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Microclimate
The Geoneedle - Exmouth (far left) invisible in the mistOdd day yesterday. It was sunny in Topsham, so we decided to go for one of our usual walks, the six-mile circular walk from Exmouth to Sandy Bay...
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Dazzle
Just purging my camera, I found this photo I took a while back in a department store in Exeter.I don't normally photograph dresses in shops, but this one struck me because its zones of mismatched...
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The Iron Thorn
Science Fiction Book Club editionI just had the pleasure of re-reading an SF novel 40 years on: The Iron Thorn (Algis Budrys, Science Fiction Book Club, 1967, reprinted in paperback as The Amsirs and...
View ArticleWindows 8: inexplicable language
Windows 8: Beautiful and fastSorry to be a vector for viral marketing, but I just love these Windows 8 ads for the East Asian market, originally released under the collective title Windows 8 Training...
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Devonport Column open to public
Foulston's Devonport centre, Ker Streetfrom Devonshire & Cornwall illustrated (1832)A bit over two years back - John Foulston's Devonport (6th Dec 2010) - I mentioned the 1820s development of a new...
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"For older ones there's the Madeira Walk"
I briefly mentioned Madeira Walk, Exmouth, in a previous post (see Microclimate). In that connection, I just managed to hack out of Google Books snippet view a piece of Victorian doggerel about...
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Gormless protoplasm
I just had a brief e-mail exchange with a correspondent (US, I think) who was very amused by my use of the word "gormless", not having encountered it before (no reason to - it is a Britishism). A word...
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Sherbrook later
One Saturday afternoon I took myself off to Budleigh again. Last time - see Sherbook now (9th February 2013) - it was chilly, overcast and drizzling, and I was only just creeping out of the exhaustion...
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The Wiles of the Wicked
Small world: while Googling the geography of a recent walk (see Microclimate) I ran into a novel with a local setting in part, William Le Queux's 1900 The Wiles of the Wicked.It's a mystery thriller,...
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Topsham: top view
While tidying my office, I found a CD dating from August 2004 with some rather nice photos of Topsham and the Exe I took that summer from the tower of St Margaret's Church. It was, I recall, a regular...
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Exeter: Elaine Goodwin mosaic
Mentioned previously - Exeter Fountain Project and other public art - where I mentioned my favourite piece of Exeter's public art being the Elaine Goodwin mosaicin the entrance of Broadwalk House. I...
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More Haslehust plates: IOW
Further to earlier posts about the artist EW Haslehust, whose work appears as illustrations in a number of early 20th century regional guides, I just scanned these images from Our Beautiful Homeland -...
View ArticleSF on YouTube
Just a few things that caught my attention recently: there is some rather good SF on YouTube. First, Крепость (Fortress) aka Ten years from the beginning of the last war: a Russian animation. It has...
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Route 2: Topsham Lock to Powderham
Sunday May 26th was a fine and bright day: Clare and I took the ferry from Topsham across to the west side of the Exe at Topsham Lock, and walked the The Exe Estuary National Cycle Network (NCN) Route...
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Calbourne - WH Long
Finally, on Saturday June 8th, we got to Calbourne - the core location, fictionalised as "Malbourne", of Maxwell Gray's The Silence of Dean Maitland.It wasn't easy. This is a village in the core of the...
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The Devil's Chimney and The Chink
View Larger MapOn Sunday we revisited the Bonchurch area, and started with the descent into the East End landslip.For those who haven't seen previous posts on this topic, the topographical situation...
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Wild about new camera
Brief excursion into camera geekery. I've had very good mileage out of my old compact camera (an extremely inexpensive General Imaging Z1300 from Argos): you really can't complain when you get pictures...
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Undermount
You find some intriguing details in Victorian accounts of the Isle of Wight:Undermount, BonchurchThis beautiful demesne of H. Mitchell, Esq., is situated in one of the most charming parts of the...
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Legends of Torquay and nearby
Torquay c. 1850 - Legends of Torquay frontispieceI think I just spotted a bibliographic connection. Kevin Dixon's excellent Torquay's other history series featured a recent post, A deal with the Devil...
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Aargh! Two Sunflowers
I just ran into an ongoing misattribution story in yesterday's i newspaper: School librarian puts the world straight on fake William Blake poem ("Misattribution of verse started by students on internet...
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