Author: Thomas

I am a founder member and currently secretary of the West Norfolk Autism Group and am autistic myself. I am a very keen photographer and almost every blog post I produce will feature some of my own photographs. I am an avidly keen cricket fan and often post about that sport.

Saturday Scattergun

A pot-pourri of a post in which you can read a great story from Paula Peters of DPAC, an account of England’s win in the World T20, find a petition to sign and share and link to the latest post on my website.

INTRODUCTION

I have a few new pictures to share, a few good links to share, a good news story that has already had considerable attention but is so great I just have to share it (it will also be going on my London transport themed website for reasons that will become obvious) and news of today’s game in the World T20.

A GREAT STORY FROM PAULA PETERS

PP

ENGLAND DO IT THE HARD WAY

England lost the toss and were put in by Sri  Lanka in today’s all-or-nothing game in the World T20. A magnificent innings by Jos Buttler (66 off 37 balls) boosted England’s total to an adequate 170. It looked even better when Sri Lanka were 25-4 in the sixth over of the reply, but this England team never seem to do things the easy way. With Angelo Matthews blazing away, Sri Lanka got back into the contest and at times looked like they could do it. Then, with 15 needed off the final over, Ben Stokes who had earlier hit the last ball of the England innings for 6 (the only ball he faced as well!) and taken a fine catch, kept a cool head, and remarkably conceded just four off that over to finish with 0-19 from his four overs. Thus England won by four runs, and will face New Zealand in the semi-final, at the same ground and on the same day as the England women take on Australia in their semi-final.

LINKS

Just a couple of links today:

  • A petition launched by Jo Rust to save King’s Lynn’s Citizens Advice Bureau. Please click here, and sign and share Jo’s petition.
  • A link to the most recent post on my London transport themed website, which deals with St Albans and St Albans Abbey.

THE PICTURES

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Seven (count ’em) boats moored at the jetty today.

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Jailbird! Actually of course this is an ordinary fence and it just looks like the bird is behind bars.

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This map con be seen outside King’s Lynn train station.
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These last three pics featured in my St Albans website post

SAASt Albans Connection

 

Heritage railways: Nearly a very nasty train crash

This excellent piece by David Hencke calls for no further comment on my part…

davidhencke's avatarWestminster Confidential

steam locomotive tangmere Tangemere – the steam locomotive involved in the ” near miss” train crash. Pic credit: Wikipedia

CROSS POSTED ON BY-LINE.COM

The nostalgia for the age of steam has been turned into a profitable business. Rail trips using historic steam locomotives are very popular at holiday times. I enjoy them myself. They are not cheap but then safety standards for the travelling public need to be very high and it costs a lot of money to maintain steam locomotives.

Last year on one of these trips there was nearly a catastrophic train crash.  A steam special from Bristol run by West Coast Railways overshot a red light at Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire coming to rest on the South Wales main line only a minute after a 125  First Great Western express to Paddington had passed by. Some 750 people were on both trains. The inspector’s  damning report is here.

I am…

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An account of the Westminster Lobby Protest on 23rd March by Paula Peters

Please read and share this wonderful piece about yesterday’s events in Parliament by Paula Peters..

Would like to add some things from yesterday’s action of parliament by disabled people and their supporters yesterday.

The first one is this: Yesterday action was not a rally, it was not a protest. It was an occupation a direct action, an act of civil disobedience in direct defiance of the way the conservative government are treating disabled people and denying them their basic human rights….

Source: An account of the Westminster Lobby Protest on 23rd March by Paula Peters

A Good Day for Birds

An account of a walk that was dominated by sightings of birds.

INTRODUCTION

I have been out walking again today. The temperature has risen sufficiently of late that I was able to do so without donning a coat (until a few weeks ago, one’s thickest coat was absolutely mandatory for venturing outside).

PART 1: HOME TO HARDINGS PITS

I set off as so often by following the Purfleet to the Great Ouse. The Lower Purfleet provided me with the first ducklings of 2016…

The river was at fairly low tide, so plenty of mud was exposed, which is clearly what attracted this bird (bear in mind that I was shooting across the Great Ouse, as I was walking along the east bank of the river while the bird was prospecting the mud on the west side)…

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The long bill tells me that this one digs for food
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My second effort.

Leaving the river bank to skirt round old Boal Quay I bagged a couple of long range shots of a cormorant with wings extended and a closer up shot of a magpie…

It was just before leaving the river that I bagged my second new species of the day (not dissimilar in size and shape to the first, but different colouring and a different type of bill)…

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As with my first new species I was capturing these from the opposite side of the Great Ouse.

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My last shots of this section feature some Caspian gulls, and a couple of non-avian pics…

PART TWO: HARDINGS PITS TO
GAYWOOD & THE ROOKERY

This was, as expected the least notable part of the walk, but I did get some photographs…

PART THREE: GAYWOOD & THE ROOKERY

Just a few photographs of this little patch of woodland for you…

HOMEWARD BOUND

I headed back the way I had not come, and was rewarded by my third new species of the day…

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Three shots starting with this one.
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A better effort
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My best effort. I felt that the feature image should be one of the newbies and chose this.

During the last few moments of the walk I bagged a few more shots of some older acquaintances…

 

A Roamin’ Walk through Roman St Albans

In due course I will be using this walk in a piece about St Albans on my London transport themed website, www.londontu.be but for now, enjoy…

St Alban’s is first recorded as a Celtic British Iron Age settlement, known as Verlamion.  After the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, it grew into Verlamium, the third largest town in Roma…

Source: A Roamin’ Walk through Roman St Albans

Manor House (From londontu.be)

A link to my latest post on http://www.londontu.be

INTRODUCTION

I am giving you a link to my latest post on http://www.londontu.be, and two extracts. Please note that the original contains lots of pictures.

AN EXCITING DEVELOPMENT AND A SUGGESTED NAME CHANGE

While on twitter I spotted a tweet about a development called Woodberry Wetlands and being impressed by what I saw decided to do some digging. I soon established that the site is practically next door to Manor House station, and it did not take much longer, having located anofficial website to decide that this was something entirely worthy of my support – cherishing nature while being deep within the capital city. For those who (like me) do twitter, they have a presence there too…

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My second extract is….

 

A SUGGESTED NAME CHANGE

There is historical precedence for name changes on the Piccadiilly line – the name of Gillespie Road station was changed to Arsenal at the request of the club’s then general manager Herbert Chapman. I respectfully suggest that this project outweighs a mere football club in importance and that TFL would be well advised to at least consider changing the name of Manor House station to Woodberry Wetlands (effective from May 1st)….

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