Battersea

I took a stroll around Battersea for the first time since before the pandemic.  There has been a lot of building work in that time, with most of the new blocks complete or near complete.  It is now a very busy area.  Not least with security guards. This whole area is another of London's many private public spaces.  It was inevitable that I would be hassled for daring to take photos with a 'professional camera'.  It was the early evening window reflection shots that finally set one off.  I ignored the guy long enough to get the shot I wanted, then went to dinner.

Straw Bales

The last of the harvest was finished weeks ago.  But there are still some bales in one of the fields near me and they looked great in the evening light.  I was particularly taken by the tramlines in the stubble and the way they caught the light.

Paxton Pits Catch-up

 Catching up on the blog.  Here is a mixed bag from Paxton Pits.

Dundee - RRS Discovery

Last set from Dundee.  Next to the V&A, in dry dock, is Dundee's other historic ship, the RRS Discovery.  Discovery is a sail & steam ship, built for Antarctic research. Launched in 1901, she was the first vessel to be constructed specifically for scientific research and one of the last wooden three-masted sailing ships to be built in Britain.  Among the crew for Discovery's first Antarctic expedition were Ernest Shackleton and the incompetent fool Robert Falcon Scott.  After this first expedition ended in 1905, Discovery was used for many years as as a cargo vessel.  But she returned to research in the 1920s, making further expeditions to the Antarctic and southern ocean.  Discovery ended her sailing days as a training vessel for sea scouts and Royal Navy reserves.

As well as the ship itself, there is also a visitor centre, which puts Discovery in context of Antarctic exploration.  When I visited this was undergoing redevelopment.  There was a temporary entrance, and the 'Discovery Point Dome, offering 360°panoramic views of the city, waterfront and River Tay', was behind schedule and not yet open.  But the exhibition itself was good, offering far more detail than could be achieved on-board.

Dundee - HMS Unicorn

HMS Unicorn is a 46-gun Leda-class frigate, launched in 1824.  Unicorn is the 3rd oldest ship still afloat in the world (after USS Constitution and HMS Trincomalee) and the fourth oldest surviving ship in Britain (after Mary Rose, HMS Victory and Trincomalee).  By the time Unicorn was completed, ‘Pax Britannica’ (the long era of peace in Europe from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the outbreak of the First World War) had begun, so she wasn’t required for service.  Masts were never fitted.  Instead, a roof was built over Unicorn's weather deck and she was laid up 'in ordinary'.  Unicorn was later used as a powder store at Woolwich Arsenal, before being moved to Dundee in 1873 for use as a naval reserve training ship.  

Because Unicorn was roofed soon after completion, never saw battle, and only saw the open sea when towed to Dundee, she is the best preserved historic ship in existence.  Over 90% of Unicorn's timbers are original to her construction.  Compare that with the 'Trigger's Broom' that is the Cutty Sark.  On many of Unicorns timbers it is still possible to see the carpenter's marks.  These were used in construction as tags to distinguish the type of wood, seasoning and position in the ship.  Unicorn's design also includes innovations of the industrial revolution.  The hull is reinforced with iron bracing straps and iron knees which support the decks.

Strawberry Fair

We interrupt tales from Dundee with a musical interlude.  After a 2-year Covid break, Strawberry Fair returned last Saturday.  People were clearly in the mood for a good time and the site was busy right from the opening.  As usual the bands improved as they day went on and I saw a couple I really enjoyed before I left in the early evening.  I also loved the aerial performances from the Cambridge Community Circus.

Dundee - In The Blue Hour

Here come the inevitable night shots.  I only had three nights in Dundee and the first wasn't that great, so with only two brief blue hours to play with, I pretty much stuck to the star of the trip.  I did venture down the waterfront to see what else I could find.  There was a lovely cobbled street that I had been planning to shoot once the street lamps were on.  I was surprised and disappointed when I walked down to it and they weren't lit.  I was even more surprised when I looked the next day and found the lamps didn't have any bulbs!  Fortunately the picture of some kind of rig in the commercial port made it worth the walk.  I like the harmony of the blues and yellows.  But my favourite shot is the other blue and yellow one at the bottom.  The steel structure was covering a children's play area and, once viewed from far enough back, was in the shape of a whale.  Here I have exaggerated it with a wide-angle lens.