View allAll Photos Tagged For
For some reason, this cake did not photograph well- not really sure because in person it is super cute...anyway, this is an 8 inch three layer square (obviously...lol) white cake with buttercream fill and frost, fondant covered and fondant mini lego's for border...
For reasons unknown, this bird was cruising the area at about three feet, his wings occasionally hitting the leaves of plants.
I was so excited to see these today at the Chicago History Museum. I was there for a fundraiser. I did not have time to read any of the info about them as I was working, but I may be able to research the Zaretsky sign later. I’ll see ya tomorrow… I’m exhausted.😴
Island For Lease Hawaii Surf
All This Include:
7712 mts
2353 Prims
2800 Linden per week
The first buy will included your first 2 week tiers payment.
*The newest reBourne Casa Blanca. is included , Visit us in world.
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hawaii%20Surf/231/59/35
♡ Thanks a lot my friends, for Happy Birthday wishes!
♡ Muito obrigada amigos, pelos votos de Feliz Aniversário!
Have a nice Thursday!
Tenham uma ótima Quinta!
:)*
Everyone's looking for a livelihood everywhere ... humans or birds , may be livelihood on our side but we do not know!
الكل يبحث عن رزقه في كل مكان ... بشر او طيور ... قد يكون الرزق بجانبنا ولكن لا نعلم !
I Swear, i looked at my order and how it was placed. The Light on the table and the super cool, sexy, ultra dooper looking cappuccino and cream with cookies and i thought, damn!
On this note, the only thing was instantly hit with on the back of my mind (other than the Grey Goose bottle of vodka gifted to me 5 mins back that intoxicated my thoughts) was the kind of compositions and lighting archana does with a lot of her kick ass coffee/tea table shots.
So here is one for the blaster. Hallelujah!
Canon EOS 400D with the Sigma 24 - 70MM F/2.8. Aperture Priority, F/4 at 1/100th of a Second, ISO200.
For Sale by the road and looking in very nice condition.
A 1990 car,1600cc petrol.
I've not seen such an old 405 in quite a while.
The dwarf signal on the main shows a Medium to Clear indication for the departing GO train to Toronto.
After realizing the consequences of ridding fields of "noxious weeds", milkweed is being encouraged to ward off extinction of Monarch Butterflies.
For many reasons i love this shot.The lighting and the shadows are one of them.Also the facial expression. Its not the usual pregnant shot where the model is smiling and happy. This is more like "are you talking to me and my baby".
This shot was taken when she was 25 weeks preggy last sunday. Only few more weeks and im a daddy :)
Have a great sunday my friends!
Jackson Prep's brand new theatre and auditorium Centre for Arts and Leadership.
Taken for Portico Magazine.
Jackson, Mississippi
Strobist: Composite of 12 images. I used an AB1600 on full power and moved around the theatre lighting up different portions. They are almost all cross-lit in some fashion, especially the seats. The walls were slightly more direct and at less power. Assembled them in Photoshop.
Blah blah GCSEs blah borrrrriiiinnngggg
It appears that my lesson time for certain subjects is far better spent on speed-drawn fanart than whatever they may teach.
Fun fact: both of these were drawn in under 15 minutes.
This was taken yesterday also,but I have no idea why I didn't uploaded it as soon as I saw how horrifying,creepy and odd this looks.
I know I've been using a lot my stairs and I know that all of my latest images are creepy as hell.
sorry for that!
don't forget to check
"I want a tie that reflects my personality..."
Interior of 31 Savile Row, home of Mark Marengo. Dedicated to Stefan Elf for his kind testimonial. Many thanks again.
I strongly recommend you View On Black
Check out the new dress on my eBay shop :) www.ebay.com/usr/eifeldolldress
Check out the new dress on my eBay shop :) www.ebay.com/sch/eifeldolldress/m.html?item=261672350654&...
For me, the Museum of Islamic Art is THE iconic building n Doha. It is impressive and interesting from every angle and a beutifully thought out space. At night it takes on a whole new character
International show jumping in Chester...England.
jetbluestone's photos on Flickriver
Texture used on this shot www.flickr.com/photos/skeletalmess/
"Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time will come... And what I say to you I say to all: Watch."
- Mark 13:33, 37, which is part of today's Gospel for the First Sunday of Advent.
In this window from the church of Ss Philip and James in Oxford, we see the Blessed Virgin Mary, looking to Christ, and in prayer. For she is the model of all prayer, and is ever attentive to God's Word, as we too strive to be during this holy season of Advent.
