Pride!

Yesterday was London's annual LGBTQ+ Pride parade, which I attended with my friend Chris from work. I haven't been to Pride in a couple of years -- not since 2022 -- so it was good to go back and get my dose of flamboyance and feathers!

Pride offers possibly the best photography opportunities of any event all year. Everyone's there to see and be seen, from the relatively understated...

...to the most elaborately costumed. This person had a whole Ukraine-themed thing going on which definitely wins points for creativity.

I took 528 pictures, of which I selected 77 for a closer look. Of those, you're getting nine (plus a video). So hopefully this is the crème de la crème.

As usual I was impressed with the diversity of the crowd and the participants. There were marchers of all ages, races, abilities and genders, marchers representing asylum seekers, gay Christian Africans, sports teams, corporations, theater productions, "dykes on bikes," you name it.

We had a bit of excitement when some pro-Palestinian protesters threw red paint on a truck and glued themselves to it, causing the parade to stop for about an hour. Chris and I didn't know what was going on -- only that there was a massive gap in parade activity. Fortunately there was plenty of fun people-watching to be done.

There were also several pro-Palestine and "two-state solution" contingents in the parade itself.

And of course the usual array of incredibly daring and clever and unusual outfits. The gays do know how to put on a show.

As I said, even the spectators were pretty entertaining.

There was also a lot of attention given to trans rights, following a controversial Supreme Court ruling in England earlier this year. (You can click the link for details of the ruling.)

We did see a few celebrities, including actress Vanessa Williams and singer/actor Olly Alexander, who stood within about a foot of me. (I didn't realize who he was until Chris pointed it out after he moved on.)

During another lengthy parade delay, we happened to be standing near the contingent from the Royal Navy, who at first were very military in their restrained presentation. An announcer nearby, desperate to create some entertainment while the parade stalled, put on the Village People's song "In the Navy," which got those sailors grooving. They followed that with a performance of "YMCA" (above).

Afterwards Chris and I made our way through Soho to a couple of the performance stages, ending our day in Trafalgar Square. The shot above shows the crowds in Old Compton Street, the center of gay life in London in years past.

Happy Pride, everyone!

Home Sweet Home

We are home again safely, thank goodness. Dave and I were really worried about putting Olga through that journey, given her unexpected infirmity during the week. But she stood up to it (or lay down, as the case may be) like a trooper. We had a bit of confusion when the Uber Pet showed up at our beach cabin and it turned out not to be an Uber Pet at all -- the guy said he couldn't take the dog. But we showed him the booking, which made it plain we needed a dog-friendly car, and he saw it through -- thank goodness, because we had a train to catch.

On the train people fawned over Olga as usual. The guy sitting across from us -- who cracked open a big can of beer at 10 a.m. -- was especially friendly. He did return my hat when I dropped it getting off the train, so I owe him for that.

The picture above was taken in a black cab on the way to our flat from Victoria Station. Olga pawed at her rolled-up bed until I opened it up so she could lie down. Dave and I both agreed that this is it for Olga and traveling. From now on, she stays home. I suspect she's fine with that.

As you can see, she was thrilled to get back to the garden and to her routines.

The garden fared pretty well during our absence. There was some wilting, which was to be expected given the very warm and dry week, and I think we may have lost a hanging basket of petunias. But the dahlias all seemed fine after a drink, as did Dave's tomato plant, which looked positively dessicated when we first saw it. A few hours and a long drink later it was back to normal.

After Dave watered all the potted plants, I mowed the grass, which as you can see above was looking pretty seedy and shaggy.

Here's some of what bloomed in our absence:

The Penstemon...

...the Inula...

...and the day lilies.

Dave belatedly realized that he left his noise-cancelling headphones plugged in and charging on the kitchen counter of the beach cabin, so now we have to try to get those back. It's always something. But still, a successful trip overall and thank goodness we're home sweet home.

Tech Bros, Nakedness and Overexertion

Well, here we are -- our last morning in Pevensey Bay. A few hours from now we'll be in an Uber to the train station and then on a direct train to London. I won't be sorry to get home to our own bed, and to water the garden, which I'm sure needs it desperately. We had a smattering of rain here on Wednesday but otherwise the weather has been sunny and clear, and if the same is true at home the plants must be parched.

