The Fallen and the Saved

A change of scene today with a walk into the city and along the waterfront. Everything always seem a bit rundown in February, but this year more than most. Shops are mostly closed or have gone out of business, there are fewer people and less traffic, and the streets have an air of neglect. Saw people sheltering in doorways, smoking or drinking and probably escaping the isolation and boredom of life in cold, damp flats and bed-sits. Cafes and restaurants that are normally the lifeblood of the city are shut up and dark. From the street you can see into the ceramics department of the art college where students would normally be busy moulding and firing clay. The new multi-million pound museum, known as the box is closed. Looking through the glass in the foyer you see the huge suspended ships figureheads looking out expectantly. Up on the Hoe there was at least some escape. Here it was at least fresh and bright, though just walking along I was  constantly buffeted by the wind. I gave today’s blip the title ‘The Fallen and the Saved’. It shows an angel presiding over the memorial to the fallen in the Great War of 1914-18, and the Eddystone Lighthouse, that would have perished into the sea 14 miles offshore, if it had not been saved and re-erected on Plymouth Hoe.