Snooty Edinburgh burghers threatening a resident with a £20,000 fine for painting her front door pink has me asking the question house about these bright homes?
The yellow, pink and blue-coloured houses that hone into view on the harbour in Greystones, Co. Wicklow remain a beacon.
For this train traveller on his way home from work in Dublin.
Maybe not the pressing need of the fishermen being able to locate their homes from the sea.
Fishermen villages have long been one of the pulling points for day outings on seaside holidays.
Where the pace of life feels unchanged, the boats just as pristine and the old women hewn from history.
Port in a storm
Aveiro, Portugal Centro: In a country like Portugal where fish is on every dish no fishermen could ever fail to find his home.
On a horizon of houses that cover the whole spectrum of the rainbow.
And where wives would wait devotedly at the shore until their guys returned.
And enlist the help of him upstairs with prayers at the handily-placed quayside church.
Anyone for Venice
Burano, Venice:And when you’re in the most famous water city of them all everything is dictated to by the lagoon.
Burano is best known for two things, its fishermen and its lace.
So while the men are out catching those under the sea the women are embroidering back home.
Maritime Malta
Marsaxlokk, Malta: History doesn’t tell us if brightly-coloured houses guided St Paul from his shipwreck to safe land.
But let’s just say it did… and console ourselves in the knowledge that today’s Maltesers are a lot more welcome.
Marsaxlokk on the south-east of the island is the vibrant village where all the fishies hang out.
On Sundays for the fish market and a tourist market through the week.
Fairytale houses
Nyhavn, Copenhagen: And, of course, in the city of fairytales you’re bound to see, er, fairytale houses.
In bohemian Nyhavn where Hans Christian Andersen lived at No.67 and Nyhavn 18.
And you’ll find a plaque and a souvenir shop.
Cop the pigeon
Pigeon Point, Tobago: And I ought to have said something about the naming when I was out there.
In an isle where they have Lovers Beach and Nylon Pool I’d have thought they could have titled this point with a more exotic beach.
Such as Mocking Bird Point, their ubiquitous feathered flyers, the colours of which adorn the beachside huts.
Among a kaleidoscope of colours.
Something to think on then for the colourless councillors who want artistic resident Miranda Dickson.
To repaint her pink door white.