The picture above was actually taken on Wednesday. Yesterday's sky didn't even have that many clouds in it.

I spent the morning reading one of my New Yorkers -- in particular an article about a political thinker named Curtis Yarvin who basically wants to jettison the USA's governmental system in favor of a single CEO-style strongman. He's apparently been an inspiration for Peter Thiel and some of the other Silicon Valley "tech bros." I won't rehash the article, which is here, but even though I've read about Yarvin before I found it eye-opening.

It struck me that some of these guys who are very into technology have simply spent too much time with machines, living in the simulated realities of video games and computer code. It's like the elements of their humanity involving empathy, compassion and cooperation have withered away for lack of sunlight and warmth. Surprisingly, Yarvin does cry at two points during the article's reporting -- once when gesturing toward some nearby homeless people and, by extension, the failures of our current government, and once when envisioning the future for his children. But those are virtually the only glimmers of emotion we see in him. Mostly he seems possessed of a (to me) menacing desire for control.

In the afternoon I took a long walk down the beach in the direction of Normans Bay. When we were here in December 2023 I walked in that direction, and as I remember I could only go so far -- eventually there was a barrier or channel that prevented my going further. I didn't find that this time, though, maybe because it was low tide. I did discover that Normans Bay beach seems to attract older naked guys. That was a surprise.

I just kept my head down and looked for interesting rocks.

(Incidentally, if you click back to that earlier post, you'll see my mention of the Royal Sovereign Lighthouse, which used to stand off the coast here and was being disassembled at that time. It's completely gone now.)

I came across a big flock of seagulls who all took off at my approach. See what I mean about the cloudless sky?!

In the afternoon, Olga and I sat out on the deck. I had a gin & tonic while she watched a handful of passing visitors. Just in the short time we've been here, Dave and I have seen the cast of local characters change a few times over, with people coming and going from surrounding houses. The one next to us has had three groups of occupants in the week we've been here. (Ours is rented by the week only.)

Oh, and by request, here's a selfie of me in my dashiki. I took the picture in Eastbourne right after I bought the shirt, in order to show it to Dave. It's not a very good picture of me -- I look like "The Old Man and the Sea," minus the sea -- but having the Queen's Hotel behind me was a happy accident!

Olga has had two wildlife encounters this morning, one with a fox and one with a cat. Both of them involved her streaking out onto the deck with her hackles up, and then collapsing with exhaustion immediately afterwards. I hope she gets through today's travels OK. She's had a lot of excitement this week.

A Short Survey and a Dashiki

I was feeling a bit of cabin fever yesterday morning, so I headed back to Eastbourne. This time I took a bus rather than walking the whole way. One of my readers asked why I would take a bus here rather than a taxi, and there are two reasons: one, it's obviously cheaper, and two, buses are a cultural experience. When you're on the bus, you're seeing parts of town that you might not otherwise see and you're getting a sense of the people who live and work there. I always feel like I learn a lot about places I visit when I take public transportation.

So, anyway, the No. 8 bus into Eastbourne basically starts its route right outside our front door. It let me off near the train station about an hour later.

I had no real agenda in town -- just a vague notion that I might visit some thrift shops, wander around and take some pictures. Which is what I did.

Near the Eastbourne pier I saw a gaggle of school kids, and three of them approached me with a clipboard. They asked if I'd take a survey, and I said sure. They then proceeded to ask me some very specific questions about the Eastbourne waterfront, like did I think the coastal barriers were adequate and why we might need better ones. I answered as best I could, but honestly, I have not given a lick of thought to Eastbourne's defenses against coastal erosion. It seemed like a funny thing to ask people on the street.

I did visit some thrift shops and found a groovy blue dashiki, which I bought (£7) and put on right away over my t-shirt (mostly for ease of carrying). I had a dashiki years ago which I used to wear and I think I gave it away as we were preparing to move to England. So now I have a replacement! I feel like it gives me a kind of Roy Ayers vibe.

