Things for which I am thankful for this week…
1.- My Patience Rewarded! I bought some bulbs a few years ago but they remained steadfastly blinf – I think I planted too many too close together. Barbara urged throwing them away to free up the pot but I gave them a last chance by planting them in a new pot (though hardly more spacious and this year one has flowered! I long ago lost the packet and can’t remember what they are called (answers on a postcard please) but I think they may be “Naked Ladies” so called because the foliage dies back and the flower comes up on its own (nothing to do with the excellent band of a similar name (see end of post…
2.- Schoolfriends! This is the class of ’72 of Magdalen College School, Oxford. The picture was taken on the world’s smallest tripod hence the low angle, following an attempt to photograph the gang whilst staying out of the limelight, by the WAGS…
3.- Since Oxford is expensive to stay in and we all have few ties there any more, we have taken to holding our annual reunion in different parts of the country as organised by a local member. This year, we stayed in Exmouth, Devon and Peter and Alison organised a day out on trains (and a ferry) from Exmouth up the Exe valley to Exeter, then down the other side and along the coastal railway built by the great Victorian engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It is literally along the edge of the sea at the foot of cliffs. In Teignmouth we switched to a steam train down to Dartmouth with spectaculat views of the estuary – a Ria or drowned valley…
4.- On returning to Peterr and Alison’s for a fish and chip tea, there were more trains – Peter has a train set in the attic which keeps him young at heart…
5.- Are grown men with train sets an example of (not just) English eccentricity? Check out Rod Stewart’s train set pictures here. When touring, he hires a second hotel room where he relaxes by building elements for his train set. Anyway something which is definitely British – Post boxes were marked with the intiials of the current king or queen – the one below is for Edward Rex VII…
6.- Barbara stayed with her daughter Beverley in the next village, and despite anticipatory anxiety, had a lovely weekend!!!
7.- Last week I had to go to the nearby town of Skipton, it is joined to our village by the Leeds-Liverpool Canal and below is the main basin, now home to daytrips and canal boat hire…
8.- After a holiday come the memories and I realised I had not shown you anything from actually inside the Museum of the Confluence in Lyon! There was an exhibition (that’s an “exhibit” to those of you of American persuasion) by a photographer who visited North Korea numerous times and, always heavily supervised, and with profoundly different cultural norms, set out to create portraits within the limitations. I show one of the pictures below and a commentary by the photographer below that.
9.- Time for another texture repetition shot…
10.- TToT which serves as both a list of gratitudes (keeping things positive) but also as a diary – surely the original purpose of Blogs…
Have your best weeks, everyone -and here are The Barenaked Ladies to give you a nudge of positivity, as promised above…