Sunday was a truly glorious day. Saturday had been soaking wet, but we drew the curtains back yesterday to one of those newly washed seaside mornings where the sea sparkles, the sky is brilliant blue with little fluffy clouds, the air is fresh, and everything is crystal clear.
We went for our first longish walk since injuring my foot – it is now 90% better, thank goodness – have grown fatter with inactivity over the last few weeks. One of our favourite routes – up the steep path to the West Hill from the Old London Road just past the convent. These days it is slightly longer because we have to walk down Ashburnham Road, but the view of the Old Town and the sea from there is fabulous – it looks like Italy. Along Collier Road, over the West Hill green, stopping for a coffee at the cafe. I know I have said this before, but the view from that cafe must be one of the best in the south of England.
Yesterday we didn’t carry on our usual route down the other side of the hill and through Alexandra Park etc. – too long for me, but we dropped down into the Old Town so the Philosopher could take some photos to enter into the Stade Colour competition. On the way, we joined the Jerwood as members – at least we can go in there and have coffee now without having to pay! We inspected the Gary Hume exhibition (I keep on wanting to call him Gary Barlow) – and being us, weren’t that keen. It was better than the Rose Wylie but didn’t have much about it, in our view. Vast acres of empty space with a few enormous canvases hanging about with huge blobs of colour on, and funny sculptures that looked like oversized pepper mills. Philosopher knows a guy who said that these days Gary H just draws an outline and gets his assistants to colour it in – like Damien Hurst, I believe.
On the Stade, there was a slight falling out because being me, I kept on trying to tell him what photos to take, so we parted company for a short while. He took some lovely pictures of coloured things – he is good at it. Of course, when we got home later we re-read the entry criteria and discovered that ‘colour’ is not supposed to be literal, i.e shades and hues, but metaphorical, as in ‘local colour’ – I quote ‘ the essence of the Stade in terms of its cultural and environmental heritage’, and that ‘experimental work is welcome’. That means, I guess, that you could enter pretty much anything….
I took one arty photo with my iphone from inside the Jerwood, the net huts through that orange cage thing that hangs in the inner courtyard.
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| Arty Jerwood photo |
Experimental or what.
After, we treated ourselves to lunch at the Two Bulls in the Old Town. It’s just fine in there, and they are obviously doing well, which is good to see.
Nice day……
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