Uncategorized – Page 63

Spring is Here

Before I get to the main meat of this post I have some links to share.

LINKS

First of all, here is a very interesting and important blog post from Paddy-Joe Moran. Next, courtesy of 38 degrees comes a short video. Cosmos Up produces a variety of interesting stories about a wide range of subjects, and the one I have chosen to share concerns oceans elsewhere than on our own planet. There are actually two outcomes that will be decided by a votes counted up on May 7th, the second being the vote for Britain’s national bird (my choice is pictured below)

My next story comes from the Independent and concerns tougher penalties for dog walkers who do not scoop when the animal poops – excellent so long as the get enforced – see if you agree by reading the article. This section ends with a splendid graphic, which is shown here, but as it is not my own I have also included a link to the original.

SPRING

Today, for the first time in 2015, I am making use of the ‘outside study area’ of my flat…

A close up of the picture on my outside table - still in good condition after a winter outside. — A close up of the picture on my outside table – still in good condition after a winter outside.

The cricket season is under way, although England are in the West Indies for a series starting later this afternoon. A certain K P Pietersen started his season for Surrey by hammering 170 at The Parks yesterday. I suspect that it will take several more innings of similar magnitude before the England selectors display any inclination to take the slightest bit of notice of him.

The comparison between yesterday and today is shown up well by these pictures taken along the same stretch of the Great Ouse…

The next four pictures you will see were taken yesterday.

The next three pictures were taken today.

I have some more splendid pics to share with you to finish this post…

The survey boat the features in the next three pictures was around yesterday.

If you enjoyed this blog post please share it.

An Important Petition and A Great Blog Post

This going to be a very brief post, but there are two things that I feel I must share with you.

Philip Morris, the tobacco giants, have launched a lawsuit against the Uruguayan government in an attempt to overthrow that country’s anti-smoking legislation. There is a petition up and running gaining support for Uruguay in this case, courtesy of the campaigning organisation Avaaz. Please sign and share widely.

The second thing I wish to draw your attention to is one of the best posts I have ever read regarding Autism. It uses a series of films which I have never actually watched to make its point. This post comes from Autism Mom.

Gulls perched on a severely pollarded tree.

If you enjoyed this post please take the opportunity to share it widely.

The meeting of the Nar and Ouse under a Walter Dexter sky.

Thursday and Friday

On Thursday, the printed catalogues for James and Sons next auction got to the shop. Here is a cover shot…

Catalogue Cover 001

A full catalogue can be viewed online by following this link.

As well as producing images to resolve queries, I imaged a couple of lots that had not previously been done.This gave me some good pictures to choose from…

This is the first image for lot 452, which needed 18 images in total.

The relevant detail from the front cover

This is one of the ten maps mentioned on the front cover.

Lot 497 was a box full of stamps and postal history items. I have included only the small high quality bits in this blog.

This vast collection of buttons was hard to do anything approaching justice to, so it was no surprise to get a query about it them. This was the main image I produced in response.

I then produced a close up shot of some of the finest items in the collection.

The label on this toy was just one thing that was requested in addition to the original image.

One of the two new images I produced to show the toy in its full glory.

The bus journey home that day was not a good one (n.b. Norfolk Green usually provide an excellent service – stories like this are very much the exception) since the engine of the bus were on overheated and shut down. Since were on Queen Elizabeth Way, in between Knight’s Hill and the hospital, the driver tried to keep it going to reach the hospital where we could pick up other buses into town. Sadly, he was not able to achieve this, and we had to wait within sight of the hospital for a replacement bus to pick us up, while the driver of the original then had to wait for a maintenance vehicle to arrive and tow his bus to the depot (I presume). Opposite Gaywood Tesco, someone having failed to spot that the destination board on the front of the bus said “PRIVATE HIRE” by way of indicating that it was not picking up tried to get on and had to be told twice that this bus was not picking up. Meanwhile, to put in perspective how unimpressive it was for someone who was not apparently incapacitated in any way to want to get a bus in to town from there, one passenger (’twas I) had decided that as it was bright and sunny outside he was going to walk the rest of the way to the town centre.

