England 2023

A Happy Fence Friday to all. I hope the day is fine and the weekend lets you recover from the working week (if you have such a thing, of course).

Happy Wednesday Wall. Have a great day, everyone.

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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.

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.)

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.

East coast of Yorkshire. The chalets were once further from the cliff edge.