Although we went WoW-ing this morning there are still a few holiday snaps I would like to share. On the third day we decided to give Uppark a miss in favour of a boat-trip. A good value 45mins with an actual person talking us round our tour of the Harbour area. It was great to hear a real voice rather than a pre-recorded audio. He knew to the what was in and what was out etc., and Picture 1 is HMS Warrior. Sort of halfway house between sail and steam in 1860 this was a juggernaut of a ship. I was pleased to get this record-shot from our little boat.
Picture 2 is the famous Spinnaker Tower which at a height of 560 feet is visible for miles around. We went up, in the lift, and the viewing platforms (the bits at the top before the spike) have blue/green glass which isn't conducive to photography.The views however, as you will see from the link, were amazing.
On the last day, during the trip home we visited Charlecote Park which is a charming place with a tudor gate house (snap tomorrow) and for me it was probably the most enjoyable. The site I have chosen to link you to isn't a Nat Trst one but lots of pictures in the hope you will pick up the feel. Then basically it was home.
A quiet recovery day yesterday and then off with WoW this morning. Beautiful weather yet again and there was only Brian, Helen and I. We went to the Linby/Papplewick area and had an excellent morning. I want to do some wildflower shots but as usual when I decide this, we had a stiff breeze.
However, I spotted this poppy on the edge of a field of rye (I think) and have three versions with different aperture settings so as to have differing degrees of background sharpness and I can't decide which one I prefer.
In the dim and distant past when a member of Hucknall Camera Club, I won one of their annual competitions with a poppy picture -- so who knows ?
I still have lots of pictures I want to share with you.
But I rate very highly the Bungus 'sketches on the back of an envelope' recording scenes when he was in furrin parts serving King and Country some years ago. They appear further down the page.I will leave it to him to describe more fully, in the 'Comments' columns.
I've seen similar before and William Blake and Richard Dadd spring to mind. I'm sure it would yield to google but it is getting to be bedtime.
Comments..... AnonymousRob ..... Thanks for more Cuba; I for one feel I almost know Gilberto and Leonardo. And now - Miguel Antonio, the Anglo-Saxon History teacher !
Bungus ..... I don't know about Wellow weddings having a traditional end in fisticuffs. It used to be a tradition at Polish
weddings in the 70s and 80s at Canning Circus and Hyson Green where there was a strong Polish Club. As members of the local fuzz we had a permanent invite for a pint or two. They considered our friendship a valuable commodity because barely a week passed without them needing us.Thanks for the Tommy Cooper stuff. An excellent read.
The Scottish comedian whose name escapes you was Chick Murray. Our age-group had the advantage of seeing and hearing him although apparently there is little in any archive. Billy Connolly counted him as a major influence. If you open the link there's a button to click for quotations - bottom right corner. One not on the list that I actually heard him tell was -
"Yesterday I fell over and a chap said 'Did you fall?' I said, 'No I was trying to break a bar of cholcolate in my hip pocket'
I was the author of 'Ram on Toast'. Glad you enjoyed it.
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My 'googlemail notifier' tells me that AnonymousRob has already added a comment to this incomplete blogpost. I was called away and instead of clicking 'save a draft' I clicked 'publish' and blogspot naturally didn't realise I hadn't finished.
'Ram on toast' was a follow-on from 'toast in owls'. Nothing to do with Derby FC I'm afraid. It was just using Ram as a rather weak synonym for 'Butter'. Cryptic Crossword puzzles make you go potty in the end !
Sleep tight, catch you tomorrow !......................................
'Ram on toast' was a follow-on from 'toast in owls'. Nothing to do with Derby FC I'm afraid. It was just using Ram as a rather weak synonym for 'Butter'. Cryptic Crossword puzzles make you go potty in the end !
Sleep tight, catch you tomorrow !......................................
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I find Bungus's sketches intriguing and want to know more. I really like the wispy clouds above HMS Warrior and the shape of the Spinnaker Tower. But most of all I love the poppy shot. The suggestion of movement in the background whilst the poppy remains still could lead one to ssupect Photoshoppery. But, what the heck, it works and works well.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere along the way I missed 'ram on toast'. I must go back to the comments and find out why. Is it anything to do with the relegation of Derby County FC to Division Two?
