June in pictures

I've been rat-sitting!
 I like taking photos with my phone. I have a lovely little camera, a Fuji X20, but I don't carry it everywhere and my phone gets used for random snaps. I like sharing images on Instagram, too, which drives me to take lots of photos with my phone. Since I started doing regular morning walks before work, taking photos has helped make things more enjoyable. I have a couple of main routes, and looking out for new, interesting, fun or just plain pictureque things to take pictures of en route definitely stops it getting boring. (In case you're wondering, my weight is pretty much unchanged, but I do find a walk lifts my mood immensely, so I'll stick with it.)

I do count myself lucky to have such an attractive 'gym' for my morning exercise. Here's a couple of this month's sights: an attractive row of houses round the back of the theatre (I think they film things here fairly regularly), the Victoria Art Gallery, and evidence of the sort of street drinking you get in somewhere like Bath. 'We are all in the gutter', Oscar Wilde might have said, 'But some of us are in the gutter outside the Royal Crescent with a bottle of Bolly.'

Being relatively civilised, I prefer to do my drinking in the pub. Most of my pub drinking is in Trowbridge, but for some reason the only one I have from Trow is a pint of cider. YES this is cider. The still, bright orange, incredibly alcoholic sort that's traditional down here in the West Country. You can keep your fizzy ciders – especially the ones with fruit flavours, appalling muck – because I'm going to stick to the real thing. The Bath pubs are (L-R) The Garrick's Head, which is attached to the theatre, and has a lovely seating area outside and occasionally Palmer's beer on tap, and The Coeur de Lion, which may or may not be the smallest pub in Bath. It certainly has the smallest bar area, but it also has an upstairs, so there are those who claim the Volunteer Rifleman is the smallest as it has a larger bar but no additional floors. Either way, I'd only advise holding an office party in either if you're self-employed!
I wore clothes! Shocking! Although some of these clothes were at burlesque class and so 'wearing' is possibly the wrong word for it. Every time I wear my Doghouse Vintage 'Potty Lotty' dress it cheers me up and I take loads of photos. I was also really pleased with how the shape of the pendant Papa Robot sent me for my birthday echoes the pattern on my Mode O' Day dress.

On the subject of family, a long-lost relative also found me this month, the daughter of my granddad's brother Bobby. I shared a few photos with her, including this one, one of my favourites. It was taken in Maymyo in Burma (now Pyin Oo Lwin in Myanmar) in the mid-30s, and I'm pretty sure it's my granddad and his brothers – Granddad Fred on the left, Bobby on the right, Patrick at the back and Bunny at the front. I was intrigued to learn that during the war Bobby had been in the Royal Army Medical Corps on the pathology side of things like granddad, and that he'd boxed welterweight. Granddad was heavyweight and Bunny lightweight. I need to find out more about Patrick now...

As for Papa Robot, here's a shot of him on a rollercoaster in the 1960s that I tweeted on Father's Day. Hehehe. It's one of my favourites of him.

Did you have a fun June?

Comments

  1. Ratty! I love rats, we kept them for a good few years and I still miss them, they're such little poppets ❤

    I like Bath a lot, though we haven't been for a few years now. I love your dresses and the pendant is beautiful. Fabulous old pictures too x

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    1. Thank you!

      Charlie Rat is one of seven, but he's my favourite. He's enormous, and incredibly friendly.

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  2. Lovely photo. How fabulous to find long-lost relatives. They sound like they have/had very interesting pasts. I kept rats too and I love their little fluffy faces and cute wee paws. I miss mine so much too. You definite get a better class of jakes in Bath. :) xx

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    1. Yeah, that side of the family is the most interesting by a long way. My favourite couple are the rich girl who scandalised Georgian Calcutta who married a surgeon who'd served on a privateer ship. What lives they must have had!

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  3. You'll never get me keeping a pet rat after a dozen years on a farm where they grew so large you could saddle and ride 'em. *Shudder*. That said, I know the domesticated sort are smart and make nice companions. What's better is that the photo gives us a nice close-up of your eyes.

    Now I'm intrigued by the cider. The stuff we get here is terrible. I might have to make my own. So what makes the colour so bright? Is it a particular apple peel?

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    1. Rats make fab pets for kids as they're small enough to live in cages, but intelligent enough to be friendly and tame. Sadly, they don't live very long - usually only a couple of years - and it's just heartbreaking to lose any pet. Matt and Lucy, who own Charlie and his six friends, often get 'rescue rats', and we like feeding them when their owners are on holiday. Charlie is adorable, such a friendly fellow.

      They use special apples here in the south-west, 'cider apples', which are hard, sour things - not crab apples, but not eating apples either. They have a lot of tannins in, which might account for the colour. The one in the pic is Thatchers Cheddar Valley, though Black Rat is probably my favourite.

      There are tales of places out in the wilds of the west country where they'll only sell the local cider to outsiders in half-pints, because it can be pretty strong and if you're not used to it, it'll take you by surprise. :-D

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  4. Such a gorgeous yellow dress that one Mim, let's have some bigger pics!! I love all your snippets about Bath and its pubs, and that's so funny about the kind of street drinking!! It's a bit different in Cardiff...
    x

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    1. Cardiff's nightlife is legendary. :-D Pete and I did a bit of street photography when we spent a weekend in Cardiff once. What struck me was how it was generally pretty benign; everyone was simply out to have a good time.

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  5. Yeah, wasn't too bad ;) Lovely photos! :)

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    1. I am very envious of some of your June experiences!

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  6. If only I was lying in the gutter with stars above drinking Bolly *sigh*

    That cider looks a tad on the radioactive side.....

    I also love the yellow dress, gorgeous fabric.

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  7. My word, Mim... this June kept you busy. :)
    Mine is more.. chaotic. Looking at my DIY wall calendar, I see so many things going on n June (so it is good to write them down):
    1. I got a dog
    2. Made a first batch of this year's preserves
    3. Had my health-check
    4. Bought and equipped the bathroom
    5. Saved an owl's life
    6. Started a paint-work in the house
    7. Finalized the last paper on a house purchase - BOUGHT a house
    8..... and baked a lot. :)

    Marija

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