Ammonite street lights

These decorative street lights can be seen at Lyme Regis, a Dorset seaside town on England's Jurassic Coast. The ammonites reference the coast's fame as one of the places where the science of palaeontology developed from the study of fossils in the cliffs of the coast. The local herring gulls use them as a vantage point from where they can descend on food left by careless tourists.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Yachts blue and white

click to enlarge
Over the years I've photographed quite a few harbours with their working and pleasure boats, and wherever I've been - certainly in the UK and probably elsewhere - the dominant colours of the vessels has been white and blue. So it is in these photographs of Weymouth and Lyme Regis. It can't always have been so: the natural colours of wood must have prevailed at one time. So why and when did white and blue come to dominate?

click photo to enlarge

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Pink houses, Lyme Regis

This short terrace of houses on the seafront at Lyme Regis catch the eye, initially, because of their colour. They have been painted pink and given bright turquoise doors. Further examination shows them to have thatched roofs, a not uncommon feature on older seaside housing in Dorset and Devon. The forms of the decorative ironwork and the ground and first floor bowed bays tell of the date of their construction - around 1800-1820. This suggests that they may have been known to Jane Austen whose last novel, "Persuasion", includes scenes set in Lyme Regis. It was published in late 1817, six months after her death.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Herring gulls and scallop shells

This pair of herring gulls in the harbour at Lyme Regis seemed to be examining these scallop shells more in hope than expectation. All the shells had been opened and all seemed to have been there for a long time. What struck me most about this encounter was the combination of colours - the soft grey and white of the birds, and the white brown, orange and almost yellow of the shells all set against the lurid green of the algae/weed.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Harbour, Lyme Regis, Dorset

These photographs of Lyme Regis harbour were taken one minute and three seconds apart and illustrate a difference that a wider angle of view can make to a shot. Whilst the first shot offers information about the harbour and what can be seen there the second gives that information but in less detail. It also sets the harbour more in its geographical context and shows off the sky to better effect. It is, in my view, a better picture, more of a landscape than the first photograph.

 photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Fishing boats, Lyme Regis, Dorset

There's no doubt that most photographs of boats (and ships) give more attention to the bow than the stern. In a way, it's like photographs of animals where the head invariably features more prominently than the tail or rear end.

However, the stern of boats and ships are the more often the "business end" of the vessel and as such have more of interest on show - as with this pair of fishing boats in the harbour at Lyme Regis, Dorset. 

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Horas Non Numero Nisi Serenas

Near the pink houses in Lyme Regis shown in the earlier post is a newer (1904) house by the architect Arnold Mitchell. It is in a vernacular style - rough stone with mullioned cut stone window surrounds and an angular bay- and is notable for its sundial. Like most sundials it features a representation of the sun, here with a face and flames that become foliage. And, also like most sundials, it has a Latin motto: in this instance, "Horas Non Numero Nisi Serenas". This translates as "I count only the hours that are serene", meaning, I suppose, "only the summer hours" because sundials are limited in the hours that they can record by their prospect and by the time of year.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2