For old times sake...I'm not sure if the Bench Monday group is still alive and well, but it used to be one of my favorites. So I couldn't help but take one last night. Luckily, my daughter still remembers how to balance on really strange objects. : )
***UPDATE*** Beth has a clearly defined vision, and its actually coming together now... a room with some serious chops! This one adds even more beauty.
Alright y'all. I'm giving major props to my bud Josh (who owns an amazing Usonian house) for saving this beauty. I brought this one back to life with thunder cat grey woven upholstery that I dialed up lean and mean. Thin to win!!! (Thanks, Josh!)
Subscribe to my youtube for epic bikini swimsuit model goddess videos shot at the same time as stills!
www.youtube.com/bikiniswimsuitmodels
New epic video of the day's bikini swimsuit model shoot:
Nikon D800E photography of Pretty Brunette Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess @ the 45SURF Summer Beach House! Gorgeous Brown Eyes! I'm thiking about adding a deck and a pool to the beach house / surf shack! You'll have to visit!
Join/like my facebook page! www.facebook.com/45surfHerosJourneyMythology
Follow me on facebook! facebook.com/elliot.mcgucken
Classic California--an athletic model goddess in Red, White, & Blue American Flag Gold 45 Revolver bikini with the Moving Dimensions Theory Equation on it: dx4/dt=ic! Tall, thin, fit and very, very pretty!
Here's some new epic video of the epicly pretty brunette goddess--shooting stills & video @ the same time!:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_7feV3T1Rs (Sony NEX 6 Video with 50mm F/1.8 Prime (nice bokeh!))
www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7pH5VBiO6g
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqAoJZgqSs4 (Sony NEX 6 Video with 50mm F/1.8 Prime (nice bokeh!))
Be sure to enjoy the epic videos in full screen HD! :)
Photos shot with the AMAZING Nikon D800 E and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor Zoom Lens and the B W 77mm XS-Pro Kaesemann Circular Polarizer with Multi-Resistant Nano Coating. Classic California Brunette Beach Babe! Beautiful Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess with Pretty Blue Eyes and wavy sandy-brownhair!
Shot in both RAW & JPEG, but all these photos are RAWs finished in Lightroom 5 ! :)
Modeling the classic 45surf t-shirts and the Gold 45 Revolver Gold'N'Virtue Bikini on a sunny Malibu summer afternoon--my favorite for shooting on the beautiful socal beach!
Shot with the new Nikon D800E and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor Zoom Lens.
Captured in both RAW and JPEG.
Modeling the black & gold "Gold 45 Revolver" Gold'N'Virtue swimsuits with the main equation to Moving Dimensions Theory on the swimsuits: dx4/dt=ic. Yes I have a Ph.D. in physics! :) You can read more about my research and Hero's Journey Physics here:
herosjourneyphysics.wordpress.com/ MDT PROOF#2: Einstein (1912 Man. on Rel.) and Minkowski wrote x4=ict. Ergo dx4/dt=ic--the foundational equation of all time and motion which is on all the shirts and swimsuits. Every photon that hits my Nikon D800e's sensor does it by surfing the fourth expanding dimension, which is moving at c relative to the three spatial dimensions, or dx4/dt=ic!
May the Hero's Journey Mythology Goddess inspire you (as they have inspired me!) along your own artistic journey! Love, love, love the 70-200mm F/2.8 Lens! :)
All the Best on Your Epic Hero's Journey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
May the classic California HJM Goddesses guide, inspire, and exalt ye along yer heroic artistic journey!
All the Best on Your Epic Hero's Journey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
The books behind the pretty goddess on the Malibu beach hut and surfboard are The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Homer's Iliad, Homer's Odyssey, Shakespeare, and Herman Melville's Moby Dick! My favorite books! Will have some video of the pretty model reading them beside a campfire soon.
They're all collectors editions! My books cost as much as my surfboards!
And for those who always ask, I shoot in RAW! Always! :)
A Gold 45 Goddess exalts the archetypal form of Athena--the Greek Goddess of wisdom, warfare, strategy, heroic endeavour, handicrafts and reason. A Gold 45 Goddess embodies 45SURF's motto "Virtus, Honoris, et Actio Pro Veritas, Amor, et Bellus, (Strength, Honor, and Action for Truth, Love, and Beauty," and she stands ready to inspire and guide you along your epic, heroic journey into art and mythology. It is Athena who descends to call Telemachus to Adventure in the first book of Homer's Odyssey--to man up, find news of his true father Odysseus, and rid his home of the false suitors, and too, it is Athena who descends in the first book of Homer's Iliad, to calm the Rage of Achilles who is about to draw his sword so as to slay his commander who just seized Achilles' prize, thusly robbing Achilles of his Honor--the higher prize Achilles fought for. And now Athena descends once again, assuming the form of a Gold 45 Goddess, to inspire you along your epic journey of heroic endeavour.
