Walls have ears......

.... and they were made with hands!

I was in Ely last evening, meeting some photography friends; Marianne was meeting her knitty friends, I came across this wall. Quite honestly, it fascinated me - completely.

I started to think of phrases such as 'walls have ears' and got to thinking "this wall could tell a story or two". I've no idea really how old it is but I reckon around 150 years. That's a long time for overheard stories. Then my mind ran riot - as is its wont!

A bricklayer put this up, somebody mixed the mortar, somebody shaped the bricks, baked them, loaded them, transported them. That's a only a few people really but, they are all lives; people with their own stories to tell, their families. More people. All of whom we shall probably never know. I became transfixed within my own thoughts. I really had to make a conscious effort to stop meditating on these somewhat inconsequential things. How can somebody's life be inconsequential?

The human mind. Did I ever mention my thoughts about bicycle wheel spokes? How many are there in the world? Each wheel has around 36 of them........ shhhhh! ... It's imperative I stop!

Over the Isle of Wight

A few good nights' sleep and the dreamer is back to normal - whatever that may be. Evidence of normality having evaded any rational observer! Anyway, I digress.

If you've read Marianne's blog, it would not have escaped your notice we've been away again.... Jersey, in the Channel Islands. I had to work which was ok, but it was a little frustrating not being able to enjoy and photograph all the wonderful things there. We've decided we have to go back - and soon! I will have to take some more serious camera kit too. We decided to limit ourselves to 'medium' type digital cameras.... but I did feel constrained at times. Good job I was working!

Coming back home, we overflew the Isle of Wight. I suppose that's not unusual returning to a south coast airport like Gatwick. This Island is special to me, having spent the first 38 years of my life there!

I've been in aircraft with a camera many times in the hope of getting a reasonable aerial shot, but I've never been totally happy with the results. This time I was really lucky. All the gremlins that have fated previous attempts were thwarted by a lucky set of variables. Good light, good seat, reasonable visibility......

The South West coast of the Isle of Wight from around 12,000 feet..... I have others too :-)

Dreams - Make of them what you will......

Wow..... what a night!

Excuse the amount of words..... I couldn't get any shots of my mind!



Don't think there was anything wrong with me. I've been quite content of late - without too many emotional traumas. Nothing that would affect my sleep. But, did I have a dream and a half last night!

I used to live on the Isle of Wight and the I of W ferries played a big part in my life for 38 years. So - please picture this scene as I relate as much as I can remember of it.....

My late, departed father was driving us to catch a ferry. Nothing odd there, except it was raining heavily to the point of severe floods with cars crashing off the roads and into ditches. And dear old Pop was.... reading a magazine whilst he was driving! The weather cleared up as we approached the ferry terminal but we were now having a race with a coach which was carrying cricketers to the Mainland. It was something to do with Shanklin Cricket Club, which Dad seemed to have a thing against in real life. I think he thought they themselves had the impression they were a 'cut above the rest'!

Nothing too odd so far!

Now it starts to get weird! There were kids everywhere on the ferry (not all mine or related to me) and there was nowhere for my family to sit all together. Now, that included Marianne's children as well. Strange? Yep! Marianne had never met my father, he having died in 2001. Now it gets deeper. A man who had alighted from the cricket coach occupied a seat (or two, the memory is a bit vague) and I argued that if he could move (as he was alone at it wouldn't matter where he sat) all our children could be together.

"What's in it for me?", he asked. "Could you get me some chips?" He'd heard me say I would get 3 portions of chips, one with tomato ketchup along with a Steak & Kidney pie! Why it was only 3 portons when there were 11 of us I can't fathom. I said he had a bit of a nerve. "Well, if you want the seat, I'll have some chips.... and I want mine with Marmite!" "Hmmm, I'll see what I can do".

Meanwhile, my mother had been to visit the ladies room, to powder her nose. When she returned to us she said, "That's the guy who made me buy this Baby Burco boiler!"

"What did you buy a water boiler for, you don't need one. Not on this car ferry". "That's what I told him", she replied.

