn’s Surprise Early 40th Birthday Shindig, James, Sarah and me headed off into the wilds of Gloucestershireland to go exploring. Obviously thinking that I needed a heart attack as well as some exercise, ’twas decided that we should climb May Hill, a 971ft summit which affords excellent views to those not groping at their chests and wondering if an ambulance could make it to the top in time. But it was worth the gasping and pathetic excuses for rest breaks as the sunset was mind-buggeringly beautiful.
Sarah, me and James shadowed on May Hill’s […]
RATHER than let the rest of my Ledbury pics languish in the limbo known as EXTERNAL DRIVE (G:), I’ll put them up here as poor compensation for not doing anything today. […]
AFTER Ledbury we headed up a series of B roads to Much Wenlock, a Shropshire town that’s been around since 1AD. Much Wenlock is the site of Wenlock Priory, which was founded in 680AD and trashed in 1540. Apart from being a very pretty English village, Much Wenlock’s other claim to fame is that it’s the birthplace of Dr William Penny Brookes, who founded the Wenlock Olympian Society in 1860 and whose discussions with Baron Pierre de Coubertin led to the setting up of the International Olympic Committee in 1894.
We found the priory easily thanks to Blunty’s GPS (he hasn’t named his), handed over our […]
BLUNTY arrived today expecting me to have found somewhere to visit and fortunately Siân kept him occupied for long enough while I desperately searched around Google Earth for somewhere to go. Using the age-old scientific method of “that looks OK” we headed out for Wenlock Priory in the village of Much Wenlock. On the way we stopped off in Ledbury, a market town in east Herefordshire that has several 17th century timbered buildings, medieval lanes and a pretty amazing church:
The Wenlock Priory photos are coming in about […]
I ENDED up at Croft Castle after getting hopelessly lost trying to find the village of Eardisland. The castle has been the home of the Croft family for almost 1,000 years. There was originally a medieval castle on the site, but the present house was built in the 17th century thus making it pretty new by British standards. Unfortunately it’s one of those places where you can’t take photos inside, so I just paid for access to the grounds, St Michael’s Church, and […]
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