Another Totem Pole

I came across this one as I crossed the Plymouth University Campus.

This brings to three the number of Totem poles I know of in the city.

"Spit and Sawdust"

There are several reasons why most "Traditional" pubs are no longer operating.

If the floor of the Public Bar was "Spit and Dawdust",

you can just imagine what the toilets were like.

But I am sure that this establishment holds on only to the best traditions of the British Pub.

April Showers

Although the sun shone, the cold north wind kept these tables unoccupied yesterday, 

at the newly opened Wagamama Japanese restaurant, 

 in the Royal William Yard Complex, beside the River Tamar.

Il Fashionisto

Some styles are timeless.

The "baggy" style is a multi generational favourite.

A guiding light?

We are no more than candles burning in the wind.

                                                                                   Japanese Proverb    

                        

                         

Rainy Night Colours

The changing view through the frosted glass panels in the door of my local Chinese takeaway restaurant,

 as customers drove in and out of the car park.

At last it has arrived!

Early on Sunday morning the road and rail bridges crossing the Tamar were shrouded in mist,

but it cleared to reveal

 that during the night the long awaited 20 metre Celtic Cross

 had arrived, been lifted into place and secured to its plinth.

The area around the Cross, Elwell Woods, which runs down towards the river, is being landscaped and replanted.

The Cross will be a fitting symbol to mark the gateway to the Ancient Celtic Country of Kernow.

Clear signs that Summer is on the way.

But not for us I'm afraid.

The supermarket label showed that these came from Morocco.

Home to roost

Late afternoon, and the pigeons are making their way to their favourite roosting spot,

 on top of the Union Inn, on the Cornish bank of the River Tamar, at Saltash.

If it is the smell of food and drink attracts customers to the pub, it probably works for pigeons as well.

Pictures from an exhibition.

Two images by Yann André Tonnelier from the exhibition, Cornish Seascape, 

which is currently in the city.

The Lighthouse at Trevose

Sunset on Constantine Beach

Running and Jumping.

Another fine performance by the Devon under 20 Rugby Team (in green and white), 

but they were not quite good enough to knock Kent under 20s out of this year's championship.

The featured Devon player in all these shots is Josh Lee

Josh is from the Barnstaple Rugby Club,

 in the north of Devon.

Augmented Reality?

“Augmented reality is very exciting. The promise of it is this: All the information on the Internet overlaid on the real world exactly where and when you need it. What's that mountain called? A pop-up could tell you. What's the highest rated restaurant on the block? Boom, the reviews arrive on your screen. You could overlay the historical maps right onto the world in front of you…..”

 Alexis Madrigal

 for The Atlantic Feb 21, 2013

Tradition is alive and well, and afloat.

It was great to see these beautiful traditional craft in Plymouth Sound at the same time, over the weekend..

A little bit of Paris in Plymouth.

Breakfast time at Le Bistrôt Pierre.

A branch, of this ten outlet chain, has opened very recently in the Royal William Yard.

Gale force winds and driving rain.

What dreadful weekend weather.

Umbrellas developed a life of their own.

Rio may have Sun, Samba and Sensuality but .....

although we have more than our fair share of grey skies and drizzling rain,
we are certainly familiar with dancing in the streets!

Welcome to the world of Morris Dancing.

It is difficult to imagine any other group of men who, 

1. wear a distinctive uniform, 

2. arm themselves with stout wooden staves, 

and

3. openly engage combat practice, 

being allowed to roam freely through the city streets. 

Morris Dancing attracts young and old alike.

It is refreshing to see that members are clearly not overly concerned the issues of body image that beset many forms of dance performance.

It has something for everyone. 

Unless, of course, you are a woman or member of an ethnic minority.

But it is encouraging, from an Equal Opportunities point of view, to note that cross dressers are welcomed into the fold.

Does your dog do any tricks?

Yes he barks in Spanish.

Another Lady in Red

il paparazzo

Spot the celebrity.

Aerial Attack

Every day begins with removing the evidence of the nocturnal bombardment.

Ride to live

Live to ride

Plymouth's Portrait Bench

The Portrait Bench is a simple bench with three life sized figures, chosen by the local community for their contribution to local life, culture or history.The figures are two dimensional, cut from two inch thick steel.

It is part of a national project which when complete will comprise a national collection of 230 portraits.

From left to right the figures are:-

Marine Ben McBean - A local 25 year old, who lost an arm and a leg when he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED), whilst serving in Afghanistan in 2007.

Since his injuries Mr McBean has run two full marathons, reached the base camp on Mt Everest using prosthetic limbs and completed The Three Peaks Challenge.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott RN (1868 - 1912) - Born in the city, Captain Scott won fame as a Polar Explorer who led two expeditions to Antarctica. It was on the ill fated second (1910 - 1913) when Scott's party reached the South Pole on 17th January 1912, only find that they had been beaten to the Pole by Roald Amundsen's Norwegian Expedition. On their desperate return journey Scott and his four comrades all died from a combination of exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold, but entered the panoply of British National Heroes.

Charles Darwin - Naturalist who proposed the theories of Evolution and Natural Selection.

Darwin's connection with Plymouth is that his famous five year voyage around the world on HMS Beagle left Plymouth on 27th December 1831,  after being stuck in Plymouth for two months waiting for favourable weather.He didn't much like the town and described his time waiting for the Beagle to sail as "The most miserable I have ever spent".

Follow the course of this epic journey by clicking here 

Do dogs look like their owners?

Or is it the other way around?

“A group of 70 people who do not own dogs were asked to match photos of 41 dog owners to three possible breeds — Labrador, poodle or Staffordshire bull terrier. They matched the owners to the dogs more than half the time. Yet given three choices, they should have been right only about a third of the time.
This suggests that certain breeds of dogs are associated with particular kinds of people, said study leader Lance Workman, a psychologist at Bath Spa University in the UK.”

Well below 0ºC

This has been the coldest Easter Holiday period, in this area, for more than 50 years.

Even on this brilliantly sunny day the wind, whistling between the tall buildings on the University Campus, 

produced a wind chill effect which took the temperature down to -6ºC.