Monthly Round Up (September 2010)

Apparently August 2010 turned out to be the coldest UK August for 13 years. I don't know about September, but at the time of writing I'm chilly. Most years I try to resist the lure of wearing socks until at least the end of September; and some years that's pretty easy. This year I threw in the towel on the nineteenth day of the month ... there was no way I was standing on a football touchline in sandals, it was just too cold. Global warming is apparently to blame for all this you know ... just doesn't feel very warm, does it? I'm reminded of the time when I was a teenager and our geography teacher was teaching us about the Ice Age. She said there will almost certainly be another one at some point, and such was her conviction that for weeks afterwards, I had nightmares of huge creeping swathes of ice slowly enveloping the planet. Do you think it might be happening now?

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This month has not been an easy one, though not on account of the weather. I'm not going to go into details, but suffice it to say that when someone one loves goes through a frightening and confusing experience in life, it's so very hard to be a spectator, isn't it? We all want to help those we love in whatever way we can, but sometimes things happen which render us helpless (in varying degrees). All we can do is 'be there', and sometimes that's a big ask in itself: I find myself wondering if I am 'being there' in the right way? Should I do it differently? Am I making things worse? My segment of 'life's rich tapestry' has been embellishing a few of the darker colours this month.

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On a much more positive note, I read a rather lovely book during September. I took it away on holiday with me last month, but didn't get around to reading more than a few pages.

The book in question is 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (the former is the aunt of the latter). I found it a very gentle and subtle read - no laugh out loud moments, but then it wouldn't be appropriate to laugh out loud at the conditions in which the islanders of Guernsey lived under German Occupation during WWII. Not that there is no humour in this book - there is plenty. The book is in the form of letters to and from the main characters - the principle character being Juliet Ashton, an author based in London. Perhaps it is the fact that the narrative is entirely made up of letters (and some entries in a journal) which makes for the subtlety of the story, but I very much liked the way information about that time gradually unfolds. I'm sure one day this tale will be a film, but the film of a book is rarely as good as the original book, is it? I thoroughly recommend it if you like a bit of history within a gentle, undemanding read.

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I had an embarrassing moment this month when, at the start of term, I waited outside school for No.2 to emerge. He has now moved up to another class, so when I saw his former teacher striding out, I assumed he'd be going to speak to a parent of a child in his class now. But no. He walked up to me, gave me a huge hug and planted a kiss on my cheek. Gosh! No.2 was so embarrassed, he didn't know where to look. I was a tad taken aback.

I'd love to be able to say that said teacher just couldn't resist my allure, but that wouldn't be true. In fact he had come out to say a special thank you for the sock monkey I made him as an end of term gift from No.2. He said it was fantastic, and that every gift No.2 had given him (Christmas and end of year) had been particularly thoughtful and pertinent, and wanted to say a personal thanks for that. That was nice of him, wasn't it? No.2 has, of course, been taking the mick out of me quite mercilessly over the past month and delighted in telling anyone who will listen all about it. Tsk.

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On the subject of No.2, he was a bit of a Clever Trevor this month, in winning his team's Man of the Match trophy during an away game. The team are in a league with quite different sides to last year, so it's all a bit of a learning curve at the moment; but No.2 loves his football so much, he'd play against anyone, anywhere. He has started playing Tag Rugby at school now, so it remains to be seen whether he will add rugby to his list of sporting loves.

Twirly bit in the middle to hide the name of his club

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No.1 has also achieved this month, in that one of the bands in which she plays, performed at a local 'Heritage' event. Open air music really is the way to go, although only if the weather is good, which thankfully it was on the day in question. One of the girls (who are all aged 13-15) couldn't be there so their music teacher had to fill in. They all did really well despite looking rather terrified at the start!

There were lots of folk wandering around in period costume for this day-long event, so of course I was there, with my camera ... it would have been rude not to, don't you think?

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This month my dad's closest friend (known to Dad as 'Dr P') passed away. Next month it will be a whole decade since Dad died, and the news of JP's death inevitably brought back some feelings from 2000. Mum pointed out that although 10 years have passed - 10 years during which Dr P was 'with' his family - they were, sadly, not years of quality of life. He had Parkinson's Disease which slowly made him less and less able to 'function' in an enjoyable way. He died suddenly, of a heart attack, and I know that if there really is life after death, Dad would have been there waiting for him. Rest in peace, Dr P.

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This was also the month in which our lovely cat - Georgie - the cat who cannot normally catch anything more animated than a twig, a feather, or the occasional worm ... brought in a large frog. She brought it right through the house to the kitchen, where I was doing a spot of baking. I saw a dark 'blob' out of the corner of my eye, turned round ... and couldn't believe my eyes. It was huge! We don't have a pond, neither do our immediate neighbours, so quite where she got it remains as much a mystery as that she caught it at all.

I first put an empty ice cream container over it in the hope that she'd leave it alone and I could deal with it in peace. But no. She sat guarding the ice cream container. So, I had to shoo her out, shut the door, and then try to get the frog into something. I found an old washing up bowl, put some water in the bottom, and then pulled on the Marigolds I use for washing up (you didn't think I'd touch it with my bare hands did you?!) Somehow, I managed to 'encourage' it into the bowl, then took the bowl out to the back garden (with Georgie locked safely indoors). I returned to the kitchen to clear up the amphibian poo which now decorated the floor in there, and when I went back outside, the frog had gone.

A friend suggested I should have kissed it. Perhaps it was my handsome prince? Damn ... why didn't I think of that?