I'm back from visiting my baby and her beau in San Diego. Had a lovely time and even met a fellow Flickerite, the humorous and talented David .
Jasmine and I met David for coffee the day before I left. Thanks David for suggesting it. You are a kind soul. So lovely to meet you.
The route of staaltrein 6O32 and 6V13 in the UK which cross through the channel tunnel to Calais Frethun shown in red. On alternate days the wagons are thought to continue to Rotterdam Botlek for Broekman Group, the Netherlands (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays) or to Myriad in Maubeuge France (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays). Parts of both routes shown in blue are a best guess but it is known to run from Calais-Frethun via Ebblinghem and Staple to Hazebrouck then Lille. If you have any more information please let me know. Nicolas B photographed class 66 number 052 passing Staple (department 59 France) heading to Maubeuge on 19 June 2014 including two wagons, Laurent Knop photographed a similar set of wagons at Landas (department 59 France) hauled by two locomotives including class 77 number 008 (previously HLD 5709) also working from Calais Fréthun to Maubeuge on 17 April 2014 and another similar set of wagons was photographed by Tarek Marouane at La Chapell D'Armentieres France returning to the UK from Maubeuge being hauled by class 66 number 062 on 5 April 2014 (photo and account now removed from Flickr).
The service from Calais Frethun to Rotterdam Botlek was photographed by Laurent Knop at Merris (department 59 France) going via Mouscron Belgium. Trainspotter gilliam photographed class 77 ECR number 006 on 46446 hauling empty steel wagons (staalwagens) between Antwerp Schijnpoort and Calais on 31 January 2015, it also being photographed byTreinfoto Belgie at Kortrijk Belgium. Treinfoto Belgie has also photographed the service at Harelbeke railway station on 1 April 2015, while trainspotter gilliam has photographed it at at Berchem railway station on 18 March 2015, at West Berchem, at Melsele on 27 January 2015 and at Zwijndrecht station on 21 January 2015.
It was also photographed by Peter Boot passing Botlek level crossing on 5 August 2011 hauled by Captrain 1206 L032 and by Magnus Souverein at Willemsdorp near Station Dordrecht Zuid on 21 May 2011.
The steel flow from South Wales to Maubeuge (France) and to Broekman (Holland) stopped running through the Channel tunnel at the end of November 2015. The flow to Maubeuge was cancelled as the cold mill which produced this material was mothballed as part of the Tata Steel strip downsizing programme. Instead Maubeuge is supplied from Tata Steels Limuiden plant (Holland). 2 grades of steel were also supplied by Tata Steel to Broekman Group to make oil drums. With one grade being sourced from elsewhere the remaining 700 tonnes per week of the second grade was not sufficient to run a block train.
The timetabled route for 6O32 from Margam to Dollands Moor in the UK is;
Margam Terminal Complex............1000
Margam Moors Junction.................1005
Pyle [PYL]............................................1010
Stormy..................................................1014
Bridgend [BGN] 2..............................1020
Tremains..............................................1024½
Pencoed [PCD]...................................1025½
Llanharan [LLR]...................................1029½
Llantrisant [LTI]....................................1032½
Pontyclun [PYC]..................................1033
Miskin...............................................1036/1042
St Fagans Level Crossing............…1050½
Leckwith North Junction.................1055
Cardiff West........................................1056½
Cardiff Central [CDF]........................1057
Rumney River Bridge Junction......1101½
Wentloog Frht Trmnal (Ews)............1105
Marshfield............................................1108
Ebbw Junction....................................1113
Gaer Junction.....................................1114½
Newport [NWP]..................................1116
Maindee West Junction...................1118
Maindee East Junction.....................1118½
East Usk Junction..............................1120
Llanwern West Junction...................1122
Llanwern Exchange Sidings........1137/1237
Llanwern Steelworks East...............1247
Severn Tunnel Junction [STJ] 4......1300
Severn Tunnel West..........................1301
Severn Tunnel East...........................1307
Pilning [PIL] 1.......................................1310
Patchway [PWY] 1..............................1319½
Bristol Parkway [BPW] 3..................1322
Westerleigh Junction.......................1328½
Chipping Sodbury......................1335½/1342
Badmington........................................1350
Hullavington 1400 1416
Little Somerford......1424½
Wootton Bassett Junction......1437
Rushey Platt......1443½
Swindon [SWI] UML......1445
Highworth Junction 1449 1515
Uffington (Oxfordshire)......1529
Challow......1532
Wantage Road 1537 1557
Steventon......1603
Milton Junction......1605
Foxhall Junction [XJF]......1607
Didcot Parkway [DID] 4 1609 1614
Didcot East Junction......1616 RL 1
