A Walk Along The Pier

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Southend pier is the longest in the world. It was built in 1830 to allow access across the mudflats for the boatloads of visitors arriving at the seaside resort from London. They came in search of its health giving waters and sea breezes. We came for fish & chips but Jamie and Jimmy’s Café was closed. Continue reading “A Walk Along The Pier”

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14 Postcards

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A series of postcards produced by Common Ground to accompany England In Particular, ‘a celebration of the common place, the local, the vernacular and the distinctive’. Continue reading “14 Postcards”

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Montserrat

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No trip to Barcelona is complete without an excursion to Montserrat. It had been recommended many times so finally we got the train from Plaça d’Espanya. The ticket price included a transfer onto the rack railway at Monistrol de Montserrat for the steep climb up the mountain. Continue reading “Montserrat”

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Chillida In Barcelona

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We’d been here before, but last time was such a wonderful surprise we had to come back and show Maura. This is her beautiful photograph of Eduardo Chillida’s Topos V, hidden away in Plaça del Rei in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. It seems perfectly positioned, forming a corner of the square, its semi-circular openings echo the medieval arches and suggest a B for Barcelona.   Continue reading “Chillida In Barcelona”

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La Grotte Chauvet

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The Chauvet Cave in the Ardèche region of southern France was discovered in 1994. It contains the most perfect examples of Paleolithic paintings ever found. But they are considered so fragile they must remain hidden from view. Copies of the paintings have been recreated and they can now be seen in a full-scale replica cave above the town of Vallon-Pont-d’Arc. A gallery of simulacra of some of the most authentic paintings in the world; it’s an unsettling idea. Continue reading “La Grotte Chauvet”

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New Paintings By Anne Davies

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Six new paintings hang just inside the front door of The Rowley Gallery, new arrivals by Anne Davies, rhythmic evocations of remembered places, patchwork mementoes of walked paces, footsteps on the ground retraced in the mind’s eye, memories and traces of colours and spaces. Continue reading “New Paintings By Anne Davies”

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Rogolone

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After climbing out of Menaggio on tight switchbacks up to Croce, high on the ridge, the road scoots along the floor of the Val Menaggio, passing Bene Lario and 3km later reaching the small, reedy Lago di Piano, protected as a nature reserve and breeding place for water birds. Drop into the little information office beside the lake, or ask the Menaggio tourist office for the route description of a pleasant, almost flat two-hour walk here that takes in woodlands and a fortified cluster of medieval houses on a peninsula in the lake, known as Castel San Pietro. Continue reading “Rogolone”

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