13 August 2019

192

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.
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.

35 comments:

  1. 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?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That would have meant walking beside a busy road and as you leave the city there is no footpath.
      P.S. Please don't send me any hate mail.

      Delete
  2. Do you have the number for the King Mojo club?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 555 Pitsmoor Road though the night club no longer exists.

      Delete
    2. Sorry - thought you were 192.com

      Delete
    3. Ha-ha! As Denis Healey would have said, "Silly billy!"

      Delete
  3. You'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.
    What a lovely walk!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you should order some flashing neon numbers or a mini-moon with the number emblazoned across it.

      Delete
  4. Nice excursion and so close to home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's why it's my go-to place when I don't have the time to travel further.

      Delete
  5. Those stepping stones look fun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you were walking over them Rick would splash the hell out of you!

      Delete
  6. I 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? 😀

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope! I can't remember that Christina. Long before my time I should think.

      Delete
  7. I was going to ask the same as JayCee, but now I don't need to, as you have already replied to her.
    Light 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?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 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.

      Delete
  8. That 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your door glass rainbows must sometimes make you think that you are tripping on acid!

      Delete
  9. What is the point of having glass if it is opaque? Do you mean translucent?

    I 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right to pick me up on the misuse of "opaque" Sir Bob. Thank you.

      Delete
  10. A great capture...

    The thickness of that carpet square certainly has me intrigued. Why so many layers, Yorkie?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is a long rug, a "runner" that runs to our front door.

      Delete
  11. You are so fortunate to have a country walk so close to you. We have lots of walks in town that go through natural areas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It must be nice to live in a relatively small city. I see your population is currently 100,418 and half of them are bears!

      Delete
  12. I noticed my tulip shadow ( posted on John's requests for corners) quite by accident too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Life contains many lovely accidents.

      Delete
  13. Love 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.
    We'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 !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wonder what you thought of Oslo Helen. To me it felt almost unnervingly quiet.

      Delete
    2. We loved Oslo YP. Have just been catching up with a few posts about the holiday on my poor old neglected blog.

      Delete
  14. What 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am glad that that picture stirred some happy memories for you Bonnie.

      Delete
  15. And 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!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, 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!

      I 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.

      Delete
    2. 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.

      Delete

Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

Most Visits