Yoxall is top in the east

The winner of this year's Best Kept Village in East Staffordshire is Yoxall, which I passed through the other day.
Just like in any typical country village, the church and the pub are facing each other...

For the record, the winners overall in the county were Weston (large village) and Haughton (small village).

Wetton takes in the heat

We're now in a minor heatwave apparently, which is a fairly ironic thought as the rain has been with us at least every second day throughout the, er, summer.  And now we get this.

Wetton Mill, near Dovedale, is the place to be on such occasions. One can wade in the cool of the nearby river, stroll in the surrounding shady green, or just slurp on an ice-cream.

Inspired (not) street name

This road-name sign makes me laugh…

You can just see the city-planners - seated round a table at the end of a long day where they have been having a meeting about what to name the ‘new’ streets which have been created after old parts of the city have been pulled down and rebuilt.

They obviously were running out of inspiration when it came to this street in Fenton…!

Heidi - tipped for stardom

Heidi Browne is a rising star locally...not only is she a fine musician (as also are the members of her backing band), but she can write observational, catchy songs in the 'sweet-pop' vein (alongside Kate Nash). She's not limited to that genre though - and a John Martyn fan or even a Bjork-lover might enjoy what she does.

Her big song right now is one called G.I.R.L.F.R.I.E.N.D.  It's all over YouTube.

Margarine sculpture

The Lichfield Food Festival took place this weekend, and I took advantage of some special restaurant offers (3 courses for £10..).
In the food hall, I came across this lady and this extraordinary sculpture - made of margarine! She was manning Simon Smith's stall - Simon was the chef at Thrales, which was a very good restaurant indeed.

Hidden stile

The crazy amounts of rain have produced abundant weeds and spreading undergrowth that are almost out of control.
I was on a country walk and couldn't find this stile at all - until I realised it had been virtually completely hidden by rain-fed luxuriant green growth.

Fields of yellow

This crop is still standing, a little late in the season, so the farmer must have made a calculated guess that the mild, sunny weather would persist and dry it.

Alton's constrained loops

Alton Towers may be Britain's leading amusement park, but its landscaping is quite different to that of somewhere like, say, Blackpool Pleasure Beach or Six Flags in Texas.  For a start, Alton Towers has lots of trees and is also contained in smaller spaces - because it was of course designed, 150 years ago, as the pleasure gardens of a very rich artistocrat.

So the lines and loops of its rides seem more constrained to me than the ones of the big, brash parks.

Images of Cartier Bresson

Henri Cartier Bresson took one of the most famous photos in modern photographic reportage - titled Juvisy France (1938). It shows four people, their backs to the camera, having a picnic on a river bank, and it can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It's one of my favourite photos.

So, you can imagine how I felt seeing the scene above. It was like I was viewing an echo of the Juvisy image. I managed to get round the back of the people and got this shot.

Of course, when I got back home and checked, I realised the composition wasn't as much like that of the original (pictured right) as I'd thought, which was a disappointment... 
But the wonder is how certain striking images never leave us. I hadn't come across the original Cartier Bresson image in ten years probably - and yet, there it was, embedded in my mind.

Saxon Warrior

This 'Saxon Warrior' statue was created by artist Andy Edwards to commemorate the finding of the Staffordshire Hoard, a treasure trove of one-thousand year old gold objects found – believe it or not – buried in a field (!) in south Staffordshire a few years ago.
The objects are mostly from military items - possibly from a local king's arsenal.

The Warrior is not strictly authentic, as the sculptor has added modern markings to his shield and other garments. It’s a good guessing game to figure out which they are.

The Warrior is now sited permanently in the City Museum at Hanley.