Hall Dunnerdale

I parked by what must be the only patch of municipal land in Hall Dunnerdale because all the electric and telephone communications boxes have been set up here at the crossroads.  The phone box has no door and has done so for many years so one could say it is easy access, essential when the mobile signal around here is zilch. I wondered what the stone with the round  metal ring is for and why it is resting on a palet?  It will remain a mystery. With shortage of space the post office has been creative with the post box location because it is in the middle of Hall Dunnerdale Bridge in the background. 

once a county boundary between Westmorland and Lancashire before they moved the administrative borders in the 1970s but it is still a parish boundary.  Time to journey on

and follow the signpost.

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

 

Kirkgate

The Koko Bongo dance and nightclub in Wakefield, the latest of a number of entertainment venues that have occupied this building which started life in a rather more staid manner being built for the Yorkshire Penny Bank.  The street is Kirkgate, a name of Norse origin common across the north of England (especially Yorkshire) meaning 'road to the church' and if to make the 'point' there is the spire to the right, the tallest structure in Wakefield, and as it happens the tallest spire in Yorkshire.

It belongs to Wakefield Cathedral whose limestone adds a lightness to the pretty, and recently renovated interior. Sorry no photographs but here is

Postbox WF1 224

the entrance with the added bonus of a King George V (1910-1936) post box.

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

 

Newfield Inn

A grouping of different communication systems in the Duddon Valley, post box, phone box and electricity substation. The notice directs the visitor to extra parking for the Newfield Inn but as it is mid afternoon on a Monday

parking won't be a problem. The Newfield Inn squeezes itself in a corner between a house and a bank barn in the hamlet of Seathwaite.  I don't know the inn's age, and neither does anyone else, sources put it at 16th, 17th or 18th century, take your pick, could be all three.  It is possible the poet William Wordsworth stopped here when visiting Seathwaite and perhaps he penned some of his Duddon sonnets in one of the rooms, although more poetically when he wrote 'To The River Duddon' one of the lines said he "left his verses gummed to your rocks like lichen"

The shape of a 1950s Morris Minor cabriolet outside is instantly recognisable, and its owner is taking advantage of the warm sunny day with the top down and although there are clouds there are none of the nimbus ones which bring rain.  If not for the modern blue car I could masquerade this photo as being taken half a century ago.

The occupants of the cottage opposite the Newfield Inn don't have far to walk for a meal, drinks or good company.  There is a blue for sale notice up at the front, which is round the corner.  If you have £550,000 to spare (five bedrooms, detached barn (out of view) and garden) its yours.

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

Isle of Dogs

Taking the water bus down the Thames I passed the Isle of Dogs and the new waterside developments between Burrell's Wharf and Millwall Dock

Burrell's Wharf

This place has a long history of change and is located in the meander of the river surrounded on three sides by the Thames and the old East Indies Dock on the other.

It was such a beautiful day that once we were on dry land decided to take a stroll and idle along the riverside and with no destination in mind we enjoyed the skyline views while passing

through little parks (this one complete with what looks like a scouting group), residential properties and somehow ended up on the Isle of Dogs

where I imagine you could take your small boat down this slipway.

We wondered if we would come across the docks coming away from the river and down the road passing by the parish church of Christ and St John with St Luke.  (They were certainly covering all the bases rounding up a spiritual trio). We did walk further along but got lost in a maze of streets and with no map to guide us retraced our steps

past the post office and its post box

and the Great Eastern pub in Tower Hamlets.  I was not aware at the time but since learnt that the vast iron sailing ship imagined and built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1858 (at the time the largest ship ever built), was constructed nearby at the shipyard of John Scott Russell in Millwall. I believe there are remnants of the launch ramp at Canary Wharf.   A missed opportunity there!  The Great Eastern is always referred to as 'the ill-fated', for despite Brunel's vision of it journeying to the far east carrying 4000 passengers, the boiler exploded on her maiden voyage, J Scott Russell went bankrupt and Brunel had a stroke. It did eventually sail across the Atlantic but it was not a success and was later modified into a cable laying vessel. Eventually she was beached at Rock Ferry, Liverpool and broken up just thirty years after her launch.

