30th March

Well it is Silly Saturday, lol.
Sorry but this spell of gorgeous, warm weather has caused me to dig my shorts out. This was going to be my blip for today's Silly Saturday challenge until whilst walking up through Torquay town centre I spotted that some one had already put the clock on the old town hall forward the 1 hour for British Summer Time, at least 8 hours early. Click the date to see it, 30th March.

After a quick trip into town for some bread, I set out for a nice afternoon walk in the warm March sunshine. I headed off on my usual trek towards the seafront where after spotting the buzzards but unable to get any decent shots I captured the photos below.

 This is one of the swan near the sea front guarding a nest with, I count 5 eggs.

Lets hope they do well.

Meanwhile over at the duckpond some of the ducks were getting a bit broody with several resting on the grass banks in pairs. This fella was on the water pursuing the attention of a female. I love the water droplets on his head.

Just after leaving home I spotted this butterfly trying to sun itself on the road, wouldn't open its wings fully though.

Finally another reminder to all my British readers that the clocks go forward 1 hour at 1.00am Sunday 31st March. The photo to the right is another one of the clock tower of the old Torquay town hall.

If you are enjoying the photos posted on my blog why not check out the ones on my website AGB Photography.

29th March

A misty start to the day left me pottering around at home in the morning, but after lunch I set out to grab some flower photos for the Flower Friday challenge. My blip for today, 29th March, was the first photo I took today and was of a red hot poker early in bloom which I titled "Luke Warm Poker", click the date to view it.

After that I strolled down through town and around the harbour but didn't take that many more photos so to bolster today's post I've messed around with a couple by colour popping them. The tulips in the council flowerbeds are starting to bloom with the usual reds and yellows, but I love these white ones with the touch of purple.

Whilst taking the shots above I spotted the flower below that was slightly more open than the others showing its pollen laden stamen just waiting for the pollinators to come.

For me a good sign that spring has arrived is seeing the fields full of daisies and buttercups.

My final photo for today is one that I found fairly amusing, following all the shenanigans that have been going on with Brexit, on this the day that Britain were supposed to leave the European Union, the Joke Shop on Torquay harbour was closed.

Enough said lol.

28th March

The lovely warm, sunny weather continues so more chances for some good photos.

Today I received a letter with short notice of a viewing appointment for the flat that I was supposed to view last Friday, so set off once again for Dartmouth, with camera in tow. Once the viewing was done I headed down the hill to the town centre to grab some photos of some of the ancient buildings.

The picture to the right is of the Butterwalk, I think it dates back to either the Elizabethan or Victorian era, in the building above is Dartmouth museum.
Most of the buildings around the town are from these periods, below are a some more photos of other buildings, unfortunately I don't know names or history.

As well as the great buildings there are some good little side streets like these. The one on the left leads to this church and the one on the right leads to the 14th century Cherub Inn.

My blip for today is of the canon that I was unable to photograph on Friday due to a fisherman. That can be view by clicking on the date, 28th March.

The final photo for today is of what is now the Platform 1 café bar, in 1864 it opened as Dartmouth's railway station. This particular station is very unusual in the fact that no trains have ever stopped there, in fact the railway never reached Dartmouth. So why build a station ? The answer is that Dartmouth Railway Station was a 'ticket station', travellers would buy their tickets then board a ferry that would take them across to Kingswear Station on the other side of the river to catch their trains.

27th March

Sorry, but it's another late post partly due to the number of photos taken that needed viewing and editing of the usable ones, and partly due to being tied up with appointments today.

As it was another gorgeous day here on the English Riviera so I decided to go for a long walk to Paignton and back taking plenty of photographs on the way. The photos posted here are not in the order taken but topically grouped.
This first shot was taken at the western end of Tor Abbey Sands looking towards Torquay harbour, look how lovely and clear that water is.
The photo below left is Paignton Pier with Torquay visible through the pier supports. Below right is Paignton Harbour which is a small tidal harbour.

 And this is Paignton seafront looking towards Torquay, the pier is visible in the middle of the photo and the harbour is behind me to the right.

Before leaving Torquay I took this photo of the fountain by the duck ponds with the weeping willow behind, I love the symmetry of the two.

