It's due to pigeons that alight ...

This monument to Queen Victoria and the British Empire is acquiring some well deserved natural whitewash.

See more of the Weekend in Black and White here.

Gunpowder, Treason and Plot

Remember, remember the fifth of November or failing that the nearest Saturday night before. The traditions associated with Guy Fawkes Night seem to be disappearing fast. No longer do you see youngsters wheeling a Guy around asking "Penny for the guy"; the month leading up to it is now as quiet as any other when once it was thirty nights of bangers and rockets. It's part a fashion thing; who wants to buy six penny bangers when you can have a 4000 shot Hell Messenger or a Zombie Slayer? And then there's the heavy handed killjoys of the previous administration who banned the sale of fireworks until just before the event and prohibited letting off fireworks in the street .... anyway don't forget to raise a toast to Guy Fawkes the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions.

Sine Qua Non

So here we are up close and personal with the indispensable tidal surge barrier. Since it was built in 1980 it has saved the city from flooding thirty times, roughly once a year. It was refurbished at a cost of  £10 million a couple of years back, but that's money well spent considering that a year ago it stopped a 16ft high tide from engulfing the city centre. So a big hat tip the engineers who designed and built this 98ft, 212tonne beauty.

The Water's Edge

Bridlington's south shore at low tide is a good place to spot some wading birds.

This month's theme is 'the water's edge'. Find what others have made of this at the new CDPB monthly theme page here.

Sandy walk

You can walk your dog on Bridlington beach only when the 'tourists' have gone home.

Angelic

Spring Bank Cemetery has a few angel tombstones, sadly many of them have been damaged by the elements or plain old vandalism. This one seems intact. It is the grave of one Wilfred Jessop (d 1930), his wife Isabella Maud (d 1924) and his mother-in-law, Jane Hooper (d 1914). I can find nothing about these people but I'm assuming they had money, monuments like this were not and are not cheap.

There similar posts over at Taphophile Tragics.

Opulent Autumn Cemetery

You don't have to be a lover of graveyards to appreciate the glories of Spring Bank Cemetery. At this time of year it's looks spectacular.

The cemetery is on the Larkin Trail. Philip Larkin described it as the most beautiful place in Hull and for once I could almost agree. In defending the cemetery against "improvement" in the late 70s he said it was a "natural cathedral, an inimitable blended growth of nature and humanity of over a century; something that no other town could create whatever its resources". I  think he might just be guilty of exaggeration.