This sunset deserves a post on its own. It doesn’t look real, but I promise it is.
Other prints/cards you may like:
All rights reserved. Hannah Sterry 2012.
Photoblog: Yesterday’s Sunset
Just for Fun
North Sands Beach and Salcombe Castle
A few days ago I went for a walk on North Sands beach in Salcombe. When I got there the tide was out, which meant I could get some really nice photos of the beach and the castle. Salcombe is a lovely in winter; out of season the the beaches are often quiet and empty and, although it’s cold, there’s still lots of fun to be had searching for (and photographing) all of the little interesting plants and animals hiding around the rockpools!
The really nice thing about this beach is that when the tide is this low, you can walk around to the left and find a nice old castle:
I should warn you that there are “NO ENTRY” signs all around castle because it is a ruin and the walls aren’t guaranteed to be structurally stable or safe. Here’s a bit of background information quoted from wikipedia’s article on Salcombe Castle though:
“The castle is thought to have been constructed originally during the reign of Henry VIII, to defend the Kingsbridge estuary against French andSpanish pirates. It was the last place to hold out in the Royal cause against the victorious Parliamentarian troops of Oliver Cromwell in theEnglish Civil War. Sir Edmund Fortescue was ordered to hold it in 1643, when nearby Plymouth rose against the king; he rebuilt the castle at a cost of £135 6s 11d, and gave it the name “Fort Charles”. The castle was besieged from 15 January to 7 May 1646, and surrendered then only because it became clear that all other royalist strongholds had been overrun; the garrison were allowed to withdraw with their colours flying. After the Civil War the castle was “slighted” (ruined) on the orders of Parliament as it was “too dangerous” to allow it to remain.”
Anyway, after that brief history lesson (and to finish) here’s a picture of a some inquisitive ducks. They seemed to be having a pretty good time down by the water’s edge.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures! Feel free to comment – I’m happy to answer any questions or just have a nice chat!
H xxx
M.A.D. Pantomime a massive success!
Pantomime is over and I’m still trying to refrain from shouting things like “It’s behind you… Oh yes it is!” at confused strangers. My favourite part happened on the Saturday night, when one of the props broke and resulted in some rude (but very funny) improvised lines from the cast, involving flying baubles and rather squeaky voices.
Overall, it was a massive success – The tickets were almost completely sold out and I enjoyed the whole week, despite having seen the pantomime more than 8 times, which says a lot about the quality of the script and the community atmosphere. It was nice to see so many of the actors/chorus helping out with the costumes too and as a result, the costumes this year were stunning.
It’s a shame it’s all over, but I’m really looking forward to next year and hoping it’ll be even better!
On a completely unrelated note, if you’re interested in experimental music, this look like a great idea: Here’s a record player that has been modified to translate tree rings into music.
Malborough Pantomime is On!
Yes! This week (starting tonight!) I’ll be playing flute for the Malborough Amateur Dramatics group (MAD group), who are putting on a new version of Sleeping Beauty that has been especially written and directed by Felicity Goodall. It’s on at Malborough Village hall from the 18th – 21st January and you can buy tickets from the Kingsbridge Tourist Information Centre and Malborough Post Office. There are a few more details over on malboroughvillage.org.uk.
Anyway, we’ve got a great cast this year and the audience dress rehearsal yesterday went amazingly well, so it looks like it’s going to be a good year.
Lots of thanks to the cast, T. Electrics for sorting out the sound (they do a brilliant job and always manage to make the band and cast sound amazing), Andy Morgan on lighting and the hundreds of people have volunteered to help with everything from costumes and stage direction to providing tea and coffee (we all need a nice cup of tea now and again)! It’s great fun to be involved with such an enthusiastic, supportive and hard working group of people.
Happy New Year!
It’s been a fun but hectic few days.
New year was brilliant. Catching up with old friends, dressing as a victorian just for fun, playing games with ridiculous additional rules…
I’ve just got back from playing jazz flute at The Cottage Hotel. Tonight it went really well, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and (despite my lack of sleep over the past 24 hours) I was full of energy and it was really good fun. I usually play flute as part of “The Sterry Family” and we seem to play at The Cottage reasonably often. Here are a few tracks we’ve recorded together:
Just out of interest – Have any of you done anything wild or different to celebrate New Year? Any strange/bizarre New Year’s resolutions?
My resolution is to do at least 1 hour of exercise every day, whether that’s going for a walk or playing games on the Wii against my little sister. I’m also aiming to increase my repertoire of harp music, learn to drive and take my Grade 8 flute exam this year – we’ll see what happens.
Hope you’ve all had a brilliant Christmas and New Year! And let this year be a good one!
Ollie – New Kitten
Here’s Ollie – the newest member of the Sterry household!
A few funny things have happened since he came to live with us and he’s shown himself to have quite a bit of character!
5 Things he really seems to like:
- Rubbing his face on everything and purring madly. Sometimes he does this to wake me up.
- Hiding in the bath. He loves trying to attack water, but seemed a bit shocked once when he jumped in the bath, only to find that it was full of water. Here he is hiding in the sink:
Sink Cat - Playfully biting toes. He’s fairly gentle and doesn’t use claws, but it tickles!
- Annoying the other cats until they get mad and hiss and growl at him or take a swipe. He nibbles their tails if he’s in a really irritating mood.
- Weird Sleeping Positions…
He’s a bit mad, but I love him to pieces.
Take Five Covers
I’ve been thinking about covers of tunes recently, and have to say that 2 of my favourite covers are of Dave Brubeck’s tune, “Take Five”.
Tito Puente – Take Five in 4/4:
Val Bennet – Reggae Take Five Cover (from The Russians are Coming)
Just thought I should share those with you.
Ada Lovelace and the School Syllabus
Why is Ada Lovelace not on the school syllabus? Learning about interesting scientists and inventors in history lessons would be much more fun than killing the enthusiasm of students by studying the same two wars for years and years.
Other things that should be on the school syllabus:
- Cooking realistic meals for one.
- Managing tax, bills and finances.
- General DIY
- Basic Car/Bike Repair
These subjects shouldn’t be graded in the normal way, because the focus should be on encouragement of hard work, and not on a pointless letter on a piece of paper.
I’ll probably edit this and add some more in the future.
The Non-Phonetic Alphabet
I was wondering if I could create a useless alternative to the Nato Phonetic Alphabet, so I decided to give it a go (with a little help from the internet, friends and a pencil that claims to be 100% wool and has the instructions “DRY CLEAN ONLY” printed on it).
Anyway, here is the Non-Phonetic Alphabet:
A – Aether, Aisle, Auxiliary
B – Bdellium
C – Czar, Ctenophore
D – Djembe
E – Euro, Eye, Eight, Eiderdown, Euthanasia
F – ???
G – Gnat
H – Honour
I – ???
J – Jalapeño
K – Knee, Knight
L – Llanelli
M – Mnemonic
N – Nguyen
O – Oestrogen, One, Oujia
P – Pneumatic, Pterodactly, Phlegm, Phonetic
Q – Quiche
R – Rzeznik
S – Sgraffitto
T – Tsunami
U – Uighur, urushiol
V – ???
W – Write, Wrap, Wrestle
X – Xylophone
Y – Yvonne, Yreka, Yttrium
Z – Zaragoza
Use it to annoy people in call centres at your own risk.
My name is Hannah, spelt H for honour, A for aisle, N for Nguyen…
The name is also a palindrome so you should be able to spell the rest by yourself.
If you’ve got better ones, just comment and I’ll add them to the list.
I’ll be really impressed if you find any good ones for F, I, L, N, R, S, U, V, Y and Z!
Hannah Sterry 