Black Fen

@blackfen.bsky.social

414 Followers 339 Following

Ruminations from darkest East Anglia.

He's already dead Simpsons meme
Close-up side eye from Fuck Around Find Out guy.
A map of the North Sea Empire, which existed 1000 years ago and included England, Denmark and Norway. The empire was at its largest under King Cnut, who was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035.
USA 1, Belgium 4
Side eye dog
The English Distillery single malt whisky aged 11 years. Made in Norfolk, England.
A bottle of whisky next to a glencairn glass & some Christmas decorations. The whisky is Fenspirits Single Malt Whisky, made & aged near Wisbech, Cambridgeshire (England). Triple distilled & aged 3 years in a 40 litre medium char virgin oak cask.
"MEP Daniel Hannan predicts dire future where ‘there is only decay and crippling poverty’ if we stay in the EU". Headline from The Sun, on the day of the EU Referendum.
In the foreground is a Torabhaig branded glencairn containing a dram of distillery edition cask strength 12 year old Amarone cask finish Ledaig. The bottle it came from is next to it. Also on the rather untidy desk is a (sadly almost empty) bottle of Ralfy 19 year old Bruichladdich & a half drunk sample of Invergordon Amarone finish 20 year old. Behind these is a pile of junk that includes some whiteboard markers, a DVD of the film Office Space, and the book Why Politicians Lie About Trade. Other books are visible in the junk, but you can't see the titles of any of them.
The Combine Harvester by The Wurzels
A laptop motherboard with a small loose screw wedged between a cable & a surface mount inductor.
View across the fields from the village where I live. It is foggy & the sun is below the horizon. The landscape is very flat.
Drake meme: Not the suit guy, the hirsute guy.
Yugen Blakrok - The Illusion Of Being
The Muppet Christmas Carol
Swamp Thing
"Don't call me Len you little prick! I'm a Bishop" quote from Father Ted by Bishop Leonard Brennan, before he got kicked up the arse.
Fenland landscape, late summer somewhere between Little Thetford & Stretham, Cambridgeshire, England. Whispy clouds in a blue sky above golden cereal crops.
Several starlings in a tree. They're a common medium-sized bird in Britain & live in flocks. Most other species of bird will fight each other for dominance of your bird table, especially during the breeding season. Starlings turn up mob-handed & fall out of the sky 30 or 40 at a time to make sure they all get fed.
A cartoon showing a car in 1990, 2020 & 2050. In 1990 the driver is obscured by bugs splattered on the windscreen. In 2020 the driver is clearly visible because the insects have gone. In 2050 the driver is also missing.
Nemo, a clownfish.
Julie Christmas - Ridiculous And Full Of Blood
A fridge door with a lot of things on it. There's part of a weekly planner & a number line that goes from 1 to at least 78. There are also magnetic letters that say "fire alrm test", a Clanger & a fridge magnet from Hunstanton, which is a seaside town in Norfolk, UK. There are two photos stuck to the fridge door, one of Andy Charlton (synth player in several Tyneside bands, who died a few months ago) & one of Dennis of Grunty Fen (East Anglian folk legend, who died in 2005).
Cadenhead's independent bottling of 31 year old Jura, aged in a bourbon barrel. Far too expensive to be a regular sipper, but very nice stuff indeed.
Anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, Scarfolk Council, Uncooperative Crusties, Summerisle May Day Festival, (fen) Tiger, Asterix & Obelix, Vallendusk (Indonesian metal band), Voivod (Canadian metal band), Bob Vylan (English punk band)
A bassett hound plays keyboard while wearing sunglasses. Next to it is the caption "Sad Songs". The design is by Belfast artist Martina Scott.
Lib Dem leaflet from 2008, featuring Nick Clegg calling for a "real referendum" on EU membership & denouncing both Labour & Conservatives for not offering an in/out referendum. The 2010 Lib Dem General Election manifesto also mentioned an in/out referendum.
The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common But leaves the greater villain loose Who steals the common from the goose.
Wes Streeting, UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who looks a bit like Mellon Collie era Billy Corgan.
Driving Miss Daisy. I went to see this film with some guy from the deep south of the America. His choice of film, not mine, but I quite enjoyed it.
Big fen sky above arable crop ready to harvest.
Precious Ramotswe, who is the main character in The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency novels & TV series, set in Botswana.
Rainbow Rising
Ellen Wilkinson - also know as "Red Ellen", due to the vibrant colour of her hair & her politics. She was MP for Jarrow in North East England, and played a prominent role in The Jarrow Crusade in 1936, a march to Parliament in London demanding jobs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Wilkinson [USA readers, your blue/red political colours are as back-to-front as your month/day date order!]
Johnny Cash giving the bird to the camera man.
Lemmy - White Line Fever. Autobiography book cover.
Wonderful Life, the 1987 debut album by English singer Black (the stage name of Colin Vearncombe).
Virus 100 album cover prominently features the Alternative Tentacles record label logo, which is a bat holding a broken missile & a broken crucifix in its claws.
Women In Turkish Electronic Music album cover is a collage of pictures of the artists on the album.
Screaming Masterpiece album cover. 2 large ravens are shown in the sky above an open air concert.
Jak Punk To Punk album cover, featuring a circular saw blade with the album title written on it.
Murun Buchstansangur
Congotronics 2 album cover
Appalachian Stomp album cover.
Folk 'n' Hell album cover has a man in a kilt jumping in the air while playing an electric guitar.
Deadly Hearts album cover shows trees sticking out from the edge of a dark silhouette of Australia, with the album title written over the interior of the silhouette.
Karoo Kitaar Blues album cover shows blue & white close-up picture of Hannes Coetzee playing tea-spoon slide guitar. He's plucking & fretting with his hands while also sliding with a tea-spoon held in his mouth.
Camelspotting album cover, in the style of Trainspotting film posters, but all of the people are replaced with camels.
Dark Noel album cover is dark with a back-lit angel-like figure with black dress & white wings.
Tales of the Mbira. CD cover shows an mbira - a thumb piano from Zimbabwe.
John Peel quote "I just want to hear something I haven't heard before". From John Peel Shows 1980-85 CD cover.