Electric Bridges

Doors set in sandstone -

underneath the viaduct electric Gateshead.

The Gate Entertainments complex with the images of construction reflected in the windows.

Glass and steel

We had a fantastic meal in here at a mexican-ish restaurant and finished the night with a trip to the cinema inside to see 'Dark Knight' (a bit over-long, IMO)


High Bridge under lights
Taxis and buses only,
with trains overhead.



Tyne Bridge and Swing Bridge
From the road bed of High Bridge -
Now we must walk down.


One of the sets of
steep, dog's leap steps; switchback
staircases to Quayside.

Newcastle Trip (part one)

Delightful old shops
in the Grainger district with
fascinating windows.

The Black Gate stands while
St Nicholas' Cathedral
chimes in the background.

A cathedral bench,
lit by evening sunshine
still looks inviting.

Loved cobbled side streets
and wondered what used to be
so important here.

boarded-up decay
recalls the splendour of years
faded long ago.

ooh! I'm not here today!

Sky Fishes
jump into clouds to spawn
Sculpture at Morrison's.

View from the shed roof
About time I tidied this up
My greenhouse looks good.

Only stalks remain: a testament to optimism versus slug love of basil.

I am in Newcastle Upon Tyne for the day. How jolly spiffing!

Flowers, Books and Art

One of the buddleias in the front garden

Its flower spikes are reminiscent of crushed velvet.

Beautiful.

By contrast, most of the ones in the back garden have self seeded themselves as white.

Some more books purchased recently.

Will Self's Perfidious Man
was a recommended One Book and happened to be one that my partner was desperate for. It's sat there waiting for DK's birthday.

The Simon Green was a gift from Liz Pastures new ... I forget who rec'd that and RW Day has long been an online friend.

The Devil's Apocrypha is work (sort of). the Virginia Woolf is a classic and someone else (?) recommended Kitchen


These are my shelves of tiny handmade books. Most of them made during the nineties and with me ever since, but the Devil Drives and I need the cash, so I've started listing them on ETSY

To the right is one of the listings, Not Enough

Cheating (one)

I'm cheating in that these are more of yesterday's photos. I can't get my camera t connect to my PC at the moment - the lead is to blame so I've ordered another from Ebay.

This is me sitting on that partially hidden bench with Trickster on my lap. I took a few but this is about the least horrible.


Bear was at my feet, too. DK was out so I was the one he followed about.








This is the view from the bench toward the circle, ove the white buddleia and the fuscia.

During part of the afternoon I uploaded some watercolours to my ETSY shop

If I can find the last set of over-inked ones I'll upload those, too.

Butterflies and benches

The nearest I could get to identifying this was a Hespederae; a skipper. Here on a bramble leaf in the field. There were lots this morning.

I took Lina with me this morning as as we got to my favourite cemetery bin I spotted all these plants in it - obviously from a wicker basket that was also in there. This is before and after I'd got them home and potted them up. We have lavender, rosemary, sage, an ornamental grass, a hebe and a couple of cineraria -- also something that was unidentifiable and too far gone to survive (potted anyway) and a little pelargonium.

Off to the medical examiners. Who'd have guessed they worked on Saturdays? I avoived all trace of humanity and got to town via all the back alleys.

Look at the lovely rust on this disused streetlight.

This is the bench tucked away behind the bottom pond. Lovely.

And a Lina haiga.

Rain, Berries and First Drafts

After the rain last night the dog field had a huge puddle in it. It was absolutely splendid though if you click of the picture you can see it was a bit deep for Trickster.

The nightshade berries are just beginning to ripen.
This is slightly out of focus - my phone camera always wants to look at the background and I can't yet affors a digital SLR.

Poor Steve.

I don't actually know if he's in this waterlogged grave but I found the image poignant. Especially so, since Steve is the first character to die in Another Bloody Love Story, the first draft of which I completed last night.

And this is it!

Well, half of it. I've got as far as chapter 31 with the editing. When I've fully copy edited it, I'll get this first draft bound at lulu (for myself only) and leave it until September to read through, so that it can be a fresh storyin my mind and I can spot the plot holes and flaws.