Sunday 9 April 2017

From Porthleven to Mullion by foot

A fabulous sunny Sunday for a walk along the coastal footpath from Porthleven to Mullion. The photos, as usual, don't do it justice and are confusing, as some are taking looking towards our destination, some back at Porthleven...
Maybe it would be better to be disciplined and take only shots of the path ahead. But it's so tempting to look back to take pictures of how far we've come.
Someone later tells me that he regularly cycles on this path. Rather him than me.
Leaving Porthleven


Loe Bar

Loe Pool (in distance)






the path to Church Cove, Gunwalloe

Looking back at Gunwalloe Church and cove

Wednesday 5 April 2017

Edward Hopper and serendipity


An unexpected discovery at the Royal Academy yesterday afternoon.... two Edward Hoppers including the painting above.
They're part of America after the Fall: painting in the 1930s.  The petrol station painting is usually in New York. It's far more brilliant and shiny that this reproduction suggests - the colours are shiny and enamel bright. So much light streaming from the garage windows. It's not a bleak painting. 

Tuesday 4 April 2017

Solitude, romance and the difficulty of saying goodbye


Compartment C, Car 193, 1938The French poet Baudelaire inspired Edward Hopper apparently - that's why Hopper's paintings of solitary people in service stations and cafes are so romantic. They're not entirely bleak: there is usually some poetry in them. 

The poetry of station platforms and waiting rooms....
I've got to the stage now where I try never to say goodbye on a station platform. The car park is just as good. Anything to avoid the rapidly diminishing figure(s) left behind as the train pulls out - or vice versa.


Reading and watching

  • Foot by Foot to Santiago de Compostela/Judy Foot
  • The Testament of Mary with Fiona Shaw at the Barbican
  • The Testament of Mary/Colm Toibin
  • Schwanengesang/Schubert - Tony Spence
  • Journals/Robert Falcon Scott
  • Fugitive Pieces/Ann Michaels
  • Unless/Carol Shields
  • Faust/Royal Opera House
  • The Art of Travel/Alain de Botton
  • Mad Men Series 6
  • A Week at The Airport/Alain de Botton
  • The Railway Man/Eric Lomax
  • Bright Lights, Big City/Jay McInerney
  • Stones of Venice/John Ruskin
  • The Sea, the Sea/Iris Murdoch
  • Childe Harold/Lord Byron
  • All The Pretty Horses/Cormac McCarthy
  • Extreme Rambling/Mark Thomas
  • Story of my Life/Jay McInerney
  • Venice Observed/Mary McCarthy