The Uphill Climb

Thursday July 3rd

Hottest day of the year, so far and it was a return to the small Somerset town of Frome.

I had been once before, back in April last year (Blip), when it was mostly a dull day.

Hopefully, the honey-coloured building stone and quaint arty boutiques and shops and steep cobbled Catherine's Hill (here) would really sing out in bright sparkly sunshine.

Yes, sure they did, but the contrast was blinding, either black shadow or washed out white. More people did not mean more photo opportunities - they got in the way, they parked their delivery vans in all the worse places and with the Frome Festival starting from Saturday - so yes, it is still on - the extra busyness gave an extra buzz but not one I was able to successfully translate onto camera sensor.

The train journey there was a bit of an adventure. Trains have to go onto a separate siding specially for Frome from the main Weymouth - Bristol line and so they only go to the town every three hours or so...

Changing at Westbury, I unusually (I'm a bloke, remember) asked a rail employee which platform for Frome. "Trains aren't stopping at Frome today", was the reply. No notices, my ticket gleefully sold to me with that destination printed on it...

The points had failed, he said. In a scene only fitting for a complete work of fiction, all four of us passengers for Frome waited out the front of the station whilst said guard hailed down a taxi, that was dropping someone off. "Four for Frome, put it onto account".

Asking about how to get back, I had been told not to worry. I replied that I was indeed worried as Frome station is unmanned and I didn't fancy staying there all night! He said that they might have repaired the points by then. I was SO reassured (NOT!)

So, it was taxi there. The other three sat in the back whilst I had a good old chat to the cabbie. With Glastonbury not far away he said that he had had good - and crazy - business ferrying drunk people thinking/wanting to get to Glasto, seemingly at any cost.

Anyway, long story, after excellent coffee and homemade treacle tart at an Italian café (with REAL Italian owners and staff) I tried to get my shots of folk climbing the steep cobbles of Catherine's Hill. It did seem as I was on holiday though, the atmosphere, the colours and the warmth of the sun. The warm breeze wafted delicious scents from the various herbal and flower shops - glorious indeed.

However, none really worked, I edited quite a few, they just didn't seem anything more than touristy snaps. It did go cloudy about 5pm, when this was taken. This softer light helped with the contrast and there were less people about. I felt that this was perhaps Milan or somewhere exotic like that, which I liked.

Frome is a great place to while away an hour or two. It's physically quite compact and feels like a mini version of Bath and has an arty sort of feel. It's sleepy - many shops just seem to be closed because it suits them and don't go on a Monday, which I had done last time - not only is it bin day, with lines and lines of wheelie bins spoiling all your photos but it's a day off for seemingly everyone.

Apologies for long text, but I enjoyed the day and hope you get some of its flavour from my Blip.

Lens is Nikkor 16-85mm VR