Enough

Time to call an end to the gold theme even though there's at least one more shop in Ilkeston that buys it. Enough is enough so time to move on to something else. I took a close up of the building on the left of this picture showing the clock on the top which would have easily filled the bill as a "time" image but this one through the car windscreen shows a deterioration in the weather as a shower passed over.

 

By the time we were back at home we had a full blown thunderstorm and even as I write this another storm is rumbling by over Swingate way. We've had some lovely weather recently but already people are beginning to say enough is enough about the rain. Still it'll do the gardens good as they say - unless it washes everything away!

Golden Memories

I went out in the drizzle this afternoon to get a photo for today. It seemed really quiet, more like half day closing than a Tuesday and I think the weather had put a lot of people off. There was nothing really that caught my eye so I returned home without a photo to play some music instead and ponder what to take. Looking through my collection of old vinyl records one particular collection just jumped out at me. I didn't play it choosing Sinatra's "A Man and His Music" instead but it did solve the photo problem - and took the gold theme into another day.

Spanish Gold

No "gold" picture today although as Spain won the 18 carat gold trophy that is the World Cup last night, I'm sure there were plenty of celebrations by the patrons of the Spanish Bar.

Today's picture though is more about the weather than the World Cup as these two girls were both sporting umbrellas as opposed to sun shades today. We seem to have gone from July to November in one day with a significant drop in the temperature and the hot sunny days of recent weeks being replaced by a cold and wet one. The gardens will be grateful for it but it came as a shock to the system. Mind you the weather is more in keeping with the football season!

It Just Goes On & On

I thought I had finished with the gold theme but my wife spotted two small birds feeding in the garden that we think are greenfinches. So I took my camera to the bottom of the garden and sat quietly to wait for them returning. They didn't! But just as I was about to give up another bird settled nearby and to my surprise this one was a goldfinch. Am I blessed or what?

One Bad Apple

I suppose it was inevitable really that come market day and the gold theme of the last few days, I would just have to capture an image of some Golden Delicious apples.

Unfortunately the label also said "France" which means they are out of season and have probably been in storage for some considerable time. They will also have plastic skins covering cotton wool flesh and be anything but delicious. Personally I prefer Braeburns and as there were some from the southern hemisphere which despite the distance travelled looked much fresher as they are in season there, we opted for some of those.

Looking For Gold

To continue the theme I went out today actually looking for gold and found it on Bath Street.

I must have walked past this A-board outside the Money Shop times without number and never really noticed before that it said "Cash for Gold". The challenge is now to find another example tomorrow.

More Gold

Continuing the theme of the last couple of days, I took this photo of the Gold Buying Centre on Nottingham Road this afternoon. The gold coloured car parked opposite was an unexpected bonus.

I had earlier seen a girl wearing a T-shirt with the word "Goldigga" across the back but I didn't have the camera with me at the time and even if I had, she would have been out of sight before I had switched it on.

Bond Girl

Yesterday's picture of the golden girl reminded me of the opening sequence to the James Bond film "Goldfinger" which featured a gold painted naked girl and although I hadn't planned it, I suddenly realised whilst on South Street this afternoon that there is a shop trading as "Goldfinger Jewellers Ltd". The shutters were down as it is half day closing.

At the time of the release of "Goldfinger" we were given to believe that a small area of the girl had to be left paint free to allow the skin to breathe but I now understand that this is just an urban myth.

The Power Of Advertising

There was some sort of event on the Market Place today which I came across purely by chance mid-afternoon. A mobile roller skating rink was the centrepiece with a number of market stalls around it although most of them were empty and the rest were packing up. It appears that local junior schools were involved but despite their best efforts to publicise the event, the advertising campaign had been largely ignored and posters that had been delivered to nearby shops had not been displayed. Which is a shame really as better publicity would have certainly resulted in a better turnout by the general public, myself included! As it was, there was not much to photograph by the time I was there except this gold plated (or should that be gold painted?) girl.

 I've no idea why she was like this but although she adopted a number of poses around the Market Place, it appears her statuesque stance had restricted the use of her tongue and she remained silent throughout.