So, in glorious technicolor, in my most imaginative brain (still sound asleep) there are eleven of us scattered around. My mother clasping onto this, newly acquired, Baby Burco. There were all of them saying they were hungry. But you only asked for three chips and a Steak & Kidney pie I mused to myself! An idiot demanding chips and Marmite in return for a seat, my mother still grappling with her boiler whilst trying to sit down ..... absolute, total chaos.

All the time the ferry is getting closer to Portsmouth so the time was running out to purchase all these items and get settled in our seats.

Now, in all the history I know of Isle of Wight ferries none are, or have been, amphibious. But this one decided it would be quicker if it hauled itself out of the water and drove us all to a fish and chip shop! So now there is this huge car ferry driving around the streets of Southsea! All the passengers are saying, "This is a lot quicker than sailing on the water. Why don't they drive the ferry like this all the time?"

We passed all sorts of things. Some quite normal, some less so. Neighbours fighting each other over barbecues is one thing I distinctly remember! Every other house had a police car outside of it. All the men were wearing vests - a few were wearing knotted handkerchiefs on their heads! Curious.....

Then the car ferry stops outside Martins the Newsagents. "You can get your chips here", shouts the Captain over the tannoy. Fine. At long last I can get us fed!

When it came to my turn all I could get was one, very small portion of chips and the pie. "Can you make sure the chips have got Marmite with them please?" "We've only got Marmite tablets" was the reply. "Fine, that'll do" and I promptly put the pill in my shirt pocket.

"How much do I owe you?"..... "£49.50p". "How much?" I shouted. "You heard me, £49.50p". "But steak and Kidney pies are only 38p in Tescos. I refuse to pay that much"

Now, all of this lasted in "Dreamland" around an hour, by which time all the other ferry passengers were showing their impatience. I still refused to pay that amount. They told me I had received the chips, which I do recall giving to the man along with his Marmite tablet. I actually requested they call the police and have me arrested. They seem to comply with this.

As the Police arrived all the employees of the Newsagents left .... in a rush. All of them were in exotic cars. Bentleys, Ferraris etc,.

"No wonder you can afford to drive around in those if you charge £49.50 for chips, pie and a Marmite tablet!" I shouted after them.

Don't know what happened after that..... I woke up!

There were other bits to all this, equally as strange! Somebody could have a field day with my mind. Marianne was in hysterics when I related all this to her this morning. "Your sleeping mind is more confused than when it's awake." Not too sure I know what she meant by that.

Anyway, make of this what you will. I'm frightened to fall asleep now! Dread to think what might happen at an airport.

No Yellow Lines.......

..... loads of history, Nature in it's finest, coastlines a -plenty, fine food..... Need I go on? If you've ever been to the Channels Islands and visited Guernsey then you know it has it all! And some.

I had to work there for a few days after a short break from our honeymoon. So, two honeymoons in four weeks! Ok, we weren't together all the time each day - Marianne had to entertain herself for a few hours each day. The sun shone, so it wasn't that difficult. I did feel sorry for her though. Too many aircraft flights with a possible ear infection left her feeling quite poorly at times and in a fair bit of pain. Not only that, the Hotel Beauty-Parlour was too well booked. She never got the full pampering a wonderful lady should receive. Anyway, she doesn't need any more to make her look as beautiful as she is!

St. Peter Port on a Sunday morning..... the only shops open were those that had licenses to receive the cruise ships when they arrive. Could we learn something from this? Life was so calm and peaceful. I'd forgotten what 'trade free' Sundays were like!

Pembroke Bay..... so many beautiful flowers. I love the idea that the hedgerows are left to run wild, they have to go to seed before they are cut back to preserve the wild flowers. Everybody is responsible for their own hedgerows. Makes for a very pretty place this time of year.


Fort Marchant (I think). A defensive fort dating back to the middle 1800's. Those prison cells looked pretty bleak and desperate and that was with the sun out.


A couple of birds I was fascinated by.... as usual. Bit windy on the cliff tops but these birds loved it!





