drawing | autumn {in herne bay, UK, part III}

it was on a late summer's day in 1985, when a farewell comittee consisting of one aunt drove me up the north sea ferry wall in oostend. my trolley took a dip and i hadn't even reached english soil. waving aunty's comments bye-byes, i left belgium. just 24 hours later my new life opened up before me, waking up in a canterbury b&b, planning.

reminding myself briefly of the previous night's downpour, i braved a cloudy sky and a bumpy busride into herne bay, an east kent seaside resort's name exactly the same as my hometown's (bar the bay, we have no sea at home). by the end of a promising day i'd landed myself both a job and a bedsit. the autumn sun had begun to shine brilliantly. i felt as if i'd come home. at last.

this is the second time since the eighties i came back to herne bay. i'd booked a room in a b&b called the priory, which in 1985 was called worth house and functioned then as a youth hostel for up to fifteen problem teenagers, in desperate need of some counseling and loads of tlc, joined by some fifteen staff. i became staff soon after my kitchen trainee days. 

i succombed gladly to many memory flashes in anticipation, and now as i'm back in belgium, memories flood still. i think fondly of cook mary, who patiently taught me how to make an english custard creme. i stirred a milky tea {for sentimental reasons only, because i don't like white} in my single room, bemusedly staring into the overgrown november back garden. if i remember the house lay out correctly i was given j's room. j was no easy chick to handle. how would j be today?
  

i searched and found back railway station back alley, still overgrown in exactly the same spots! i easily made my way back to both houses i lived in, and lingered in front of them.

i sniffed sea salty air, rotten weeds and broken shells, all seemingly washing ashore aplenty. not a single olfactery detail of the whole area, down to the petrol station's gasses, smelled different. a trip down memory lane can be so profusely repleneshing.


i've let this week's dc theme mingle with my trip and remembered just then i'd drawn an autumn leaf a year back. i decided to recycle that drawingi played about a bit. {a postcard of the ° drawing is available in my shop.}

doesn't this repeat pattern version make you long for a proper bar of chocolate? it does me and i don't know why! ☻ ariane shows us more of autumn. as always, and please do, walk with me, through herne bay, UK. 

17 comments:

  1. Leuk!!! Dank je wel, ik heb genoten van je stukje Kent en Herne Bay, met wat choco erbij!! Prachtig die blaadjes....
    -x-

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  2. ps...ik kijk bij je andere foto's en ik heb je net gemaild dat ik op de cavendish road heb gewoond.....weliswaar elders....
    grappig!! ;-)

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  3. ooooh it looks like blighty - proper it does.

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  4. Dear sister, walking with you on memory lane is awesome the photos nearly evoke the impression of a town falling to sleep for 28 years like in fairytale sleeping beauty overgrown everywhere waiting for the awakening kiss. I like that. And this b&b house looks so wonderful like only english houses can.

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  5. what about some scones and clotted cream?
    or the real deal english breakfast???

    hugs

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  6. Gosh I loved this post, Nadine! Your walk into the past brought me a tear. Such a bittersweet wonder, where is J now...
    thank you for sharing - that photo of the overgrown stair touched a nerve in my memory heart, too. xxoo, sus

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  7. memory lane.... i can see you walking
    the young you, the one you are now, the one i know
    like sara, i would love to eat some scones now ;^))

    thank you for showing and sharing
    and your leave became a beautiful pattern!

    xx

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  8. What a great post! so enjoyed hearing your story and I love the photos too! nothing like a good reminisce!!
    and those stairs that have overgrown-wow!
    Thanks so much for sharing :)

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  9. Nadine, I can smell the air too! And I took a snippet of greenery to press in my notebook. I have no personal, or any, memories of this spot but I am sure glad that you took me to it for a visit (in my mind's eye.) So lovely is this location. Now I am off to your shop to view your post card...and to find some chocolate around here...I am house/cat sitting for my daughter who is out of town for a Christmas Fair. *smiles* Norma, x

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  10. great drawing and I love your story, the first picture is my favorite, reminds of my time living in and loving Roubaix.
    x Stefanie

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  11. i really enjoy your pictures and your story! and i love your drawing - yes, absolutly, it really makes me long for a bar of chocolate, why ever...
    x dania

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  12. Thank you for wonderful memory story.
    Love the chocolate leave postcard....never thought of chocolate brown for a autumn colour, but you are right.
    ♥ Sabine

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  13. i'm amazed at the synchronicities in our lives - i too moved to the UK in the 80s (1986), felt I'd found home, and lived at a Canterbury Road (South London). This year for the first time, I've been wanting to go back to the placed I loved so much. I find your "repetition" drawing interesting, in connection with a post about revisiting memories.

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  14. If your able I'm host this week... would love to have you :)

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  15. What a wonderful experience as a youth, and to be able to return to the same place, priceless.
    your autumn leaves do work as chocolate! yum.
    I am late posting, but still...
    Looking forward to next weeks challenge. Funny, it's a theme for a series of drawings I have been wanting to do myself.
    I am inspired. See you soon.
    Rachel

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  16. hmmm, I wanna chocolate now... with pieces of orange (only for adults!), dearest Nadeschda.
    Love your autumn-leaf... the process of recycling itself is like the seasons, right?
    To walk the memory lane makes me a little wistful and happy in the same time... I can find it even here, no? (great photos, Dear!) You don't like white but you stirred the milky tea...

    Love xo Ariane.

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  17. Oh dear, I'm getting closer to your Brit-infected heart the more I learn about your life.
    Sound like a great sentimental trip, but I'm still glad the time capsule brought you home again! ;o)
    And your pattern...makes one leaf appear like a whole autumn forest!
    I'm not the kind of chocolate girl so this wasn't the first I was thinking of. But now that you've said it...

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