A-Z Challenge 2021 - Photo Shoot: D - Deer, Ducks, Denmark

 It's not just in Britain that ducks abound.

On the Clinton River in Rochester, Michigan

They know where the picnic tables are!

When we are in Michigan I do not have to look far for deer.

Just over a roadside fence

One of many that visit my daughter's home

I have delivered lots of training courses in Denmark and could not miss this in Copenhagen.

The Little Mermaid

Rosenberg Palace

Sentry Duty at the Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen

Wonderful, wonderful, Copenhagen.

I'm not a great lover of cities but I would make an exception for Copenhagen shown in this week's prompt.

I've spent many hours there with some time in that selfsame square.

I've doctored this picture to remove the colours and to draw your attention to the pattern on the ground. I guess I must have stood close to where the three people on the right of the prompt photo were located.

No birds, no-one selling food for the pigeons and much more crowded in the 1980s.

I did find a bird feeding elsewhere on the way to Rosenborg Castle.

But like most visitors to Copenhagen I just had to send time admiring - 

The Little Mermaid

To see other posts this week, just follow the links at Sepia-Saturday-355.

Just a Block of Stone - Sepia Saturday

Jefferson's statue in this week's prompt reminded me that it's just a block of stone.

To Michelangelo, "Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it."

Among my photo archives there a few statues tucked away. However my first statue is a bronze that sits upon a block of stone. 

The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen

Hans Christian Andersen's famous fairy tale  "The Little Mermaid" was published in 1837; her statute was 100 years old in 2013. She stands (or rather sits) 1.25 metres high and weighs a mere 175 kilograms.

Quite a contrast with the Imperia statue, at Konstanz at the western end of Lake Constance in the south-west corner of German, bordering Switzerland.

Imperia, Konstanz

She is 9 metres high and weighs 18 tonnes. Her name refers to Balzac's short story "La belle Imperia" which satirises the Catholic clergy.

Imperia
(Cropped from Imperia statue by User Fb78 [Wikipedia Commons] - CC BY-SA 2.0)

She holds two men in her hands - Pope Martin V and Emperor Sigsmund.

In Tresco Abbey Gardens on Tresco, Isles of Scilly the statue is much more down to earth.

Gaia

In Greek Mythology Gaia was the personification of the Earth.

I'm not allowed to include the my photo of Gaia and someone attempting to be a lookalike. Don't you just hate the photo bombers?

More than one England football captain has played at Middlesbrough but only one has his statue outside the ground.

George Hardwick

A former Boro' player, George Hardwick was the first England football captain after WWII.

The whistle has blown for full time this week if you need to see match of the day you need to transfer over to Sepia-Saturday-220.

Railings - Sepia Saturday

It's a long time since I have used all my own photos in a Sepia Saturday post, but I've managed it by choosing to use 'railings' as the link to this week's photo.

The railings in my first picture are the wooden fence at the bottom of the garden when we moved to a new house in Yarm back in the early 1970s and before either ours or next door's garden had been cultivated.

Our youngest son - well behaved for once

I'm surprised that he was not hanging upside down. Earlier in the 1950s it was his future mother's turn to do just that,

Over the top rail on Stamford Recreation Ground

Then there are these 'elegant' shots of my future wife climbing a ladder to the walkway on the top of the pier at St Andrews at the end of the 1950s when I was at University there.

Straight as a die, those stocking seams!

A little less elegant as she reached the top.

Note the railing to the right

The pictures really should have been in colour as I have never forgotten that green 'felt' skirt!

Meanwhile in Copenhagen in 2007 the railings were merely a vantage point.

Copenhagen, Denmark

What was the big, or should I say small and well formed, attraction? None other than -

The Little Mermaid

In 2012 the railings of a local pier were invaded by Olympians.

Saltburn Pier Olympians

Just two of many erected in secret by The Saltburn Yarn Bomber

Before I go off the rails and you begin to rail at me just swing yourself over to see what others have done at Sepia-Saturday-177-18-may-2013 - Bob's birthday.

Great Danes - Sepia Saturday

When I saw that this week's prompt was showing cycling in Copenhagen I decided I had seen enough in the Olympics.

As I have spent a lot of time in Denmark and Copenhagen it seemed natural to show pictures taken in the city. But for reasons that will become apparent I changed my mind and took a different tack.

Great Dane (XI International Dog Show, Krakow 2007)

(By Lilly M - CC A-S A 3.0 unported license)

Alright, I know Krakow is not in Denmark but you must admire the dog.

At least you should agree that it would be good to start the day of with this:

Danish bacon being cooked 

(By The Legendary Sky Attacker - 2009)

Although if you have a sweet tooth this may be what you prefer.

A Pecan & Maple Danish by Cuisine de France

(Oct 2008 - by Yohan euan o4 - CC A 3.0 unported license)

I had intended to include my photos of Copenhagen but found that one I wanted to use was in danger of infringing an artists copyright. However I found this illustration  instead.

The Little Mermaid

Illustration by Vilhelm Pedersen for H.C. Andersen's fairy tale

So from a Great Dane to another in Hans Christian Andersen I decided to sign off with a video of another small maid introduced by the late Danny Kaye.

For other interpretations of cycling or Danish themes you need to check in at Sepia-saturday-138

A Mystery Tour? - Sepia Saturday

It may seem strange that a tour with a nautical flavour starts at a pub in the village where I was born.

The Railway Inn at Ketton, Rutland

Suitable refreshed our next stop is on the North Yorkshire Moors to get directions from a sailor who knew his way around the world.

Captain Cook's Monument

Before we go too far I want us to stop in the town of Fowey on Cornwall's south coast for a pint or two with the King of Prussia.

But we don't want to arrive on a day like this.

While we are there you may want to take a trip across the river to see the house in which Daphne du Maurier wrote her first novel, The Loving Spirit.

 

Ferryside

Look closely at the right-hand edge of the house, almost touching the trees. You should be able to see the figurehead  from the schooner Jane Slade; Daphne was inspired to write her book after discovering the wreck of the schooner in the nearby Pont Creek.

If you are inspired by figureheads then you might want to travel on to the Scilly Isles and check out the maritime museum in Tresco Abbey Gardens.

Now it's time for us to go further afield and call at Copenhagen and see what sailors fantasised about.

The Little Mermaid

However it is Stavanger in  Norway that is our final port of call.

The Square in Stavanger in 1913 leading to the quayside (source - unknown)

Of course it looked different in the 1980s when SS Norway was in town.

Follow this link for more Sepia Saturday fanatics.

[King of Prussia photos by courtesy of  Ade; the rest excluding the sepia of Stavanger are down to me.]