Moreton Cutting......1617½
Cholsey [CHO]......1621
Goring & Streatley [GOR]......1625
Pangbourne [PAN]......1629
Tilehurst [TLH]......1632
Tilehurst East Junction......1632½
Reading West Junction......1634
Reading [RDG] 15......1635 URL
Kennet Bridge Junction......1636½
Twyford [TWY] 4......1643½
Ruscombe......1645
Maidenhead West......1651½
Maidenhead [MAI] 4......1651½
Maidenhead East......1652
Taplow [TAP]......1654
Burnham [BNM]......1655½
Slough West......1658
Slough [SLO] 5......1659
Dolphin Junction......1701½
Langley [LNY]......1703½
Iver [IVR]......1706
West Drayton Jcn......1708½
West Drayton [WDT]......1709
West Drayton East......1710
Stockley Bridge Junction......1711
Heathrow Airport Junction......1713
Hayes & Harlington [HAY]......1713½
Southall West Junction......1716
Southall [STL]......1718
Southall East Junction......1719½
Hanwell Bridge Loop 1721 1735
Hanwell [HAN]......1737
West Ealing Junction......1738½
West Ealing [WEA]......1739
Ealing Broadway [EAL]......1741
Acton West......1742½
Acton Main Line [AML] GL 1749 1751
Acton Wells Junction......1757
Willesden S.W.S. [XWS] 1759 1806
Mitre Bridge Junction [XMB]......1811
North Pole Signal Vc818......1812
North Pole Junction......1812½
North Pole Signal Vc813.............1813
Shepherds Bush [SPB]................1815
Kensington Olympia [KPA] 3......1816
West Brompton [WBP].................1819
Imperial Wharf [IMW]....................1820½
Latchmere Junction......................1823½
Longhedge Junction....................1837½
Factory Junction.........................1839/1845
Voltaire Road Junction [XVJ]......1846½
Clapham High Street [CLP].........1847
Shepherds Lane Junction...........1849½
Brixton [BRX]..................................1850 ½
Herne Hill [HNH] 3........................1852
West Dulwich [WDU]....................1854
Sydenham Hill [SYH]....................1855
Penge East [PNE]...........................1858
Kent House [KTH]..........................1859
Beckenham Junction [BKJ].........1900½
Shortlands Junction [XOR]..........1902½
Shortlands [SRT]............................1903½
Bromley South [BMS]...................1905½
Bickley [BKL]...................................1908½
Bickley Junction [XLY]..................1910
Petts Wood Junction [XPE]..........1913
Petts Wood [PET]............................1913½
Orpington [ORP] 3..........................1915½
Chelsfield [CLD]..............................1918
Knockholt [KCK]..............................1920
Dunton Green [DNG].....................1926½
Sevenoaks [SEV] 3.........................1929
Hildenborough [HLB].....................1934½
Tonbridge [TON] DF.......................1937
Paddock Wood [PDW]...................1943
Marden [MRN].................................1948
Staplehurst [SPU]...........................1950½
Headcorn [HCN].............................1954
Pluckley [PLC].................................2001½
Ashford Maidstone Loop.............2009½
Ashford International [AFK].........2010
Herringe...........................................2017
Westenhanger [WHA]...................2019½
Sandling [SDG]...............................2021
Saltwood Junction [XSI]...............2022
Dollands Moor Sidings [XLM].....2024
channel tunnel to Calais Frethun
Calais Frethun.......................
Le Pont d'Ardres...................
Nortkerque............................
Audruicq.................................
Ruminghem...........................
Watten-Eperlecques............
Saint-Omer.............................
Renescure..............................
Ebblinghem...........................
Staple......................................
Hazebrouck...........................
Strazeele................................
Bailleul.....................................
Steenwerck............................
Nieppe.....................................
Armentieres............................
Lille
21/52 Friday 16th March 2012
I know this isn’t a self-portrait but I would love to explain why I didn’t create a self-portrait this week :)
Basically, I started taking photos, more or less, at the same time I picked up a pencil. I was never really into art or photography when I was little, but at the age of around 19 I managed to get into architecture at university. This is where I guess I was introduced to photography, drawing and design in general. To be honest at first I hated it, the main reason was because I just couldn’t draw anything at all or take a decent looking photograph for that matter (in fact I even screwed up one of my years at uni because of it haha mainly because I was just lazy and couldn’t really give a shit about anything at the time). But I never really gave up. As I continued to draw and take photos, I began to get the hang of it and I started to love it! So besides taking photos, I guess one of my biggest passions would be to draw and design in general (This is actually a digital drawing that I had done this week). I think this will be the only drawing I will ever post as part of this project but I might do a 52 week project with drawings instead of photos (when I find the time haha)
if anyone is interested this is my Tumblr! account!
