FOCUS ON NIGHTLIFE

I love taking photos showing London city centre at night. Generally speaking my favourites usually involve short time exposures to capture the lighting detail.

Here's one for Bond fans like me, the S.I.S. building.

Scotland Yard

Parliament Bridge Street during rush hour.

The London Eye

The River Thames

Houses of Parliament during refurbishments

The Cenotaph at early evening 

Westminster Bridge

Horse Guards Parade

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE - SPECIAL ISSUE - TARGET BOOKS BY TONY K

Just to give you and any interested readers the heads-up, Woodsy!

I was browsing through the magazine shelves at WHSmith, looking for something to quietly pass the time on our summer break. 

I was pleasantly surprised to stumbles across Doctor Who Magazine.

Not something I'd usually be drawn to these days, but this was a Special Edition focusing on Target Books.

Remember them? They were prolific publishers of numerous Doctor Who paperbacks (and hardbacks) during the seventies and early eighties.

Looking at the price I hesitated, but after a quick flick through the pages I could see that the contents justified the £6.99.

It's packed cover to cover with evocative illustrations, well researched information and imagery. 

The magazine explores a myriad of familiar and forgotten themes for seventies kids who time travelled with the BBC, and hunted bookshelves for additional adventures in time and space.

I think it's an essential asset for the Doctor Who fan, and an entertaining and informative insight for anyone else, like myself, who enjoyed those old Target paperbacks. 

 A nice piece to file away for the future.

Tony K

THE BAOC FIREFLASH

Reader Ralph Morton sent in this new photograph of his gorgeous BAOC Fireflash statuette he's having made by craftsmen in the Philippines.
(Thats BAOC, not BOAC!)

A WEE DRIVE 6: LOOSE ENDS

Just some final oddments from our Scottish driving tour before I sign off this photo album.

I saw this moss-festooned gravestone with its inverted dove in the graveyard of Grace Darling, the famous maritime heroine.

I've often wondered what happened to Candy and Andy, those strange dolls used by Gerry Anderson's Century 21 pictured here eating ice-cream!

Well they may well be here in this shop window in Braemar dressed in their best highland tartans!

What do you think?

How about some centuries old graffiti?

This was part of a bunch of scribbles scrawled into the walls of Braemar castle.

The guide told us they were made by soldiers in the 1700's stationed in the castle and bored stiff.

Here's a shot of our final accommodation, over the border in England. This fine old huge and isolated Northumbrian farmhouse was a real gem, brimming with ancient and eerie charm. Straight out of a ghost story! The full cooked breakfast was to die for!

and finally, as a footnote to our summer tour in Scotland, a big country reminiscent of the splendour and beauty of Tolkien's Middle Earth, messing about with my phone I snapped a negative image that reminded me of an old LP I used to have, Bo Hansson's Lord of the Rings!

Have you heard this old LP readers?

A WEE DRIVE 5

Having crossed over the border back into England we visited the rambling house of Cragside.

The home of Lord Armstrong, this grand Northumbrian pile, preserved by the National Trust, is testament to how the super rich lived in the 1800's.

Armstrong was an engineering genius, mastered hydro-electric power, built bridges and structures, employed thousands and made millions.

Cragside was his electric castle.

It bristles with the first gen light bulbs gently illuminating stags' heads and heraldic lions. The counterpoint of industry and nobility is everywhere.

William Morris wallpaper too!

This little wooden train was a subtle reminder of children having once lived amidst all this grandeur too.

This huge shower head gives a visible hint of the owner's love of channeling water.

The boot  and hat store included a small dressed soldier doll half way down to the left. An action figure!

Bathrooms, windows and stairwells abound.

as do desks, lamps and early electric light.

A Victorian engineer's palace flowing with currents, both charge and water.

The Lord even had a Turkish plunge pool and sauna for his rich guests but not his many servants I fear.

I wasn't sure what to make of all the grand opulence on display as we left Cragside.  The grounds themselves incorporate a six mile carraige drive, which can now be driven along by car if you so desire!

It was worlds away from how most people lived in its day and still is now but I'm glad the National Trust have it for us all to enjoy.

Have you been to Cragside?

These final snaps when I saw them reminded me of those murky and monochrome shots of the haunted Belasco house in the Seventies horror flick The Legend of Hell House!

What do you think?

A WEE DRIVE 4

No space toys again but hopefully you don't mind my ongoing travelogue.

Our farthest point driving north along the Scottish coast was Findhorn Bay, just a hop, skip and a jump from Elgin.

It was a special moment for me and the Missus really. We had dreamed of Findhorn since the late Seventies, when first encountering it's evocative name in a magazine for hippies called Undercurrents, the serious alternative to Fat Freddy's Cat.

We couldn't quite believe we'd made it!

Findhorn Bay!

It has a small boat yard 

[reminded me of a Project SWORD Moon Ranger vehicle].

Cute beach huts.

Sweeping dunes.

Beachcombers of course, the most romantic of all collectors?

The devil's hoof perhaps?

Sat outside in the evening we ate the local fish chowder Cullen Skink as the sun set on day one in the bay.

Day two took us just outside the village to the Findhorn community.

This is what all the hippy fuss was about back in the Seventies and here's its very beginnings, the original caravan of the three free-thinking founders when they set up camp in 1962.

It was awe-inspiring for us to be here as we have dreamt of this place for 40 years and could have very nearly ended up here back in '79, twenty somethings looking for the answer.

Now the community comprises of hundreds of homes, caravans, eco-houses, streets, restaurants and a large venue, the Universal Hall, for gigs. An eco-village famous the world over now and like Totnes, Machynlleth, Hebden Bridge and Glastonbury, it just has that green vibe.

For those of you not familiar with Undercurrents here's an example copy I saw on the net and typical of the mag back in the heady Seventies. I wish I still had all my mags! They might be collectable now!

Have you ever read Undercurrents?

Have you been to Findhorn?

A WEE DRIVE 3

Our coastal rove along eastern Scotland brought us first to the idyllic fishing village of Crail.

No space toys but for small boats it was heaven, but not for lobsters. You could pick your own from a tank. We didn't.

Instead we ate heartily in Crail's chippy but bottled on the Steak and Black Pudding Pie! Would you? 

The nearby fishing village of Pittenween was just as picturesque.

It was Arts week and every house, shed and garage had been opened up and filled with art. It was quite amazing. Even TV personality Phil Jupitus had a studio there.

Feeling overcome with art I just had to snap this old push-iron leaning against a Pittenween wall.

Moving along the coast we encountered angry skies over the sea at St. Monans.

We ate the local macaroni pie on a bench until it chucked it down.

When the clouds parted St. Monans was another gorgeous fishing hamlet boasting its own harbourside fish smokery, where happy folks sat and ate smoked fish and seafood and boats were moored.

That evening we drove to St.Andrews, famous Scottish university town and the home of golf.

As we scoffed Tayberry ice-cream the sun set over the coastal city.