Some excellent April weather has brought the Butterflies out in force here in Norfolk, and below are some recent captures:
Butterflies
Month: April 2022
James and Sons April Auction
An account of James and Sons’ April auction.
This Wednesday saw James and Sons’ April auction, the first of three auctions that are devoted entirely to an old client’s collection of stamps, postal history and first day covers (these auctions are interleaved with regular general sales, of which our next will be on May 18th). This post looks back at the day.
A GOOD AUCTION
With a large number of bidders registered, many of them newcomers, we were hoping for a good sale, and we got it in spades. Lot 66 attracted some lively bidding and ended up fetching £80. Lot 85 went for £100
A complete set of FDCs depicting the 1999 Treble Winning Manchester United.
Lot 120 netted £150 after some brisk bidding.
Lot 132 was the most remarkable story of the auction. It included some rare Wonderland stamps, and with the bidding starting at £30 an amazing stampede by online bidders pushed the final price up to an eye-popping £540!
Lots 161-9 were sheets of railway stamps. Two of those lots had attracted my own attention, but I was outbid on them – professionally satisfying, while personally disappointing.
Lot 198 saw another bidding war, a starting price of £60 mushrooming to £200.
Lot 204 raised £65.
Lot 278 was a consolation prize after the railway stamps got away – my opening bid of £8 closed proceedings.
Lot 295 was another I might have been interested in, but the price went too high for me, not very surprisingly in view of Terence Cuneo’s status:
Lot 302 soared to £170.
Lot 396 went to m5 for £55. If you are wondering about this price, which is more than I normally bid for a single lot, it was for a large box of FDCs which I knew to contain some quality railwayana and I was expecting it to comfortably pay for itself – I would select the stuff I wished to keep and would sell the rest. I have already split this lot into the stuff I intend to keep for myself and the stuff I wish to sell. The stuff I will be looking to sell includes some football FDCs and some military FDCs as well as some other stuff.
Here are some pictures showing the division of this lot as it stands currently…
The lid (at rear) contains the stuff I don’t want to keep, while the body of the box contains the stuff I am keeping.
Lots 444 and 445 attracted plenty of bidders, going for £130 and £140 respectively, while lot 489 fetched £100. I have no images for these lots, but lot 462, which I snagged for £8 is below:
The auction took almost five and a half hours (about half as long again as would be expected for a 500 lot auction), and I followed it from home via www.easyliveauction.com.
FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS
Just a few pictures from walks near my home:
Channel Islands 15: Homeward Bound
The final post in my series about my holiday in the channel islands.
This post will conclude my series about my holiday in the channel islands.
A BADLY TIMED FERRY
Our ferry back to England was scheduled to depart at 13:10 (had originally been 11:10, but was put back two hours before we even went on holiday), which was a very inconvenient time in two ways – it meant that I had to travel from Poole to King’s Lynn as a car passenger rather than as I had intended doing so by public transport, and it also meant with a lot of waiting around.
A SMOOTH FERRY JOURNEY AND A SLOW CAR JOURNEY
Once we were aboard the ferry an ensconced in our seats the journey was smooth and comfortable. Poole Harbour is one of the largest natural harbours in the world, meaning that there is plenty to be seen as the boat approaches land.
The journey from Poole to King’s Lynn was slow, and it was well past 11PM by the time I got home.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are my pictures from that final day…
Channel Islands 14: Iron Age Burial Chamber
Continuing my account of my holiday in the channel islands with a look at Le Dehus Dolmen.
My account of my holiday in the Channel Islands has reached the final full day we spent on Guernsey.
LE DEHUS DOLMEN
Not relishing a shopping trip on the Friday morning I stayed at the hotel and caught up with my photo editing. Lunch was a picnic which we consumed in my parent’s room at that establishment. From there we set off for our last excursion of the holiday, taking a bus to the nearest point to our target that we could get to and then seeking out Le Dehus Dolmen, an ancient but very well preserved burial mound/chamber. It is not terribly well signposted and we had a couple of false starts, but we did locate it, and it was worth all the trouble (plus we saw some interesting stuff while locating it). We walked back to a point where there would be more buses, and arrived their literally at the same time as a bus heading for St Peter Port, so the return journey was pretty straightforward.
Channel Islands 13: Occupation Museum Part Two
Continuing my account of my holiday in the channel islands by completing the story of the German Occupation Museum.
This post continues my account of my recent holiday in the channel islands. It is the second post that I dedicate to the German Occupation Museum on Guernsey.
