Month: November 2014

Insteps – Thurs 6th Nov

Well there was me thinking about all those day-after-bonfire-nights and the childish delights of coming across burned out (and if you were lucky, unexploded) ordnance, hoping I’d do the same today, and what did I find? One lousy sparkler packet (empty) which was certainly not worth photographing. What happened to all the pyromaniacs and litter-louts? Pah! Instead I found out what the contents of a Kambi’s lamb shawarma looked like uncooked. Eeuw… I also noted that the new seafront boardwalk, still under construction, is purely ornamental. Or maybe it’s just for roller skaters?

Enjoy the blue bits, tomorrow could see a lot of photographs of puddles, and even now as I write I can hear the wind howling outside….

Two stones of the day today. Both have insteps…

The grass is greener – Weds 5th Nov

If you go up the road from my front door you go further into Brighton, but turn a right instead, and within a block of two you’ve crossed the border into HOVE – another country entirely. At first glance it would seem that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, but a closer inspection shows that not all greenness is grass… And have the children of Somerhill school been re-enacting 80s history? And who played Mrs Thatcher Milk Snatcher?

The 3663 catering lorry makes a welcome appearance; I was pleased to see it this far inland. If you haven’t already seen it in previous editions do take the time to give its livery a closer look. One day I expect to visit a bar and see all these fine wares displayed just like they are on the side of the truck. Something to look forward to.

Bonfire night tonight. I wonder what I’ll find tomorrow?

Dog days – Tues 4th Nov

When you’re a kid you spend a lot of time looking up. You don’t have much choice; pretty much everything is bigger than you. While the downside of this is bumping into things and treading in dog shit a lot (Oh for God’s sake look where you’re going!) a major benefit is that you get to see a lot more of the sky, squirrels, birds and so on.

So this morning, because the sky was so clear and not a drop of rain in sight, I have been having fun putting the camera on the ground and seeing what happened. I made friends with several dogs and got funny looks from lots of different people.

I also found a colony of mushrooms growing out of the not yet completed new boardwalk timbers, only a few feet from the sea.

I think I’ll do it again sometime.

Two travellers – Mon 3rd Nov

Many years ago a friend of mine recounted a conversation that he had overheard in a pub, between two old gentlemen. From the details of their exchange he could tell that they were both well travelled and had lived and worked in a variety of places across what was then the British Empire. Based on their experiences, they were considering different locations they thought would be suitable for the latter part of their retirement. One was asking the other about a variety of different countries for this purpose, but each time he suggested somewhere his friend rebuffed him. Brazil No. Mexico? No. India, China, Burmah? No, no, no. Eventually the man making the suggestions asked in exasperation: “Well, what about England?” The reply was:

“If God had intended man to live in England he would have given him gills.”

After a day like today I find myself agreeing…

Todays ‘stone of the day’ is tiny. No bigger than my thumbnail.

Grey noise – Sun 2nd Nov

Everything is noisy today, I wonder if I should start recording sounds too. Apart from the booming of the wind around buildings, it buckles van sides with a bang, the weirdest seagull cry I’ve ever heard resolves itself into the whining and yapping of a toy dog waiting for its owner to throw it a stone (seriously) which crashes with a clang into the side of one of the permanent ping pong tables under the promenade, lines of rigging ring like bells against wet metal masts and plastic bins thunder as they roll. Chips, bits of kebab and pizza carpet West Street, Brighton’s very own Little Vegas, following the traditional late Saturday night rituals of clubbers.

Did I mention it is windy? it also turns very, very wet.

All Souls Day – Sat 1st Nov

All Souls Day, the day after the night of All Hallows Eve. I assume its safe to wander abroad again? There are tell tale signs in the streets that gruesome things have been happening in the witching hours and, judging by the abandoned empties, there has been a lot of communion with the spirits… Ha! geddit? Stick to the script Chris…

Through an open first floor window I can see the head of a young man with bleached blond hair and hear him recounting his adventures. Has he just woken up, or is he carrying on still from last night? A broken drain bleeds moss onto a wall, pigeons preen and wisps of moulted fancy dress cling to the pavement.

What starts out grey and rainy begins to break up and small and tantalising scraps of cyan spread across the sky, turning it once again into a deep and crystal blue. Is it really November? I’m not complaining.

Today’s stone of the day has a distinctly antipodean flavour…

Knockers – Fri 31st Oct

So I’m walking down the road having just photographed this particularly scuzzy building and i hear a voice in a doorway calling out “You looking for the knocking shop mate?” so i look into the doorway and there’s this big bloke walking out on to the street and he continues “cos it’s just down there just past the bins, ere, you going to take pictures of the clients as they come out? Could be a nice little earner” so I tell him I might just go home and pick up a fishing stool so i can be a bit more comfy while I wait and he says “Yeah my mate lives just across the road from them on the top floor and he says you wouldn’t believe what goes on in there, the Police know and everything and they’ve got a proper website. What’s it called?” he says to the other guy now coming out into the sunshine but the other guy can’t remember and i suggest knocking on the door and asking them if they need publicity shots and so it goes on. I had to take their picture didn’t I?

Another day like the South of France. Halloween too. Hottest since records began apparently.

Stones of the day include a wounded heart and a hamburger. Ah the poetry…

Daiquiri – Thurs 30th Oct

I can’t believe it’s the 30th October. Sunlight bounces everywhere off wet pavements and the sky is the most luxurious deep blue. Is this England or the South of France? Once again the town is filled with scaffolders stripped to the waist and taking up far too much space in the outdoor landscape as only scaffolders know how. They certainly don’t know how to park, or maybe they don’t care? Restaurants, bars and casinos all look out of their element, impaled on the sunshine like seedy 70s vampires, giving the fake-cobwebbed, Halloween-festooned doorway a run for its money in the horror stakes, and it’s hard to believe the man in a stetson is drinking coffee out of a mug and not a Daiquiri.

Washed out – Weds 29th Oct

Rained on, dripping from, steamed up, soaked, waterlogged or cloaked in fog; there’s no escaping the fact that today it is wet. But it’s still amazingly warm for a late October day and once you’re out in it you realise it’s better than being in. Inevitably, todays contact sheet is on the theme of being washed out. What am i saying? I don’t do themes. I hate themes. But this page seems to almost have one so what the hell.

I’m still on a bit of a roll with the stones of the day and once again there are two. What can I say about them? Well you wouldn’t want to find the first in a bag of pork scratchings… Or maybe it’s a small Casper-the-ghost, or maybe it’s small wriggling worm with very big eyes so it can see where it’s tunnelling. You choose, or find your own connections? The second? Sometimes you come across stones on the beach that have the most wonderful striped patinations. What causes this? The remains of some fossil shell, or fragment of tree-grain, rings or ridges worn flat by the tides? Or fracture lines developing inside the rock itself? I have no idea, but this makes it all the better.

Border patrol – Mon 27th Oct

You don’t get many days like today. Certainly not this time of year. Only a few days before Halloween and the skies are crystal clear and blue. Possibly as a result I spent a lot more time looking at shadows, simply because there were some, and perhaps less at the minutiae that seems to fill every corner of the town, but hey, there’s room for everything (including a DIY cat walkway). You’ll need to look closely (and have some knowledge of Brighton and Hove) to understand why i photographed a skewed square paving stone. And OK I admit it, the Squirrel looked CUTE. Sometimes you just can’t help yourself.

Offline tomorrow. Things to do.