Ask me questions here! if you feel like xD
/////////////////////////////////////////////
ADDITIF 21/10/22
The Wedding Day
Departure for church
Entered at Stationaer's Hall
Le jour de Mariage. Départ pour l'église.
TOBY
110
"Bien que ces quatre lettres soient souvent considérées comme un tampon aveugle sur les cartes stéréo, il n'y a pas de personne telle que Toby qui
n'est que le nom de signature de deux photographes d'origine française, Jean-Jacques Nancy et Francis Mathieu,
opérant à Londres à partir de 5 & 6 Benyon Collages. Route Hertford, Hackney. La raison pour laquelle ce nom particulier
a été choisi, cependant, reste un mystère.(...)
Jean-Jacques Nancy (souvent anglicisé en John James Nancy) est né à Marseille en 1824,
François Mathieu, aussi connu sous le nom de Francis Mathieu,né en France vers 1818,exerçaient comme photographe à la fin des années 1860."
"On ne sait rien d'autre sur ces deux hommes qui ont produit pas mal de belles scènes de genre, d'une bande dessinée
personnage et a également réalisé quelques images stéréoscopiques pornographiques. Ils n'ont protégé qu'une infime partie de leur
sortie, le tout en 1859 : Le départ du jour du mariage pour l'église et l'alarme de minuit ! (19 (mai), Le Moderne
Joseph et Johnny Inquisiteur (24 mai), Fast Day n° un à quatre (17 juin), Dernier de la guerre. Jeu ! (28 juin), et The Miser, une série de 2 diapositives nommées respectivement Fear - Delight (24 septembre)."
S: The poor man's picture gallery...D.Pellerin,B.May.2014.
//////////////////////////////////////////////
Donné pour Charles Gaudin photographe, et selon les sources de 1850 (?) à 1870 !
Avant 1875, date de la liquidation financière du « sieur Gaudin » par le tribunal de commerce de la seine.*
J'ai toujours de mal à prendre C.G pour un photographe à part entière…
L’intérêt financier me paraît nul, il est bien plus rentable de vendre du tout fait, sans rajouter des frais de prises de vue !
Gaudin était avant tout un vendeur spécialisé, j'aurai assez aimé aller faire un tour dans ses différentes boutiques ! Et je ne suis pas le seul je suppose…
Mais laissons-lui le bénéfice du doute, après tout Adolphe Block aussi lui est arrivé de jouer avec des plaques .
La scénette de ce mariage en plusieurs stéréos n'est pas sans rappeler J. Elliot évidemment !
Seul un des personnages fixes l'objectif, au fond, il a le teint malade et jaunâtre, une petite main ayant déparé sur cette version.
Une chose est sûre, l'ambiance était glaciale, des mariés aux invités !
Sur les stéréos qui suivent, même « gueule d'enterrement », volontaire ?
Coloration assez faible avec une utilisation trop marquée des pochoirs.
Juste un passage jaune ou en premier et dernier plan. Un seul pochoir suffisait certainement à peindre le rose, le bleu et le vert.
Le rouge restant un coup de pinceau, a mon humble avis.
Ce sont tous ces visages fermés, tristes et sans vie qui donnent un peu d’intérêt à ces vues « mariage de zombi ».
* Gaudin Frères.D.Pellerin, 1997.
In de weerspiegeling zoon Menno toeziend hoe ik de foto maak.
In the reflection my son Menno watching how I make the picture.
Lens: Olympus 50 mm F.Zuiko F:1,8
Packing up the propellant and the new rocket builds for the desert. The pink Crayon piggy bank now sports an aluminum nozzle on the rear… and the minimum diameter 38mm bird will test the latest "mellow" and "pink" propellant from Cesaroni Aerospace Canada, eh! Those will be first flights for the girls.
The 3D-printer has been running every night to churn out fin cans for six young boys who will be launching rockets for the first time. I also have a 4"-diameter fin can there that I need to simulate as it pushes the limits of the Makerbot, and the fins are a bit stubby.
I have a boatload of night and day launches to pull off. The propellant alone includes a N5800, M3000, and a dozen L, K, H, and I motors. Each letter grade is a doubling of total impulse, and the M motor class is the largest that's legal in California. Hello Nevada!
Here's a fun video of the large bird I'll be focusing on...
