Pegwell Bay, Margate, Pugin ...

First thing this morning - a walk to Pegwell Bay, to see if it looked at all like Dyce's painting: it didn't, really, since the cliffs, behind me, were both more overgrown and mutilated by a tunnel driven through them - and, frankly, seemed lower.  I couldn't work out his vantage point at all ...

But there were still plenty of people poking around in rock pools, and there were limpets and small mussels and whelks everywhere.

Then a bus - a very slow local bus - to Margate, where I wish I could have had much more time: extraordinary sands (by this time the sun was coming out);

and the real object of my trip, Turner Contemporary, with a stunning exhibition of works by Ellen Harvey - and some, chosen by her, by Turner - around the topic of tourism.  But really, it was about loss and ruin and impermanence: of places, of buildings, of landscapes.

Also some huge drawings by Birmingham artist Barbara Walker,

and of course, Antony Gormley's ANOTHER TIME XXI - you'll have to blow up this image to see his head, just visible above the sea (half way to the horizon, just to the right of that speck of a boat).

Then back to Ramsgate, and a quick visit to Pugin's pretty stunning Church of St Augustine - but not time for anything more, because I had to whizz back to London and Skype into a department meeting ...