By Vladimir Brezina
Update, May 25, 2012: A week later, it turns out that the theme of the official Photo Challenge is also Summer. Ailsa and Sara should really coordinate a bit better! On the other hand, I have my entry all ready:
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Ailsa of Where’s my backpack?, who stepped into the breach and organized last week’s wildly successful Alternative Photo Challenge on the theme of “Reflections”—and then found the time to look at the hundreds of photos and answer the hundreds of comments that flooded in—wants to do it again!
This time she’s proposed a theme that combines her love of travel and that of the summer now upon us, at least those of us in the northern hemisphere…
As soon as I saw her double theme, I knew I had just the photos for her! I offer you… the English summer holiday at the seaside!
Lonely as a cloud
The traditional pony ride
Wetsuits of August
Please, let’s have no indignant defenses of the English summer. I know what I am talking about!
(Or, if you must, do first review the categories that this post is listed under…)
More photos are here.
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 
One of those calm relaxing moments. Thanks for sharing Nonoy Manga
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Relaxing it was. The sand was blowing down the beach in the wind
and I was tempted to light a fire for warmth, as some did…
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I got a bit disoriented when I saw these beach pictures. Beach, and heavy clothes, and summer. Something does not belong with the others. ;-)
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That’s why I said it’s an English summer. Then everything is clear! ;-)
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:-) See, I always learn new things. :-D
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To be fair, nowadays the English summer also features increasingly frequent heat waves, with no air conditioning ;-)
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Haha, this cracked me up, Vlad, these are the summers I know all too well from Ireland! The pony ride had me rolling on the floor. When did you take these and where? Brilliant.
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You like the pony ride? Here’s another shot of it:
August 8, 2001. I believe it was in Hunstanton, Norfolk. A resort rather unfortunately located to combine to maximal effect the bleakness of the North Sea with the shallow muddiness of the Wash…
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I love it! I howled with laughter at the sight of people all bustled up in winter coats plodding through the mud next to the dear little donkey. I also love the optimism of calling Hunstanton a resort. How long were you in England, Vlad, and where is the photo of you on the donkey? xxx
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Yes, it traditionally is a donkey, isn’t it, but this one appears to be a pony…
I lived in England, and in Scotland, for about 7 years (and have visited regularly since, because my mother lived there until recently), but I first got there only when I was already 11… so no pictures of me on a donkey, I am happy to say!
Hunstanton not a resort? The locals would beg to differ!
It’s a resort in perhaps not the most likely location because the English seaside holiday is all about the ability to make do under unpromising circumstances (see traveller2006’s comment below). If the weather is dreary for days at a time, Americans will just stay at home, but the English will go and take their seaside holiday—because you really can’t expect any better, can you, and anything can be made bearable by a nice cup of tea…
And I just love this rather surreal picture from contemporary Hunstanton that I just came across on the net. It comes from a post entitled “Hunstanton – a great place for extreme sports!” But I am glad the ponies are still going strong—
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See, now I want to stay in Pollywiggle Cottage and go power kiting!
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I thought Pollywiggle Cottage was your happy invention, but it really does exist!! :-)
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Vlad, you’re on fire, I have tears streaming down my cheeks right now. I have lots of happy inventions, but Pollywiggle Cottage isn’t one of them. :)
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It just seemed too perfect, especially when paired with power kiting, to be true!
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oh yes, me too, been there and done that as a child and recently on holiday in the UK in April when we spent most of the time drinking tea and coffee in the car, huddled up with a book and admiring the view from the relative warmth of the inside of the car
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Sounds very familiar…
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Wait til I put up my Irish summer shots! I’m trawling through old photos to find one sunny one!!!!
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Heh heh good luck with that, Livvy :)
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I always wondered what the Irish equivalent of “when pigs fly” was! ;-)
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The beached boats photos on Picasa are terrif.
But, hey, pony rides make anything better. :)
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You discovered the beached boats! I left them (like many other photos) in reserve to await a suitable challenge… :-)
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Hey man. You should add a link to your blog from your gravatar profile.
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Thanks, Cardinal! I thought it was there. Just added it.
