This morning was spent cleaning, tidying, and vacuuming the house, and completing bed-making. After lunch I scanned the next five of Charles Keeping’s inimitable illustrations to ‘Our Mutual Friend’.
‘ ‘There’s nothing new, I suppose’, said Venus’ gives the artist an opportunity to represent the distance between three men in the room by occupying a double page spread.
‘ ‘Yah,’ said Mr Boffin, with a snap of his fingers’
‘Mincing Lane’
‘Mr Twemlow lays down his aching head’
‘The two men looked at one another’
Later this afternoon we shopped at Tesco. The woman on the check-out normally worked in the attached petrol station, which was now closed. She told Jackie that they were receiving uninterrupted deliveries as usual, but were sold out early in the mornings.
This evening we dined on pizza, the remains of Jackie’s arrabbiata sauce, and plentiful fresh salad, with which she drank Diet Coke and I finished the Cotes du Rhone Villages.
Afterwards we considered our tank still contained enough petrol for
a nip down to Milford on Sea to catch the sunset.
We were not the only watchers upon whom
the Needles Lighthouse shone its warning light.
The cloud pictures are breathtakingly beautiful.
Thank you very much, Bridget
Lovely sunset
Will you get up at 0dark30 to get petrol tomorrow?
No way. 🙂 Thanks a lot, Pat
This sunset is worth using a bit of petrol for!
Thanks very much, Anne.
Such a gorgeous sunset! I have just heard of your petrol shortage. I hope that what there is, is not being hoarded by the toilet paper crowd. (or was toilet paper hoarding just a Canadian thing last year?)
Oh the TP hoarding was also a US thing. Costco is now rationing TP to customers again, claiming supply chain issues this time.
I wonder if it was outside of North America? I don’t think they are rationing around here. It was on sale the last time we were at Walmart.
Thanks very much, AnneMarie. Hoarders – just like toilet rolls which were the same over here.
That must have been as global as the pandemic.
Stunning sunset Derrick
Thanks very much, Sheree
Magnificent sunset!
Thank you very much, Laurie
Beautiful sunset gallery! How far off shore is the Needles Lighthouse?
Just now looked it up. What an interesting history of the Lighthouse.
Thanks very much, Maj. About a mile, I think
Very beautiful sunset photos, Derrick! 🇬🇧
Thanks very much, John
Love Mr. Keeping’s ‘Mincing Lane’! 🙂 Mr. Boffin made me giggle! 🙂
OHMYGOSH! Your sunset photos are so so SO beautiful and healing to look at! A sunset state of mind! 🙂
The clouds are sure putting on a dramatic show. 🙂 Love seeing the soaring gull! And the light house! 🙂
(((HUGS))) 🙂
Thank you so much, Carolyn X
What a good idea that the lady who usually assisted in the petrol station could be re deployed.
Let’s hope the petrol situation settles soon… that red sky this evening bodes well, so fingers firmly crossed!
We were supposed to have continuing storms overnight. It didn’t happen, so you must be right. Thanks very much, Emma.
Stunning sunset!
Thank you very much, Rosaliene
Thanks for using some of your fuel to provide us with your gorgeous photographs!
And thanks for your appreciation, Jill
Ahh .. you’ll know my favourite Keeping’s sketch today was ‘Mincing Lane’… and the ‘no.2’ of your ‘sunset’ photos was superb, and I adored the clarity of your ‘Needles’ Photo …
Thank you very much for these responses, Ivor
That’s one fine lighthouse, and a gorgeous sunset. I’m glad you decided to spend the petrol to experience it, so that we could, too. I especially hope that the transport and supply issues get resolved in a timely manner.
When all the panickers have filled their tanks I expect we will return to normal. Thanks very much, Linda
Fanatastic sunset photos! I’m glad you got to see that!
Thank you very much, JoAnna
Love the sunset.
Thanks very much, Sherry
The persisting paucity of petrol appears to be paradoxical. How is it that the dealers in UK are receiving and selling the same amount of petrol and yet there is a scramble. It’s an interesting aspect of human nature.
