The first place we entered in Rye, apart from the hotel, was an antique shop.

Imagine my surprise to find the tail fins from a Soviet MiG Fighter for sale!

There was also this Art Deco poster of Bexhill-on-Sea, featuring the town’s iconic Art Deco/Moderne De La Warr Pavilion:-

And a jolly elephant (the company’s logo is an elephant) on a French (language) advert for Côte d’Or milk chocolate with the added bonus of an Art Deco style building in the background:-

Another striking sight in Overleigh Cemetery, Chester was the presence of a Bulgarian Flag on a church within the grounds.

This turned out to be St Barbara’s, a Greek Orthodox Church, and the building is the former cemetery chapel.

The inside is sumptuous and full of iconography:-

The vaulted roof is a bit less ornate though:-

The keener eyed among you will have seen from my side bar that I have just finished reading Chinese SF author Cixin Liu’s collection entitled Hold up the Sky.

In it there were two separate references to characters requiring medical procedures that were too expensive for them to afford.

I also heard on the TV news recently that those receiving a test dose of a vaccine newly produced in China against the Covid-19 causing coronavirus also needed to pay the equivalent of £45 pounds for the privilege.

China is reviled in certain quarters as being a Communist country.

I must say that on the evidence above China must be far from being even a socialist utopia, the minimum requirement for which I would have considered to be medical treatment free at the point of use.

Cockenzie House is a mansion House in the town of Cockenzie and Port Seton, East Lothian, which we visited in September last year as they were hosting a small antique Fair in Cockenzie House.

In its grounds there is an unusual memorial – to Cockenzie Power Station – which stood in the town and whose twin towers could be seen for miles around and were even prominent from Fife across the Firth of Forth. It was built in 1968 and demolished in 2015.

Cockenzie Power Station Memorial:-

More photos of Pitmedden Garden.

Gates with steps down to formal garden:-

Heart shapes by the gates above:-

Bottom of steps:-

Drinking fountain at steps:-

Steps and gates above:-

Another set of gates. There is a private area beyond:-

Human sundial:-

The human acts as the sundial’s gnomon by standing where indicated, according to the month. It obviously matters what the weather is like. I tried it but cast no shadow at all:-

A stunning piece of window glazing on The Brewer’s Arms, Berwick-Upon-Tweed. There’s almost a hint of Deco on the building’s upper portions and roofline.

From south(ish):-

From north:-

Windows close up:-

What a great photograph.

From Astronomy Picture of the Day for 25/7/20.

This is a Long March 5 heavy-lift rocket after taking off with its Tianwen-1 mission payload to Mars.

It looks like it’s hanging in mid-air.

Next stop after St Petersburg was Helsinki, capital of Finland.

A lot of the buidings in the city centre are in the Art Nouveau style. These are the ones I photographed on the way to the Sibelius Monument.

The one in the centre here shades into Art Deco in the windows:-

Note the giraffe figures on the balcony here:-

I have absolutely no idea what these were about:-

For some reason St Petersburg has not one, not two, but three submarine museums. (I never saw the last of those, the Submarine Fleet Museum, but passed the first two when travelling into and out of the city by coach.)

Submarine C189. (In English this is submarine S189):-

Narodovolets D-2 Submarine:-

The good lady is a keen gardener and when she heard that the Japanese Garden, at Cowden, Clackmannanshire was reopening after being a long time overgrown, we had to visit. The garden was first opened in 1908, but was closed to the public in 1955 and left to go to ruin. Thankfully the recent restoration is returning the garden to its former glory.

Japanese gardens are very elegant. Despite the refurbishment still going on Cowden certainly is. There is an air of peace and harmony about the place. Japanese bridges are especially elegant. The first bridge below is by the path near the garden’s entrance. The second spans the garden’s large pond:-

Pagoda and bridge:-

Zen garden:-

Bench:-

The burn which feeds the pond:-

Path to bridge:-

Stones and ornament with bridge in background:-