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Pingback: Travel theme: Summer « The Quotidian Hudson
Funny post! I’d always read about the English seaside and summer holidays there in the English mysteries I devour like popcorn, but of course there are no photos in those books. So in my innocence I imagined sunny skies, blue, golden sun, little warm waves and breezes. Hah! Thank you, I guess, for puncturing some illusions.
;-)
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OK, to set the story straight—there is, occasionally, sunshine.
This is Cromer, Norfolk, along the coast from Hunstanton. But it still ain’t Saint-Tropez…
If you want little warm waves and breezes in England, you are best off on the south coast or even the west coast, where there is some influence of the Gulf Stream (and even a few palm trees!). The North Sea, on the east coast, can be quite bracing…
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Very clever post for Ailsa`s challenge!
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I had fun with it… thanks, Gracie!
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Wow, great photo. Nice… Love the second picture where the beach is dry…
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Thanks so much, Albadr!
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Pingback: Travel theme: Summer ~ Monas | Blog Kemaren Siang
Ah Vladimir! We do love to be beside the seaside……….where the brass bands play tiddly-om-pom-pom so…..to Yorkshire you must go and have the wind guide you through the dales, chase you across the moors and blow you up the wolds to the great North Sea. Feel the rawness on your face, smell that cold tangy air, taste the salt on cracked lips and wonder not what made Christopher hardy enough to seek warmer shores.
Love your post, reminded me of my childhood holidays and though the south had their ponies, we up north had our donkeys – and we always got wet whether in the sea or out of it.
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A lovely comment—thank you so much, Pamela!
That wonderful progression from the dales and moors to the North Sea reminds me of the Lyke Wake Walk, which I did at one time…
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Now why did I say Christopher when it was James? Cook, that is.
Trust you thoroughly enjoyed the Lyke Wake Walk, in fact, I know you did! I used to live in Craven Valley in Airedale, close to the Haworth Parsonage and Bolton Abbey, the latter a favoured childhood spot of mine. Haworth always struck me as bleak – it is bleak – as the Bronte’s well portrayed.
Continue enjoying your travels and I’ll continue following you from my armchair.
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The Lyke Wake Walk was memorable, literally—I did it many, many years ago and I still remember it vividly… I am glad that it’s still going strong.
Travels and armchair? It’s a deal!
Thanks, Pamela!
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You crtainly managed to find sme lovely Summer photos of England – the clouds in he first few are incredible!
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Yes, complex and changing cloud patterns like that are pretty common in Britain. Now that I think about it, they are much less common in NYC…
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Pingback: Kayaking Gold on Cape Cod Bay | Wind Against Current
English summer? yes and no. good pictures, whatever.
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Thanks, Mr Mole! ;-)
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I have always wanted to ride a horse on the beach.
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I assume you don’t want to regress to being a 5-year-old in the British Isles. But it can still be done!
This was in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. But I am sure something similar is possible in your neck of the woods…
P.S. Thanks for following our blog!!
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer | Wind Against Current
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge – Living the ‘endless Summer’… « 3rdculturechildren
Wonderful selection of summery shots!
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…although this is not quite everyone’s idea of summer…
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Oh, these are lovely pictures … all of them! The clouds are awesome. I’ve only been in England once [1983], and it wasn’t summer, but I loved it.
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Yes, even though it can be solidly overcast and drizzly for days at a time, there are also many days with beautiful, complicated, rapidly changing cloud patterns… I miss them a bit here in NYC…
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oh, I would miss clouds terribly if we didn’t have them … puffy, fluffy clouds one would like to roll around in :)
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:-)
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer | Project 365 Challenge in 2012
I loved these. Although raised in Australia and having sunny days as the norm for the beach…I like exactly the days that you have in these shots. There is a different type of beauty to beaches then,
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I totally agree! I am actually not much of a lying-on-a-sunny beach-all-day person. Of course, the English, who have to live with English weather all day every day, envy those sunny beaches…
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer « Ruth E Hendricks Photography
Wonderful selection of photos. ;-)
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Thanks, Elizabeth!
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Great photos :-)
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Thanks, Karen!
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Pingback: Weekly photo challenge: “summer” « Just another wake-up call
I don’t know which beach in England this is but it could be any. Great pictures; they sum up for me how the English seaside looks.
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Thanks, Sarah! It’s actually several beaches in Norfolk…
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