An extra second photo to make up for forgetting last Sunday… and it’s the first snowfall of the season here in Newcastle! Dad predicted that it would arrive today… I think it’s the first year he’s accurately forecast it!

I don’t know what it was about this scene, but it felt oddly atmospheric: a closed down shop with the lights shining through the gauze of the rolled-down shutter, with (I assume) the remaining stock gathered at the back and the occasional staff member busying about.

I don’t know what the shop used to be, or why it has closed down, or why there are still people and things in it despite it looking like it’s been shut for a while… but it is a little bit of a sad sight. Perhaps a little depressing for a Friday night?!

I must have walked past this plaque on Osbourne Road in Jesmond tens or hundreds of times, yet never noticed it! Muriel Robb won the 1902 Wimbledon ladies’ single final in a match which was the longest on record at the time, beating Charlotte Sterry.

Putting “award winning restaurants” on a road sign seems like a great low-cost way for a local authority to provide free advertising, promoting local businesses and boosting the local economy. I wonder if it works in practice? And if so, I wonder if the benefits are great enough to outweigh the (probably small?) risk of diverting drivers’ attention from the road for a little longer, and making the sign (marginally) more difficult to interpret?

South Marine Park in South Shields opened in 1890, designed by John Peebles. It underwent an extraordinary renovation in 2008, returning many of the lost Victorian features to the park, and restoring those that remained.

The overall effect is quite remarkable, even on a dull grey day like today.

These statues have been a source of some disquiet since their first installation, with many campaigning for them to be removed, even up to the recent restoration!

But all-in-all, this small park seems a lovely place to take a stroll. Today was my first visit, but I’m quite sure I’ll be back!

I tweeted about discovering Costa’s strawberry lemonade a few weeks ago, but it probably bears repeating… When I worked in Calgary (and when I holidayed in Toronto) I really enjoyed Second Cup’s strawberry lemonade, and was quite disappointed to find that no coffee shops sold it in the UK on my return. But five years on, Costa has started selling it, and whilst it isn’t quite as lemony as Second Cup’s, it is pretty good!

This is a picture I took earlier in the week of the Millennium Bridge lit up, as it is every night, in its rainbow-like colour scheme. The current lighting system was installed in 2009, and is LED based for super energy efficiency.

It’s the (first, second, third, fourth) fifth time I’ve featured the bridge this year, so you may be bored of seeing it by now…! In my own defence, this is the first night-time shot of it!

This is a bit of the pretty escalators in Newcastle’s Monument Mall, whose workings are shown as a result of tge sides of them being glass. I guess these escalators are not long for this world as the mall is being in-filled to provide a series of bigger restaurant and shopping units accessed from the street. It seems a shame, because they’re certainly attractive and unusual!

With so many leaves underfoot, and so many central heating systems being turned on, there’s no denying that autumn is here.

This plan, the Grainger Town Sculptural Map, can be found just across the road from Newcastle Station. It was designed by Tod Hanson and Simon Watkinson, and put in place in 2003.

The idea is that the buildings have been reduced to their “essential forms” – no Earl Grey atop the Monument, for example – to provide an enjoyable spotting challenge to locals and tourists alike. When I first saw it, though, I didn’t realise it was meant to be a representation of the local area, so it didn’t really challenge me at all. Whether that’s a comment on the artwork or my own dimness, I’m not sure.

Here’s another angle that shows the pretty lights within: