Originally published on Photoblog by Gethin Thomas MARCH. 19, 2021
[230-365] 19th. March 2021- If there were any doubt about the adjective Totnacious which I have to remind you is a word of my own invention, then let me rest my case with this update. We ventured to Totnes today, for the first time since Christmas, ostensibly to go to the Friday food market. Sadly it is a shadow of it's former pre-lockdown self, but it was nice to get out and walk around and take in the sights even with most of the shops still closed.
Totnes never disappoints though and even with the non-food, non-essential shops shut there is always something new to spot. Most of these photos need no explanation or maybe I better say won't be getting any explanation as you will probably be as bemused as I was.
The market was not the same without the wand man and I hope he will be back soon. Personally as a purveyor of hope, humour and good wishes I would have classified his wares as essential.
This Night Safe at the bank caught my eye today as it looks like it was fashioned out of bronze and it has aged beautifully with a superb patina and verdigris coating.
Patina - a green or brown film on the surface of bronze or similar metals, produced by oxidation over a long period. The word patina comes from the Italian patina (shallow layer of deposit on a surface) derived from the Latin patĭna (pan, shallow dish). Figuratively, patina can refer to any fading, darkening or other signs of age, which are felt to be natural or unavoidable (or both).
I previously mentioned the Ticklemore Cheese shop in Totnes and someone doubted the veracity of my words. Which isn't surprising when I stretch credulity, often due to invention. But I did counter that I would prove it at some point, so here is Ticklemore Street and the cheese shop, sadly no longer called the Ticklemore Cheese Shop although it is the cheese shop in Ticklemore Street. I still call it the Ticklemore Cheese Shop and I suspect most people still do.
I suspect the name change may have something to do with the original owners having sold the shop to start the Ticklemore Cheese Dairy which actually makes superb cheese. Thereby to avoid confusion they carried the name Ticklemore with them to a new location where their dairy now stands while the cheese shop remained in Ticklemore Street and became the rather disappointingly monikered Country Cheeses. So no confusion there then. But it does mean I was able to get the word Ticklemore into a paragraph nine times so it was worth the sale, the move , the diversification and the change in occupation for that reason alone. If you want my recommendation for the best Ticklemore Cheese Dairy cheese, then for me it has to be the Devon Blue, a cheese made with milk from cows that are mooing as we speak not a few hundred yards from my front door. No bias there then, although cunningly I rounded the Ticklemores up to ten, or was it eleven? No more tickles, I'm moving on.
How many places feature a butcher that is nearly as old as The United States of America and as old as the modern nation of Australia. On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip guided a fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to the colony of New South Wales, effectively founding Australia. Connecticut ratified the United States Constitution, and became the fifth U.S. state. Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution, and became the sixth U.S. state.
I leave you with this supremely Totnacious sign the meaning of which remains a mystery.
