Deep in thought

I miss my sea view

My balcony is still shrouded in green netting. The scaffolding should be dismantled in the next couple of weeks - I'm keeping my fingers crossed as the building work is behind schedule and there's still more filling and painting to be done. Here's a balcony photo from earlier in the year; a reminder of what I'm missing...

Gnarled trunk

Pavilion Gardens, Brighton.

Another spiky one

In the Pavilion Gardens again; these peculiar looking things are the seedpods of Nigella damascena, a classic 'cottage garden' flower known as Love-in-a-Mist.

Spiky

Flower spikes of Acanthus spinosus in Brighton's Pavilion Gardens. As well as being a striking garden plant in its own right, representations of the spiky foliage have been used for centuries as architectural ornaments and to decorate sculpture and wood carvings.

Turn left for the museum

Music while you shop

Saturday morning shopping with sunshine and music, George Street, Hove.

Up top

Scaffolding on Brighton Dome.

Also available in blue

Conditions must be perfect this year for growing hydrangeas; every plant I see near where I live is smothered in blooms. This is another specimen from Aymer Road, but growing in a different garden from yesterday's photo.

More colour

Another hydrangea; this one is growing in a front garden down Aymer Road, Hove.

A colourful show

Hydrangea, Vallance Gardens, Hove.

Mystery lady

Today's HDP is a bit of a mystery. The figure is in a little niche above some steps leading to a basement in Albemarle Mansions, Hove. She's small (about a metre high), not in very good repair and has a broken sword. I think she's a statue of St Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc), but I can't find any connection either to Albemarle Mansions or to Hove. Can anyone help me out?

Wrapping the gate

The Jaipur Gate, wrapped in ribbon by artist Lucy Brown to accompany the Deviants exhibition at Hove Museum. Pink because Jaipur is known as the Pink City.

Carving

Jaipur Gate, Hove Museum.

Real, old-fashioned shopping

I'm lucky that there are real, old-fashioned shops near where I live. This is Brydens DIY on Blatchington Road who sell everything from a mousetrap to a water butt or a stepladder. You can buy hardware such as woodscrews and washers individually rather than in those nasty fingernail-snapping bubble packs.

Beach colours

Connaught Road

...and finally, one with added wildlife

Another...

Bracing

It was very bracing walking by the sea today - clear and sunny but extremely windy.

Old-style street sign

Namesake

Eaton Villas, Hove.

Charity bookshop

Another must-visit shop in Blatchington Road is the Oxfam Bookshop - brilliant selection of fiction and non-fiction second-hand books, all at very good prices.

Bird and Rose

One of my favourite local shops is Bird and Rose in Blatchington Road which sells an interesting mix of beautiful cards and stationery, furniture and vintage china.

Stating the bleedin' obvious

Sign from yesterday's bin. I do wonder about this country sometimes...

The shape of things to come ...

... or maybe it's the thin end of the wedge. Communal rubbish bins have arrived in many of Hove's streets - this means collections of household waste from outside individual houses are a thing of the past. You now have to take your rubbish (after removing paper/glass/cans for recycling, of course) out along the street and put it one of these giant containers which are emptied every day. My block still has the old-style small bins which get emptied once a week.

Railings 4

Well, a lovely shadow rather than the actual railings.

Railings 3

Holy Trinity Church; details as Thursday.

Railings 2

Holy Trinity Church again; details as yesterday.

Railings 1

Holy Trinity Church, Blatchington Road, Hove.

Sunset-deprived

My home's been scaffolded and netted since May and I've missed leaning on the balcony railing and watching the sun set. The building/redecorating work is on schedule (fingers and toes firmly crossed) and everything should be back to normal by the end of the month. Just to remind you what I'm missing, here's a sunset I took earlier this year.