Spud on Sunday Part LXIX

Tom is home from the Alps, where he’s been mountain biking.

Spud the dog and the rest of the menagerie are very glad to have him home, we all are.

We’ve had a family bereavement whilst he’s been away.  Its the sort thing that makes you want to gather everyone in, safe and well, to be together. We are sad.

Yes, we are very glad Tom is home. I’m glad I didn’t know just how precipitous the routes they have been riding were.  I’m glad I didn’t know anything about his close encounter with the 200ft drop that left the guy who hauled him back  to safety ashen faced*.  I’m glad I didn’t know about being in the fresh snow and the ice. Yes very glad indeed. I do know that the the pile of dirty laundry he’s brought back with him, is as high as Mont Blanc,  but you don’t need to know how smelly it is.

Dodger and Spud check out Toms kit bag… with the thankfully, unused first aid kit.

* this is independent eyewitness testimony, not teenage bravado!

Summers Past

And the making of memories.

Forgiving me for returning to the beach and family holidays. But a couple of   posts I’ve read this week have catapulted me back to Devon.  First there was Nancy’s post reflecting on just how many summers her family had enjoyed their favourite beach  just like the Uphilldowndale family’s love of a certain Devon beach,

then there was Sarah’s post that made me smile and recall our coastal meeting with a grasshopper.  So I nipped back to the post I’d written at the time, back in 2009, about our encounter with the artist David Measures, about his glorious art and his generosity with both his time and knowledge: sadly, when I followed the links, I discovered that David died last year.  Looking at the website of Southwell Artists I saw that Christine Measures, David’s wife, is also an artist.

When I met David he told me he was working on a book that would capture, not just the markings of a butterfly, for identification but how it moved, its mannerisms, what a bird watcher might call it’s jizz.  The slide show of Christine’s art captures both David and Devon summer holidays perfectly. Beautiful.

 

Technorati Tags: Art,Photography,Family Holiday,Beach,Seaside,Summer,David Measures,Butterfly,Paddling,Sea,South Devon

Seaside Rock

How quickly our seaside holiday is becoming a distant memory. How quickly the real world piles in to the vacated mind.

How heavy it has rained today! Just as well I have some holiday snaps to look back at.

On the coast path there were some fine lumps of rock (you know I’m fond of them) ancient gate posts, long since disused girded with hand forged iron.

The remnants of old walls

The bizarre weather we’ve had in UK this summer seems at least to have pleased the costal flowers, or just made them flower later than usual. I can’t ever recall  ever seeing quite so many as this year.

The insect world seemed appreciative

Just delightful really, *sigh*

Hope is a Thing with Feathers

Coast path nr Prawle Point, South Devon

 

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune–without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickenson 1830-1886 

I’d not heard of Emily Dickenson, until I saw the work of artist Sarah Sharpe  at the Derbyshire Open Arts event, many of Sarah’s pieces are inspired by Dickenson. 

Perhaps a photo of a swallow, swift or wren may have been a daintier bird to balance the poem, but we have a bird equality policy on this blog, all birds are equal.

Sunset Cliché

Can you have too many photos of sunsets in your holiday snaps? Mrs Ogg and I discussed this matter at length (over a glass of  wine, as you do). In truth we decided that we didn’t much care, we’ll just keep snapping away.

It is as traditional as a Christmas dinner.

Mrs Ogg snapping

Spud on Sunday part LXVI

Spud the dog, a portrait by our friend Mrs Ogg

 

Spud got very excited watching the Olympic games last night, what a golden night it was. Mr Uphilldowndale and Tom are down on the beach in Weymouth watching all the sailing action on big screens and are having a very pleasant time by all accounts.

Freedom

Just what a summer holiday should be, 2012 has been a vintage year.

Joe and I are back home now, Mr Uphilldowndale and Tom are down in Weymouth staying with BiL my brother-in- law and SiL, my soon to be sister- in- law, where they are woohooing the Olympic sailors on towards gold.

I’ve enough images in stock to keep they summer feel running for a blogging week or two (whilst I wade through laundry and return to the world of work).

Tomorrow a special edition of Spud on Sunday, from Mrs Ogg.

Spud on Sunday Part LXV

Continuing Spud the dog’s Sunday seaside adventures.

No Spud! Do not eat the seashells…

Edit… If you  look closely you can see he has a seashell in his mouth, he didn’t swallow it, thankfully, he does ingest stones from time to time  though  

Spud is a enthusiastic beachcomber, here I’m not sure if his plan is to dig up more jellyfish or bury the one he found.

Pretty isn’t it?

 

Best of British

Tonight we  beach buddies will be gathering together for a feast and watching the opening ceremony of the Olympic games at the holiday cottage with the biggest TV.  I hear a rumour steak is on the menu, I’m pretty sure it will be British and as  I’m pudding monitor I can vouch for the British strawberries, although there are a few French blueberries involved, but that is the spirit of the Olympic games, isn’t it?

A friend who was involved in the building of the stadium, attended the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremony, all she will say is that it is amazing.

I’m twenty minutes late already, I must away. Enjoy.

Timeless Elegance

I think regular readers will have gathered that most things about boats and yachts don’t  really ‘float my boat’ but every now and then one catches my eye and to be frank you’d have to be blindfolded to miss the elegance and beauty of this yacht, that was sailing out of Salcombe harbour this morning.

 

I don’t know what she is called, but we do know she shared a mooring in the harbour with  ‘Sceptre’ who raced in the Americas Cup 1958

Over the years various bits of boats and even a whole pram dinghy* have cruised into our kitchen at home, seeking warmth, ‘so the varnish will dry better’  during one of  Mr Uphilldowndale’s  boat repair and restoration projects (of which there are many) but I doubt any of the bits from this boat would fit in our kitchen, even if they came in through the window(true story).

*Pram dinghy? Here is one we sold earlier

 

(Joe still has a passion for tartan trousers, ten years on, but not for boats).