Monday 31 December 2012

Bon appétit, Приятного аппетита, Buen provecho .....


After all the festive feasting of recent days, Fish,Chips and Beer, taste even better than usual.


The Diners 2012 by Yannick Tonnelier


The Card Players by Paul Cézanne 1892



Sunday 30 December 2012

Aladdin's Cave.


The Yarmouth Stores company started in 1898 with the acquisition of retail businesses in Yarmouth, Gorleston, Lowestoft, Aberdeen and here in Plymouth with these premises in Southside Street, a few metres from the old Barbican Fish Market.By 1914 they had opened more branches around the coast to service the needs of the fleet of Drifters as they followed the herring shoals. 

Of course that trade is long gone but nowadays this shop is still one of the first ports of call for anyone looking for high quality, specialist clothing which will keep you dry and warm at sea.





Thursday 27 December 2012

The first coffee of the day ......


.......... is often the best.


Even very early on a cold December day,


when heavy rain is forecast to start soon.

Tuesday 25 December 2012

Merry Christmas




Peace on Earth
Goodwill to men.




A small quiet corner of Plymouth Hoe.

Monday 24 December 2012

Dear Santa


I have been very good all year.
Can I please have one like this for Christmas?





Sunday 23 December 2012

Mid Winter Day


Early morning mist shrouding Drake's Island and Mt Edgecumbe Park on the shortest day of the year.


Saturday 22 December 2012

Santa Cola


Santa came to Plymouth yesterday on his big red sleigh.


He brought a present for each of the girls and boys.


Santa's little helpers took pictures.


So that everybody would remember what Christmas is all about.


Have A Happy Corporate Christmas.

Friday 21 December 2012

A Room With a View


On a day like today it is better to stay in beside the fire than to be out in the rain


The view from the window of the Waterfront Pub at West Hoe.



Wednesday 19 December 2012

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Una rebanada caliente de España.


Even on a crisp winter's day, El Maritimo Tapas Bar provides "A warm slice of Spain", here in Plymouth.


If all you have is a coffee at the Coffee Shack, you can still enjoy wonderful smell of cooking,
 drifting up from below.


The terrace very popular in the summer, but it still attracts customers
 on a chilly English December afternoon.


Monday 17 December 2012

Casting a long shadow



Rounding a corner on a cobbled quayside in Sutton Harbour, in the late afternoon, winter sun. 


Sunday 16 December 2012

Safely home at sunset


After a long day with almost no wind the crew were relieved to get home before night fall.



Saturday 15 December 2012

Cloudless, breathless and 0ºC


Two sides of a quiet corner of Sutton Harbour during the beautiful winter weather 
we have enjoyed for the last few days.

The granite building, to the left of the Three Crowns Pub, is the Customs House, 
once the headquarters of the Customs Service in the city.


The view from the other side. 
Standing in front of The Three Crowns Pub looking back across 
to the fishing boats and the umbrellas of the quayside bars and cafés.


Friday 14 December 2012

Thursday 13 December 2012

Thoughts on a clear mid winter morning



I must go down to the sea again,  to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

Sea Fever by John Masefield (1878 - 1967)


Tuesday 11 December 2012

Early morning visitors in Plymouth Sound.



On Friday morning, just as the early cloud was beginning to clear and the sun started to take the edge off a bitter wind, two Dutch naval vessels entered the Sound and were led into the River Tamar and up river to berths in the Devonport Dockyard.

They were P842 HNLMS Friesland and P843 HNLMS Groningen.  (Check their full specification here)



Monday 10 December 2012

A very large photograph.


This print covers two of the three storeys of this building on the Barbican, in Plymouth.


This is the headquarters of  The South West Image Bank .

This fabulous community resource is a professionally managed collection of some 167 unique individual photographic archives, dating back to the 1870s and this number grows with time.

Follow the red link to take a look in the galleries at the range of the material that is archived and see the way that this visual memory of the community is being used to support all manner activities.

Sunday 9 December 2012

Friday 7 December 2012

Winter Sunset


Looking from Plymouth Hoe, beyond Drake's Island towards Mount Edgecumbe Park.


Looking from Plymouth Hoe, beyond the Breakwater towards Rame Head


Thursday 6 December 2012

The Plymouth Eye


The company which owns this big wheel on Plymouth Hoe has run into economic difficulties, 
and it looks as if the attraction might have to be dismantled and removed earlier than everyone had hoped. 


Wednesday 5 December 2012

Curvilinear


The edge of the Tinside Lido on Plymouth Waterfront, in the low winter sun.


Kalleidoscopy


Tuesday 4 December 2012

Detail from a boarded-up window.


This image raises the age old question, "Is it art if I say it is?".


This de-laminating plywood is from a boarded up window on a very small stone building 
on Plymouth Hoe, The Octagonal Lookout.


This lookout was built sometime around 1870 for the benefit of shipping firms, who, in the days before radio communications, could watch from here for mail steamers making their way towards the Sound. Arrangements could then be made as soon as possible for tenders to be made ready to meet the boats and whisk the postbags and important passengers onto waiting trains in Millbay.






Monday 3 December 2012

Facades


These splendid houses face onto the Promenade on Plymouth Hoe and look out across Plymouth Sound..
The building of this terrace started around 1836. 
They miraculously survived World War Two without major damage from the heavy bombing which Plymouth suffered in the heavy air raids between 1940 to 1944.


























During the Blitz the city's two main shopping centres and nearly every civic building were destroyed, 
along with 26 schools, eight cinemas and 41 churches. 
In total, 3,754 houses were destroyed with a further 18,398 seriously damaged ,
so the survival of this terrace is all the more surprising.


During this period 1,172 civilians were killed and 4,448 were injured 
and this memorial to them is no more than 100 metres from the buildings featured above.

Sunday 2 December 2012

Rare sighting supports Global Warming.


Crocodiles in the River Tamar? 
Yesterday morning I saw one with my own eyes. 
At first I thought that it was just a branch that had been washed down river by the recent torrential rain. 
But an elderly passer by insisted that crocs were becoming quite a common sight and he had seen several.


"But the sharks have all gone" he went on.


" The crocs must have eaten them all" he reasoned




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