My blip for today's Wide Wednesday challenge of 'something colourful' was going to be this photo of a lovely red tulip with flower background, but in the end I settled for a photo of Sign Walk which can be seen by clicking the date, 27th March.

Such a long walk on such a wonderful day would not be complete without a few bird photos, so here they are. Below left is a photo of a female pigeon looking out from her 'hidey-hole' and a 'suiter' clinging to the wall in hope of mating. To the right is a turnstone caught in flight.

I'm not sure what the bird below is but he graciously sat where was whilst I fired off 4 or 5 photos this was my favourite one.

As I was heading back towards Torquay I spotted this buttery resting and warming itself in the sun and managed to grab my first butterfly shot of the season, not sure what type it is though. This photo was taken using my 70-300mm lens as it was on the other side of a wall and I couldn't get any closer.

Back in Torquay strolling along the seafront and saw these two guys (below), what a way to enjoy a lovely sunny day, mind you I wouldn't want to fall off the water still looked cold.

My last three photos are some colour pops.

The memorial (right) is on a headland as you leave Torquay seafront towards Paignton called Corbyn Head. During the second world war there was a gun emplacement here and one night during a training exercise one of the guns exploded killing 6 Home Guard personnel.

The row of parasols are at a beach café on Corbyn Sands, the westerly end of Torquay seafront. The phone box and anchor are situated above Paignton harbour.

25th March

Now that I have caught up Sunday's post I can move onto Monday even though it is now Tuesday 01.47 (that's am btw) and I have an appointment at 09.30. Fortunately this post will only be a short one as not many photos were taken today.

After sorting out one or two routine chores (job searching, shopping.....) I eventually turn my attention to Blipfoto. What was todays Mono Monday challenge?

'Object', sounds simple enough, but no, my mind was whirling, trying (and failing) to think outside of the box. I thought about another shot of the old court house or the town hall (plenty of OBJECTions raised at both) but ruled both out. In the end I settled on a photo of three pebbles which, well...…. click the date to see, 25th March. The alternative was this shot of a crow whose OBJECTive was to crack open that mussel so he could have some lunch.

Over on the beach the dog walkers were enjoying their last few days...….

…….of being able to walk their dogs on the beach before the seasonal ban (May - September) starts on 1st May, next Monday

24th March

OOoops I just realised that I haven't posted yesterday's (Sunday) 'extras', sorry.
So here goes (don't worry there aren't many).

I set out with no actual destination in mind but wanting to walk a little further than the town or seafront as I had a bit more time today.

Heading towards the seafront I passed the area where I usually see the buzzards and as if on cue one appeared and perched briefly atop this tree for a couple of moments before flying off again, just enough time to switch lenses (I hadn't planned to look for them) and grab a shot or two.

Further on I spotted a 'weed' that really shows me that spring has arrived - dandelions - when I was growing up (god I'm feeling old now) I remember blowing the seed stems and watching the seeds float away in the wind...…. ahhhh…. sorry drifted away myself there. That's an image I would love to capture but the 'fates' never seem to align correctly (btw that's the dandelion seeds drift in a breeze, not me drifting off, i'd love to capture lol) I also remember that we had a nickname for them but I can't remember what it was.
Below is a closer shot of the dandelion 'head', I love how the white of the dandelion contrasts with the green of the grass behind it.

And so on down to the seafront as already mention I wanted to go a bit further than Torquay's main seafront so I headed off towards nearby Paignton. The next picture was taken from Livermead Beach a couple of miles from Torquay, it's a HDR attempt but I think I ought to use a tripod next time.

About halfway along the main Torquay to Paignton road you drop down into a little dip called Hollicombe which until the 1980's was the site of one of Torquay's gas works. On the seaward side of the road the 'works' were converted into a park area (below left) the low stone walls you can see used to be where the big green gas cylinders used to be, in the 80's I remember they were duck ponds, now been filled in and grassed over. Behind me is a tunnel that leads down to Hollicombe Beach (below right, looking towards Torquay)

I only made it just over half way to Paignton before I had to turn back (I had a couple of other things I had to do), I decided to return home via the harbour as I had to grab a couple of things from the shop on my way home. Below is a shot of the Millennium Bridge in Torquay at extreme low tide (its the spring tides, I think one of the lowest low waters I've seen for a while). Before the bridge and marina were built the inner harbour was a 'tidal harbour', this meant that as the tide went out the inner harbour 'dried out'. On a normal tide the water would go out as far as the white hulled boat visible just beneath the centre of the bridge, on spring tides it would drain as far as where the bridge now stands. As you can see the water level of the inner harbour, now held behind the bridge sill, is around 6 feet (1 1/2 meters) higher than the level of the outer harbour.

