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Friday, April 29, 2016

PRECIOUS MOMENTS....
(Self indulgence alert!!)

So here I was - just me - on a peerless April evening with just the slightest breeze wafting up from the Camel Estuary, the occasional seagull drifting by and I spent some precious moments taking these photos of the sun going down beyond Stepper Point.   Well I did warn you about the self-indulgence but moments like these are very hard to shake off.....


Going......


Going.......


Gone!!

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

THAT`S BETTER - well, a bit...

So, my computer enjoyed a well earned rest for a week or so and is now performing much better after a good sort out.   As for me, I`m back in the groove or maybe the rut I was in before we went away, as I am once again left with memories of blissful days and quiet nights under a Cornish sky.   When you see this photo which I took on my last evening, down close to the Greenaway at Trebetherick and looking across to Stepper Point, is it any wonder that already I am missing `the breezy cliff, the awkward style, the sandy path that leads me down........` 


(Please click on photo for better image)

Wednesday, April 13, 2016


I`M AFRAID THIS SITE WILL BE CLOSED FOR A WHILE DUE TO THE NEED FOR ESSENTIAL MAINTENANCE - TO ME AS WELL AS MY PC.   BACK SOON I HOPE.......
NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH .....
 Our Golf Correspondent reports.....

It has been a long time - perhaps too long - since I had the task (I nearly said pleasure) of reporting once more on Snopper`s golfing exploits.   This has partly been due to course conditions over recent weeks - mud, rain, trolley bans - but also because, frankly and as with much else a la Snopper, there really has been very little to report.

However, all that has changed in the last week and it all began with a casual conversation over the fence with his neighbour, Mr. Slightly.  Now, of course, Snopper`s own golf clubs go back many years, to the days of mashie niblicks and the like and during that time the grips have become very smooth, providing him with yet another excuse for his excessive scoring.  But some years ago he found that he had lost a seven iron and, in a spirit of true neighbourliness, Mr. Slightly kindly lent Snopper one of his own `on approval.`

Snopper never returned it to its rightful owner, becoming rather taken with it, chipping away quite happily and confidently.   In the meantime his neighbour bought himself a new set of clubs and so Snopper - in the aforementioned cross-fence dialogue - enquired gently as to the availability of the rest of Mr. Slightly`s redundant clubs.

And so the admirable neighbourliness saw Snopper taking the `new` clubs with him on a recent visit to Poult Wood Golf Centre resulting in not only a much improved `performance` but also - and for the first time in living memory - resulting in not one single golf ball being lost.   Shareholders in Topflite please note.   It remains to be seen whether this ranks as a turning point in Snopper`s endless battle with the Royal and Ancient game and, perhaps more pertinently, whether he can find a buyer for his own, now redundant clubs.   `Suit smooth grip enthusiast` might form the strap-line of his advertising campaign.

As for his neighbour, he might cop for a small commission which might cheer him up following Gillingham`s defeat to promotion rivals Walsall last night.   Every little helps, to be fair.

Monday, April 11, 2016

SMALL BUSINESS...

Now I don`t mind the `convenience` of large(ish) shops and businesses but I always think it`s nice to come across a genuinely small business, making its way in the world and providing the kind of personal, not to say `intimate,` touch that makes it a little more than just a business.   I came across this one man boat of a fishing business at the appropriately named Boat Cove, just off the coast path down the track from Pendeen lighthouse.  It was almost as though I had stumbled across a private world, a throwback to Poldark times, and I wasn`t certain that I should be there at all........

(Please click on the pics for better images)

Saturday, April 09, 2016

THIS TIME NEXT WEEK....
(With apologies to Sir John Betjeman)

I know so well this turfy mile.
These clumps of sea-pink withered brown.
The breezy cliff, the awkward style.
The sandy path that takes me down

To crackling layers of broken slate
Where black and flat sea-woodlice crawl
And isolated rock pools wait
Wash from the highest tides of all.

I know the roughly blasted track
That skirts a small and smelly bay
And over squelching bladderwrack
Leads to the beach at Greenaway.


Wednesday, April 06, 2016

A FAVOURITE HAUNT....

Having spent a memorable boyhood on the edge of the New Forest I always enjoy going back and revisiting old haunts.  One of my favourites is the village of Beaulieu and I took this photo on a tranquil afternoon looking across the lake towards Palace House, home of the Montague family and the renowned National Motor Museum.   I had an uncle who lived at nearby Blackfield and worked in the museum once he had retired from whatever it was he used to do.  It was a long time ago.

The whole village is quite fascinating, if just a touch `olde worlde.`  Just across the road from where I stood to take this photo, there is a very interesting garage selling sought after classic cars at sought after classic prices although I detected an air that the proprietor might not welcome penniless time-wasting riff-raff.  In the village car park there is one of the country`s most agreeable and welcome `conveniences.` There is a splendid cafe which does extraordinary cakes, an old fashioned sweet shop and a good riverside walk all the way to Buckler`s Hard which I often think must be rather nice for Mr. Buckler.   I really must get back down there again...........

(Please click on photo for larger image)

Monday, April 04, 2016

AND WE THINK WE HAVE PROBLEMS....

Every day we hear about traffic problems.  Why, even today a long term `improvement` project begins at the M20 junction close to our village.  It`s going to go on for at least six months, leading to logjams in the nearby roads as drivers seek alternative rat runs.   And, of course, there is always the Dartford Crossing......and speaking of river crossings, I`m reminded of the one across the River Yealm in south Devon where, for a mere three old pennies you can have your pony or your ass ferriaged.  Nice.......


Saturday, April 02, 2016

SPRING IS HERE....

Thank goodness.   And my wander with Barney through a nearby wood this morning confirmed that to be so, with the light at last being sharper, brighter and more helpful to the passing photographer.......

(Please click on photo for a better image)