For about 15 minutes this evening, the Rise of the Full Nimitahamowipisim* was visible from St. Georges Crescent looking towards four of Edmonton's bridges** across the North Saskatchewan River. For the first few minutes, the Moon was easily seen between two apartments towers on Saskatchewan Drive, the next few minutes all that could be seen was a glow in the clouds, and then for few more minutes the Moon reappeared behind thin clouds and its reflection appeared in the river. And that was it as the Moon the disappeared for the rest of the evening.
Alister Ling and I hosted an Astro Café to shoot his moonrise, attended by two RASC Edmonton Centre members, Shane and Victor, and Shane's wife who enjoyed the view with binoculars.
* In the Cree Culture, the full moon of September 2020 is known as Nimitahamowipisim, the Rutting Moon, marking the time of year the bull moose scrapes the velvet from his antlers in preparation for mating season. See: creeliteracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/2020CalendarS.... The Colonial American name of the September 2020 full moon is the Corn Moon. See: www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-names
** From closest to furthest: Groat Bridge on which crews are finishing up a three year rehabilitation, LRT Bridge (white), High Level Bridge (blue and green), Walterdale Bridge (white).
St Edmund, Southwold, Suffolk
I kept meaning to come back to Southwold - the church, I mean, for I found myself in the little town from time to time. I finally kept my promise to myself in the summer of 2017, tipping up on a beautiful sunny day only to find the church closed for extensive repairs. The days got shorter, and by the time the church reopened it was too late in the year for me to try again. In fact, it was not until late October 2018 that I made it back there, on another beautiful day.
Southwold is well-known to people who have never even been there I suppose, signifying one side of Suffolk to which Ipswich is perhaps the counter in the popular imagination. Some thirty years ago, the comedian Michael Palin made a film for television called East of Ipswich. It was a memoir of his childhood in the 1950s, and the basic comic premise behind the film was that in those days families would go on holiday to seaside resorts on the East Anglian coast. In the child Palin's case, it was Southwold.
The amusement came from the idea that people in those days would sit in deckchairs beside the grey north sea, or shelter from the drizzle in genteel teashops or the amusement arcade on the pier. In the Costa Brava package tour days of the 1980s, the quaintness of this image made it seem like something from a different world.
I remember Southwold in the 1980s. It was one of those agreeable little towns distant enough from anywhere bigger to maintain a life of its own. It still had its genteel tea shops, its dusty grocers, its quaint hotels and pubs all owned by Adnams, the old-fashioned and unfashionable local brewery. In the white heat of the Thatcherite cultural revolution, it seemed a place that would soon die on its feet quietly and peaceably.
And then, in the 1990s, the colour supplements discovered the East Anglian coast, and fell in love with it. The new fashions for antique-collecting, cooking with local produce and general country living, coupled with a snobbishness about how vulgar foreign package trips had become, conspired to make places like Southwold very sought after. Before Nigel Lawson's boom became a bust, the inflated house prices of London and the home counties gave people money to burn. And in their hoards, they came out of the big city to buy holiday homes in East Anglia.
Although they are often lumped together, the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk are very different to each other (Cambridgeshire and North Essex are also culturally part of East Anglia, but the North Essex coast is too close to London to have ever stopped being cheap and cheerful, and Cambridgeshire has no coastline). Norfolk's beaches are wide and sandy, with dunes and cliffs and rock pools to explore. Towns like Cromer and Hunstanton seem to have stepped out of the pages of the Ladybird Book of the Seaside. Tiny villages along the Norfolk coast have secret little beaches of their own.
Suffolk's coast is wilder. Beaches are mainly pebbles rather than sand, and the marshes stretch inland, cutting the coast off from the rest of the county. Unlike Norfolk, Suffolk has no coast road, and so the settlements on the coast are isolated from each other, stuck at the ends of narrow lanes which snake away from the A12 and peter out in the heathland above the sea. There are fewer of them too. It is still quicker to get from Walberswick to Southwold by water than by land. Because they are isolated from each other, they take on individual personalities and characteristics. Because they are isolated from the land, they become bastions of polite civilisation.
Between Felixstowe in the south, which no outsiders like (and consequently is the favourite of many Suffolk people) and Lowestoft in the north, which is basically an industrial town-on-sea (but which still has the county's best beaches - shhh, don't tell a soul) are half a dozen small towns that vie with each other for trendiness. Southwold is the biggest, and today it is also the most expensive place to live in all East Anglia. Genteel tea shops survive, but are increasingly shouldered by shops that specialise in ski-wear and Barbour jackets, delicatessens that stock radicchio and seventeen different kinds of olive, jewellery shops and kitchen gadget shops and antique furniture shops where prices are exquisitely painful. Worst of all, the homely, shabby, smoke-filled Sole Bay Inn under the lighthouse has been converted by the now-trendy Adnams Brewery into a chrome and glass filled wine bar.