Poppy in a field
Dancing merrily on wind
Yet why is it still?
Rob
Have had computer problems intermittently for last two days, AOL 'are aware of this' - hopefully now fixed.
ReplyDeleteSo pleased to read your beak was successful. Charlecote Park looks lovely, will put that on my list of places to go to.
I knew someone who worked on the Overlord Tapestry, I never think it gets enough recognition, when it was first finished there was no place that wanted to install it, and it languished for a while unseen. I have visited it twice, always find something new in it.
I love the poppy picture, and the tower. Seen it, but not been up it, I'm not that keen at going up edifices like that, I like my feet on the ground. I've sat and knitted at the base of all sorts of buildings like that, all over the world, while R ascends!
I do like Bungus's work too - we had a friend who was an architect, he used to do similar work, and later make them into water-colour sketches.
'Ram on toast' is so obviously butter (unless you think it is a typo for 'jam') to us cryptic crossword fans. I am sure it affets one's thinking processes eventually....I am still having problems with the current compilers, sometimes the puzzle seems a blend of very easy clues combined with very hard obscure ones.
Tommy Cooper lived a few streets away - was often seen around locally, used to frequent a certain restaurant, who used to send him home in a cab if he became too paralytic or started insulting the customers. Friends of ours had friends who lived next door to the Coopers, their noisy slanging matches and broken crockery were legendary! But I think people forgave him a lot, we once saw him live on stage in his prime - he and Ken Dodd are two people I don't find very funny on tv but are fantastic in front of a live audience.
I've just noticed - of course I mean 'break' - but sometimes I think a beak would be useful!
ReplyDeleteYour mention of ‘an actual person talking us round our tour’ reminds me of a trip round Southampton Harbour in 1950 when one of the ‘Queens’ was in.
ReplyDeleteOur live commentator, having given all the statistics (tonnage, numbet of passengers and crew etc) told us “This, of course, is the Queen Elizabeth. The one big difference between this and the Queen Mary is that the Queen Mary has three funnels and the Eizabeth just two.”
And somebody said, “This one has three.”
The Spinnaker Tower looks very impressive from ground level (see Jill comment and mine on that).
See comment on Rob comment re envelope sketches.
Until you know what the grain is I should stick to this version of the poppy (or one with even less background sharpness! (I think I see wheat or barley).
I should make it clear that any wedding fights did not involve Wellow residents. But just to add a frisson, they sometimes used to hire out the village hall to people from Eakring and Bilsthorpe.
Chick Murray indeed it is. I have looked through his gags and the similarity between these and Tommy Cooper’s is astonishing (some are, as suspected, identical). In fact, I am surprised Tommy didn’t pinch more of them, Chick Murray being a bit esoteric.
“This chap said to me, "If you look over there, you'll see Dumbarton Rock". Well, I looked for 20 minutes and the thing never moved an inch.”
I like the cryptic ‘ram’ crossword clue. Just wondered what brought it on.
Rob:
The back story to the sketches:
I like to re-use envelopes but I once had one returned. I surmised, possibly incorrectly, that this was because of the two rows of bars towards the bottom right of the envelope. Rather than stop using such envelopes (usually the A5 size) I decided to scribble the bar-code out. It was a short step to do a couple of quick sketches (5 min max).
I should correct RG’s thought that these are based on my farflung military service. Not so; purely imaginary (possibly owing more to TV than any other source).
I am not familiar enough with William Blake and Richard Dadd(?) to say whether or not they are influences
Nice haiku.
I once wrote a poem which started
“Do churches have a value still?
Is their merit in repose alone?”
Jill said...
Computer problems? What are they? (irony , in case we have any US readers).
You cannot beat a successful beak. Although you have to be in the right place in the pecking order.
The Spinnaker Tower is impressive but, like you, I am a ground level person (I was not at one time although I have always been more or less terrified of cliff edges and suspension bridges).
Oddy enough, it occurred to me to enlarge my sketches in paint. The difficulty will be retaining the simplicity and spontenaity which I think essential.
I find both Ken Dodd and (even more so) Tommy Cooper funny on TV but do not doubt that there is something extra ‘live’. And, yes, from his wife’s reported attitude, there was something very vulnerable and lovable about TC.