Advent of smartphones has rendered photography as effortless as breathing. Recently though, I tried to capture a neon lit sign atop a tall building when my mobile threw in the towel. The model is not a slouch, being a highly rated iPhone 12. Even the DSLR that I bought 15 years ago could have captured it with panache. My daughter reported facing a similar inability trying to capture a particular shade of the evening sky. What these mobile cameras are doing is producing a cocktail of dozens of images or maybe more into one single shot. Everything that we used to know as white balance, exposure, shutter and aperture have been thrown out of the window in lieu of digital jugglery. Those ladies appear intent on carrying the fading lights home in their phones.
The use of double page to generate effects by Keeping is ingenious.
Thank you very much, Uma, for your usual insightful observations. Petrol is like toilet rolls to selfish scramblers. We have carers who cannot get to their charges for lack of petrol while other sit with full tanks and block up the roads. That is a particularly interesting take on mobile phone photography. I am pleased you still rat Keeping.
A lovely photograph of a lighthouse. It manages to portray its function without dazzling everybody.
Thanks very much, John 🙂
We have spent the last week in Northern Ireland where there was absolutely no panic buying. We returned yesterday evening and needed fuel but passed forecourt after forecourt with no diesel. I carefully drove the 100 miles from East Midlands Airport and finally came across a garage with fuel only two miles from home (25 miles left in the tank).
I’m so pleased you made it, Andrew. Thanks a lot.
Oh, my! Such beautiful photos! I would say it was worth the petrol.
Thanks a lot, Eugi
You’re most welcome, Derrick.
What a beautiful sunset, and I am glad you were both able to catch it! The clouds in one of those photos looks like dolphins leaping from the water.
The dolphins are exactly what we saw, Lavinia. Thank you very much
We are finally getting rain.
That is good. Thanks very much, Mrs W.
Your welcome.
As far as I’m aware, Derrick, there is no petrol shortage, its more media hype. I see it is continuing though. Lovely pictures.
People have rushed around filling up tanks early in the day, blocking the roads in queues. It is like toilet rolls. No shortage in reality, but greed makes it so.
Stunning sunsets. I’m glad you were able to get there!
Thanks very much, Merril
WOW!! Those sunset photos with the dark clouds are spectacular, easily some of the best I’ve ever seen.
Thank you so much, Liz
You’re welcome, Derrick. You’ve really outdone yourself with these.
Such a beautiful sunset.
Thank you very much, Sue
So, there’s enough petrol for everyone but those silly humans are panicking, as usual?
Yep. Thanks a lot, Widders
How beautiful to watch the sunset and those decorative clouds. I spend some time last night catching up on your September blog posts but I tried not to interact as I read as would have been a bit too weird. What a month it has been, when you combine real life events with memories.
Thank you so much for catching up, Susan.
Sorry about your petrol shortage, Derrick; I hope it ends soon. It did not prevent you from capturing a gorgeous sunset, though.
Mr Keeping’s positioning of illustrations in various places on pages enhances the effect of his inimitable art.
Thank you very much, Dolly. Petrol stations are stilling selling out quickly, but we got some yesterday.
I am glad you did, Derrick, but the whole situation is ridiculous, in my humble opinion.
That is an opinion that needs no humility, Dolly. Thank you very much.
I tend to exercise caution when speaking of situations in other countries, Derrick.
You are very welcome.
Wow! Stunning sunset! And that lighthouse is absolutely gorgeous!
Thank you very much, Ribana. Apparently it has a heliport on top.
We have hoarders here as well, but our petrol doesn’t seem to be on the blink. Last time I used online food shopping at one of our chains. The shortage was in pasta, flour, Long Life milk, Pet food, of course TP but there were other things where you were limited to 1 packet … now the retailer bods are saying there’s going to be a shortage of Christmas Presents. And I just read USA has stopped all mail to New Zealand, along with other countries, sighting freight vehicles both air/ship.
Not so good, Catherine. We got petrol yesterday. Thanks a lot.
Such a dramatic sunset.
x
Thanks a lot, Melanie X