After attending to matters at Nelson Street, I got some close up pics of decorated windows at King’s Lynn Minster…

Friday featured both some imaging to resolve queries relating to the April auction and starting to image for the May auction. It also featured in a big way one of other regular duties, that of porter. I have some good images to share, including a map from just outside Fakenham Library…

However, I did get away early owing to the fact that none of the people who had keys could stay on beyond 3 o’clock. The bus home did this time survive the journey. Queen Elizabeth Way was slow again, but this time that was caused by nose to tail traffic, and the bus was stationary long enough for me to snag two excellent shots of the ruins of Bawsey Abbey…

Autism Research

Having signed up to participate in another research project relating to Autism I had to visit Cambridge today to perform some tasks at the Autism Research Centre on Trumptington Road…

This particular study was devoted to assessing how people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions respond to visual stimuli. Apart from the final exercise, which was identifying the odd one out from sets of four pictures, some of which were very tough, it was not too difficult. If you are interested in Autism, are able to travel to Cambridge and would like to take part in this study you can contact Rose Cooper by emailing rahc2@cam.ac.uk.

Both on the way there and on the way back I got some good pictures…

Metal plaques like this adorn the ground around the bus stops outside Cambridge station.

Sculpture at one corner of Brooklands Avenue

The two towers of Ely Cathedral, homeward journey.

The nearest i came to getting a complete picture of Ely Cathedral.

North Norfolk Walk Part 2

This is my third and final post relating to Easter Sunday. The first, concerned specifically with the North Norfolk Railway can be viewed here while the second, dealing with the walk as a whole from its start at the Sheringham Park Visitors Centre to Weybourne can be viewed here.

After leaving Weybourne we had a very nice stretch of walking along the Norfolk Coast Path, where at points the erosion caused by the remorseless battering of the North Sea was clearly going to be forcing the path further inland in the not too distant future. Here are some pictures from this coastal stretch…

Four birds, and each one a different species.

Did this warning sign have potential Darwin Award winners in mind?!

Turning inland, we crossed back over the railway, and then a main road, before having a much more open walk back up from the coast towards the Visitors centre. Near the end there was a significant climb (yes, even in Norfolk such a thing is possible), before getting back to the car. The photographic tale of the final leg of the walk…

Here for the record is the walk as publicised in The Times.

Banknotes Press Release

Before I get into the main meat of this blog, here is an important and interesting piece from Tom Pride, political blogger and satirist.

Given that banknotes played a starring role in James and Sons last auction on March 26th, and that those notes were part of a very large collection, the second and third parts of which will be sold on April 29th and May 27th, it was inevitable that a press release focussing on banknotes would be required, and yesterday was the day I sent it out. The official post on the James and Sons website can be viewed by clicking here and has already been widely shared on twitter. Meantime, here is the press release itself in both word and jpg form…

Banknotes Reach High Prices at Norwich Auction

Also yesterday I had to produce some images of a new donation for the Great Charity Centenary Auction, some of which I now share…

These five shots are of the same item, in two different settings and with various degrees of editing.

Also yesterday I dealt with some of the very few items for the April auction that have yet to be imaged. A full catalogue for this auction is available for viewing by clicking here. Here are the highlights from the lots I imaged yesterday…

North Norfolk Walk (Part 1)

On Easter Sunday, enabled by the fact that I was staying with my parents overnight rather than returning to King’s Lynn we decided to do a walk recommended in The Times, and have our main meal in the evening. Here for reference is what they provided:

Sheringham Park, where the walk starts and finishes, is a National Trust property, and as such as is very informatively signposted. Here are the information boards from the start of the walk…

Straight after these was an interesting tree…

After this, we passed a turn off to The Bower, with a story board, and then walked through woods for a while…

This clump of flowers was hard to do full justice to because the flowers themselves do not have a lot of colour.

The sign that we had reached the end of the wooded section - horses grazing in an open field. — The sign that we had reached the end of the wooded section – horses grazing in an open field.

Just in to the open section came Weybourne, and a chance to watch the North Norfolk Railway in action, which I have already covered in detail here and therefore will skip over.

I will leave you for the moment with some glimpses of the village of Weybourne, before covering the rest of the walk in another post later…

The North Norfolk Railway.