I caught the bus back around noon, because I wanted to eat here -- we have food we need to consume before we go home tomorrow. I bought a couple of scones from a local bakery and brought them back as a special treat for Dave. I got off the bus about a half mile short of the house and walked the rest of the way on the beach for some more exercise.

Olga seems fine after her dizzy spell or seizure or whatever it was on Tuesday. Yesterday morning she was lying on the couch when she saw a fox walk past our deck, out on the shingle. She ran outside but by the time she got to the garden wall the fox was long gone.

I took a video in which you can see the fox in the distance, just to the right of the flagpole, looking back at us before it slinks into someone else's garden -- and then Olga on red alert at the wall. I never thought of foxes as beach animals, but they certainly are here.

Round Rock and Wobbly Dog

Olga, who gets me up at 4:30 every morning in this house with no curtains, has just been out on the deck guarding against foxes. They're all around us at dawn -- I saw one posing on the garden wall a few houses down, and another running across our deck while Olga and I walked on the pebbly beach. Of course I didn't have my camera handy.

That's yesterday's sunrise in the photo above, which gave a pretty good indication what the day's weather would be like:

Despite the sunny skies I stayed inside for much of the morning, reading David Szalay's book "All That Man Is," which I am loving. I read his book "London and the South-East" a few years ago and loved that one too. He's really good at exploring the identities and compulsions of men, for better or worse.

When Dave woke up and started moving around (about 11 a.m.!) I went for a walk on the beach.

I found an almost perfectly spherical pebble. In fact at first I thought it was a musket ball or some similar piece of antiquated ammunition -- but no, just a rock.

I found numerous interesting rocks, in fact. And an empty wine bottle, with no note inside (sadly), which I brought back to the house and put in the trash.

We got good news yesterday afternoon -- the Home Office has approved our citizenship applications. Woo hoo! All we need to do now is attend a swearing-in ceremony, where we plead allegiance to King Charles III and his descendants, and get our citizenship certificates. And then we're done. We never have to worry about visas and biometric residence permits and all that junk ever again. And we can vote!

Of course we'll still be American citizens too. I wouldn't renounce that, as tormented as I am about the direction of American politics these days. As I've said before, we'll only be in trouble if the UK and USA get in a conflict with each other -- which despite Trump's bluster still seems unlikely.

Olga scared us to death yesterday evening. She was climbing down from the couch, which for her always involves a deep stretch, and I think she lost her grip on the smooth floor and stretched a bit too far. When she got her hind legs off the couch she couldn't stand up, and she flopped over and had what looked like a seizure. She went rigid and her eyes shifted rapidly from side to side. She was fine again in about 30 seconds, but I really thought she might be dying right in front of me. Maybe it was a momentary recurrence of her vestibular disease, or she simply got dizzy from all the blood rushing to her head when she over-stretched.

In any case, she seems OK now and as I write this, she saw a fox walk past and ran out onto the deck to challenge it.

See that brown moth on my chair? I found it in the kitchen, tucked into the seam between the refrigerator and freezer doors. Not a very good place for a moth. I captured it and brought it outside, where it sat on my chair for a while before fluttering away. Olga is fascinated by foxes but she couldn't muster any interest in a moth.

This was my view as I had last night's martini and listened to my iTunes. The hummingbird hawk-moth came back again.

Hawk-Moth

Another day, another Martello Tower. This is No. 55, on the beach east of us, and has been converted into a house. The turret on the top is now ringed by glass windows, but as you can see the building is still more or less a bunker. It would be a shame to live on the beach and not have more visibility, don't you think?

Yesterday was pretty low-key. I finished "The Frozen River," which I liked, although I get why some people found the ending over-the-top. I also took an afternoon walk down the beach. The weather was spectacular, with barely a cloud.

Olga, meanwhile, sunbathed on the deck -- this is her "Super Dog" pose -- and Dave watched Drum Corps videos on YouTube and fell asleep to episodes of "The West Wing" that he's seen a thousand times.

I finally got around to answering several days' worth of blog comments and noticed there were questions about Olga's dog bed and how we brought it with us. We simply rolled it up like a sleeping bag and tied it with twine and rubber bands, and it was compact enough to manage. Those dog bowls are hers, too. We came with four bags -- a suitcase for Dave, a backpack for me, a canvas tote containing dog stuff and some miscellaneous food and drink, and the dog bed. Not too burdensome!

