Round The Harbour

On a sun-bright, finger-tingling afternoon we drove to Mudeford where I wandered for a while.

Fishing paraphernalia including coiled ropes, piled crab pots, bright buoys and rust-red chains lay neatly on the concrete and gravel area. Someone with a sense of national colours had placed a a child’s bright red and blue hat on an overturned white rowing boat.

There were plenty of socially distanced walkers, some casting long shadows.

A couple watched by a man sailing a dinghy passed the beach huts opposite; two others crunched along the shallows where

a young man photographed the still floundering capsized sailboat;

so did I, and Jackie focussed on the derelict rowing boat beside it.

A small group of cottages with good views of the sea are perched upon the quay itself.

Three silhouettes were working on some boats; others, with tinkling masts, were moored for the winter.

Jackie also photographed the open shore line, and pictured me, wings spread to aid balance while negotiating undulating potholes.

Early this evening Richard from Kitchen Makers visited to fix a leak in the kitchen waste pipe. He insisted on coming right away and refused payment, regarding this as after sales service. So service is not completely dead.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s spicy chicken jalfrezi, boiled basmati rice, and parathas, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Macon.

84 comments

  1. Terrific pictures, Derrick, but you floored me with the statement that your serviceman no only came out quickly – but REFUSED payment!!

  2. Lovely photos, can’t wait to go back to Mudeford.
    We haven’t been more than 5 miles from home since before Christmas, and mostly that’s been to the Mother In Law’s to help look after her on the other side of Southampton.
    Looking foward to better weather and lockdown easing up so we can get out somewhere decent for a walk.

  3. The sea in your last shot is an amazing blue – so beautiful. Mudeford is a very lovely place.
    It was indeed cold today…
    I lost the ‘tingle’ in my fingers, as they seemed to freeze solid until defrosted under a warm tap!

  4. It does look like it was lovely and bright today. I would like to see a video of the undulating potholes. It’s good you were able to avoid them. ?. Your header shot is beautiful, but I was also taken with the photo of the window (and nets).

  5. My boat-loving side enjoyed these pictures very much! Not sure what’s happening with that sailboat. You’d think the owner would do something right away.

  6. Lovely post, Derrick. Your photos are so evocative of the day that I could almost smell the sea (especially the header photo) and feel the cold (especially the long shadows in black and white).

    Every time you mention chicken jalfrezi, I think of the time – so long ago – that I asked about it and Jackie took the time to type it up and put it on your blog. I printed it out and I’ve made it many times since. I’ve thanked you both for that, but I will do so again.

    It was a finger-tingling day here, too. I just finished a 4 mile run and had to wear Bernie Sanders type mittens the whole time.

  7. I love all the fishing paraphernalia. Such interesting colours and textures. As for walking with wings spread, I needed to do that yesterday and maybe I wouldn’t have fallen flat on my nose,,,,literally. Nothing broken …just my pride and my new gloves.

  8. I love the photos and I envy your harbour stroll. When talking to Sophie today we listed visiting the coast as top of our to do list when we can finally mingle freely again.

  9. I liked your picture of the young boat photographer. He must have had a good composition in mind to bother to get so close.

    Be careful of the holes in the ground.

  10. It’s good to hear that service is still alive and well. The afternoon at the seaside looks quite pleasant. I love Jackie’s photo of the brilliant blue water.

  11. Hè, hè … , ik kreeg een mailtje … Voor ik het voor elkaar heb, duurde wel een hele maand, dus ik loop achter … U was aan het lezen: Charels Dickens … Dat was het laatste en ik laat u niet in de steek, want ik ben graag op uw blogs. Keek er echt naar uit … * http://www.friedabblog.wordpress.com * Amsterdam, 26-1-2021, 4.10 uur … Welterusten!

  12. Harbours are an enigma to me: interesting boats that hint at adventures past and to come; lots of paraphanalia about, from the decaying to the fairly new; a mixture of mess and order; and then there is a distinctive smell about a harbour of any size that is unforgettable. Your photographs have brought it to the fore in my olfactory memory.

  13. All beautiful photos, Jackie and Derrick! Love the fishing paraphernalia…so artistic with colours, textures, shapes! We used to live 7 miles from the Pacific Ocean and I miss it. Always enjoy seeing beach and nautical photos! 🙂
    The water, boats, birds and people-watching photos…the light and shadows…all lovely!
    Glad you didn’t fly away, Derrick! Good GP photos by Jackie!
    YAY for Richard and good work done!
    Your photos bring me warmth. Right now it is 21 degrees Fahrenheit…6 inches of snow on the ground…still snowing and is supposed to snow for the next 12 + hours. Brr! 🙂
    HUGS!!! 🙂

  14. Fun to study the photos of the fishing gear. Lots to look at! Was the tipsy sailboat waiting for a high tide, and if not how did it get there? Must be a story involved…

  15. When I first saw the sailboat, I assumed it had been grounded for a bottom job before the tide came in. If not, I wonder if it was blown aground, and they’re waiting for a tide to get it back to the water. It certainly is in decent shape, unlike the rowboat next to it.

    By the way — no more vaccine envy. I get my first shot tomorrow. I put my old eBay sniping skills to work, and got into the county’s website before it crashed. Imagine this: the minute the site opened, there were 150,000 hits. It opened at 9:30 a.m., and by 9:34 I’d gotten in, filled out my forms, received a confirmation and my email with instructions. Seven hundred people made reservations in the first five minutes. !!!

  16. Interesting photo of a rowing boat from Jackie. Has she always liked things that are old and decrepit? Nicely caught Oystercatcher too. Hope you are both keeping well, you look quite sprightly in that shot.

    1. Thanks a lot Quercus. You get a prize for ‘old and decrepit’ and ‘quite sprightly’ in one set of comments. 🙂 Thanks for identifying the oystercatcher.

  17. Those are beautiful photos from your day on the shore, Derrick and Jackie! I like the colorful gear and boats. It looks cold there, but you had some good sun.

    It was cold and raw here all day, with a light snow this afternoon. The ground was too warm, it is melting.

  18. Thanks for the trip to the shore, Derrick & Jackie. As a native Californian who lived in the San Francisco area for a while and loved going to the wharf, enjoying a fresh crab dinner, and walking barefoot in the sand, and now living in a land-locked state 12 hours from the Pacific Ocean, your post was a breath of fresh air. Love the photos!! Thank you.

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