Sharpenhoe Clappers
Sharpenhoe village in Bedfordshire England is situated at the foot of the hills known as ‘Sharpenhoe Clappers.’
Michael Halfpenny took this rather romatic shot on his recent visit to ‘The Clappers’. Sharpenhoe itself is the birthplace of the writer Carrie King, author of ‘The life in the wood with Jon-Pip’ and looking at Michael’s pictures it’s not hard to see how a wonderful story came to life.
Sharpenhoe Clappers in Bedfordshire
Another shot of Sharpenhoe Clappers from Michael Halfpenny… this time a very pleasing landscape.
The Avebury Stones
Michael Halfpenny joins my blog this week with his shots of The Avebury Stones. The village of Avebury is seen as a mecca for those who believe in Paganism, Wicca, and Druidry. The Avebury Stones surround the village in the fair county of Wiltshire England, a county renown for it’s fine quality hams and fresh country vegetables.
The summer solstice and pagan festivals held at Avebury attract visitors from all over the world, as Avebury stands on the St. Michael ley line that runs from Cornwall to East Anglia – and in the village itself ; The Red Lion Public House can offer you one of the most ghostly inhabited pubs in England!
See more of Michael’s Avebury pictures on twitpic… click on the link bar.
Barney Westlake hadn’t expected to walk into another relationship quite so soon. In fact, his presence in Scotland and particularly his arrival in Largs was to forget Madeleine. That was some hell of an affair! He was sure to this day that the woman was mad. Well, it had certainly felt like it. She had terrorized him and made his life an absolute nightmare with her unjustified jealousies and insane tantrums. To get away from her domination of him and her possession of his mind became his prime obsession… their relationship had become intolerable and near bordered on violence!
He hadn’t planned anything in fact. Just go to Largs. Just get away. He guessed that he had come across a mention of the place recently in a dentist’s waiting room and it had stuck there in the back of his mind simply just waiting for Madeleine to give him the right excuse to leave. He didn’t have to wait for very long!
It was a chance meeting that first morning. He thought he would walk the beach, having little else in mind, and take in the sea air. Try to get Madeleine and London right out of his mind. His first steps from the hotel took notice of the wind; it was strong and tasted of damp salt… for the hotel sat squarely facing the oncoming migrations of the northern Alantic. At first, the warning signs of another headlong collision with a member of the opposite sex did not ring any alarm bells in his head. It should have done. But it didn’t. She was leaning over the rail that ran the length of the promenade and looking with great interest at the white tufts that were now forming on the increasing, incoming tide.
‘It’s rough out there.’ she spoke to him first, and turned in his direction, almost instinctively; as if they had been old friends, and in the moment, he thought she had made a mistake – mistook him for someone else perhaps. An observed and somewhat hurried take over his shoulder told him that they were quite alone.
‘Yes, it looks that way…’ It was a rather silly and pointless reply. But at this stage it would suffice, and anyway; he just couldn’t think of anything else to say. In his own experience; women rarely put much store on the opening gambit of a conversation; they either liked the look of you… or not!
The Truth about Madeleine was written by Patrick Callaghan, and first published by BBC Radio Scotland.
“I believe that life is for living, don’t you? …It’s difficult to know what else one could do with it.”
“I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.”
An actress friend once said to Noel: “I went to see your play the other evening, and I didn’t laugh once!’ He replied: “That’s strange. I went and watched you acting… And laughed all the way through!”
Early Ford
This 1938 Ford caught Robert’s camera eye, as he took to foot on the streets of London recently.
Red Bull Reflection
Robert Morey continues his travels around The Capital… and took this Red Bull Ad in a querky mirror reflection. Well done Robbie.. ‘My Girls’ love a Red Bull with a whisky chaser!
The Aerated Bread Company started life in 1862 as an Islington Bakers of fine healthy, additive-free bread, and within two years opened the first of 250 ABC self-service Tea Shops. In the late Victorian period – an ABC tea room was the sort of place a woman could enjoy a meal unescorted and without risk to her reputation! By 1923 ABC had a further 150 branch shops selling their highly popular ‘graham bread’ and were second only to the famous Lyons Corner Houses. In 1955 ABC… who seemed to be in every major street in London, was bought by Garfield Weston for $8.1 million and added to the high end retailer of Fortnum and Mason. As one American magazine put it at the time – “The Piccadilly Prince is about to marry The Tea Room Cinderella” … Sadly ABC was gone from our streets by the end of the 1980s – the victim I’m sure… of a mood change in our food and drinking habits.
This 1930 RKO offering would raise a few eyebrows these days! Based on a popular radio show, it soon ran into problems in bringing it to the screen. It features the exploits of two black guys, well enough on radio… because they were voiced by white guys, but you can see the problem… Voices had to be the same as on the radio show! It meant the radio stars – Freeman Godsen as Amos, and Charles Correll as Andy… had to ‘black-up’ Surprisingly, the movie was profitable for RKO Radio Pictures, but there was never a follow-up, until TV took the idea as a series in the 50s…. Which I remember enjoying as a child on BBC Television… And hopefully those were at last!.. genuine coloured American Males!
London Routemaster Bus
I’m not quite sure why Robert sent me this picture of a dissappearing London Routemaster Bus – Perhaps, there is something symbolic! Anyway, he and Jeanette are here for Dinner this week… So I’ll make a point of asking.