NAS West Norfolk 10th Anniversary Celebrations

A personal account of NAS West Norfolk’s 10th anniversary celebration garden party.

INTRODUCTION

Yesterday saw the celebration of NAS West Norfolk’s tenth anniversary. We had a garden party in a quite magnificent garden in Castle Acre which we had been very generously allowed to use for the occasion. Here as a reminder is the poster we used to advertise the event:

MY ROLE IN THE CELEBRATIONS

As branch secretary of NAS West Norfolk I was involved in running the event – I helped to set things up at the start and with the clear up at the end. As an autistic person I was also delighted to take part in the event in between times.

THE GARDENS

These gardens are truly amazing – this is where the original fortified village that adjoins the castle was located, and at one point there is a steeply sloped bank that leads down to a section of the old town moat. There are some amazing plants and grasses in these gardens, some excellent garden sculptures, a pond with ducks of various breeds and dragonflies around it, many fowl which run free and a swimming pool the excellence of which I can personally vouch for having spent an hour there. Near the pond is a summerhouse which was our designated Quiet Area (an absolute necessity at events for autistic people, or if you want autistic people being comfortable attending your event). There was also a house that was open to the public in which cakes (some baked by our wonderful hosts and some by members of our group), raffle prizes and such were set up.

The hosts had provided a few games for us, and one of our members brought along a swingball set as well.

THE DAY

Once the set up had been accomplished there was plenty of time to enjoy the day, and it went excellently. For me the magnificent setting was one half of a superb equation, the other being autistic people enjoying themselves without worrying what anyone else was thinking because everyone present had some sort of connection to autism, and therefore some degree of understanding. Everyone present was at least at the ‘Understanding’ stage of the Awareness-Understanding-Acceptance-Appreciation line. I was regularly taking photographs except for the hour I spent in the swimming pool and we had a photographer from Your Local Paper present as well. The raffle prizes were presented by the Mayor of King’s Lynn.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my photographs from the day…

Moat — The bank leading down to a section of the old town moat – an entangled bank worthy of the closing words of On The Origin of Species.

Butterfly — The only one of many beautiful butterflies that I was able to capture.

decorative brickwork2 — Half of this brickwork Tudor Rose has disappeared.

Watering can — A watering can sculpture (it is huge – one could not actually use iut.

big bird2 — I saw this bird early on, but it kept itself to itself later in the day.

Dovecote — What used to be the dovecote – the brick nesting boxes are still in place.

summerhouse — The designated Quiet Area.

Dark den — Inside the summerhouse we assembled the Dark Den – the framework is a little like Quadro except with that the plastic tubes have a smaller diameter. Initially we had failed to notice that the tubes have to go through the tenting, so we took longer to get this assembled than we should.

Dark den interior1 — An interior shot – once I pulled the second door flap at the back into place and someone else had added a blanket to soften the base it was ready for use.

wire ducks2 — wire ducks – there were also wire sheep near the pool.

Note of Warning to Autistics (via Nico Ian Nicholson)| Problematic Authors Seeking Interviews on Intersection of Queer/Trans and Autistic Identities

A warning about two people not to be co-operated with (nb I have a long record of assisting with autism related research, and as some of you will recall recently spoke to my local radio station – I am not remotely disinclined to co-operate with those who deserve it)…

International Badass Activists

ATTENTION AUTISTIC/ND FOLK! Read this carefully. This is important.

Eva Mendes, MA, LMHC and Meredith Maroney, MS are contacting Autistic people, particularly LGBTQ+ and racialized Autistics, and asking them to participate in interviews for an upcoming book project to be published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

The email will state that the book is about the intersection of queer/trans and autistic identities, and any accounts included will be anonymous.

Mendes is particularly problematic because of her book, “Marriage and Lasting Relationships with Asperger’s Syndrome.” It contains a great deal of pathology-based language, including “theory of mind” and “emotional intelligence” nonsense that suggests that Autistic people in relationships must be the ones to change.

