English Seaside

Southport Edition.

Heatwave was back, so it was time to go to the beach again.

Shot taken from the pier.

Light above the pier.

Sun reflecting on the water.

My foot in the water.

Something to eat.

Followed by an ice cream, of course.

Place to have some fun times. (I think. I haven’t been there.)

Shops on the street are also sort of typical of the seaside town.

Sun starts setting on the seaside, rides are closing.

Bye-Bye!

All tired out from the day, you make your way to the station, only to be faced with the reality of the train to Manchester being cancelled. The next one would not depart until an hour after the cancelled one.

Distrust in the railway company, coupled with your ever present anxiety, forces you to seek another solution.

You board the next train to Liverpool and return to Manchester via Liverpool South Parkway. You get home at about the same time you would if you had taken the train after the cancelled one.

What a journey!

For the Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – Journey.

In case you want to know, I didn’t have to buy another ticket, the one I had was valid for the alternative journey.

Arnside, Cumbria

The following photographs have already appeared on this blog, as part of the dead and buried WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge. The reason why I’m reposting them is the same as with the Albert Dock of Liverpool pictures. Arnside deserves its own post.

Arnside is a village in Cumbria, North West England, on the river Kent estuary in Morecambe Bay. It’s belongs to the Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty–you can see why.

I have added the following two pics for this post:

From my trip in September 2016.

Formby

In my last blog entry I shared the photos from my trip to Southport, but that wasn’t the whole trip. That same day, I also visited Formby, a town on the coast near Liverpool. Formby is known for its sand dunes, pinewoods and wildlife–apparently it’s a habitat of the endangered red squirrel, though I haven’t seen any (truth be told, I didn’t have much time, I literally ran from the train station to the beach, took pics and ran back, as it was quite late and I wanted to return to Manchester at reasonable hour).

Anyway, Formby is absolutely gorgeous, see for yourselves:

formby beach2

formby beach1

formby path

formby dunes

formby dunes2

formby pinewoods

The pinewoods are conserved by National Trust, for the above mentioned wildlife.

Southport Beach

Today, let me share with you some photos from my trip to Southport. Southport is a seaside town in Merseyside, North West England, over an hour by train from Manchester.

southport beach1

southport beach2

southport seagull

southport beach3

southport beach4

southport beach5

The bottom two are smartphone shots.

This trip meant a lot to me because this was the first time in ten years that I felt seawater. The tide was low as you can see, so I just took off my shoes and socks and went right in. I walked way, way past the pier. Of course, not being used to such hot weather (yeah, what’s up with that?) since moving to UK and not having been on the beach for a decade, I forgot I should have applied the sun cream regularly. Shrug, a bit of a sunburn won’t kill me.

Anyone here knows Souhtport?

Gloomscapes #20

Today, I’m pleased to present number Twenty in my Gloomscapes series.

To mark this occasion, I have decided for something less gloomy, maybe even a bit fun–and a dialogue from my favourite YA dystopian series.

ferris wheel beach

“Think about it. People used to ride that thing. For fun,” says Will, shaking his head.

“They must have been Dauntless,” I say.

“Yeah, but a lame version of Dauntless. “Christina laughs. “A Dauntless Ferris wheel wouldn’t have cars. You would just hang on tight with your hands, and good luck to you.”

We walk down the side of the pier. All the buildings on my left are empty, their signs torn down and their windows closed, but it is a clean kind of emptiness. Whoever left these places left them by choice and at their leisure. Some places in the city are not like that.

~Veronica Roth, Divergent

#KeepOnGloomin’

The world in the Divergent series is a city divided into five factions. The above mentioned Dauntless are one them. They’re the brave ones; Abnegation are the selfless, Candor the honest, Erudite the ones that value knowledge and Amity are the hippies. Then there are the factionless, who don’t fit into any faction and live on the fringes of the society. I’m a definite Erudite myself, though I think the Dauntless are the coolest ones.

Ambience

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Another weekly photo challenge, another picture of Arnside, Cumbria. It seems that trip there in September provided a lot of material for my blog.

The sun is just preparing to set, the smell of salt in the air and the silence, occasionally interrupted by the rumbling train–railway viaduct seen on the right.

Ambience

Seagull

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I don’t live by the seaside so I don’t see anything of these guys, of course. Though I hear they are thieves that can snatch food out of your hands. This one came up to me while I was eating my burger and shrieked and kept looking at me and something it the way it was acting reminded me of my cat when she wants food. Don’t ask me how a bird can remind one of a feline. I make all sorts of weird associations.

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Pictures taken in Blackpool, North West England.