Got up to Sixways just after 6. Not a soul in sight and no traffic.

Just a vast spread in the sweep I set up on the pathway at the top of Alexandra Road and got a good cover.

            Moved up to Hill Road and decided to get the shots from the 'other' side

Blank windows at Seeleys' and also next door ex-Neales' I tried a shot but just dead in the middle. 

                                Moved along to opposite Sainsburys' 

Wonder if they will open later, I must get a loaf today if I can. Trouble with Hill Road is the fact the shops have gaps with the space before and then after the regent block it means taking three sets to cover.

                                     Moved back over at the top 

I was not altogether happy with this last shot because of the black alleyway by Hillwood House. But the other side had so much of the Alexandra Gardens, that had just nothing at all there. Went back but on the way I saw the tide was in so thought I would have a try at taking a timed shot.

                    Not very happy with it it just doesn't seem like the
                    Bristol Channel without the famed Clevedon Chop.

Perhaps I will try again perhaps not, seems so dead without waves.  It could almost be as flat as a billiard table.

So this year I called a Half-halt.

                                   Station Road lit well as usual.

After the fall I had last Christmas morning that left me with cracked ribs and bruises I decided this year I would only venture around the Triangle Area to take my Early Christmas Morning pictures.
Maybe I will get up to Sixways and Hill Road on Boxing day.

Tried a shot here as I was not going up to the top of the town.

Works well I think it allows the light from Queens square to illuminate.

Tried a shot from the bottom of Marson Road.

Again look at the angles. Both of those path edges are straight lines.

The Triangle is always rather poorly lit.

Old Street is better the lens catches from Click, that was actually BEHIND the tripod to as far as the Heritage Estate Agents in the Triangle.

And this shot from a window of Heritage down to as far as the Sally-Ann
before doubling back to a little bit of 3Bs window.

I wish I could calculate the precise angle but rough reckoning says it must be around 230 degrees.

When I look at the angles and the way the 10-24mm Tamron has altered the straight lines of a path edge I can understand why I had to cancel some of the pix.
I was unable to swing the camera enough in spite of it being on a tripod.

I am at least getting into the idea though. Stand well back from the tripod and swing using the up and down lever to control. Remembering that you start with the camera viewing behind the tripod place. It finishes up behind too.

I started off around 6 because then the full street lights come back on but by 7 I was back home brewing an Irish Coffee. Traffic was starting to run and I had to cancel a shot or two so I decided to pack in for the day.

More than satisfied with the production of my Heating Allowance purchase. 

As I rapidly approach my 92^nd birthday my Niece Jane presented me with a gem of a book.

It is called “Quips, Quotes and Retorts for Oldies”

It has such items in it as

“I know my secrets are safe with my friends, because at our age they can’t remember them Either”

And

“Anyone who honestly believes that life begins at forty overlooks the fact that so do Fallen Arches, Rheumatism, Faulty Eyesight and the tendency to tell a story to the same person four or five times.”

Have I been afflicted? I just don’t know. But I must admit that a lot of them made me chuckle to myself.

I think I MUST be starting to get senile.

Spent my money !

Because I pay for my heating and hot water with my rent weekly, I decided I would spend my heating allowance on a new lens for the A77v.

super wide pic

It was the new Tamron 10 to 24 (15 to 36mm) equivalent.

full 24mm shot

The set up at 24mm equal to 36mm on full frame.

Went out to the front to try a couple of spread shots.

          I couldn't pivot enough at 10mm setting so there is a little bit missing.

at 24 mm coverage is very good.

I reckon the overlapping cover between this lens and my 18 to 270 will do quite well.  

Now I must make up my mind whether I intend to sell the old 11 to 18mm or keep it.
I suppose that some folk will think I am stupid buying another lens like that but why not. I might as well spend it as keep it for someone else to spend when I am 6 feet under.

Gave up on the Steam train.

There was a steam train coming through Bath this morning to Bristol. I had thought about going over to Keynsham Station and getting some pix.
When I looked out I changed my mind.
Went up to Morrisons just after 8 and took some pix through the windows. Then on a spur of the moment decision I decided to look down to the beach. I hadn't checked to see the time of the tide but it was full tide at 9 a.m ish

Only just over a 12 foot tide but with the wind behind it it was quite splashy.

