ABOUT ME

I live in a camper van with a West Highland Terrier for company.
My passion is creating images but it is a work in progress.
I am always willing to share what knowledge I have and can be contacted through the comments on this post or e-mail ADRIAN
ALL IMAGES WILL ENLARGE WITH A LEFT CLICK

Sunday 3 November 2013

SANDBLASTED. (03/11/13)

Today we went to Redcar. Please feel free to mock if you wish but I like the run from Darlington, past Stockton-on-Tees, skirting Middlesbrough and on to Redcar. The place is not noted for it’s scenery or buildings but it has some fine views, good architecture and the people are wonderful. They have smartened the place up considerably since I was last here it’s coming on a treat.

The steel works or what remains of it are laying off eight hundred workers. It’s the way of things in the North East. They are paid precious little in the boom times and dumped in the bad times. They still remain cheerful and full of humour. It’s a great area.

There are few pictures to show as I was wandering in company today, chatting and laughing. It was a perfect November day. Strolling arm in arm, barefoot along miles of golden sands with a gale blasting sand around my feet and stripping the skin from my ankles. I have indulged in a little poetic licence here but the wind and sand were fact as were the chatting and laughing. I am back to happy; it did me a power of good._MG_2143   Pebbles on the beach. I adopted a recumbent posture for this and got on my feet without any undignified rolling about, puffing or cursing. Amazing what I can achieve when I'm trying to impress or daring myself to walk arm in arm.

_MG_2138   It’s a few years since I’ve been here and yet another useless wind farm has emerged. I hate the things. A couple of Nuclear Power Stations in the Home Counties would be cheaper and more efficient. Chipping Norton would be a perfect site. No locals and anyone with the countries future in his hands and heart wouldn’t mind gazing out and seeing technology. Cutting edge technology at that.

_MG_2137

_MG_2140   Sand Blowing over Sand. Now this would have made a good timelapse movie. I wasn’t going to push my luck, lunch was waiting at The Ship Saltburn. They let dogs into the scruffy end which hasn’t seen much change in fifty years. The posh end is….well….posh.

The food is the same in either end and I came out full of Roast Beef, Yorkshire Puddings and overcooked vegetables all washed down with a pint of Tetley’s Imperial, it’s a proper dark beer with a hint of dog tiddle and dead fish. It’s just beer. Perfect! It’s good for the soul to eat proper food now and again. I had almost forgotten the luxury of eating melt in the mouth carrots and drinking ale that wasn’t brewed by some pretentious twat with a few grand to spend on a microbrewery.

If this weather holds I’ll pop back with the van and take the pictures I should have taken. If not then I’ll head for Derbyshire.

Either way I have no regrets. That’s all for today. Have a great week.

42 comments:

  1. I like the sky. I like the sand. I like pictures. I'm glad you are happy again. That must be the two of you and three dogs? My last episode was not helpful for your mood. I'm sorry. The wind farm is kind of pretty but I agree nuclear power is the only real choice we have until technology gives us something superior.

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    1. David, no that isn't us. We only had the two little horrors who were busy annoying a pair of Greyhounds.

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  2. Fresh air, good food and company ~ sounds like it was what you needed Adrian. Great low shots.

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    1. Carol the weather helped as well. It was cold but dry and sunny.

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  3. Sounds like a wonderful day Adrian... I really enjoyed seeing the sand images.

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    1. Andrew, yes a great day. It is a superb stretch of sand.

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  4. The first shot was worth the effort Adrian. Much more interesting than eye level views.
    Decades since I last visited Redcar so it will have changed a lot since then.

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    1. John, it's about three years since I was there and they have smartened it up no end.

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  5. Mr Douglas Mcfarlane. If you are about then Keith, Trevor and I are meeting at Freiston sometime next week. Not this week the week beginning the tenth. Hopefully we can fit in with your shifts.
    Couldn't find an e-mail address for you so sorry to have to ask publicly.

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  6. dat klinkt goed lekker eten heerlijk wandelen en een paar mooie foto,s wat moet een mens nog meer.

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    1. Ik kon niet om meer gevraagd hebben Bas.

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  7. I enjoyed the drifting sand beautifully caught, I don't mind nuke technology, sadly the waste will probably end up being dumped in Northants apparently it's "geologically" sound enough.
    I'm on a new contract Adrian because I'm doing tanker work now so it's Monday till Friday starting on the 4th November I couldn't get to Freiston sadly either a bit to far away (money tight etc leaving my hounds too long etc).

