Postcard from Topsham

Just one final glimpse of the seaside for this year although, I admit it, this photo dates back a few months.  And, to be absolutely technically accurate, it's an estuary rather than the sea.

 

One thing Topsham is known for is the large number of pubs for the size of the town.  This photo was unsurprisingly taken from the front garden of one of them where I was sipping at a pint of locally brewed cider.  Sometimes folk from Exeter (ok, students) travel to Topsham to take part in a pub crawl around as many of the pubs as they can manage.  My question would be: why move from this one when the view is so perfect?

 

Winter sunsets can be magnificent of course, but they're not often experienced from pub gardens whilst quaffing cool cider.  I'm looking forward to next summer already.

Postcard from autumn

Recent wet and windy weather means the best of autumn is behind us.  But, only a few days ago, this tree in my local park was putting on its autumn colours.  I love the traffic light effect.






Of course, the use of red in nature usually does mean 'watch your step'.  So I didn't pick this fairy tale-style toadstool and bring it home to make mushroom omelette with.  Might have written a few interesting fairy tales of my own if I had though.



Birmingham's been in the news for all the wrong reasons this weekend: concert disasters, hideous car crashes and stabbings. Thought you'd like to see that it's not all bad here. Some of it is beautiful.

Postcard from Delft

I have a good excuse for the poor quality of this photo: on my trip to Delft I was a little less 'Girl with a Pearl Earring', a little more 'Woman under an umbrella'.  The rain couldn't hide the fact that the old town of Delft is charming though.

I visited for work, but found time for a wander along the cobbled streets which run over and alongside deserted canals and into this, the main market square. At night, illuminated tall windows on the upper floors of the townhouses drew my eyes upwards to admire stylish interior design.  Best not to look for too long though.  The cyclists are fast, silent, and convinced they have right of way.

Postcard from Chesil Beach

I admit it.  I'm catching up on a backlog of 'postings' from a few months of visits to the South West, and this photo is a few months old.  Am just trying to get ahead of the Royal Mail and their inevitable backlog...

 

My time spent on Chesil Beach was inspired by the fact I was reading the novel of that name and thought I'd try a little co-location of the reading experience.  Not all of Ian McEwan's settings are real, but the suck and draw of the pebbles resisting the tide on this breakwater certainly are.  Attempting to hold pages open while the wind whipped them about, losing my place, wasn't easy but did add to my appreciation of the difficulty of the characters' situation.  And the physical effort of walking over those stones would leave anyone with scant energy to pursue more difficult, emotional goals.

 

I don't intend to get obsessive about visiting the locations I read about (I'm currently reading a book set in London.  1920s London.  Can you imagine the difficulties that would arise?), but as an experiment this was a successful one.  There are many more reasons to go to Chesil Beach though.  Well worth a detour any time.

Postcard from Wells

Vicars' Close in Wells claims to be one of the oldest planned streets in Europe. Not that there haven't been renovations and improvement works: those chimneys were added in the fifteenth century to introduce some mod cons. And the streetlights are electric.

The changes of more recent years aren't so photogenic and explain the odd angle of this picture. Residents are now allowed to park their cars in front of their houses. The design of a twenty first century car may have a lot to commend it but, in this ancient street, you have to wonder what present day planning officials were thinking.

Vorsprung durch technik? Maybe not in this case.

Postcard from underwater II

County Hall used to be home to the Greater London Council. These days, the sharks there are real, and they're not afraid to show their teeth.

Palpable agression emanates from the tank, the quiet wisdom on the faces of replica Easter Island heads doing nothing to soothe its occupants.

Of course the aquarium staff are playing on the public's fears - piping tense music from speakers nearby, adding to the discomfort of standing there. Watching these fish swim isn't a relaxing experience; it is an interesting one though. The sharks are more compelling than any councillor could be.

Postcard from daybreak

It doesn’t have the romance of sunset, but the start of the day has a different beauty – should you ever be awake to notice. Even the East London skyline looks rather glamorous with this lighting. The soundtrack is more subdued at that hour: the occasional car engine, a cough from a smoker warming their lungs up for the day. But the traffic is mostly silenced; the city asleep.

As I should have been. But you see some terrible things in my line of work. Five in the morning for one.

Anyway, dawn broke and I returned to work. Thought it was a relevant picture for the first post in a while. Apologies for the break in service; internet access is currently intermittent. And there’s been that postal strike to contend with... I hope to be back online and in touch again soon.