They gambled high ... and lost.

    

A majority of the English and Welsh people of the UK have fallen for a huge gamble and lost mightily, organized by their elected and incredibly reckless PM David Cameron, wasting their future for party politics to placate some right-wing back benchers. Exploited by the journalist-turned-politician opportunist Boris Johnson, who saw an easy way to grab the office of Prime Minister, and not at all interested that in the process he was wrecking his own country. The opposition had no clue and no strategy. Even now, none of them have a plan, except to play it cool. 

going for a ride

Brighton Palace Pier gambling

on shaky ground

 reality

Millions of Europeans working in England worry about their livelihoods and future in the country that has harboured them, often for decades.

Millions of British young people feel cheated and scrapped of their future when they could have gone to study and work, live and raise families anywhere in the EU.  

Brighton West Pier which burnt down in 2003

It was momentous to be in England during the time of the Brexit-vote. On Thursday, we went to bed peacefully having heard Nigel Farage concede defeat, and woke up on Friday morning to The Economist's headline "Brexit Remains" hardly believing our eyes. 
We had been travelling through Kent and Sussex on the English coast coming from the continent via the Channel Tunnel. On the way we had seen "Leave" posters in windows wherever we went; in all the pretty rural villages, where we visited the beautiful and famous English gardens, windows spouted these ugly signs; we even had a rather unpleasant and for England up to now unusual encounter in our German car at a gas filling station; the very few "Remain" signs could not lift our spirits. When we reached Brighton, though, flags changed colours, the "leave" posters disappeared and "remain" signs turned up; so we took hope. It was not to last.

Do they really want to get back to porridge and baked beans for breakfast and the single leaf, single-ply, hard and shiny toilet paper? Do they really dream of the time of BSE (mad cow disease, in case you don't remember the 1980s) and the time when the daily milk regularly turned sour long before the gone-by-date? To  dubious "Steak&kidney pie"? When people were dying of Salmonella poisoning due to a totally inefficient NHS and terrible agricultural practises ?  

All is out of hands, out of control and up for negotiations. Liars dominate the media. England is divided, full of bitterness and seems rife for civil unrest. Its leadership is floating like characters in a Shakespearean tragedy, unfortunately quite real.

These are pictures  I have taken on our visit to Brighton - slightly influenced by the mood .

The Royal Pavillion

Still dreaming of the lost Empire? Photoshop can help ...

Brighton's sea front

 where is Europe? 

England, Croatia, Turkey, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Ukraine ... take your pick... 

Plant of the Month : Kalmia angustifolia

Among all the brilliant flowers at this time of the year, the peonies, the foxgloves and roses, which are flowering now in splendour, this unobtrusive small evergreen bush grows unnoticed for  most of the year until it comes to flower in June. Now it produces an abundance of little pink or white flowers that look like tiny cupcakes. These open to waxen flower cups, little bells with delicate paintings on them that look like minuscule cake moulds.
It is toxic though. Its common name is sheep laurel or lambs' kill  - the cupcake shape and the sweet looks are deceiving. It belongs to the family of Ericaceae and needs acid soil like most of its members and grows well among rhododendrons. 

Views from above ...

Continuing from a bird's perspective,  this is a collection of "plane window shots". 
Occupying a window seat on a plane with a camera in the lap, ideally in front of the wings meaning business class, waiting for the plane to make a turn before it goes through the cloud layer, makes one feel like an idiotic "All-of-Europe-in-a-Day" tourist next to the business guys hacking away on their notebooks. I guess, I feel stupid, but they are envious...  But it is the easiest way to get aerial pictures short of renting a high-resolution camera drone. 

Camera settings should be on a fast shutter-speed for obvious reasons and focus on manual - otherwise the camera will inevitably focus on some dirt or scratches on the window.  Then, sometimes, if you are lucky with the weather, and if you have good light, if the pilot flies a steep curve in your favour soon after take-off or just before landing, and if you are quick to spot the image - many if's - , pictures can turn out quite pleasing. 

So enjoy this Quick-and-Easy-Grand-Tour-Around-the-World from above! 

 Sicily from above

patches of olive groves in Sicily 

Africa, the Okavango Delta, Botswana:

in the Okavango Delta,  Botswana

 Boma in Kenya, Masai Mara

Tansania:

Australia:

 in the Outback, Northern Territories

Salt Lake, Lake Amadeus

Kata Tjuta mountains with Uluru in the back

Uluru

The Great Barrier Reef:

UAE, Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed Mosque:

Dubai:

 dotty neighbours

The Palm, Dubai

fishing fleet, Dubai

The Himalaya and Mount Everest 

Singapore

Hongkong

Storm clouds over Java, Indonesia

Iguacu Waterfalls, Brazil 

London

Frankfurt, with the Taunus hills in the background

somewhere over Thuringia approaching Berlin

River Havel with the lakes of Brandenburg around Berlin and the TV tower in the back

Berlin

...and who is the photographer?