OCCUPATION STRASSE
The main part of what is left of the museum after what I covered in the previous post is Occupation Strasse. This is a reconstruction of a Guernsey street as it was during the period of the occupation. I also bought a couple of sets of Guernsey stamps of the period as souvenirs, and we all had some refreshments from the cafe. There is a bus stop close to the museum and Guernsey has an excellent bus system, so getting back to St Peter Port was not difficult.
Here is a map showing Guernsey’s bus network:
Channel Islands 12: Occupation Museum Part One
Continuing my account of my holiday in the channel islands with the first of two posts about the occupation museum.
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in the channel islands. This is the first post about the museum dedicated to the German occupation of Guernsey between 1940 and 1945.
THE OPENING VIDEO
The museum experience starts with a video about the occupation, which is well worth watching. There are then a set of rooms full of exhibits and then separated from them by the cafe is ‘Occupation Strasse’ – a reconstruction of a street in the time of the occupation. The short video sets the scene very nicely.
A LARGE COLLECTION OF GERMAN MILITARIA
The first exhibits are large quantities of German militaria. This stuff was all genuine (I work for an auctioneer, and German military is notorious for featuring a heavy preponderance of fakes, some convincing and others utterly blatant – I would go so far as to say that if you see German militaria listed in an auction catalogue regard it as fake until and unless proved otherwise).
Channel Islands 11: Little Chapel
Today’s post looks at a serendipitous find en route to the Occupation Museum.
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in the channel islands. This post is, as the place itself was, on the way to a much more significant attraction.
SERENDIPITY
Serendipity is a word that refers to happy developments that come about by chance. It comes from the mythical island of Serendip, also rendered variously as Serendib and Sarandib, visited by Sindbad the Sailor on one of his voyages. The island most commonly equated with Sindbad’s Serendip is Sri Lanka. Our visit to the Little Chapel was a perfect example of serendipity – we were in a cab heading towards the Occupation Museum when we passed the sign for the little chapel. Once we had established that we would be able to walk from there to the museum we decided to visit the chapel.
THE LITTLE CHAPEL
The Little Chapel is indeed a little building, but there is far more inside than you would ever guess from the outside.
Here is my full gallery…
Channel Islands 10: Farewell to Alderney
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in the channel islands. This post finishes the Alderney segment.
THE FINAL FULL DAY ON ALDERNEY
The final full day on Alderney ended up being a very quiet one – the events of Wednesday, covered in the seventh and eighth posts in this series, had taken a lot out of me and I was not up to the walk to the nearest point from which I could have looked at the gannet colony.
THE BOAT BACK TO GUERNSEY
Our boat back to Guernsey was leaving at 8AM on the Friday, so we had a taxi booked to pick us up from the fort at 7:30AM that morning. The voyage back was rougher than the voyage out had been, and we were all pretty relieved when we alighted on Guernsey.
I end this post with a final look at Fort Clonque…
Channel Islands 9: The Birds of Alderney
Continuing my account of my recent holiday in the channel islands with a special post dedicated to the birds of Alderney.
I continue my account of my recent visit to the channel islands with a special post dedicated to the birds of Alderney (the island is justly famed for its bird life).
TWO MISSES
It was too early in the year for boat trips to be running to the island of Burhou, just off the coast of Alderney to the north, and home to puffins (it has no human residents at all), and Wednesday took so much out of me that on the Thursday I was unable to face to fairly steep and fairly rough path that would have started the walk towards a point from which I could view the gannet colony. Here a few maps…
THE BIRDS I DID SEE
Although I missed two great ornithological sites for different reasons, I still saw a fine range of birds during my few days on Alderney…
I end this little post with a view of Fort Clonque:
Channel Islands 8: Exploring Alderney – Roman Fort and Home
Continuing my account of my holiday in the channel islands. The main feature of today’s post is Alderney’s Roman Fort.
Welcome to the latest installment in my series about my recent holiday in the channel islands. Today we look at the second half of Wednesday’s explorations.
THE ROMAN FORT
The Roman fort is well preserved although there is also a considerable amount of stuff there relating to the German occupation. Admission is free, and there is a detailed plan just inside. Why only one Roman fort when the Victorians deemed the island worthy of 18? The Romans controlled the English Channel in its entirety, so no hostile power could have used these any of these islands as a base from which to attack them – the main danger to Rome would have been pirates looking to base fleets there.
THE REST OF THE WALK
We now headed back on a long circuit towards Braye. We saw some more forts, and when we hit a road once again a taxi was called, four of the five of us electing to get home that way while my sister chose to keep walking. Before I share a general gallery, this is the image that now forms my desktop background:
Now for the general gallery…
Now it is time to sign off with a view of Fort Clonque:
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