Duttons and Dogs

Duttons for Buttons in Harrogate and their display window homage to the bicycle and the Tour which was about to race into the town. Kate Davies Designs calls the Dutton shops the spiritual home of the button on her blog here and the place to find that elusive button to make up a set here.  This family business have three haberdashery shops within a small area of Yorkshire, some of their stock can be browsed on-line here but as they have more than 12,000 designs in stock it is the tip of the iceberg.  Watched Pirates of the Caribbean? I'll pay more attention to the buttons rather than Johnny Depp next time as I read on their site that Duttons were the people who supplied the buttons for the costumes.

The companion cat was a popular choice for last week's ABC Wednesday contributors so of course we can't leave out the companion for this week's letter and

this 'cute as a button' little dog being taken for a walk along the Millom Embankment with the Lakeland fells in the distance.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at D here

Embankment Embellishments

On the Victoria Embankment in London I managed to extricate  my camera from my bag as these two passed, union jack hats embellishing their summer outfit, and of course that Barcelona football shirt. Is he a fan of the club or Lionel Messi (considered as one of the great players of all time) winner of FIFA World Player and Ballon d'Or.

 They were passing by the cast iron sphinx benches, originally installed in the 1870s to mark the opening of Cleopatra's Needle Obelisk and designed by Lewis and George Vulliamy, the latter who also designed the famous sturgeon lamposts which line the embankment, however I was distracted by colour

and the embellishment on one of the roadside lampposts.  I don't know if these were later riffs on Vulliamy's theme or originals. 

The newest sculpture on the embankment is a monument to "the few" of the Battle of Britain of 1940 it pictures the aircrew scrambling for aircraft take off.  Unveiled in 2005 for the 65th anniversary it also lists the 2,936 airmen and ground crew who took part in the defence of Britain from invasion.  Outnumbered 4 to 1 the odds were stacked against them but their courage and sacrifice meant that Hitler changed his invasion plan.

Time to turn from the riverside and head off 

through one of the gardens off the Thames Embankment. It was the embellishment of the sunflowers which attracted my attention and those tree/palm things.  The statue is to Henry Bartle Prere (colonial administrator) who in the film Zulu Dawn was played by the actor John Mills.  

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at the letter E here   

On the Edge of X

In mathematics the letter X denotes an unknown quantity.  In nature this X is also a bit unknown as it  is in a place that is neither sea or land, the salt marsh.  Continually changing it is a rich salt tolerant biology feeds birds, mammals and amphibians.

But what have I noticed here, footsteps in the mud

Sheep crossing? The sheep like to munch on the saltmarsh although this little group with two keeping a wary eye on me are on the embankment. (Their compatriots can just be seen near the horizon).     Also just seen in the distance further down the embankment is a place to take your ease.

The seat, now with the tide covering the salt marsh behind it. Unusually for the UK where you can nearly guarantee wherever you stop on the coast there will be someone gazing out to sea whatever the weather, this seat faces in the entirely different direction.  Either because of the contrariness of the local settlement of Millom (its name of Norse origin means 'between' as it sits between two rivers and the tide)

Black Combe

or perhaps the view of the hills is thought to be more restful. The Millom Embankment was built to protects both this low lying farmland

and the railway that wends its way up the coast.  Northern Rail paint some of their trains with views from the north of England, the area they cover.   I'm a bit too far away for this to be very detailed. The embankment where I stand is also part of a long distance walk, the Cumbria Coastal Way.  The train is the ideal alternative way to do it in chunks as linear walks (except at its very northern end when the train track bends away).

The perfect journey for sea lovers. The water laps the embankment. If you have noticed the difference in colour  of the sea grass, the first three photographs were taken in February, the others last November when rain had nourished the grass. This winter and late spring was one of attrition for the wildlife so on the February walk there were a few remains but this one took my eye:

Did the duck fall from the sky or did it become entangled in the hedge?  It was a sad sight but although dead at least in winter there were no flies buzzing around and only the effects of xeransis (the drying of tissues).

An entry to ABC Wednesday - a journeys through the alphabet that has reached X

Embankment

A walk on the Millom tidal embankment is enjoyable on a gloriously hot summer's day. Only a zephyr of a wind rustled the grass. A contrast to the last time we walked this way when a cooling wind howled across the estuary.
As we turned to return through the lanes there was a large clump of what I think are Himalayan Balsam, or Poor Man's Orchid, under the trees. These were the only two in flower, the rest looked as though they were waiting for July.