Some of you have been following my adventures in Spain and France throughout January. Here is Positively the Last Memory. This is a shot taken aboard MV Armorique as she set out from Saint-Malo for Portsmouth in driving rain and winds of getting on for 50 mph. I can’t imagine how it was that this miserable matelot survived intact. But she did. Perhaps because at midnight, the wind suddenly dropped.
And actually, did I ever post my first shot of the holiday, waiting in line at Folkestone to get to France via the Channel Tunnel?
Rain then too. Luckily, the rain did the opposite of what the English children’s rhyme demands, and stayed resolutely away from Spain the whole time we were there.
Here in the UK, we know a lot about clouds. And at this time of year, we know a lot about grey clouds. Looking out of the window just now yields an unending vista of smoky grey, darkening over Mickley way to gunmetal and slate. No cotton-wool puffs of cumulus for us.
So let me whisk you to a day in June, when the plane transporting me from Barcelona to Leeds offered me a constantly changing cloudscape below me, with tantalising glimpses of beaches, landscapes and the Pyrenees, the Atlantic coast, and then crowded old England. The featured photo shows us just leaving Barcelona – hardly a cloud in the sky. And then …
Mist rather than cloud, to start with.The foothills of the PyreneesWell, who can tell?Cresting the Pyrennean peaksOver the French coast now…Here too.Still FranceNearly homeEven more nearly home.
Although generally a big fan of monochrome, on a grey day like this, I’m not sure I like these clouds and vistas in black and white. My memory of that summer day was of clear bright and optimistic colours. But needs must. This is for Monochrome Madness, and hosted this week by Brian, of Bushboy’s World.
Ask someone in the Western world about the Four Elements, and they might talk to you about Air, Water, Fire and Earth. Ask someone familiar with a Chinese cosmology and Wu Xing, and they would protest that there are five: adding Wood and Metal, and discounting Air. Sofia asks us to look at the five Chinese elements for her Lens-Artists Challenge. This is a big ask. I’ve seen wonderful posts from those who’ve contributed already, as well as Sofia’s own post illustrating elements as seen in the natural world. I’ve decided to focus on those elements as pressed into the service of man.
Let’s start with Air: through which fly aeroplanes (Metal) over the Earth beneath.
Aeroplane trails spotted over Welsh pastureland
And where would our washing lines be without air coursing through our clothes hanging out to dry?
A French washing line. It could be anywhere though.
Or flags, flapping in the breeze?
Outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Water next. Essential in every branch of life, here’s a (Metal) ship ploughing through it.
The North Sea. Plenty of Air there too.Fish at Cosmo Caixa Science Museum, Barcelona.
Fire. Trickier, this one. Here’s a blacksmith doing his Metalwork at Tees Valley Pumping Station. This Pumping Station is now consigned to history and the odd Open Day. But in the Victorian era, it existed to provide clean drinking Water to the people of Darlington.
Traditional blacksmith.
And here is a collection of Metal artefacts and objects we saw when we visited.
Earth next. Without which … no forests, no crops, no bricks no … normal life at all.
Seed planting time. Free lunch for black-headed gulls.Winter fields
Then there’s wood. One of our oldest building materials. Still the material of choice for window frames, for furniture. Even sometimes for cutlery!
And there we have it. A whistle top tour of the Elements, Western or Chinese style. I think my header photo, by the way, shows a bit of everything. Except perhaps fire. Do visit Sofia’s post, which will lead you in turn to other terrific responses to this challenge.
My flight home from Barcelona the other day was remarkable for two reasons. For one, I had a window seat; and for two, the earth below was visible almost every mile of the way. Here’s the story of a journey.
A small port just south of Barcelona.Arid fields.The foothills of the Pyrenees.The Pyrenees, still snow-capped in places.Rural France.We hugged the coast throughout almost all the French part of our flight.Reaching England …… and cloud cover.Manchester almost in sight.
Oh, and here’s an eleventh photo, from terra firma: alongside the (static) travelator at Manchester Airport.
It’s not the best photo ever, but I love it. Evening. A busy street in Thessaloniki. A woman enjoys some time out by dragging a chair out – not onto the pavement, but into the road itself. Well, why not? Streets were for people long before they were used by cars.
