Monday 1 May 2023

Glimpses Of Life Aquatic

Spot the sea life at the train station 

I'm toting about this top-hatted lobster a lot these days. He takes charge of the dancing paraphernalia within. Fair weather or foul, several times a week I'm off to the studios where much exertion ensues. For brain and body! The tap dancing teacher, particularly, reassures us that dementia will be prevented but it's the sense of satisfaction afterwards and the, well, feeling virtuous which drives me forward. And the glimpses of life aquatic are a bonus around this neck of the woods. So refreshing.

Wharf apartments on view through the studio windows.
'Ow the other 'arf live!

I've puzzled over this whilst pliéing at the barre.
Doll house, hen house or dog house?


This vessel gets about a lot

I'm guessing it's a mini oil tanker to refuel the cruise ships

Like this whopper seen from the Opera House recently

A stark conrast to this curiosity which was
motoring powerfully along the other morning!

Such things are of no interest to the fishermen


Also rain, hail, shine stalwarts


And speaking of gulls, one makes a cameo in a book recently read, a fictional account of the true life of Mary Anning, the working-class lady fossil hunter of Lyme Regis in the 19th century. She's befriended by the eccentric theologian and palaeontologist, William Buckland. This is your bonus serving of literary Table Talk, Dear Reader:

    As we started along the beach towards Lyme, I noted all those hammers and bags hanging off his poor, patient horse. There was also, tied to the bridle and flopping against the horse's side, a dead seagull. "Sir," I said, "what you doing with that gull?"
 
    "Ah, I'm going to have the kitchen at the Three Cups roast it for my dinner! I am eating my way through the animal kingdom, you see, and have had such things as hedgehogs and field mice and snakes, yet in all this time I haven't had a common gull." 
    "You've eaten mice!"
    "Oh, yes. They are rather good on toast."
    I wrinkled my nose at the thought, and at the smell of the bird. "But—the gull stinks, sir!"
    Mr Buckland sniffed. "Does it?" For such a keen observer of the world, he often overlooked the obvious. "Never mind, I'll have them boil it up, and use the skeleton for my lectures. Now what have you found today?"
Tracy Chevalier, Remarkable Creatures, 2009


Image credits: Flying With Hands

18 comments:

  1. Ships from abroad on The Great Lakes often have NO SMOKING on their aft cabin. I wonder if this is a rule for a particular line, or all ships, or only ships of a certain cargo.

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    1. Oh, dear Urspo, I rather fancy OH&S have laid down The Law for any ship sporting the mildest of incendiary materials. Unless there are rogue nations who say Tra la! to all that nannying.

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  2. Can you imagine someone lighting up on the mini-tanker? That person would certainly have to walk the plank!

    A tap class sounds good fun. YAY for you.

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    1. Death wish certainly springs to mind at the thought, dear Bea. If not for a fiery end then you're spot on with the plank! Tap is jolly hard but jolly good fun. Rather than, ahem, think I'm a born again Ginger Rogers, picture for yourself a pest exterminator stamping on beetles :)

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  3. How blissful it would be living in one of those wharf apartments. I would love the water views and I would really love veranda space to sunbake.

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    1. The wharf apartments are very smart, dear Hels. And very $$! One must pay handsomely for water frontage and to be showered with light and air.

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  4. YOU KEEP ON TAPPING!DO IT FOR ME TOO...........
    LOVED THESE PHOTOS!I READ RECENTLY WHERE MELBOURNE IS THE BIGGEST CITY IN YOUR OZ LAND!WOULD YOU AGREE TO THAT?
    I HAVE A NEW BLOG NO NEW POSTS YET AS I AM WAITING FOR THE GARDEN TO BURST FOURTH AND DO ITS THING!IF YOU ARE SUBSCRIBED IT SHOULD TRANSFER OVER BUT JUST IN CASE YOU CAN GOOGLE!
    THEVINTAGECONTESSA.BLOG
    XXX

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    1. Dear Contessa, I think I read, too, Melbourne is about to pip Sydney for largest population? In terms of sprawl, I'm not sure, but this country doesn't really know how to keep its urbanity within modest edges and the boundaries keep spreading. Your new blog address is already noted! xx

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  5. I longed to learn tap dancing as a child, but mother said 'no' it is ballet for you my girl. How I loved the bright red leather shoes with big ribbon bows worn by those who did, but the sound, the sound was the thing I most adored.

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    1. Red shoes with ribbons, who couldn't be seduced, dear Rosemary! I think your mother may have been afeared of the tip-tap-tapping about the house if you could have got a pair onto your feet :) It was actually my own Mum who suggested I try tap when I announced a couple of years ago to start dancing classes!

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  6. Eating a broiled seagull- I shudder and think that my curiosity never would go so far (I know that centuries ago they served swans on the opulent tables of princes - "Thank you, but thank you no!") Of course one would eat a few things if one were in dire need of nourishment (and I don't want to know the exact recipe for some things WE eat either).
    In a restaurant I act on the maxime: "I will NOT visit the kitchen..."

    Your photographs are beautiful, the view from the Opera House: wonderful!
    As to tap dancing: I admire it very much - especially that you must have a high focus?
    "... but it's the sense of satisfaction afterwards and the, well, feeling virtuous which drives me forward" - whether for tap dancing or other passions: that I understand so well, dear Pip!

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    1. Yes, dear Britta, lifting the veil on culinary magic can be fatal sometimes! Seagulls of old may I suspect may have been fishy but who knows what a modern one might taste like given their diet of, ahem, chips and bin tailings.

      Tap is tricky but I'm doing a class for the over-55's. Some of the older dears danced as kids and have wonderful muscle memory but for beginners like me, you cannot let your mind wander. Funnily enough, it's harder than my ballet classes, but then I did do some ballet as a kid.

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  7. Did you mention Mary Anning before? I seem to have read about her not too long ago. I checked my to-look-for book list, but the closest I could find was Molly Manning. I would love to read a serious, non-fiction book about her, but when I looked on line, the dozens of biographies all seemed to be juveniles. A while ago I was in London and hurt my knee, and while recuperating found a book about the fossils of England, which told (among other things) about Anning and what were still good collecting sites at Lyme Regis. I was itching to go, but that will have to wait for a future trip.
    --Jim

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    1. Dear Jim, Mary Anning has only had her first airing on these pages just now but I have come across a couple of references to her in the last little while, although on the telly. I do love docos on natural history but she was also referenced in a costume drama we watched. I can recommend "Remarkable Creatures" if all else fails in the non-fiction department. A trip to Lyme Regis with a little trowel could be a fine adventure!

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    2. Whenever I read "Lyme Regis" I think of Fowles' novel "The French Lieutenant Woman".
      And I dream about going there to find fossilisations.

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    3. An admission, dear Britta: I've not read it. For shame!

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  8. I have never been to Lyme Regis. However, I am well on my way to becoming a fossil myself,

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Bats In The Belfry