Spotted outside Reading station, well it made me laugh

Aliens at large in Reading.

Sculptures in and around Reading town centre

Sculptures and Reading, really, art in Reading? Spent the day in Reading with my bruvver Paul the other Saturday, and being me I suggested we wander around the town to see what we could see.

Well, for me at least, I was gladdened to find that there were a number of sculptures around the town.

Was quite taken by the Friar, by Elizabeth Frink (wow I've actually heard of her! - arts ed), for something so large and lifelike, it seemed to me to be quite ghostly?

My lion photo, is the back view of the Maiwand Lion, in Forbury Park. I do have a photo of the front of it, but not to hand at the moment. But the photo does not give you get a good sense of the scale. This is one enormous Lion! The park is just a couple of minutes walk from the High Street, and is worth heading for to find a little bit of calm in Central Reading.

Sky, clouds, sunrise, sunset

Well, as you may have noticed, don't worry if you haven't, I am a big fan of looking up. Well, that is up, in the sense up to watch the sky, regard the clouds, ogle at the sunrise and the sunset (freely available, not supported with your taxes, or requiring charitable donations - ed) on a regular basis. I mean, it is just there, every time that you walk out of the door (ok I can think of so cases where walking out does not get you outside - but you know what I mean). Wonderful. (For a small one off fee you can join The Cloud Appreciation Society)

Now, not every day has a great looking sunrise, a fabulous sunset or interesting clouds, but it is forever changing, so take a look, a real look (preferably taking all precautions necessary - stopping whilst crossing a road to enjoy beautiful pinks of the sunset - is NOT recommended for continued life - ed)

Leaving Reading (a town in Berkshire, England, it failed yet again in 2011 to be given city status. Look here to see the typically British way this is managed. More hoops - which I will come to in due course, but not this post) on Sunday after dropping my youngest son, (the taller, hairier one than me, but then so is the eldest - hmm, so how am I supposed to  tell them apart. ) off at Reading Station.

Now we have had a teensy weensy bit of rain since the drought was declared Spring 2012 and the outskirts of Reading, in fact its flood plain, is well and truly flooded (I am so surprised they haven't built houses there - no doubt they will in due course).

I remember in 1976 - the Long Hot Summer where Da Government (tm) finally created the post of Minister for Drought and Denis Howell MP took on the role and within days there was heavy continuous rainfall so much that he was soon renamed the Minister for Rain (this was a  little before Dustin Hoffman played him in the film Rain Man (really? - ed)- and as the rain kept on falling and falling he was renamed Minister for Floods.  Mr Howell reprised this role later as Minister for Snow in the bitter winter of 1978-79 and finally due to these good works (not only these - ed), as is the wont of British politics made a life peer as Baron Howell.

There was me thinking that Da Government did not have a sense of humour (note the English spelling  - for the US audience, use the non-u pronunciation).

Lost track there, where was I, aha I was leaving Reading, heading south towards the M4 and the outskirts are not particularly attractive, as is the case with many towns and cities in the UK, wide carriageways passing cavernous modern showrooms, selling many many things that we don't need, but that is the way that things are.

The sun was setting and particularly pink - and glancing across to my right (paying full attention to the road conditions to ensure that I was not driving without due care and attention (thanks legal department - ed), there was a stunning sunset, trees silhouetted against the falling sun, and a glorious set of reflections of the trees and the sky in the still waters. However, as I was driving I could not take a photo, what a miss. It would be kind of cool if I had a CarSkyCam (tm) to capture this all  - but they are way too expensive. A cheaper thought would be to have a head cam. Hmm - will have to think on it.

Anyhow, fabulous sunset with reflections and no photo :-( . Maybe I should have a go at painting it. But then I have a number of other paintings to do first (dog, orchid, interesting log, face, ship of the line).

So, if you like the sky - then here is a set of sky photos I have uploaded on dropbox.

Unfortunately I appear in one or two, not sure how that happened, but apologies in advance for that.