RECOMMENDATION: Refuse to participate. And PLEASE SHARE WIDELY, especially with LGBTQ+, POC, and racialized Autistic people. — Nico Ian Nicholson

Please-share

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Note of Warning To Autistic Community (via Nick Walker) | Anti-Autistic, Anti-Neurodiversity Documentary Alert

A warning about an upcoming documentary – please visit original post, read in full, comment an d share…

International Badass Activists

Dear Autistic Community & Allies: John Donvan & Caren Zucker, authors of the book “In a Different Key” – a book that promotes anti-autistic bigotry and abuse of autistic children, and deliberately smears and misrepresents the neurodiversity movement – are making a documentary film which they claim is “about the neurodiversity movement.”

Obviously, this is going to be another anti-autistic, anti-neurodiversity hit piece. If you’re pro-neurodiversity and you allow them to interview you for this film, you can bet the footage will be edited and presented in a way that misrepresents you and makes you look bad, just like they did to Ari Ne’emanand others in their book.

Best thing would probably be if all of us just completely refused to talk to them or be filmed by them.

Please share this information freely in the community – there are plenty of people in the neurodiversity movement with…

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EXCLUSIVE #Disability Discrimination means Son is removed from Home?

This is a story that needs to be read and shared…

jaynelinney

The following true tale is the introduction into what will be a series of posts regarding a seeming miscarriage of justice and potential disability discrimination; names have been changed to protect the identities of these involved. The purpose of this post is to help the family concerned achieve real justice; please share as widely as possible.

Alison is a single parent of14 year old Adam, both live with various diagnosed and pending diagnosis health disorders including Fibromyalgia and Elhers Danos; Alison is also Autistic and symptoms suggest Adam is as well.

Due to Adams health, he found it difficult to cope with school from the beginning and despite special educational needs intervention, including one to one lessons he struggled experiencing bullying which resulted in him developing depression. These experiences became worse during Adams transition from junior to senior school, so much so that in 2015, Alison began to home educate…

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Monday Madness 3: Mainly Autism

Some autism related links, and some photos from Musical Keys.

INTRODUCTION

As NAS West Norfolk branch secretary and an #actuallyautistic person I always like to share good stuff about autism. I am including within this a piece that is not directly about autism but relates to many of the issues that autistic people highlight.

AN ERIN HUMAN INFOGRAPHIC

This piece from erinhuman.com titled “Disability 101: Medical Model vs Social Model” features a really excellent infographic, reproduced below:

AN OLD FAVOURITE AND A NEW FIND

Laina over at thesilentwaveblog has, as she so often does, hit the nail smack on the head with a piece titled “Depathologizing Asperger’s / autism ~ The strength vs ‘lacking’ edition” The feature graphic is below:

Laina is the old favourite of the title of this section, while the new find, brought to my attention by Eve Hinson of americanbadassadvocates, is Michelle Sutton of michellesuttonwrites whose recent piece titled “THE LANGUAGE OF IDENTITY, OR “I AM NOT AN AUTISM PARENT”” I heartily recommend.

PHOTOGRAPHS

These photographs were taken at Muscial Keys on Saturday, which I am involved in due to my association with NAS West Norfolk.

Screen — The first three screens show the things I have built up involving each of my three sprites

Screen4 — This focusses on the backdrop itself…

Screen5 — And not long later I had created functions for this screen that meant that every button I could assign an individual function now did something.

Screen6 — Close up of backdrop and sprites.

A Variety Post

A mixed bag of a post, featuring local politics, libraries, autism, science, nature and photography.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this post in three parts. I am going to start by mentioning a local election that took place in my area today and in which I voted, then I will be mentioning an event that will be taking place at Gaywood Library (one of four such establishments in Norfolk that I visit at least semi-regularly) and I will finish up with some links to do with nature which will lead naturally to some of my photographs.

A FORCED BY-ELECTION

The election in which I voted today happened due to the laziness and arrogance of the incumbent councillor, who in spite of living just across the road from the Town Hall never attended meetings.

