Above our front door there's a glass panel. Americans call it a transom window but here - where the English language was successfully concocted from a diverse range of ingredients - we call it a fanlight.
When we had our new door installed a couple of years ago, we asked the door company to include our house number in the translucent glass. I remember being quite specific about the size and font required as I didn't want large, rather vulgar numbers that would be almost as tall as the fanlight itself.
Having your house number in the fanlight is helpful to postal workers and the army of people now employed in delivering parcels from waiting vans.
This morning when I got up, I noticed something on the carpet in our hallway. It was the image of our house number painted in sunlight that was beaming all over the front of our house. It has gone now as the sun arcs over the house but for a little while there was magic. Of course we have seen this phenomenon before but this was the first time I have bothered to capture it with my trusty camera.
In other news from Pudding Towers, I was feeling very restless late yesterday afternoon - like a young colt in a stableyard or a Welsh terrier in a corner country cottage or a Staffie in a swish West Hampstead apartment or a tousled hound in a Lincolnshire mansion. I drove two miles out of the city to tramp a familiar circular route from Shorts Lane on the edge of the city.
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| Stepping stones over Blacka Brook |
The walk takes exactly an hour and I have plodded the selfsame route at least three or four times a year for the last thirty years so I know I have completed it well over a hundred times. It's a good way of burning off energy in the country but only five minutes away from our house. And every time I walk that route there's something slightly different to see. Besides I can walk it in either a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction.
By five o'clock I was back home to make our evening meal. I had only been out for an hour and a quarter.
Now we all know where you live! I do like that ethereal light effect on the welcome mat. Would you have been able to walk the 2 miles to Shorts Lane and back again for your walk or would that have been a step, or two, too far?
ReplyDeleteThat would have meant walking beside a busy road and as you leave the city there is no footpath.
DeleteP.S. Please don't send me any hate mail.
Do you have the number for the King Mojo club?
ReplyDelete555 Pitsmoor Road though the night club no longer exists.
DeleteSorry - thought you were 192.com
DeleteHa-ha! As Denis Healey would have said, "Silly billy!"
DeleteYou've reminded me that I need to get some large reflective numbers to stick on to my front fence for emergency workers. We do have our street number on our house but it's small and in decorative Mexican tile which is hard for anyone to see.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely walk!
I think you should order some flashing neon numbers or a mini-moon with the number emblazoned across it.
DeleteNice excursion and so close to home.
ReplyDeleteThat's why it's my go-to place when I don't have the time to travel further.
DeleteThose stepping stones look fun.
ReplyDeleteIf you were walking over them Rick would splash the hell out of you!
DeleteI used to live in a house numbered 192 about 40 years ago. People commented that it was easy to remember as it was the same number as "Directory enquiries". Remember them? 😀
ReplyDeleteNope! I can't remember that Christina. Long before my time I should think.
DeleteI was going to ask the same as JayCee, but now I don't need to, as you have already replied to her.
ReplyDeleteLight and shadow are an endless source of fascinating observations, if we bother to look. And isn't it great that we have the means for capturing them on camera any time, any where?
Having grown up with non-digital cameras that contained rolls of film, I still can't get over how easy and wonderful it is to capture faithful images nowadays.
DeleteThat is a pleasant little stream to hop over. I have a "quick route" as well. It's good when the day has been busy. Cool 192 image. We have beveled glass in our front door and it makes rainbows all over the walls and floor when the sun hits it just the right way.
ReplyDeleteYour door glass rainbows must sometimes make you think that you are tripping on acid!
DeleteWhat is the point of having glass if it is opaque? Do you mean translucent?
ReplyDeleteI have had the numbers 4690, 3538, 911, 2271, 1700, 61, 2332, and even P-7 and P-8 in my stay on this planet. None of them is a prison inmate number.
You are right to pick me up on the misuse of "opaque" Sir Bob. Thank you.
DeleteA great capture...
ReplyDeleteThe thickness of that carpet square certainly has me intrigued. Why so many layers, Yorkie?
It is a long rug, a "runner" that runs to our front door.
DeleteYou are so fortunate to have a country walk so close to you. We have lots of walks in town that go through natural areas.
ReplyDeleteIt must be nice to live in a relatively small city. I see your population is currently 100,418 and half of them are bears!
DeleteI noticed my tulip shadow ( posted on John's requests for corners) quite by accident too!
ReplyDeleteLife contains many lovely accidents.
DeleteLove your sunny numbers and of course your country walks. Am eagerly awaiting the wedding so I hope you will share some photos. Exciting times for your family.
ReplyDeleteWe've recently had a holiday in Norway. The countryside was full of flowers and it reminded me so much of England - buttercups and dandylions, cow parsley along the roadside, lilac bushes full of flowers - but of course no-where has the wonderful Public footpaths like Englannd. Oh, Norway has great walks …..if you like walking up mountains !!
I wonder what you thought of Oslo Helen. To me it felt almost unnervingly quiet.
DeleteWe loved Oslo YP. Have just been catching up with a few posts about the holiday on my poor old neglected blog.
DeleteWhat a lovely walk and so close to home too! I love the stream. It reminds me of the creeks I used to play in as a child.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that that picture stirred some happy memories for you Bonnie.
DeleteAnd this is the thing about walking, isn't it? Even though it's wonderful to try new paths and new directions, you can stick to the same ol' trail over and over and always have a different experience. That's sort of what our morning dog walks are like!
ReplyDeleteOh, also, our house number does something similar but in reverse -- the number is in shadow against the brighter sun coming through the glass. It's a cool phenomenon!
DeleteI may be wrong, because it's not a word I use much, but I think Americans say "fanlight" too. I would only use it to describe over-the-door windows that are actually fan-shaped, as you see in some old houses.
I must say that I had to research this terminology just to clarify matters. At first I also thought that a "fanlight" would be fan-shaped but that's apparently not how it is in the lexicon of English architecture. A fanlight could also be used by women for intimate self-examination.
DeleteLOL!
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