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    1. Douglas, that's a shame. Maybe next year. I enjoyed Summer Leys. Freiston is dog friendly it says. You'll see if it's worth the journey or not. If not from my blurry bird pictures then I'm sure Trevor or Keith will manage something recognisable.

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    2. I'll keep my eyes peeled for some blogging from Freiston, never been that side of the wash before. Have a good day

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    3. Douglas, it would be good to get a dry day. We will see.

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  8. Yes the moving sand would have been a good time lapse, but what you show is great. Have a good week.


    peter

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    1. Peter, photography is an anti social hobby. The odd days I go out with other snappers we usually end up mile apart. It didn't seem polite to set up for an hour in the freezing cold for a time lapse. I didn't consider it at the time I knew what the answer would have been.

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  9. HI Adrian I am imagining you getting down for that first shot. I love the sand shots and also the 1st shot with different textures in it.

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    1. Margaret, they getting down is the easy bit. It's the getting up that is frought with problems. Whilst lying down on damps sand the dogs think it's play time. My snapping is bedevilled with problems.

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  10. This is one of the few times you don't mention rain on a post! You have beautiful blue skies. Awesome shots of the drifting sand.

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    1. Red, you are correct. It is a fact of life here. Not on Sunday though, dawn to dusk sunshine. I was pleased to witness the sand, impressive patterns it made.

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  11. Good to hear you are in good humour and good form Adrian. I'm simply in transit sitting in Dubai airport next to a bunch of young Weegies being, predictably, young Weegies.

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    1. Graham, I've spent many an hour there. It's not bad for an airport and would be improved by a group of Glaswegians. I hope they weren't from Bearsden. They are a bit restrained and posh for me but I doubt they travel in groups but go in pairs and can access the executive lounge. I have fond memories of an overnight stay in Dubai. If either of us remember then I'll tell you the tale when next we meet.

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  12. Love those shifting sand shots Adrian, they remind me of most of the beaches in north Wales.
    I'm with you on the wind farms, hideous structures.
    Amazing what a bit of lady flesh can do to a man; I believe.

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    1. Keith, the sands were impressive. Vicious but beautiful. I could have spent hours on the beach but it was a day for chatting not snapping.

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  13. Super shots of the blowing sands Adrian. However, I couldn't help but notice that there's only one taken from low level? Still I suppose, after putting on such a youthful display of standing up the first time, you were fearful of destroying the myth?...
    Apart from the wind farm spoiling the view, it seems like you had all the ingredients for a wonderful day?...[;o)

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    1. Trevor, I love seeing nature. If I lived next to this beach I doubt it would look like that more than once a year.
      To think the body I inhabit could only thirty years ago ski, fall off motorbikes and never blink. How age withers one.

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  14. I think you did a great job with the wide angle views and the foreground sand. The sand has so many interesting ondulations that it makes it seem like a desrt scene or something surreal.

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    1. Maria, I should have taken a wide angle lens this is an old 50mm. It will focus reasonably close though. There is a perception that just because I love software that I don't give a fig about the cameras. I adore them. I like to get it right or thereabouts in camera. The first shot was taken with a polariser and 2/3rds of a stop under.

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  15. It looks like a great day for November. I really like the first picture and I actually like the image of the wind farm as well. (As for the real thing, I've never actually been near any with as many windmills as that.)

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    1. Monica, the weather is back to normal again. This is only a small wind farm. They are ruining the country with the blasted things.

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  16. Hey, how about coming to Alberta, and taking some pics of snow :)

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    1. Cat, it sounds good but a bit expensive for me. I'm tied to the UK these days.

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  17. Replies
    1. Sill, obrigado. I am glad you found your way here.

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  18. As glad to see photos with blue sky looks like you got rid of rain :))
    I do not like those windmills at sea and if I like the last two photos, it seems that the sand moves with the wind.
    Good Tuesday ADRIAN.
    A hug.

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    1. Laura, the rain is back but the sun was good while it lasted.

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  19. I love the sound of the contents I mean description of your beer! I can almost taste it. In fact your whole post sounds very happy Adrian. I'm glad. Arm-in-arm. Good stuff.

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    1. Katherine, arm in arm was an exaggeration. It wasn't the best pint I've had but it was honest.

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  20. Great foreground shots with the pebbles and the sand. Nice to see you had a good day particularly for the colour contrast in the last two. I'm not great on Wind farms either, their usefulness in within the national grid remains questionable & they seem to turn up in places I haven't visited for a while like a forest on the landscape.
    It's a while since I was at Redcar although I did pop into Saltburn over the summer. I must remember the Ship the next time I'm there.

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    1. Jay, I detest windfarms. I enjoy Redcar. It is an area of contrast.

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