If you see someone in Norfolk driving a truck, they are probably wearing a baseball cap and carrying a shotgun. in Suffolk, they've more likely just bought a Victorian pine dresser from an antique shop, and they're taking it back to Islington. Does this matter? The fishing industry was dying anyway. The tourist industry was also dying. If places like Southwold, Aldeburgh and Orford become outposts of north London, at least they will still provide jobs for local people. But the local people won't be able to afford to live there, of course. They'll be bussed in from Reydon, Leiston and Melton to provide services for people in holiday cottages which are the former homes they grew up in, but can no longer afford to buy. Does this seriously annoy me? Not as much as it does them, I'll bet.
So, lets go to Southwold, turning off the A12 at the great ship of Blythburgh church, the wide marshes of the River Blyth spreading aimlessly beyond the road. We climb and fall over ancient dunes, and then the road opens out into the flat marshes, the town spreads out beyond. We enter through Reydon (now actually bigger than Southwold, with houses at half the price) and over the bridge into the town of Southwold itself.
Having been so critical, I need to say here that Southwold is beautiful. It is quite the loveliest small town in all East Anglia. None of the half-timbered houses here that you find in places like Long Melford and Lavenham. Here, the town was completely destroyed by fire in the 17th century, and so we have fine 18th and 19th century municipal buildings. One of the legacies of the fire was the creation of wide open spaces just off of the high street, called greens. The best one of all is Gun Hill Green, overlooking the bay where the last major naval battle in British waters was fought. The cannons still point out to sea. The houses here are stunning, gobsmacking, jaw-droppingly wonderful. If I could afford to buy one of them as a weekend retreat, then you bet your life I would, and to hell with the people who moaned about it.
At the western end of the High Street is St Bartholomew's Green, and beyond it sits what is, for my money, Suffolk's single most impressive building. This is the great church of St Edmund, a vast edifice built all in one go in the second half of the 15th century. Only Lavenham can compete with it for scale and presence. Unlike the massing at St Peter and St Paul at Lavenham, St Edmund is defined by a long unbroken clerestory and aisles beneath - where St Peter and St Paul looks full of tension, ready to spring, St Edmund is languid and floating, a ship at ease.
Southwold church was just one of several vast late medieval rebuildings in this area. Across the river at Walberswick and a few miles upriver at Blythburgh the same thing happened. Blythburgh still survives, but Walberswick was derelicted to make a smaller church, as were Covehithe and Kessingland. Dunwich All Saints was lost to the sea. But Southwold was the biggest. Everything about it breathes massive permanence, from the solidity of the tower to the turreted porch, from the wide windows to the jaunty sanctus bell fleche.
Along the top of the aisles, grimacing faces look down. All of them are different. The pedestals atop the clerestory were intended for statues as at Blythburgh, but were probably never filled before the Reformation intervened. At the west end, above the great west window, you can see the vast inscription SAncT EDMUND ORA P: NOBIS ('Saint Edmund, pray for us') as bold a record of the mindset of late medieval East Anglian Catholicism as you'll find.
As at Lavenham and Long Melford, the interior has been extensively restored, but not in as heavy or blunt a manner as at those two churches. St Edmund has, it must be said, benefited from the attentions of German bombers who put out all the dull Victorian glass with blast damage during World War II. Here, the interior is vast, light and airy, and much of the restoration is 20th century work, not 19th century.
Perhaps because of this, more medieval interior features have survived. Unlike Long Melford, Southwold does not have surviving medieval glass (Mr Dowsing saw to that in 1644), but it does have what is the finest screen in the county.
It stretches right the way across the church, and is effectively three separate screens. There is a rood screen across the chancel arch, and parclose screens across the north and south chancel aisles. All retain their original dado figures. There are 36 of them, more than anywhere else in Suffolk. They have been restored, particularly in the central range, but are fascinating because they retain a lot of original gesso work, where plaster of Paris is applied to wood and allowed to dry. It is then carved to produce intricate details.
The central screen shows the eleven remaining disciples and St Paul. They are, from left to right, Philip, Bartholomew, James the Less, Thomas, Andrew, Peter, Paul, John, James, Simon, Jude and Matthew.
