This is the Coastwatch building which sits atop the dunes at Mablethorpe’s north shore, tucked away in a corner of the visitor car-park. On the day I visited, it was still a couple of days before the state funeral of the queen and the country was still in the official period of national mourning, so the flag is being flown at half-mast.
I’m quite pleased with how this image turned out. The structure itself makes an interesting focal point, but it’s helped no end by the cloud detail, the light, and the colour rendition of my scan which has rendered the Fuji Pro 160NS very nicely to my eyes.
It’s not the first time I’ve shared pictures of this place on the blog and you can see some earlier images in this post.
Yashicamat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed, home scanned, & converted with Negative Lab Pro.
One of three crazy gold courses at Mablethorpe. When I was younger, this was part of the Arnold Palmer chain of courses. The Arnold Palmer course had a hazard in the form of a windmill with ball-blocking rotating blades (which, for all I know, is still present on this new pirate-themed course, but it was closed so I couldn’t take a look). The trick to beating the windmill was to bounce the ball from the sides of the course, bypassing the rotating sails completely, and still allowing for a skillful hole-in-one if you were good enough.
The final hole was a sloping contraption with a single hole in the centre and a set of traps. Missing the hole would result in your ball rolling back into one of the traps and being lost (or, as I suspected, conveyed back to the hut where you payed and collected your club and ball via some sort of underground channel – you could hear the balls rolling back when you were paying for your game). A successful shot however would cause a bell to ring and allow the lucky player to claim a gift and a free pass for another game. I still have a free game pass in my wallet, despite it having being rendered useless decades ago. It’s worth more for the memories than the free game ever was.
Yashicamat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 160NS. Lab developed, home scanned, & converted with Negative Lab Pro.
This singular football goal stands on the north beach at Mablethorpe. I think the sand and blue skies are a nice contrast and make for a nice photo. I decided to use if for my competition entry for the “cloudscapes” theme.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80 f/3.5-5.6 D & Kodak Portra 160. Lab developed, home scanned, & converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Living in a large city I’m used to large fire stations. All the ones that I’m aware of have facilities to support a number of appliances, as well as the usual accomodation and training areas. As a result, the fire station at Mablethorpe always seems small by comparison. There’s a full size fire engine parked in there – you can just see it peeping out of the doors, and there are certainly enough fire officers around as I saw a video recently where they were dealing with a collapsed wall on top of one of the local stores, and there were several people in attendance.
I bet it dosen’t have a pole to slide down though.
I’m not sure where I’m going with this to be honest, other than to pointlessly note that a small town has a smaller fire station than a large city. Look out for more exciting blog posts to come… 😀
Making pointless posts On the size of fire stations In small seaside towns
The Eagle Hotel, with it’s eagle stood on a ledge on the side of the building, is a familiar landmark when I visit Mablethorpe, standing perhaps a quarter mile from the town’s main street. The hotel is currently up for sale – the pandemic not having been beneficial to such establisments no doubt a factor.
A grand bird of prey Perched upon a hotel side Looking for owners
This pitures today show St. Joseph’s, a catholic church in the seaside resort of Mablethorpe. It’s a building I’ve photographed before (although, without looking, I can’t remember if I’ve posted photos of it on the blog previously).
Although I’m not a religious man, I like photographing (and looking at, and inside) churches. They are fascinating and impressive buildings regardless of faith and often make for interesting photographs.
The sunlight made for another nice picture on this occasion, I think, illuminating the warm browns of the brickwork against the blue of the sky. Similarly, the light on the statuette of Mary in one of the windows also made for a good picture, and I like the way the clouds are reflected in the glass.
I’ve passed by this way On numerous occasions Never been inside
This boarded-up takeaway caught my attention the last time I was in Mablethorpe in 2020 and I made a picture of it then. It wasn’t a very good photograph though – the weather was dull and I think it needed some sunshine to get anything from the subject matter.
On my trip this year, the sun was out and I made the photo you see today. It’s most likely no award winner, but the jumble of tilted and broken letters, and the vibrant red, white, and blue colours attracted me and I like the slightly abstract feel.
Chinese takeaway Closed for business now these days No more egg fried rice
I’m back at work tomorrow after a week and two days of leave. The decorating is almost complete now – just the kitchen to finish off and a few odds-and-sods to tidy up. Tomorow will likely be the decorator’s last day here. For anyone wondering at the ostentatiousness of us having a decorator, the simple reason for this is that I’m terrible at this stuff. We learnt early on in our home-owning journey that paying a professional to do this stuff would produce far better results. It oviously has its downside in terms of expense, but I’d much prefer the end result to look good than to save a bit of money and have it look shabby.
The end result of the last week has been that I could really do with another week off just to recover – I’m exhausted. Apart from all the maneouvering of furniture from room to room, dismatling and re-assembling beds and so forth, we’ve also been getting up at 7am every morning for the past two weeks to get everything ready before the decorator, carpet fitters, kitchen fitters etc. arrived. The only day where I had any time to myself really was yesterday, when I managed to get pretty much the full day to myself (I went out and made some photographs, and thens saw Dune at the cinema – great movie BTW, amazing visuals!). Despite that, I’m still exhausted and not really looking forward to being back at work. I do tend to find what I do for a living interesting and fullfilling though, so that will ease things a little.
So, a bit of a waffle today, but the picture below features some pictures that other people have painted, so there’s a slim connection with my decorating tale I suppose.
Oh my I’m so tired I could sleep for a whole week If given the chance
The British weather being what it is, it never hurts to have someplace to shelter from it, whether the rain, wind, or even (perhaps more rarely) hot sunshine. Most seaside resorts have such things, often along the promenade where passersby can watch the tide come in while it pours with rain. These brightly painted concrete shells sit just back from the promanade at Mablethorpe and look inland or across a large caravan park.
During bad weather Why not hide in a blue shell Not Mariokart!
This is the lifeboat station on the promenade at Mablethorpe. If you look closely in the circular window to the right of the building, there’s a small, knitted caostguard figure peering out. You can see them better in this picture I took a few years ago.
These men and women Who volunteer their efforts To save people’s lives
Steel City Snapper photography 