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I'll leave you with a shot I took this month. These are the last of the summer daisies (a type of chrysanthemum annual rather than 'lawn daisies'). I added a texture to emphasise the 'feel' of autumn.

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Weekend in Eastbourne (Part II)

As I said in my last post, Eastbourne has a reputation of being a place for those of more mature years, but I must admit, I first viewed it in a new light after watching 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging' which is set in Eastbourne, with No.1 last year. All those lovely buildings and happening youngsters made it suddenly look less genteel and more ... vibrant than I'd ever imagined it. Now I've been there, I can report that I saw at least as many young people as older people, and that it has a very nice atmosphere; I really liked the 'feel' of it.

I liked the buildings very much - lots of them were in a Georgian and Victorian style, but there were modern ones too.

On the morning of our second day, Lily and I breakfasted handsomely at the hotel, before meeting Bertie and heading to the beach again for some more photographing and general chit chat. I discovered a fondness for taking photos of seagulls; the fact that they seem happy to pose is a bonus.

We then packed up the car and headed off to a place Bertie recommended, called Hampden Park. He promised birds, squirrels, a lake and plants and that's exactly what we got.

There is a little park there for kids, so I got to go down the slide too. I'm not sure the others believed me when I said I love slides; but they do now, and have the photos to prove it.

All too soon it was time for us to leave Eastbourne; so Lily and I waved goodbye to Bertie and set off for the journey home. The return trip home was not quite as straightforward as the journey down to Eastbourne, as we somehow missed a turning, and ended up on the M25 seeing a signpost for Dover ... which was definitely not what we should have been seeing! The trouble with that darned motorway is that there aren't too many opportunities to turn round. We had to go on for a further 20 minutes before we encountered Clacket Lane Service Station, and an opportunity to exit, turn round and set off again in the right direction.

Sustained by a tub of grapes and the shortbread biscuits I'd made the day before we left, we finally reached home. Tired, but having enjoyed a really lovely weekend. Thanks to Lily, for the company (and the driving!) - x; thanks to Bertie for the local knowledge and for meeting up with us - x. There were lots of things that we wanted to do and see, but didn't get time to do or see, so I very much hope we can do it again sometime.

Photo of me taken by Lily - thanks Lily!

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Weekend in Eastbourne (Part I)

Eastbourne. It's one of those places with a reputation for genteel pensioners enjoying their retirement, isn't it? As a child I knew of it as the home town of my Great Aunt Doris's 'friend' Vera. We called her Auntie Vera. As a child I didn't realise quite what sort of friends they were, even though I knew they each wore a diamond ring from the other. Auntie Vera was charming and friendly and evidently very dear to my Great Aunt. Anyway, that's by the by - as per usual I've wandered off down one of those tangents which prove irresistible to me once my fingers start tapping on a keyboard.

What this blog post is really about are (some of) the pictures I took when my lovely friend Lily Wren and I went to Eastbourne for a weekend in July. Lily spent some time in Eastbourne in her younger years, when she was at Uni down that way; she'd never been back since. I'd never been there, but the prospect of meeting up with my old chum Bertie (who now lives there), together with the chance to photograph a lovely place, was more than enough to warrant a weekend away with Lily, who wanted to revisit old haunts.

We chose that weekend because it saw the staging of Eastbourne Extreme - an annual extreme sports event, which we thought might be good to photograph. (Lily, Bertie and I are all of a photographical persuasion). There was the promise of wind-surfing, skate-boarding, kite-surfing, power boat racing, jet ski-ing, BMX-ing, and land yachting, to name but a few of the activities being showcased, and all three of us could use some practice on our action shots.

Lily and I left here early on the Saturday morning and passed through some lovely countryside on our way down south. The journey was only marred by an aggressive woman in Eastbourne itself, but the least said about her, the better! In true 'best laid plans ...' tradition, we never actually got to the Extreme Sports 'bit' of Eastbourne that weekend. Well, Bertie did, but us girlies didn't. There was a bit of a cock-up on the telephonic and crossed wires front, which meant we didn't meet up when and where I'd thought. No matter, we still all had a lovely time.

Lily and I wandered along the beach, where we had lunch, and then walked up and down the pier. It was an incredibly windy day so I didn't get too close to the pier railings for fear of being lifted over and deposited into the briny. There were lots of people on the pier, and some fishermen doing their 'thing' right at the end. Eastbourne turned out to be a great place to get some people shots.

When we (eventually) met up with Bertie, he and I swapped cameras for a while as he was keen to see how the lens I was using that day performed. (For those who are interested, it is a Tamron - AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 DI II VC LD Aspheric [IF] Macro Zoom Lens, and I am mightily happy with it. It's what is termed a 'walkabout' lens as it covers many options within one lens, and is therefore ideal to take away on holidays, etc.) We wandered around the Western Lawns, taking lots of pictures.

There was a concert going on in the very beautifully-roofed bandstand, which is right on the beach.

After Bertie went home, Lily and I visited a local hostelry for a quick drink and possibly something to eat. However, we turned out to be too late for food, so after our drink we visited a local fish and chip shop and then made our way back to our hotel. I thoroughly recommend this hotel to anyone thinking of paying a visit to Eastbourne. The owners were very welcoming, friendly and helpful. The rooms were beautifully clean, well-equipped and very comfortable (and we had wifi). An extremely cute little dog lived there too - he was as friendly as his owners.

I think I'd probably better stop here - at the end of our first day, and leave the pictures from our second day to my next post. Otherwise it'll be one mahoosive post, and anyone reading might doze off!

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