The south chancel chapel is light and open. The bosses above are said to represent Mary Tudor and her second husband Charles, Duke of Brandon. The screen here is painted with twelve Old Testament prophets, and Mortlock suggests that they are by a different hand to the images on the other two screens. Here on the south screen, some of the figures have surviving naming inscriptions, and Mortlock surmises that the complete sequence, from left to right, is Baruch, Hosea, Nahum, Jeremiah, Elias, Moses, David, Isaiah, Amos, Jonah and Ezekiel. Further, he observes that the subject is a usual one for the English Midlands, but rare for East Anglia, and that perhaps this part of the screen came from elsewhere. The same may be true of the other two parts - it is hard to think that the central screen was deliberately made too wide for the two arcades.
The north aisle chapel is reserved as the blessed sacrament chapel. The screen is harder to explore, because the northern side is curtailed by a large chest, but it features angels. Unlike the screens at Hitcham and Blundeston, which show angels holding instruments of the passion, these are the nine orders of angels, with Gabriel at their head, and flanked by angels holding symbols of the Trinity and the Eucharist. Mortlock says that they are so similar to the ones at Barton Turf in Norfolk that they may be by the same hand, in which case the central screen is also by that person. They are, from left to right, the Holy Trinity, Gabriel, Archangels, Powers, Dominions, Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, Principalities, Virtues, Messengers, and finally the Eucharist. The Holy Trinity angel still has part of the original dedicatory inscription beneath his feet.
If part or all of this screen came from elsewhere, where did it come from? Possibly either Walberswick, Covehithe or Kessingland, the three downsized churches mentioned earlier. More excitingly, it might have come from one of the churches along this coast that was lost to the sea, perhaps neighbouring St Nicholas at Easton Bavents, or, just to the south, St Peter or St John the Baptist, the two Dunwich churches lost in the 16th and 17th centuries. We'll never know.
If you turn back at the screen and face westwards, your eyes are automatically drawn to the towering font cover, part of the extensive 1930s redecoration of the building. The clerestory is almost like a glass atrium intended to house it. Also the work of the period is the repainting and regilding of the 15th century pulpit (a lot of people blanch at this, but I think it is gorgeous) and the lectern. Beneath the font cover, the font is clearly one of the rare seven sacraments series, and part of the same group as Westhall, Blythburgh and Wenhaston. As at Blythburgh and Wenhaston, the panels are completely erased, probably in the 19th century, an act of barbarous vandalism. Given that Westhall is probably the best of all in the county, we must assume that three major medieval art treasures were wiped out. Astonishingly, vague shadows survive of the former reliefs; you can easily make out the Mass panel, facing east as at Westhall, the Penance panel and even what may be the Baptism of Christ.
Stepping through the screen, the reredos ahead is by Benedict Williamson and the glass above by Ninian Comper, familiar names in the Anglo-catholic pantheon, and evidence of an enthusiasm here that still survives in High Church form. There is a good engraved glass image of St Edmund to the north of the sanctuary, very much in the 1960s fashion, but curiously placed. On the wall of the chancel to the west of it, the high organ case is also painted and gilded enthusiastically.
As well as the screen, Southwold's other great medieval survival is the set of return stalls either side of the eastern face of the chancel screen. They have misericord seats, but the best feature are the handrests between the seats. On the south side, carvings include a man with a horn-shaped hat and sinners being drawn into the mouth of hell. On the north side are a man playing two pipes, a monkey preaching and a beaver biting its own genitals, a tale from the medieval bestiary, apparently.
What else is there to see? Well, the church is full of delights, and rewards further visits which always seem to turn up something previously unnoticed. St George rides full tilt at a dragon on an old chest at the west end of the north aisle. There is good 19th century glass in the porch and at the west end of the nave. A clock jack stands, axe and bell in hand, at the west end, a twin to the one upriver at Blythburgh. This one has a name, he's called Southwold Jack, and he is one of the symbols of the Adnams brewery.
As Mortlock notes, there are very few surviving memorials. This is partly because St Edmund was not in the patronage of a great landed family, but it may also suggest that they were largely removed at the time of the 19th century restoration, as at Brandon. One moving one is for the child of a vicar, and there are some interesting pre-Oxford Movement 19th century brasses in the south aisle.
High, high above all this, the roofs are models of Anglo-Catholic melodrama, the canopy of honour to the rood and the chancel ceilure in particular. But there is a warmth about it all that is missing from, say, Eye, which underwent a similar makeover. This church feels full of life, and not a museum piece at all. I remember attending evensong here late one winter Saturday afternoon, and it was magical. On another visit, I came on one of the first days of spring that was truly warm and bright, with not a cloud in the sky. As we drove into town, a cold fret off of the sea was condensing the steam of the brewery, sending it in swirls and skeins around the tower of St Edmund like low cloud. It was so atmospheric that I almost forgave them for what they have done to the Sole Bay Inn.