The goal now is to order only enough groceries to keep us fed, so we don't have to schlep too much of it home again on Friday.

On Sunday evening, as Dave and I were sitting on the deck, we saw this little hummingbird hawk-moth visiting the lavender and valerian in the garden. It was back again yesterday evening as well. It's fascinating to watch, and I was so excited to capture it on video that I didn't even notice the painted lady butterfly on the same lavender bush. It's on the video at the very beginning. The hawk-moths are remarkable little creatures -- I only wish they were easier to keep in focus!

Eastbourne

Yesterday I really needed to get out of the house and get some exercise. We've rented this cabin in Pevensey Bay three times, and yet I had never walked all the way to Eastbourne, our closest city. So that was my goal.

I set out soon after breakfast, walking the pebbly beach. It was low tide and a surprising number of people were out walking, paddleboarding and frolicking with their dogs on the sandy flats that at higher tides are all underwater. I walked and walked, and let me tell you, walking on pebbles for extended distances is a workout! They shift beneath you and your legs are constantly compensating for that shift, so muscles and tendons are working in minute ways to keep you steady and level.

I walked past the Martello Towers that I wrote about a couple of years ago, and then past two more -- No. 64 (above) and beyond it on the point to the left, No. 66. These were coastal fortifications built in the Napoleonic era to protect Britain's shores from invasion. Some of them are unused now, like these two, and some have been turned into very unusual private homes!

Closer to Eastbourne I passed through an area called Sovereign Harbour with a big boat basin and lots of (relatively) new apartments. I finally got onto a paved coastal path soon after that, which made my feet happy.

Have you ever seen a boat named Steve? I sure haven't. Or maybe it's Steve's boat.

Finally, after trudging about six miles I was in Eastbourne proper. I walked out on the ornate city pier, with its spires and golden domes and various amusements, and went up in a beachfront ferris wheel called the Sky Club that gave me good views in every direction -- eastward in the direction I'd walked, northward into town and westward toward the towering cliffs of Beachy Head.

To give you the true Eastbourne experience, I made a video of the ferris wheel, paired with a song by Cool Company that happened to be playing on the wheel when I took the ride. (It took some doing to figure out the title and then download it -- fortunately the artists allow it to be used on YouTube.) The ferris wheel footage, which includes a good view of an adjacent old military fort called the Eastbourne Redoubt, is followed by some shots of Eastbourne that I haven't posted here and a short video of busy Pevensey Bay beach. On that portion of the clip, beneath the music, you can faintly hear the general beach hubbub and the barking dogs.

On the Eastbourne waterfront I passed this interesting plaque about Beachy Head Lady. (How do we know she was a "lady"?) It makes a good story, but it turns out the reality isn't quite what's depicted here. Beachy Head Lady was thought to be African and was even celebrated as perhaps the first black person to reach the shores of the UK, on public monuments and in books and articles. More recent DNA testing, though, shows that she was actually born in the UK and was of Cypriot or Mediterranean descent -- which makes sense, as this would have been during the Roman occupation of Britain.

Guess they haven't gotten around to updating the plaque.

I had lunch in this chic little seaside restaurant called the Glasshouse -- a glass of rosé, three oysters on the half-shell and a lobster sandwich. Delicious!

From there I thought I'd catch the bus home, but the bus I wanted doesn't run on Sundays (ugh). So I made my way to the Eastbourne train station, which gave me a chance to see downtown. (Not all that scenic.) There were no other good bus options even from there, so I took a taxi home. I think I walked about seven miles in all.

Dave said Olga was nervous all day about my absence, which is both adorable and suffocating. She's calmed down now and she snored like a walrus all night, so apparently she slept well. She's getting more adventurous about walking out on the beach -- in fact I had to chase her down last night when she spontaneously decided to go walkabout. (Visions of Shannon again!) I was barefoot at the time and walking on those pebbles barefoot is painful! From now on I put my shoes on no matter what.

In the evening I sat out on the deck in perfect weather beneath a clear blue sky, had a martini and listened to my iTunes. I've never been happier. I'm even getting a tan.