I sheltered from the wind blast using the hedge at the top of the rise and managed around 60 pix.

There were some folk who had - very foolishly - left their cars parked there. They will find they have a very good infilling of salt all around the cracks and joins of their cars. Salt? It will play hell with the areas they just cannot get to with a freshwater hose.
Odd how the colours have disappeared, looks almost like a monochrome pic except for the flags and cars.
When it had got to the highest I gave up and went back home. Booked in the Smart Idiot for an MOT tomorrow afternoon and idled the rest of the day.

What a difference a few years can make.

I was talking to someone that I had always thought of as a Clevedonian a few weeks back and mentioned Marks’ Hill, a name commonly known and used by my family.

They looked at me a bit puzzled, and I said to them “You know what I am talking about don’t you” They grinned a bit and said “You can’t catch me you know. It’s the little bit of Hill Road where Marks the chemist had his shop. Now it’s called Marine Hill”

I then patiently explained that whilst Ben Marks the chemist took the business on from his father Fred, he, in turn had been apprenticed to the chemist by His father who ran a little tea shop and café at the very beginning of Hill Road.

This had caused the hill now known as Park Hill getting the name Marks Hill.

“I suppose you don’t know where Coombe Hill is” I asked them.

“Highdale Road” was the answer. “No” I said “Only the bottom part of Highdale Road was Coombe Hill, Then the top part of it ran up through the firwoods to what was later called ‘The Arches’ and then up to the farm when that was built”

Highdale Road started from the other end; from Chapel Hill and couldn't be reached from Coombe Hill until they cut through the rocks where the little bridge went across the road.

When that was done they stopped calling the bottom part Coombe Hill and it all became Highdale Road. That was probably when Stewart Cottage was built. They had a double purpose in doing that. first the stone they quarried out could be used in building the houses and second they opened up a way to East Clevedon.”.

It made me think of the changes that had taken place in Clevedon. Hallam Road as an example was intended to be called Osborne Road, Woodlands Road was originally proposed as Woodland Road. Even in later years when the development off of Northern Way took place the Eastern part was intended as Regent Park – Clevedonians however insisted on adding the ending s to it and it finished up as Regents Park.

So life goes on, I wonder what we will be called in a few years time, Clevedon-by-Bristol? 

The stupidity of some people.

A week or so ago I had £59+ taken from my PayPal account. Quite legally: -- the need to take it was not legal.
I have been a member of AVG antivirus Free for a few years.
After one attack I decided to purchase a full anti-virus account. It served me very well and saved my bacon a couple of times by warning me of contaminated Email with trojan horses hidden in them.

It cost me £59+ and was worth every penny of it.

When the time for renewal came around I was quite happy to pay for it back in August to renew in September.
I was not so happy to find in November they had deducted another £59+ via PayPal.
I told them of it by Emailing to them, and it was instantly repaid to me. However it was repaid into PayPal that meant if I re-drew the cash I would have some deducted for handling.

Since then I had another request. to which I sent a short sharp note.

For Christ sake get yourself sorted out.

My anti-virus DOES NOT expire in 7 days. I paid the renewal back in August/September.
Any more of this and I shall cease to be an AVG customer. Probably take up the matter with CNet as well.

I like AVG and the way it looks after any virus problems. WHAT I DO NOT LIKE is being chivvied by you for renewals when I have already paid.

I have only just taken up the matter when you took £59+ from me by using PayPal. and last week had it returned. 

What is the matter with these people?

Does one department not speak to another?

Can they not read simple messages?

Are they blind, deaf and daft?

Or is it simply a scam to see if they can extract hard earned cash from their customers?

Had an Email from Jessops'

Checking my Emails Thursday and found I had got one from Jessops at Cribbs Causeway.

Thank the Lord that some firms do take notice of what customers ask them to do.

