Ray's Photos

[Rayge]

Part Two
Is in urban Shropshire, 31 years ago


The Land Beyond



Double Jetty


High Street


Coaching Inn Courtyard


Elizabethan Architectural Bling

Back tomorrow with more of the similar, including birthday jollities and churchy bits

[Rayge]

In part one, the shambolic diary reaches the middle of October, which is my birthday. Hurrah for me, entering my 70th year, and a quick trip into Exeter to celebrate.
But first, a message from our sponsor...


Rabbits Suck!

Ahem, yes, they do, Scrap. Rodents are famous for it .


Godzy in the House!
My son's house, to be precise


Feast


Wooden Trumpet


Well-Dressed


Rooms with a View
A hilltop terrace

...

[Rayge]

Part Two


The Natives


Dead Tudors 4 Trump


Vault


Tomb of Edmund and Mary Walter, 1592


Blue Remembered Hills


Going Down

Nearly at the end of the 86 (first half) pics, but more to come from the next six months.
Also tomorrow, To the Lighthouse!

[Rayge]

Bumper three-part edition today. Part three wraps things up in June 1986, while In the diary section, in part two, we reach our trip to South Wales, for a three-night house party at the rented lighthouse-keepers' cottages at Nash Point, in South Wales, to celebrate my birthday and three others - those of my school friend Clive (and, unexpectedly, his twin sister Pat - Clive's wife arranged the whole thing as a surprise for him), as well as Clive's youngest son, Sean. One of those three nights featured Storm Brian, gusting at 60mph and bringing plenty plooey.

But first, some water colours


Dolphin Leap


Bastion


Dance of the Drop-Outs


Interference


Four Seasons

[Rayge]

Part Two


The Pigeons of Penarth
We stayed overnight with a pal in the eponymous coastal town


Hook


Pagodas


Arrival



Cake
The day we arrived was Clive's actual birthday (Sean and I three days earlier) but we all got billing on the cake, based on Clive's favourite
book (he spent his entire working life teaching Am Lit and Film at Aberystwyth). Pat missed out because the cake-maker didn't know she
was coming. Of course, I knew her quite well in my teens, but the only time I've seen her since the 1970s was at their 50th birthday celebrations



Candles
The boy is the oldest of Clive's three grandsons


Connoisseur


Despectacled
Official birthday photo number one

[Rayge]

Part Three

Back in Shropshire and indeed Herefordshire in the summer of 1986.


Cold Spell


Detached
The bell tower at Pembridge


Piny


Capital


Confetti



Two Studies for a Chocolate Box and/or Jigsaw Puzzle
Eardisland

Not posting tomorrow.
Back soon

[Rayge]

Well, I'm in a rare state of being rather pissed off with life in general and this board in particular today, AND I didn't manage to edit any more from 1986, so here's a disgruntled few pics from the trip to the lighthouse in October. For context, see two posts earlier


Dysfunctional


Young People


You Press This
Em attempts to show her dad how to work his phone


Stoned


Straight
Pat and her husband Richard


Hundred-Point Buck Gurner
Official 70th birthday pic number two

...

[Rayge]

Part two
Continuing part 1


Special Guests


Paterfamilias


The Morning After


Morning Rays


Time to Get Up, Uncle Tom


Aubos and Whimsy

Not sure if I'll be back tomorrow, but if and when I am, it will be more of the usual nonsense.
Bah

[Rayge]

Chip Kenn, Somerset, 2006


Timeless Blagdon Lake, Somerset, some time in the last 25 years

[Rayge]

OK, so what I've been doing over the last few days is manually transferring all the photos from my two earlier photobucket accounts, which contain most of the pics I have scanned in from pre-digital days (basically before 2010 - more than 35,000 of them - into my most recent one, on which I paid the full premium and have expanded into a vast empire of linkability. Now I'm going to have to trawl through my blogs, as well as my forum posts, to put in the new links to restore the photos. This is going to take a time (and how), so I'm just going to post a handful of recent ones for the the foreseeable.
Still in October, still at the lighthouse, and actually venturing outdoors


[Westward/b]


[b]Strata


Somerset Across the Water


Hitched
The lighthouse is licensed for weddings


The Calm Before


Danger to Shipping
Lighthouses warn of sandbanks as well as rocks


Up and Over

more tomorrow.

[Rayge]

Continuing...


Red and White
Visited the lighthouse briefly, but the combination of mild claustrophobia and acrophobia sent me scurrying out again before I'd taken many pics, or at least, any good pics


Viewpoint


Fascinating Widdle
Scrap and Ginny, Emily's JR bitch


Very Umble, Sir


Chocoholic


Digging In


Breakthrough


Yes, Clive, Fascinating
Even the dog looks bored


Total Tart Gets a Fondle


Pants

more tomorrow

[Rayge]

...andmoreagain


Parents


Ginny


Uncle


A Little Bit of Blue


Storm Force
Storm Brian was at its most impressive in the night, you'll have to take my word for it


Tower


Top


This is the Way, Step Inside


Septuagenarian

There's more. Tomorrow...

[Rayge]

The birthday shenanigans continue: we've left the lighthouse, but decamped to nearby Cowbridge for a final lunch


Home Again
Ginny resumes her favourite perch


Riotous Assembly


Phil Will and Clive


Just Checking


One Wrinkle Per Decade


This Big!


Sinker


Madonna

That's it for that - back to Sandford tomorrow

[Rayge]

So, Monday 23 October, and Devon beckons me back


England Ahead
The Severn Bridge


Et in Arcadio Ego
Stopped on the way home for an, ahem, 'comfort break' and the chance to take some photos, and the first thing I saw
on looking over the gate in the lay-by was this dead beast


Looking Beyond


Homeland


Back to Work
Lots of slack work at the beach while the Stick Inspector was away, so Scrap goes stakhanovite


Peace


Poppet

more familiar scenes tomorrow, I hope

[Rayge]

...carrying on at Creedy Beach


Wave Forms


Autumn at Giverny


Swirl


Have a Go If You Think You're Hard Enough
A typical initiation of a game of Stick


Blink


Silence


What Time Is It?
Anachronistic strawberry flowers


Gaura


More late flowers tomorrow

[Rayge]

Getting to the end of October: some guys just don't know when to give up, and for once I'm not talking about Him...


Centaurium


Desdemona


Prim and Improper


Nerines
At least they are supposed to be around more or less at this time of year


Potentilla


Futility
Good luck with the wind-borne pollination


The Out Crowd

Tomorrow, another mad scramble to get edits done. We live in exciting times

[Tom Waits For No One]

Peace

I love this pic Ray.
When photographs turn in to paintings.

[Rayge]

More scenes snatched from sunny spells at the tail end of October...


The Big Bong Theory


Alurk


A Head


Asters


Moving On


Shocked Pinks


Grandes Dames


Signed RG

May be taking a brief break over the weekend. Lots to do.

[Thang-y]

Signed RG

May be taking a brief break over the weekend. Lots to do.

Like cleaning the windows.

[Rayge]

May be taking a brief break over the weekend. Lots to do.

Like cleaning the windows.

Harrumph.

Moving right along...


Flutes


Fruits


Full Face and Profile


Familiarity


Reflectivity


Incongruity


Paint Job


Across the Valley

More tomorrow