Our journey to Spain begins. Four and a half hours to cross London yesterday – ’nuff said. But today, a calm crossing from Dover to Calais, with (relatively) almost nobody else on board. And beneath us … only sea.
Poor Algernon (if I may be so familiar). I abandoned my Major General last month as he planned further destinations in a trip to invigorate him in his old age. He’s my stooge as I attempt to complete Paula’s Pick a Word Challenge. The five words Paula offers us are intended to be a stimulus to us to choose five appropriate photos: I decided a bit of verbal silliness would add a little extra difficulty. Not ‘alf. These are Paula’s chosen words: distinctive; floating; fortified; playful and saddle. Make something of that, Major General!
In case you’re not familiar with him, this is how his saga began …
A retired Major General from Hove
with the moniker Algernon Gove
said ‘Before life unravels
I must finish my travels.’
And forthwith he made plans to rove.
But it gets worse …
His next plan was to go pony-trekking.
He booked something in Wales without checking.
It might be quite a chore ?
He could get saddle-sore?
Oh dear no - there’s a plan that needs wrecking.
Our old chap nursed a long-term ambition
to explore sites with years of tradition.
A castle, he voted,
fortified, or deep-moated.
He’d find one - he'd make that his mission.
Perhaps all his plans were restrictive?
He should aim now for something distinctive.
Something playful and fun.
‘Cos when all’s said and done
to enjoy life should just be instinctive.
He knew he’d no taste for long trips
that took him o’er oceans in ships.
But he’d go in a boat
floating nowhere remote -
while enjoying some fresh fish and chips.
When the Major General saw frisky ponies like these, he knew he’d never be able to stay in the saddle.
He started off at Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumberland. Not very adventurous. So he went to the Château de Lagarde in the Ariège, France, shown in the featured photo, and then…
… Sagunt, near Valencia.
You can have a playful time on London’s South Bank, and at the London Eye. But it’s more distinctive to discover pastures new – at the evening fair in Gdansk, perhaps.
That’s more like it. Floating quietly on Lake Ohrid, North Macedonia. He had the fish he’d caught in the lake later, where they cooked it for him at the lakeside restaurant.
WP is being very irritating today. It won’t let me centre some of my photos, or alternatively to align all my shots to the left, whatever I try, and however loudly I shout at my laptop. So I have to admit defeat.
Five random words. Paula, over at Lost in Translation posts five different words every month, and invites bloggers to choose five different photos to illustrate them. Well, I decided I’d join in. But I thought I’d have even more fun if I wrangled those five words into a piece of doggerel to accompany my images. Here we go…
A retired Major General from Hove
with the moniker Algernon Gove
said ‘Before life unravels
I must finish my travels.’
And forthwith he made plans to rove.
He selected some places to stay:
His first port of call was Norway.
He thought he'd get bored
with a trip round a fjord.
But he found it quite splendid, if grey.
.
Thereafter, he thought the romance
Of a yacht sailing slowly to France
Would just do the trick.
But the poor chap was sick.
What nautical mis-happenstance!
Dry land seemed a safer idea.
Get his plans and his thoughts into gear.
The familiar? Go home?
Or a day-trip to Rome?
Or ditch the whole plan till next year?
He mused - and looked up at the sky
Which was sulky and grey - though now dry.
And saw the attraction
Of a rainbow’s refraction
It was time to bid drifting ‘goodbye’.
So what did the old fellow do then?
It needs planning, the where and the when.
But I’ve got a hunch
That after his lunch
He’ll announce an adventure. Amen.
Maps are a good place to make destination-selections from. This is the Catalan Atlas, created in 1375 by Abraham Cresques, and may not be the map book that Major General Gove made use of.
This isn’t a fjord. It isn’t even in Norway. I’ve never been there. It’s Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia. But I think it’s rather splendid – if grey.
These yachts look a little small for a nautical voyage. No wonder the Major General was sea-sick.
A familiar scene to the Major General as he gazed out of his bedroom window in Cheshire.
A rainbow. A double rainbow in fact. Plenty of refraction here.
Before he retired, the Major General was commanding chaps like the fellows shown in the featured photo.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
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