tamaranth: me, in the sun (Colorado)
tamaranth ([personal profile] tamaranth) wrote2003-03-25 11:49 am

Go Wild in the Country

[livejournal.com profile] ladymoonray and [livejournal.com profile] swisstone both had yesterday off work, and we decided to venture into the Countryside.

We went to Rye (where the locals all look inbred, perhaps because between October and April everything is closed).

We went to Camber (where we failed to commit murder by kite)

We went to the RSPB reserve at Dungeness, where we saw comic ducks, party coots, cormorants-or-shags, and bumblebee nests (not, as first thought, some grass in a cage.) We did not spot the Bird of the Month (Great Crested Grebe).

The shingle landscape is gloriously bleak, and there was no one else around - perhaps not surprising near sunset, on a Monday in March...

To the north-west, the misty silhouette of Lydd Church looked baroquely splendid. To the south-east, the massive buildings of the nuclear power station looked very far away: somehow they reminded me of the sort of SF book cover which shows the distant ruins of a forgotten civilisation (TM). Maybe it was the colour scheme: pale buildings melting into a hazy blue sky. The pylons marched like large metal things along the coast. (Hmm, why don't they bury the power lines?)

Where the Romans Landed(approximate)party coot, with marching pylonsswisstone looking for the TARDIS, or possibly for the Bird of the Month

To the west, high ice clouds refracted the sunlight and produced some spectacular rainbow effects (for those of us with sunglasses). The amber-coloured* moss (normal amber, not [livejournal.com profile] green_amber) glowed in the dusk. The sheep looked up. We realised that we were looking at the surface of several alien planets, as depicted in Doctor Who and Blake's Seven (and no doubt more recent British TV SF which I have missed).

We went back to Camber Sands, and our timing was perfect. Sunset on high cloud, with that neon-pink glow that only seems to happen in late winter and early spring ...
Twilight, Camber SandsTurneresque sun, Dungeness

And then night fell, and we voted against chocolate cake in favour of pizza. It's all that fresh air.

[identity profile] swisstone.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 04:07 am (UTC)(link)
I'm a fool, aren't I ...

[identity profile] ladymoonray.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
I'm not going to argue with that!

[identity profile] tamaranth.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
I think you're supposed to say "of course not, dear".

[identity profile] tamaranth.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
in what respect?
Looking for the Bird of the Month when you have a perfectly respectable [livejournal.com profile] ladymoonray at your side?

I could not possibly comment.

damn! did not mention Whitby Witticism!

[identity profile] sbisson.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
Nice!

[identity profile] lproven.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 04:42 am (UTC)(link)
The pylons marched like large metal things

The death of simile and metaphor strides across the Innernet like... a giant, striding thing.

I blame self-censorship for imagery of giant rigid objects, thrusting proudly erect from the gentle, swelling curves of the fertile landscape.

I have only this to say

[identity profile] tamaranth.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 05:05 am (UTC)(link)
the elevator cable rose up like an elevator cable.

If it's good enough for Stan Robinson, it's good enough for me ...
Self-censorship? Surely shome mishtake.

Re: I have only this to say

[identity profile] lproven.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 06:56 am (UTC)(link)
Good point, well made.

I'll shut up now, shall I?

[identity profile] tamaranth.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
er, Liam, I think you are in imminent danger of producing Landscape Porn. (Not Landscape Slash. It is easy to see that this is in fact Landscape Het).

Now scrub your brain.

[identity profile] lproven.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 06:57 am (UTC)(link)
I thought you said you had only this to say?

[identity profile] lproven.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 06:59 am (UTC)(link)
Sorry, obviously, when I said this (http://www.livejournal.com/users/tamaranth/37395.html?thread=178707#t178707) I meant that (http://www.livejournal.com/users/tamaranth/37395.html?thread=177171#t177171).

[identity profile] zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 04:48 am (UTC)(link)
*jealous*

And tell us about this Whitby witticism then!

[identity profile] tamaranth.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 05:07 am (UTC)(link)
We were discussing the bands playing at Whitby:

"Red Lorry Yellow Lorry? They're not a Goth band! If they were a Goth band they'd be called Black Lorry Black Lorry!"

O how we laughed.

I have some fabric paint if you want to deface an official T-shirt!

[identity profile] brisingamen.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 05:27 am (UTC)(link)
The shingle landscape is gloriously bleak, and there was no one else around - perhaps not surprising near sunset, on a Monday in March...


Or because you failed to mention you were venturing into my back yard. A day out would have been rather nice ...

[identity profile] tamaranth.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 06:29 am (UTC)(link)
The 'failure to mention' this was due to not actually planning route or destination. I think the original concept was "beach, somewhere". Assuming continued unemployability, I'll be happy to plan an excursion now that the sun is doing its thing ...

[identity profile] major-clanger.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 12:47 pm (UTC)(link)
why don't they bury the power lines?

[SadGeek{electrical_engineering}=ON]

Because even thick multi-strand aluminium cables get rather warm when you send umpteen megawatts down them. (Birds perch on them for a reason: it keeps their feet nice and warm). Buried lines of the sort of power rating of the supergrid would rapidly overheat.

MC

[identity profile] tamaranth.livejournal.com 2003-03-25 01:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I see!

(er, you'll be wanting this: [SadGeek{electrical_engineering}=OFF])

While you're there, why is the sunset pinker in winter?

[identity profile] major-clanger.livejournal.com 2003-03-29 11:21 pm (UTC)(link)
(er, you'll be wanting this: [SadGeek{electrical_engineering}=OFF])

Ooops, that explains why I've spent the last few days trying to apply Ohm's Law to my in-tray...

I don't know about sunsets (beyond why they happen later in summer). Try a Meteorology Geek like [livejournal.com profile] vicarage?

MC
dalmeny: (Default)

[personal profile] dalmeny 2003-03-25 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks for the photos---looks beautiful. I must work out how to post pictures of Austin.