Four candidates were in the contest, in alphabetical order:

Rob Archer of the Green Party
Francis Bone of the Labour Party
Helen Russell-Johnson of the Liberal Democrats
Mike Taylor of the Conservative Party

In the ordinary course of events my inclination, especially given that the displaced councillor had been from the Labour Party would have been to vote for Mr Archer. However, the Liberal Democrat candidate happens to be my aunt. Therefore I voted for her.

I have started this post by covering this election for two reasons:

I want to make it clear to the Liberal Democrats that I voted for my aunt IN SPITE of the fact that she was representing them not because of it.
Also, just in case Mr Archer happens to be reading this, I hope he will take it as both explanation and apology for not having voted for him on this occasion.

I conclude this section of the post with a picture of my Political Compass certificate (it is free and does not very long to answer the questions which are used to assign your score):

THE GAYWOOD LIBRARY EVENT

The event at Gaywood Library is a Business Evening at which I hope it will be possible to raise the subject of the Autism Hour, one of the National Autistic Society’s recent initiatives. I have already confirmed that I will be in attendance. Here are a couple of pictures to end this section:

SOME NATURE PIECES

My nature links naturally divide into three segments, with a few photographs of my own forming a fourth. We will start with…

A NEW DINOSAUR FIND

This story courtesy of scienmag.com is about a dinosaur that has been named Albertavenator Curriei (“Currie’s Alberta Hunter”, named in honour of Canadian paleontologist Dr Philip J Currie). Below is a representation of this creature by Oliver Demuth:

: Credit: Illustrated by Oliver Demuth. © Oliver Demuth

OPPOSITION TO TROPHY HUNTING

Stan Kroenke, current owner of Arsenal Football Club, has just launched a new TV channel devoted to blood sports. I have two links to share, and some words for Arsenal fans at the end:

A Guardian piece titled “Trophy hunting is vile. Stan Kroenke’s TV channel must be banned” which gives full detail on this.
A change.org petition aimed at the sponsors of Arsenal Football Club asking them to withdraw support and so help force Kroenke out, screenshot below:

For ordinary Arsenal fans my suggestions are simple – boycott all home matches until Kroenke goes, and if you are a season ticket holder return your ticket and demand a full refund, making it clear that you will return if and only if Kroenke is no longer involved with the club.

MORE ON THE FIGHT TO PROTECT TROSA NATURE

This morning I reblogged Part 4 of Anna’s series of “Paradise on Earth” posts highlighting the wildlife that can be seen around Trosa and the Tureholm Peninsula. Since then she has added yet another post to that series, and I include links below:

Part 4, concentrating on birds including the Osprey shown below.
Part 5, also dedicated to birds. I have chosen as my sample image a Linnet.

Finally, to end this section, and the post as a whole we have some of…

SOME OF MY LOCAL NATURE THEMED PICTURES

Little Egret 1 — I close this post by revisiting the Little Egret.

Autism Infographics and Some Photographs

A couple of classic autism infographics I spotted in the last 24 hours and some photographs of my own.

INTRODUCTION

The photographs which will be appearing in two tranches at the end of this post are mine, all taken yesterday. The two autism related infographics are shared from elsewhere (credit given at appropriate points). I saw the first of these yesterday evening and the second this morning.

AUTISM INFOGRAPHICS

First, courtesy of Patricia, who tweets as @pgzwicker, comes this gem:

The second was originally posted on Our Autism Blog this morning, and I link to that post so that you can comment on it there should you wish:

PHOTOGRAPHS

The first of the two sets of my photographs that I am putting up here were taken while out walking yesterday morning:

A giant slug on the path alongside Bawsey Drain

Moorhen — A moorhen swimming in a clear pool

Moorhen and lilies — This second pool was covered in water lilies.

white duck — A town centre section of the Gaywood River

Moorhens and algae — In the parkland area – this stretch of river is covered in algae.

Magpie — A magpie on the path alongside the Great Ouse

Cormorants — Near the end of the walk – some shots of cormorants and boats on the town centre section of the Great Ouse.

The last few pictures for today were taken yesterday afternoon while sitting outside my parents house in East Rudham. These are probably the last shots I will have from there as my parents are moving to Plymouth.

