Musings

St Michael’s Mount, established by monks from the four-times larger Mont Saint-Michel off the Lower Normandy coast in the 1200s. Evidence still turns up of Neolithic and Iron Age use of this prominent landform. Castle closed. Garden closed. Parking prices steep at £3.50 and £4. Rain setting in, so we drove on. (Honeymoon revisit).

The road destroyed half of this large stone-walled burial chamber (probably Neolithic); no doubt it had been looted centuries before. Still: massive stones. One looked like it had deliberate large pits made in it. (Info on-the-net suggests this is a copy (“cups”), and the original is museum-ed.)

In a nearby field is the Merry Maidens stone circle, which has several names and many stories associated with it. What we see today is in part a fanciful (and likely earnest) reconstruction. Several outlying stones are in other fields. Loved having the rainbow join us.

With rain, you can find…mud on road.

And ducks near ponds. These kindly drifted off the pavement so we could pass, and returned as soon as we were by.

This is Cornish tin mining country. There must have been terrible environmental degradation during that time. These sentinel chimneys (stacks they call them) are scattered about. Most have this shape and the two-toned appearance.

We went to Port Isaac! You may know it as Port Wenn from the British TV series “Doc Martin.” His surgery is to the right. And don’t even try to peek in the windows. Tide was in. Parking costs still high here—and you need coins for the P&D machine, although they tried to offer a smart phone option—but the interface was crap.

Next town over is Port Quin, now mostly ruins and cottages, and not many of either. And the coast path, of course. The building to the left was the pilchard palace, where they aged(?) the pilchards. The row of square holes was for beams that pressed the fish in the barrels, if I understood correctly. Must have smelled just fine all across town. One must have hoped for the near ever-present wind.

View from our room under the eaves (and in our price range). That’s Port Isaac in the bay. And we can hear the wind on the slate roof.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Clockwise Cornwall

The robins were back, plus grackles, sparrows, and more. This cardinal posed intentionally, I’m pretty sure, although she didn’t do a good job of catching the light.

And the light was lovely.

Posted at 6:00 PM | Comments Off on Alight/lit

Fried oyster plate. Two sides: cole slaw and green pea casserole.

Had to try the latter because I didn’t think I’d had it in any version, plus the waitress said it had bacon in it.

Recipe is pretty close to mac-cheese minus most of the pasta and substitute about one-quarter that volume with peas; vary the flavorings a bit by adding a few sautéed onion slices and some crushed, fried-up bacon.

Now I can say I’ve tried it, and skip it the next time.

Reflected sunset light from a dark parking lot behind shipping containers used for storage. I particularly like the security light, its pole and electrical lines.

Posted at 8:51 PM | Comments Off on Unthemed photo duo

Two pelicans soared right over our windshield just before we got to the parking area for the ferry. That was mid afternoon. Well after dark, we strolled down to the Atlantic beach to see the moon trying to cut through the thin cloud layer.

The lights from the mansion we’re staying in illuminate the empty decorative pool out front, with its marble nekkid lady. Curiously, the nekkid lady next to what was the indoor pool has a marble towel over her nether regions.

We have the run of the place, from the circus room upstairs to the bowling/pool/pingpong room—with a pirate theme—downstairs. Our group is fourteen and only two are sharing a room, so this place is much larger than a McMansion.

Posted at 10:06 PM | Comments Off on Light and night

The sun does blast the leafless trees during winter.

[No connection to the next photo.]

This weird top has extra-long sleeves that act like fingerless gloves. And are equally as strange as fingerless gloves.

Posted at 10:01 PM | 2 Comments »

I had a chuckle over this Porsche-style parking technique. That rear tire is almost on the sidewalk.

I really liked the light today—winter-clear. And a backlit palmetto (?) leaf—always eye-catching.

Here’s some prismatic light distortion…coming through the windshield and then a pickup’s side window.

Headline noted today: Papa en México. I laughed; papa means both pope and potato, well, and dad/papa. So, if the popemobile were very sun-heated, he’d be a hot papa (your pick—pope or potato…).

Posted at 8:32 PM | 1 Comment »

Let me lead with the headline: we ate our longevity noodles just like you’re supposed to for Chinese New Year (I bet they don’t use the C word). The trick is that the noodles have to be long and you can’t bite them, hence the slurping stereotype. And long life.

Did get out; did find some sunshine.

Also discovered a sleeping duck on the newly landscaped lawn, contravening the friendly sign.

Posted at 7:20 PM | Comments Off on Longevity and the park (a new serial?)

Somehow the day slipped away (mostly), and we ventured out late, when most of the Old Fourth Ward Park pond was in shadow…and looked ever so different than during any slice of mid-day light.

Posted at 9:17 PM | Comments Off on Crane above

Courthouse number one: great sunlight. Love the bands of colors—different materials, varied workmanship. So Florentine (or something).

Courthouse number two: sunshine shown on best side. Such a modest building. Still, it has the square surrounding that all downtown traffic must travel around the building.

At least until sunset. After…heh, werewolves (or wearwolves? fashion plates?).

Posted at 10:04 PM | Comments Off on Keep count

Heavy, intense rains this morning filled the streets, flowed in the back door at Trader Joe’s, and rearranged the mulch in this bed.

I strolled after the precip had stopped and found a baby-blue Mous-tang. The color looked a tad unreal in the overcast.

I also found a Buddha being overtaken by winter weeds.

And this morning the weather forecast/discussion I read mentioned “an enhanced zone of elevated cape”‚ no idea what all that means

Posted at 10:44 PM | Comments Off on Out, about