The Folkestone Mermaid

This is Cornelia Parker's Folkestone Mermaid, commissioned for one of the Folkestone Triennials and then adopted as a permanent art work for the town. It's very different in style from the conceptual works such as the exploded shed for which she is better known, and she's one of my favourite things in Folkestone. I love her wistfulness as she gazes out to sea: it reminds me of Matthew Arnold's poem The Forsaken Merman, which my mother first read to me when I was about eight from the worn blue volume of his poetry she had studied at grammar school and which I now treasure. 

We were back in Folkestone following P's assessment appointment on Monday, as he was unexpectedly offered an immediate appointment for the procedure identified as essential. J and I went along in case he wasn't up to driving home - unnecessarily, as it turned out, but the weather was better than on Monday and we enjoyed a stroll along the Stade, the old fishing quay beside the outer harbour from which Folkestone's remaining fleet of about eight small trawlers can be seen, and on along Coronation Parade, the promenade above the smooth sweep of  Sunny Sands. Dogs are allowed on the beach from October and were taking full advantage of the opportunity, bounding in and out of the waves, running and chasing. There were children too, as it's half term, many of them with grandparents, playing in the sand and rock-pooling. J was particularly amused by the infectious joy of a little girl perhaps just over a year old, who had gained enthusiasm for her recently acquired walking skills and was stomping backwards and forwards several times through every puddle, stamping her wellies and laughing and shouting at the splashing water. We also enjoyed watching a small group of seagulls trying to eat a dropped ice cream: their bills were not ideally suited to its consistency, but they persevered, and the extra shows the largest of the group with the sticky, white goo oozing from its beak.

Yesterday's photos will follow - they are on the "proper" camera, which I left switched on, so now have no battery with which to download them.