Things to do

Wotton Under Edge special – November 2014

In a slight departure from the usual format, here’s a contact sheet of images of things you can do in Wotton Under Edge (where I have been for the weekend). They include (left to right, top to bottom):

  • Marvel at the ever-changing diorama in one of the windows on the way into town. The building is now well under construction, but previous displays have focused on campaigns to stop the development, complete with protesters
  • Go and see the cave spiders in Eric’s shed
  • Climb Nibley Monument and feel a bit funny when you get to the top
  • Re-create a number of Caspar David Friedrich’s wonderful high-romantic paintings, but with real mud
  • Watch airliners flying south for the winter
  • Compare fairy loaves (Rob and Judy have got one too)
  • Climb very tall trees and collect mistletoe
  • Re-enact Blair Witch Project
  • Play on the smell-o-rama bouncy castle

And then on the way home:

  • Watch a perfect string of lozenge-shaped will o the wisps keeping up with the train
  • Work out how high the viaduct is at Haywards Heath by making a mathematical calculation involving time of day, time of year, and length of the viaduct’s shadow

More from Brighton 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.