Sweet Monkey Business, Whitstable

The past couple of days have been very cold and today was no exception. If anything it was even colder due to the really biting wind but it was also gloriously sunny in patches so we chose to go and visit one of our favourite  seaside haunts, Whitstable. When we arrived we headed to the seafront for a walk and it was ferociously cold. The wind was clattering through the yachts that had been hauled onto the shingle beach (see an example in the third extra image) and it made for a haunting, almost screaming sound as the rigging chimed and whistled and the halyards slapped.
On the way back "inland" we passed a closed ice cream parlour and that's where I took my main image of it's display window featuring this monkey and the murals on the white wall of a building opposite. By this time we were getting thirsty and hungry but also wanted to warm ourselves up so we picked the recently restored Duke of Cumberland pub for a pint each and some small plates. The food was great, the beer excellent and the atmosphere convivial. Suitably revived we meandered towards the harbour side of the town.
The first extra is of some nodding-head tortoises/turtles which were for sale across from one of the few wooden kiosks still open in the depths of late autumn/early winter - they made me smile, particularly the one with the Christmas hat on! The second extra is a detail of the fishing nets and the vivid bouys of one of the fishing vessels. Finally, we walked between the edge of the sea wall and beach towards the Old Neptune pub where I took my last two images. The dog in the last image bounded straight towards me and so I quickly blasted a few frames in the hope I would capture it's energy somehow - I rather like the result!
We had a great time and really enjoyed our photo(graphic) safari. Speaking of PhotoSafaris me and my brother (Groggster on Blipfoto) have set up a new blip journal under this name where we will post images together and where we've uploaded an image each from today's trip. Somehow I got a bit confused when setting ip up so it actually says BeerHunters by PhotoSafaris! In a way, though, we are beer hunters (in a very non excessive way!) as one of the first things we do when we reach our destination on one of our safaris is to try and find a lovely pub with good beer and, hopefully, a warm atmosphere and great food. We've now built up quite an extensive list over the years!