Because of my deafness I had requested of the young lady that was serving to Email me rather than ringing. When I checked my mail mid-morning I found a message telling me that my SLT A77 was waiting for me at Cribbs Causeway.

Horrible day of misty rain; not heavy, but bad enough to be a damned nuisance. Off I went on the 2.20 bus. Bus was full of shoppers but after a couple of stops I managed to get a single seat where I prefer sitting.

Made my way to Jessops' shop and had the camera returned to me. I have been lost without it for almost 2 months. I had the SLT A55 as a stand-by but it was not the same.
Paid a whacking £493 for the repair and overhaul. It was worth it because a new replacement would have been over £1,000 They had put a new control board unit and a new top complete. It is now more or less a new camera.

When we were coming back the bus driver got mixed into driving down the Portbury Docks road and had to turn at the large round-a-bout and get back up to the interchange again. Then almost in to Portishead he stopped to take some passengers on from a broken down X6 double decker. Result I was around 20 minutes late getting back.

The chap who had been working on the bathroom had gone but I managed to take a few pix with the Tamron extra wide angle lens.

Tiling had been finished but grouting needs doing now.

Won't it be lovely to be able to have a shower. I can't quite figure out how it will be set up but the 'wet-room' will stop the risk of falling.

Then Danny knocked and told me that the concrete had been laid on the set-up at the back and they are coming again today to do the last strip.

Job is finally finished. How nice to be able to have a shower with really hot water with a bit of power behind it. 
Now I have to wait for them to come again to re-model my kitchen. 

It makes me wonder if my Gods have forgiven my transgressions after all.

Do they know?

If they do know why can't they understand?

A work crew turned up yesterday to remove what is left of my old shed.

Only half of it remained after Martin's attempt to build new ones.

I had asked for the loan of a tarpaulin to cover what is left of the contents. Ian Sansum Alliance Housing Manager had in turn asked the surveyor, who probably thought bugger it. 

As a result no tarp had been lent to me. My stuff that had been crammed into the half shed that remained; had to be removed out into the weather when they came again this morning..

The remaining slabs of the patio after the removal of the odd things from the shed half, - a rushed occasion -  could then be taken up.

Levels taken and the concreting job put under-way. The rushed removal of my things meant that until the job is finished presumably they will have to stand out in the rain.

Although I did take my electric 50 foot cable and reel into the flat where it will be safe from water infiltration.

Why is it that inter-communication with Alliance is so hard with SOME departments. 

Interesting pix.

Put some old pictures from my PowerPoint "Shops of the lower town" slide show on Everything Clevedon this morning. Surprising the interest they produced.

Merrifield's shop in Old Church Road.

Started with Merrifield's shop in Old Church Road.

Then moved to Sonny Tippets in Old Street.

A shop I can remember just about.

I was taken there once many, many, years ago by my father.

I can remember we had to go down steps to go into the fish and chip shop

Tippets Cycle shop in Dales tenement that was.

Henry Lewis' pottery in Ken Road

How many people can you see in the picture above? five?

Puddling the clay to remove any particles of stone or quartz.

A sample of his work including an imperfect shot of the tree-trunk garden ornament 

I reckon the little busts of Kitchener are what made the legend of the busts on the Terra-Cotta tiles on the front of the house say Kitchener and Queen Victoria.

Apparently they were/are busts of Binding and his wife.

I remember I used to call in a house on Kensington Terrace opposite; where there was a white plant pot holder with a woman's face on it in the entry hall way. Very much like the ones at the top left and right. 

Went to Hangstone top this morning.

Still dark and I had to hang on to the fence posts on the steep bits of the pathway.

Managed a small sweep pic the required editing with Elements 6 to lighten up the very dark bits.

Took quite a time to get light because of the cloud along the top of Broadfield Down.

Both shots of Clevedon looked OK but no sky effects. Pity it was not brighter but I did see the mist along the moorland and got a couple of shots of them.

They needed a little tweek from Elements too.

A pity that the pathway is so steep in a couple of places. I gripped the fence to make sure that I didn't go for a Burton, on the way up. My balance and confidence has got worse since my fall last week. The fact that it was so dark didn't help either.