Great Eastern harboured at Milford Haven by Unknown - Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org

A little bit of her still stands proud in Liverpool as the flag pole at the kop end of Liverpool's Anfield ground once was one of Great Eastern's topmasts (Source: From Millwall to the Kop).

Meanwhile we left the Great Eastern pub behind to continue our walk back and stopped for refreshment at the

Island Gardens Café in its peaceful surroundings with a tea pot and cup embellished in the buildings brickwork before going back to the other side of the river via the foot tunnel.

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

 

Eee its Tea time

Here I am at the York's medieval city walls and the signs directing those in need of refreshment to Evie's Tea Room, envelopes can be posted on the way past in the double post box.  Nearby is Exhibitions Square the home of the City Art Gallery which is currently closed for a major upgrade until 2015.  This is Bootham Bar

the north west entrance and  one of four gatehouses into York.  In medieval times it restricted traffic into the city, sometimes collecting tolls and in times of war was closed and defended.  Although York's historic centre is its famous attribute it is also a key railway junction halfway between London and Edinburgh on the east coast line so where better to house the national railway collection which includes this  

beast, the enormous steam locomotive KF7, its scale can be judged by the family reading the information board.  It is one of originally 24 designed specifically for the conditions on the Guangzhou-Hankou Railway line in China. Built by the Vulcan Forge of Newton-le-Willows in Lancashire, a company that even had its own railway station (Vulcan Halt).  Completed in the 1930s these engines remained mostly unscathed through the turbulent period of China's history in the 1930s and 40s until they were retired in the 1970s.  There are two known survivors of this class, one in the Beijing Railway Museum and this one in York which was offered back to the UK by the Chinese Government for preservation and arrived in 1981.

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

 

Mussel In

This juvenile maritime gull could not have posed in a better place for a photograph.  Is it trying to hitch a ride or just waiting for something tasty.

Perhaps some mussels though it would be disappointed in these for they are made of Kerry limestone.  Created by the stone sculptor Graeme Micheson in 2007 they stand on the Conwy quayside and called by their Latin name Mytilus Edulis but the real thing, the Blue Mussel, has many more hues. To the right of the sculpture is Conwy Mussels who hand rake (in wooden boats) the shellfish where they naturally grow on the seabed, and where the Conwy river meets the ocean.  This sustainable fishing make them larger in size than rope grown mussels.  The mussel season runs from 1st September until the end of April when they are sent to the fish markets  in something faster than this

Ye Olde Mail Coach, Conwy

 They are rarely disturbed in summer when they breed so maybe that is when they mail out publicity

Castle Street, Conwy

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey though the alphabet, this week sojourning at M

Nesting in Nectar

Buff-tailed humble bee

Autumn comes and we leave behind the buzz of the bee but here in a photo of summer the search for nectar is in full flow. This species of bee usually make their nests under the ground.

Large Skipper butterfly

This nimble skipper darting from flower to flower both patrolling and taking nectar, its distinctive spread  wings in resting attitude, although they can close their wings above the body like other butterflies. They are particularly fond of nectar from Bramble and Thistle.

Gedgrave Road, Gedgrave, Suffolk

 This hedgerow does not have any bramble but it does have a nesting post box which I did not notice until I

Post Box Number IP12 6369 Gedgrave, Suffolk

went to get a closer shot and a lot of droning and wings flying about my head made me make a hasty retreat.

The population of Gedgrave is 30.  I suspect they don't use this postbox a lot. Brings a new meaning to air mail. 

The nearby field had lots of sunflower nectar on tap.  The flowers are facing east like my camera. 

An entry to ABC Wednesday. A journey through the alphabet.