Old Owl's photos

(Press Z to biggen it up.)

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A Happy Fence Friday to everyone. I hope your day and weekend are full of fun and frolics. These beach huts are in Bridlington, Yorkshire. I find these examples a little disturbing somehow. I've always felt that the "beach hut" concept was a communal idea: yes, the huts offered privacy for families on their holidays, sometimes even having rudimentary cooking facilities and tables to sit and have a cuppa, but they never seemed to be walled off from each other and often people would visit their neighbours quite freely. These fences seem the antithesis of that communality. Or maybe that's just me being nostalgic for something that wasn't actually the case - anemoia. Whatever, have a grand day.

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A Happy Bench Monday to all. These seats at the Busselton Jetty are apparently made from plastic bags! I know nothing about the whys and wherefores of this, about how such things are done, or whether someone scours the waste bins of the nation for discarded bags. But I welcome something being done with the curséd things! Have a lovely Monday and I hope the week is not too onerous. (And good luck to all who are suffering storms in Europe and freezing cold in the USA. Meanwhile some of us in the Land Down Under are roasting.)

Santi's Café, Monash Avenue, Nedlands, WA.

A Happy Fence Friday to everyone. Keep safe, keep warm (or cool depending on location), and above all, keep smiling. Taken in 2011 in Pinjarra, WA and recently rediscovered lurking in a forgotten file.

Town Beach. Mandurah.

Town Beach. Mandurah.

Beach. Bridlington.

HFF, everyone. I hope your day and the coming weekend are pleasing and that you can keep warm/cool/dry (depending on location), but above all that you can keep safe and healthy. This fence on a bridge in Towcester, Northamptonshire is over (I think) Silverstone Brook which runs through part of the town and empties into the River Tove. It was seen on our recent trip to England to visit our ancient mothers. (Probably marginally better when enlarged. Please press Z.)

Happy Wednesday Wall. I hope your day is bright and joyful. To those in the UK, keep warm; to those in Australia's eastern states, keep dry; to those in Western Australia, try to keep cool. Love and best wishes to all. This is a wall of the Manjimup Visitors' Centre and Shire Admin building in the Manjimup Timber and Heritage Park in WA. Manjimup was once primarily a timber town, but is now more known for its black truffles and its fruit. (The Pink Lady apple, much loved in Australia, was created in Manjimup in the 1970s.)

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Post-Christmas hangover for reindeer. A sense of deflation after the festivities. A Happy Fence Friday to all. I hope your day and your weekend are pleasant. Commiserations to all those who have had to return to work after the holidays (and to those who worked all through the holidays, too).

HWW everyone. This is a wall of Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, Kent, which was the home of the artist, gardener, designer and film maker, Derek Jarman between 1986 and his death in 1994. The cottage is also the home of Derek Jarman’s garden in the shingle close to the beach at Dungeness and in the shadow of the nuclear power station. This garden is wonderfully sparse and is well worth your time if you visit. Be warned, however; it is not the lush, regimented growth of a formal plantation; rather it was made by a man who used its creation for his own therapy when he was desperately ill and thus it reflects both his vision and the landscape in which it appears. On the wall, the first stanza and the last six lines of the poem “The Sunne Rising” by the 17th century poet, John Donne appear, created by hand carved wooden letters affixed to the timber of the cottage wall. My picture does Prospect Cottage and the carving scant justice, my skills being insufficient for the task. It does, however, show what is a fine and much admired project by a fine and much admired artist. The book “Derek Jarman’s Garden”, published by Thames & Hudson, is worth reading and has some wonderful photographs by Howard Sooley. The extract from "The Sunne Rising" is below. The spelling is the original 17th century style; modern versions are readily available on the internet. Perhaps more clear if the picture is enlarged by pressing Z. Busie olde foole, unruly Sunne; Why dost thou thus, Through windowes, and through curtaines call on us? Must to thy motions lovers seasons run? Sawcy pedantique wretch, goe chide Late schoole boyes, and sowre prentices, Goe tell Court-huntsmen, that the King will ride, Call countrey ants to harvest offices; Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clyme, Nor houres, dayes, months, which are the rags of time. Thou sunne art halfe as happy as wee, In that the world's contracted thus; Thine age askes ease, and since thy duties bee To warme the world, that's done in warming us. Shine here to us, and thou art every where; This bed thy center is, these walls, thy spheare. John Donne published “The Sunne Rising” in 1633.

Folkestone Harbour Arm, Folkestone, Kent

A beach by Folkestone Harbour.

Happy Final Fence Friday of 2023 to all. I hope your day, your weekend, your New Year's Eve and your first day of the new year are as spectacular as you would wish them to be. For some strange and highly illogical reason we often look forward more hopefully at this time of year than at any other. Let's hope our aspirations are rewarded. This is Elizabeth Quay (colloquially called "Betty's Jetty") bus station, Perth. The colours of the columns relate to the various CAT routes departing from this Busport. The CAT (Central Area Transit) buses are free routes around the city of Perth and are a godsend for those of us who hate city driving or who resent paying exorbitant car parking fees. Better seen bigger by pressing Z.