Giving a Radio Interview

A post focussing on me giving a radio interview. Some mention of a roller-skating session and of the current test-match. And of course some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

The title part of this post refers to one of the things I did yesterday. I also have some pictures to share.

AN AUTISM CENTRED MORNING

Of course, as branch secretary of the National Autistic Society’s West Norfolk branch and an #actuallyautistic person there is a way in which autism is always at the heart of what I do. After three days carrying out my concatenation of roles at a James and Sons auction (operator of the system that enables us to take online bids, database administrator, query fielder, in-house ‘Gordianus’, occasional customer service person – see here for a full account) I had a day on which my only preset commitment was to supervise a roller-skating session at Lynnsport between 11 and 12. In the absence of direct confirmation of a time that would be convenient to speak to Ashleigh at KLFM 96.7 (our local radio station) about our upcoming 10th anniversary I decided that I would set off early for Lynnsport and see if I could speak to her on the way or as a fall-back arrange to call in on my way back.

Ashleigh was able to fit me in straight away, and the interview went well (she will be sending me both a recording and an online article that will accompany the actual broadcast), and I left for Lynnsport with my spirits high – I had helped myself, advertised our upcoming 10th anniversary event and due its connection with the foregoing also made mention of our gardening grant and the allotment on Ferry Lane + plans for a sensory garden in part of the plot. It is because of this gardening stuff that we gained the use of the magnificent garden where our 10th anniversary celebration will be held.

The roller-skating passed without incident and I was able to listen to some of the action from the third test-match (even assuming I had both the ability and the willingness to pay the Biased Bull****ting Conservatives £150 per year I would choose to follow cricket by listening to radio commentaries rather than watching on TV). Yesterday was truncated by rain, but England have had a good day today – first reaching 353 largely thanks to a magnificent innings from Stokes and now bagging a South African wicket before tea – debutant Toby Roland-Jones breaking through.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Pot — Being vertical sided these pots should not blow over in the wind (there were two of them).

BP1 — The first of two shots showing James and Sons’ tray of Beatrix Potter coins

Victoria heads — I don;t know what the original purpose of this object was, but it has been a feature of James and Sons longer than I have!

Bee2 — Wild marjoram is useful as a herb, as well playing a vital role as a plant that bees just love .

Public Libraries 150 — My public libraries display.

Coming Up: NAS West Norfolk 10th Anniversary

Some details of the evnt planned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of NAS West Norfolk.

INTRODUCTION

Both the poster, and the facebook event that I have screenshotted and linked to are the work of NAS West Norfolk vice-chair Rachel Meerwald. Something about this may well be going out on our local radio station – I am at least half-expecting to visit them on Blackfriars Street this Thursday for that purpose (I am as my regular followers will be aware both branch secretary and #actuallyautistic).

POSTER AND FACEBOOK EVENT

I will start with the poster:

The facebook event is more detailed, and hence required two screenshots. A left-click or its equivalent will take you to the event in question, while a right-click or equivalent will enable you among other things to view the images individually and at full size:

Autism 101

This infographic by Erin Human is really excellent – I urge you to study it and then share it. This is Erin’s work, so if you wish to comment you must do so on the original.

Autism 101

a simple neurodiversity-based explanation
[image of head with brain]

what is autism?

Autism is type of brain wiring (neurological type) that processes information differently than typical brains do.
[image of head with abstract wiring pattern]

This means that autistic thought patterns, sensory perceptions, social interactions, language processing, and emotional regulation all develop differently than those of people who are not autistic.

Modern societies operate in ways that often disadvantage autistic people, which makes autism a developmental disability.

who is autistic?

[image of globe]
About 1-2% of the world’s population is autistic.
Many populations are under-diagnosed, but autistic people are everywhere!

[image of birthday cake]
People of all ages are autistic.
Though people usually talk about autistic children, autistic adults need support too.

[image of three people with varying skin tones and hairstyles]
Autistic people are found across all genders, races, and nationalities.
Boys are diagnosed more often than…

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