A very pensive Marianne, totally engrossed in her new Swallowtail shawl. It helped take her mind off that mischievous, painful ear.... :^(

How can you fail to be unmoved with such beautiful coastline such as this. All that remains to do is return and not have to work! Anybody have some decent lottery numbers...... any gains over £100,000 and we'll share 5% .... LoL

We're Back!

Wow...... so many lovely things! So many lovely places! Such a lovely time.

First of all.... thanks to all of you who have supported Marianne and myself. We have each other and we hold each other dear but, we've needed all of you - you have been a tower of strength to us both. You came from both near and far..... Spain, Northern Ireland, Holland .... even Cambridgeshire!

Marianne is busy putting together a blog post of the wedding part so, I won't bore you with all of that - not that any of it was boring, just didn't want you to read about it twice!

Our Honeymoon started with taking Mavis (Marianne's mum) back to Gatwick Airport and making sure she wasn't stowed away in our luggage on our way to Venice and Tuscany! She still hasn't forgiven us! So we had a day to catch our breath before a VERY early flight the next morning. We stayed in a Hotel and spent the day at the nearby Bluebell Railway. Nostalgia and Romance in a cloud of steam .... so much ..... US.




The other side of us is the fact that nothing ever seems to go just right first time. You'd think that booking into a hotel so you can leave our car safely for a fortnight's break would be straight forward. Not us! We got into the room and I laid back on the bed. I said to Marianne, "I can smell coffee". A long story short. Somebody had spilled coffee onto the bed spread. We made a complaint, and the staff said they would get it changed. Fine. We needed a bite to eat so we entertained ourselves for an hour or so in the bar/restaurant. Bear in mind we booked this hotel so we could make an easy, very early start in the morning (4:00am) so we needed to get to bed early!

Well, after 1.5 hours nothing had happened to the bed. Another minor, irritated complaint. This time I said to save time, give us another room. They only had one spare - the Honeymoon Suite at about three times the price! They let us stay there for free! .....Too many bubbles in the Jacuzzi......!




That, (along with British Airways) eventually brought us to Venice. (Photo by Marianne)



More to follow.......

It's flat around here....

..... but at least you do get a lot of sky for your money! I often wondered why Constable considered he had to perfect skies in his landscape work, now I know why. You have no hills and what you place on the canvas above the horizon has to be perfect - no room for error!

It's hard to believe that last Sunday saw snow which would not look out of place on a Christmas card. Now the clocks have changed, so has the weather. They cannot be connected that closely surely? I even managed to cut the grass - I couldn't even see it last Sunday!

Armed with a big dose of sunshine and warmth we took to the country. (Mainly in an attempt to recover from a lovely dinner party to which our friends invited us). So very welcome as we're both wrapped up in the W..... word! Suit measuring yesterday - it's all coming together. Even the males are getting involved. Although I have to say, I'm not too sure my Best Man is entirely happy adorning himself with a pink cummerbund and dickie bow tie!

Anyway, in view of my love of landscapes I gave the camera a bit of an outing. These two are just a couple of shots taken about 10 miles from where we live. As I said at the beginning..... you do get a lot of sky for you money!



Only a few days more --- the W...... word day is definitely fast approaching ~ sigh!

Crazy Weather!

Can you believe this? You wonder during the Winter whether there'll be a White Christmas - Bing Crosby style - and you need to break out the shorts and sun cream. Then, along comes Easter and you're looking for a snow shovel. I mean, what's happening? It is a bit bizarre to say the least.


This was the view outside our front door at 8:45am. I would've been more adventurous but I was still in my dressing gown! And it was/is freezing. I suppose it has to be to make this white stuff! Just looked at our outside thermometer - it's +0.1° C - could thaw soon then!

Which is probably just as well. We're supposed to be eating out today. We're sampling the delights of our Wedding chef! The plans go on a pace..... tomorrow's another meal out - our Wedding photographer this time and we haven't seen him for ages! They're a lovely family but I don't think Lynn has ever forgiven me for introducing him to the wonderful world of Nikon. I love it when a plan comes together. Hang on! There's a flaw. All this food! We'll not be putting on weight will we?

Ah well. Marianne! Have you seen the snow shoes?