Chase Me, Chase Me

 

A few days ago I was walking in the woods a few miles from where I live and noticed a sign about how a local conservation group had dredged the pond in the woods to encourage more wildlife to the area. When I got there I discovered a small pond about 10m across, and it stunk. There was no obvious inlet or outlet so the water was just sitting there looking lifeless.

However, from the corner of my eye I noticed something zoom around the edge of the pond. It was a light blue dragonfly flying around the perimeter of the pond and then disappearing. I watched for a while and then noticed a brown dragonfly hovering and dipping it's abdomen into the water - clearly a female ovipositing her eggs. I then realised that the two must have just mated and whilst the female was depositing the eggs the male was 'keeping guard'.

I walked slowly around the pond and then spotted the blue dragonfly on the branch of a small bush on the waters edge - that's where it had been disappearing to.

On my return home I identified the dragonflies as Broad Bodied Chasers (Libellula depressa) - very common in the UK but it was the first time I'd seen one.

Wikipedia has a page here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libellula_depressa


I'll head back to the pond again this summer and see if any other wildlife has colonised it.

Catch You Later!

Brixham

 

Something different for this months' post - a day trip to Brixham.
 
Brixham is a fishing town on south Devon. It was founded somewhere between the 7th and 9th centuries AD and in the Middle Ages was the largest fishing port in the south west of England. William, Prince of Orange landed here in 1688 during the Glorious Revolution. He went on to become King William III of England with his wife Queen Mary II.


I started my walk from the car park overlooking Oxen Cove harbour.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I headed into town to get some lunch. Most of the restaurants are located around the inner harbour and there's plenty to choose from.

The inner harbour is the location for the replica of the Golden Hind used as a museum.

 

 

It's also a convenient location for mooring and repairing the larger boats.

Between the inner harbour and Oxen Cove are the quays for the larger fishing vessels and tugs.

To the north east is the marina.

Separating the harbour from Lyme Bay is the breakwater.

Near the end of the breakwater is a derelict jetty which was originally built by US forces as a landing stage for ships involved in the invasion of France in 1944.

During my visit a number of fishing boats were returning to the harbour.

By the time I'd reached the end of the breakwater Atlantic Storm Frank was beginning to make its presence known and the wind was really starting to pick up so I headed back. As I reached the car park the jetty light had just switched on.

If you're planning a visit to Brixham there's more information here:

http://www.brixham.com/

 

http://www.visitbrixham.com/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brixham

 

http://www.englishriviera.co.uk/brixham

Catch You Later!

Tags:
#brixham
#devon
#english riviera
#fishing
#trawler
#oxen cove
#1944
#invasion

Ray Harryhausen

A few weeks ago I visited the Ray Harryhausen exhibition at the Bill Douglas Museum situated within the grounds of Exeter University. I'm afraid the exhibition has finished now but I took a few photos in case you missed it. I was hoping I could live blog but again I was thwarted by a lack of mobile internet - seeing as I was in the grounds of a university I had expected at least some signal but whatev. I also ran into another small problem with the pics; the exhibition itself (actually just 3 cabinets) was set-up opposite a floor to ceiling window facing the sun which resulted in some awful reflections and my phone's camera autofocus getting a bit confused.

Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013) was an American visual effects creator, writer, and producer. He worked on 25 films and numerous other projects from 1937 to 2002 with his most memorable works being Mighty Joe Young (1949), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Clash of the Titans (1981).

I grew up watching Jason and the Argonauts and the Sinbad films. For these films (and many others) Ray created a form of stop-motion model animation known as 'Dynamation' (explained here).

The exhibition displayed props and concept art from the following films:

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger

 

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

 

 

 

The Valley of Gwangi

 

 

 

 

War of the Worlds

 

 

 Mighty Joe Young

 

 

 

 

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

 

 

 

 

The Story of King Midas

 

 The Story of the Tortoise and the Hare

 

Clash of the Titans

 

 

 

 

Jason and the Argonauts

 

 

My favourite has to be Talos from 'Jason and the Argonauts'. As a kid I remember seeing this colossal bronze statue come to life and thinking that even though it could move and appeared to be alive, it's blank, dead eyes betrayed its soulless existence (I was 8 so I didn't use those exact words but you know what I mean). I hoped that there was an island somewhere where these huge statues actually existed and that one day I might get to see them.

 

Even though the exhibition is over, if you're a film fan a visit to the Bill Douglas Museum is a must - it's quite small but there's so much packed in.

Here's some useful links and as always the full list of sources is at the bottom of the page:

http://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/

 

http://www.rayharryhausen.com/

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talos

Catch you later!

 

 

Credits:
http://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/
http://www.rayharryhausen.com/dynamation.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen
https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/the-noteworthy-rip-ray-harryhausen-1920-2013-dirty-old-new-york-subway-hanekes-lessons
http://www.bookandnegative.com/gallery/the-art-of-ray-harryhausen/
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/relive-ray-harryhausens-movie-magic-518692
http://bavatuesdays.com/talos/
http://dcairns.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/talos1.jpg
http://www.blackgate.com/2013/05/07/remembering-ray-harryhausen-through-ten-great-visual-effects-scenes/
http://www.moviefancentral.com/hubbs/top10s/27552
http://second-reel.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/happy-birthday-ray-harryhausen.html
http://www.cinemaerrante.it/2013/06/12/cinema-errante-ricorda-ray-harryhausen/
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2003/01/14/at-sundance-ray-harryhausens-the-tortoise-and-the-hare
http://www.animationmagazine.net/top-stories/ray-harryhausen-talks-technique/
http://buzzdixon.com/art-2/the-era-is-officially-over-ray-harryhausen-1920-2013/
http://www.dontpaniconline.com/magazine/film/ray-harryhausen
http://moozine.co.uk/2014/05/15/kaiju-review-2-the-valley-of-gwangi/
http://gwangipedia.wikia.com/wiki/Styracosaurus
http://cscottrollins.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/ray-harryhausen-this-is-dynamation.html
http://gwangipedia.wikia.com/wiki/Sinbad
http://screenrant.com/ray-harryhausen-obituary/
http://ocdviewer.com/2014/02/10/mighty-joe-young-july-27-1949/http://imdb.com

Bridgwater Fair

 

Last weekend I visited Bridgwater Fair for the first time. Even though I've lived near Bridgwater for years I've never been to the fair or the carnival. The fair has been around for quite a while - the first one was in 1249 and it's been on the same site for over 600 years.

There are 45 rides, 50 stalls and 100 market stalls. After I'd wandered through the rides I made my way down through the alley way of market stalls in West Street - so many cooking smells mixing with the incense made it smell really exotic! There was loads of stuff for sale; food, clothes, toys, even duvet covers!

Below are a few pics from the night (sorry they're a bit fuzzy - I'd intended to live blog from the fair but there was no mobile internet signal):

Even though I couldn't live blog I've still created this post on my phone using Bloggeroid - I'm looking forward to how it's going to turn out!

Well as it happens, not very well... Bloggeroid lost all my text above the pics so I've had to re-write it all in Blogger on my PC! Better luck next time I hope!

Many thanks to all the fair operators and Sedgemoor District Council for holding the event and providing the historical stuff.

 

Catch you later!

posted from Bloggeroid