TBTE 08.06.2012

Evening Sunshine On The Oyster Pits


We've had a very windswept couple of days here on Mersea and whilst out walking the dog we were treated to a break in the clouds and rain to reveal some evening sunshine. In the foreground all the paraphernalia of the oyster trade and in the background the sailing barge 'Dawn', a scene unchanged for centuries. With more unseasonal high winds and rain forecast my walk along the waterfront in the evening sun was a welcome break from the hectic menu design and planning going on at the Artcafé this week.

TBTE 08.09.2010 Village Green No.VG247

Village Green No.VG247

I'm just back from my evening constitutional around the seawall with my canine companion Mabel. This, believe it or not, is one of our village greens here on Mersea Island and is also probably one of the most photographed, sketched & painted scenes by locals and visitors alike. I'm not ashamed to admit that this particular corner of the waterfront just at the end of The Lane has been something of a 'pot boiler' for me too over the years.


'Old Trawlers' ~ Watercolour

I admit it's not much like your architypal village green but little spaces like this muddy one of ours are very precious indeed and definately need preserving.

The Coldest Night, The Energy Gap, Then We Zoomed To Norwich!

TBTE 08/01/10 or more accurately 'the road to the beach this evening'!

We took advantage during this current icy blast, of a break in the snow this afternoon to get artistandtartist jnr. back to university, so the three of us got in the car and zoomed up to Norwich. I was very apprehensive and almost didn't go as driving conditions have been lately described as 'treacherous' on the news, fortunately the snow didn't start again until we were almost home. We talked for the whole journey about loads of interesting stuff...not just the driving conditions, although the current weather did seem to be the dominant theme.
Now this raised the thorny issue of the current fragility of our energy supply, it seems that we really are down to the wire when it comes to our supply of energy, and this situation has simply been waiting in the wings until we experience a prolonged 'cold snap'. Now if we add to the equation all the new build housing thats been springing up were really heaping on the pressure to an energy supply that's already frankly at full stretch. The really big dilemma for us in the U.K. at the moment seems to me to be how to bridge the gap that will inevitably widen between getting our renewable sources of energy on stream and when our own fossil fuel resources run out (about 15 years I think is a reasonable estimate). And thus reduce our reliance on buying in large amounts of our energy from other nations who may whimsically jack the price up...or worse still, turn off the tap completely. At this point in time (several people on Mersea will hate me for saying this) nuclear generators seem to be looking a more attractive solution than they did twenty years back. I'd much prefer that there were a more user friendly alternative, but I'm not at this point persuaded that renewables will come close to filling our energy gap.
Now all of this kind of dovetails into another thread of our conversation we had today about Transition Culture and its pro's & cons, and I intend to get on my soapbox about this subject soon too, when time will allow.

A Thunderstorm Over TBTE

Apologies for the dodgy mobile phone photo but thetartist, tartist junior and I tracked this thunderstorm as it came up the River Blackwater this evening and passed out into the North Sea. It was a quite impressive sight as the sun set behind, so I thought I'd share it with you anyway.

A Pint & A Sunset

The Tartist, Mabel our dog and I took a lovely walk last night along the beach...thanked our lucky stars that we live on this muddy island and ended up with a pint at the Coast Inn watching the sunset, bloomin' lovely!

TBTE

I had a most agreeable spot of dinner with the tartist this fine evening at The Coast Inn, overlooking the fleet as we islanders like to call the three muddy channels you can see in the distance. You will have also noticed the two pint glasses containing our beverages, often (for me especially) these would contain something very much darker and 'hoppy', but not this evening. You see I become quite a sucker for this trend of cider drinking, not that cider drinking is in any way a new concept, but the simple idea of filling a pint glass full of ice then pouring your pint of cider over it is, I think, a stroke of genius. On such a warm late June evening it made a perfect accompaniment to my fish and chips. Then with the sun still warm on our backs we walked up the gentle incline towards home, feeling quite fortunate to live on this muddy Essex island.

Sociology On The Seawall

I've just returned from an evening walk around the seawall equipped with 'artist jnr.' and his sociology revision cards and Mabel our black lab. As we strolled he revised for his A-level tomorrow, I helped as best I could and Mabel padded around and sniffed a lot, as she does. We were treated with a fabulous Mersea evening as the sun set below Wigborough hill and the tide slid silently up the Strood channel, as it does.



Tomorrow is not only artist jnr's sociology a-level exam but it is also his first opportunity to exercise his democratic right to vote for the very first time which I'm proud to say he's thinking about very seriously. Rather ironically many of the topics on his revision cards reflected current affairs to the letter. For example Sutherland's work on 'White Collar Crime' cropped up and we talked about recent scandals involving M.P's trousering tax payer's money. Strange times are these where relatively modest expenses fiddles look more likely to put an end to this government's reign than the highly unpopular Iraq war.









As the sun sank lower over Strood channel the light and shadows became very dramatic and the three of us made our way off the seawall, between the fields of ripening rapeseed towards home and the end of a very agreeable stroll.

TBTE26.05.09

The 'Old Victory' flies the union flag.

Took a lovely walk this evening with the excuse of gathering some reference material for a commission and as it turned out I had the place to myself for the couple of hours I was out. The wind was blustery and the sun was bright and low creating marvellous shadows, on an evening like this I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

TBTE29.04.09

My stroll along the beach this evening revealed this latest act of vandalism/arson on several beach huts, with the firemen still damping things down. This is becoming a serious problem here on the island and to state the obvious I don't understant it. Beach huts are essentially such benign pieces of architecture after all and don't seem to me to be an obvious target for vandalism, compared to say, local authority property, but then I'm not a vandal. Perhaps if the people who did this are found they'll be made to build and paint new ones for their victims...now there's a thought, a beach maintenance working party as a sort of rehab. for vandals (with no ice creams!).

TBTE20081210

We just managed to hastily grab these pics. on the way home from the artcafe this evening on the artist's mobile phone. The sun had just set and things were already beginning to freeze.