  My blip for Sunday 24th March, was taken on some 'boarding' steps to the right of this photo and gives a better demonstration of the water levels.

23rd March

Sooo I'm playing catch-up again, due to my internet issues, think I might have it solved now. I don't have broadband where I live, yes some of us still in the dark ages lol, so I have been using my phone as a mobile 'hot spot'. Until today I have been using Vodafone bundles on PAYG costing £20 per month for 8GB data plus unlimited calls and texts, I also had a mobile WIFI unit that was tied to EE (didn't use it much though due to costs). I knew about GiffGaff and a couple of days ago I bought a GiffGaff sim and loaded it with a £20 bundle intending to get the mobile WIFI unit unlocked, but after getting the unlock code from EE I discovered that the unit was permanently locked, arrrgggg panic. But thanks to a bit of information gleaned from a very helpful assistant in the local Cash Generator store, I discovered that all phones bought through Carphone Warehouse are unlocked (even contract phones). The long and short of it is that I can put the GiffGaff sim card into my phone, I'm even transferring my Vodafone number over so no need to worry about a new number. Best news though is that a £20 bundle on GiffGaff gives me 20 yes TWENTY GB of data, kerching.

Anyway I digress, Wednesday's for us blippers means we get out our wide angle lenses, my weapon of choice has to be my 10-20mm ultra wide angle as my 18-85mm lens has developed a fault which I'm not financially able to fix at the mo.

The subject for my blip (click the date, 20th march, to see it) like the photo on the left is St. Michels Chapel, in Chapel Woods, Torquay, a subject I've used a couple of times before. If you click on the picture to view a larger version, just to the left of the chapel through the trees you can see Torquay harbour.

The shot to the right is the chapel as seen from below. A couple of weeks again a teenager sitting on the wall by the chapel was unlucky to fall backwards off the wall, fortunately he got caught in bushes just below and was rescued by the fire service with only a few cuts and bruises, one very lucky guy.

This next shot of what I thought was a derelict shed being overtaken by the ivy, was my planned blip for Wednesdays 'Wide Weds' challenge, until I realised it was actually a much in use garage. I really hope they've sacked the gardener.



My final shot for Wednesday was a photo of what I think are primulas that shows us that no matter the differences between us we can all live in harmony :)

I'm gonna skip Thursday as it was payday for me which meant shopping and a lot of running around, I did manage to grab a couple of pics but nothing I was happy with.

And so onto Friday.

A flat viewing gave me the opportunity to grab some photos away from Torquay for a change. Sadly the viewing didn't go as planned (buses not matching up meant I was late getting to the flat and missed the letting rep by about 10 minutes) but I did grab a few shot of picturesque Dartmouth.

My blip (viewable by clicking the date 22nd March) had a little twist for the Flower Friday challenge as it is of Bayards Cove, Dartmouth where after repairing damage to their ships the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for new lands aboard the Speedwell and the Mayflower. The photo to the right shows the entrance to the derelict castle at Bayards Cove. Below is a shot looking through one of the canon arches towards the river mouth the other one was taken from the road above.

Further down at the mouth of the river stand two castles this side is of the river is of course Dartmouth castle and on the far side of the river is Kingswear Castle both visible in the photo below left. Below right is St. Petroc's church (which is part of Dartmouth Castle).

Looking back up river you get a beautiful view of Dartmouth (on the left) and the village of Kingswear (on the right).

Sorry, what was that ? Where's the colour pop photo ?

OK, here ya go this was taken just above Dartmouth Castle, I couldn't resist the mixture of the very old and the fairly new (well compared to the castle the phone box is new lol)

Well sadly nothing from Saturday partly due to rain but mainly from sorting out this internet stuff, crikey what did we do before computers and the internet.

Well now that I'm all caught up, I'm off to bed, see ya.