Flashback Friday #19

This post stems from a visit to London in late April 2014 – hard to believe this was seven years ago! Seven years! And yet I remember it as though it was last week.

Just Back From… London

It’s a funny old world. I lived a little more than an hour away from London for 7 years, but in all that time I’d never spent a day there other than for attending meetings for work. So a train in, a tube to the location and back again, sometimes with a glance at some interesting architecture, thinking I really should bring a camera with me next time. Never spent any time in recent years exploring the city. I didn’t like London you see. I found it dirty, noisy and too busy so all I wanted to do was get in and get out as quickly as possible.

I have ‘done’ the tourist things years ago – Buck Palace, the Mall, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Camden Lock, Greenwich Market, but never been interested in what else it has to offer, until now, when I decided that I should at least visit the splendid museums that lie within the centre and are free. I like free. And Kew Royal Botanical Gardens. I like gardens.

So last week I accompanied the OH who was going there for business purposes and found myself in a reasonable hotel a spit away from Earl’s Court. With three days at my disposal. And a tube strike for two of those days. I dislike the tube at the best of times but at least it gets you to where you need to go, usually. Now buses, not only are they complicated, but also they are slow. On account of all that traffic you see.

Tuesday

On my first day I spent an hour and a half going round in circles as I attempted to get across to Chancery Lane tube station to go on a London walk.  Eventually it dawned on me that there was no way I was getting anywhere close to the centre as Circle, Central and Piccadilly lines were not running. Had I realised that at the start of the journey I could have made my way differently, but by the time I’d sussed out an alternative route it was too late. Frustrated now, by all the hopping on and off tubes going nowhere, I opted for some fresh air in Kew Gardens, but even that was a challenge as it involved a tube to Turnham Green, a walk to a bus stop, a bus to Kew Gardens Station and a walk to the gardens. Phew! I was quite exhausted before I even got there! Continue reading Flashback Friday #19

Life in Colour

Bonus Purple.

“Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, that liberal shepards give a grosser name, but which cold maids do Dead Men’s Fingers call”

Shakespeare, Hamlet

The wild ‘Early Purple Orchid’ (Orchis mascula) often arrives with the bluebells and its classic colour is magenta – a reddish purple – however occasionally white and pale pink flower spikes can be found. The leaves are are shiny with dark purple blotches.

In the quote above, the Early Purple Orchid is the “long purple” of Ophelia’s garland, as referred to by Gertrude in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Have You any purples In Your neighbourhood?

Monday Washing

Andrew of ‘Have Bag, Will Travel’ is running a weekly challenge all about photographs of washing lines. I knew I had a couple of rather lovely washing lines, but a look through my archives resulted in a few more. My final washing line (unless I come across another one) this is again from Venice and one of my favourites. This building definitely needs to be re-rendered.

I once posted this in black and white

Life in Colour

To find out more about this year’s photo challenge here on Travel Words, please read this post.

This month we will be looking for Purple. A secondary colour made from red and blue, though you can find many different shades of purple. Try to stay clear of violet though as that will be making its own appearance. Although found in nature in shades of crocuses, lilacs, and irises look for the bruised colours in a sunrise or sunset, an indigo sea, a full moon in an inky sky. The darkness of a red wine, a rich velvet curtain or a starling’s wing.

“Colours are the smiles of Nature.
When they are extremely smiling,
and break forth into other beauty besides,
they are her laughs;
as in the flowers.”

~Leigh Hunt as Poet and Essayist (1889)

What purples can you find in Nature?

Flashback Friday #18

Distance: 280 km via Muizenberg, False Bay, Pringle Bay, Betty’s Bay, Hermanus, Botrivier and Sir Lowry’s Pass. Time: 4 hours without stopping

Originally posted in 2013 this is a post about our road trip from Cape Town to Hermanus in April 2008.

On our final day in Cape Town we decided to drive around the False Bay coast eastwards to Betty’s Bay and on to Hermanus (a good spot in the winter months for whale watching from land) and it turned out to be one of the best drives of the trip. Our first stop was in Muizenberg where I had lived for several years in the 1970s and 1980s well before it went through a period of crime and deprivation which almost ruined it. Muizenberg Now it appears to be on the up with lots of investment in the region including new housing developments around the village and the beach which is very popular with surfers and the longest and most spectacular in the peninsula.

Muizenberg Beach Huts

Even the iconic Victorian beach huts have been spruced up and rearranged into uniform lines so hopefully tourists will be encouraged back here. And although it lacks the turquoise waters and dramatic boulders of Clifton or Llandudno it is one of the best beaches in the peninsula with its sugar soft white sand dunes to the eastern edge and child-friendly rock pools to the west and warm waters to swim or body-surf in. Wandering around this little village you will see examples of Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco architecture. The lovely Edwardian-era red-brick railway station which opened in 1913  with its arched sandstone entrances and beautiful teak clock tower is reminiscent of the golden days of Muizenberg. Continue reading Flashback Friday #18