Yesterday, because I was staying over with my parents rather than trying to travel back to Lynn on Easter Sunday, we were able to have our main meal in the evening, which in turn meant that we could do a proper walk in the day. The Times had a feature advertising a number of good walks, one of which happens to be in Norfolk…

Walk 001 I will be doing a post about the whole walk with a link back to this post later, but for the moment I will focus on the star attraction of the walk, a chance to look at the North Norfolk Railway in full flow. Our first glimpses of what was in store were these…

We arrived in the vicinity of Weybourne Station at about 1PM and discovered that two trains (one in each direction) were expected within the next ten minutes. Naturally therefore we waited, and in preparation for the main event I gathered some photographs at the station…

DSCN3180 The trains themselves did not disappoint. As a fan of Edward Marston I could picture Colbeck and Leeming emerging from one of the carriages to investigate one of their cases! Having got some excellent shots from platform level, we watched the second train leave from the bridge across the line…

DSCN3203 At this point we left the station to continue our walk, but there were a couple more blasts from the past to come. First, one hour after leaving the station we witnessed this…

Finally, because my mother had bought a heavy book, we called back at Weybourne on our way home to pick it up, and I got some pictures from the car park…

I will conclude by thanking the volunteers who run this wonderful glimpse back into our past and reminding you that in due course I shall be blogging about the walk as a whole.

The Last of the April Imaging and Some Cool Links

Because yesterday was a public holiday the bus company were running a Sunday service, and because yesterday was a Friday it was a working day for me. Therefore, I got the first bus of the morning (the 9:25) to Fakenham and was able, all the essential work having been accomplished, to get home on the 15:35. Before I move on to details of the imaging I was doing, I have a fabulous selection of links for you to follow.

LINKS

http://tomdlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/a-radical-and-practical-proposal-to.html?spref=tw

http://www.nhsforsale.info/#

http://www.nhsforsale.info/share#prettyPhoto

http://linkis.com/wordpress.com/DIOYq

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CBnIQZ9WIAER4l1.png

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CBnMSxWXIAEICpX.png

https://twitter.com/FHUKPolitics/status/583740340865105921/photo/1

http://www.blog.rippedoffbritons.com/2012/02/why-we-should-be-business-friendly-and.html?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CBpIl6hVIAEJVZf.png

https://o.twimg.com/2/proxy.jpg?t=HBh3aHR0cDovL21lZGlhLnNuYXBweXR2LmNvbS9pbWFnZS9sZDM2MHAvODg0cDg4NC8yMDE1LTA0LTAyVDIwLTE2LTMwLjc2N1otLTY0MHgzNjAuanBnP2g9YmFjMTU4ZGI4Yzc0YzZkYThlYWU3NGFiYTdhODk2OGYUwAcUnAQAFgASAA&s=m1I_nwZbKTeS_rYUKHFmHvp3ynwe8mGT8Rs_O7_ZVGA Natalie Bennett gives David Cameron an epic tell off.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CBnOaECUgAAv0WY.png

http://london.autismshow.co.uk/whats/autism-matters-theatre/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/general-election-tv-debates-a-battleground-for-david-cameron-and-ed-miliband-but-poll-declares-snp-leader-nicola-sturgeon-the-winner-10153574.html

https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote The site you need to visit if you have not yet registered to vote.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/02/how-should-we-illustrate-mental-health?CMP=share_btn_tw An excellent article about portrayal of mental health.

https://rosslydall.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/response_ealing_midwives_final_15-02-12.pdf An example of impenetrable English.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIrIafHhwEw&feature=youtu.be A talk given by the philosopher Daniel Dennett

https://www.facebook.com/GARRYBURGE.AS/posts/905120682883248 An excellent idea for improving the support available to autistic kids in Australian schools (I reckon we could use it in this country as well).

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CBnTTPlW0AAa9xA.jpg

http://blog.autism-mom.com/2015/04/autism-awareness-day-interview/ An inspiring interview of one of my favourite bloggers.

http://www.labour.org.uk/w/why-im-voting-labour/public/nhs/zhc/ This is the link to my personalised graphic for why I am voting Labour.

JAMES AND SONS

There were just the three of us at James and Sons yesterday, me and my colleagues Chris and Andrew. The two most senior members of staff were at a collectors fair. I had some bulky stamp lots and a couple of pictures to image first up, and then got the really fiddly stuff (old car logbooks and collections of bookmarks) to image later.

I started with the pictures because I wanted to get them stowed out of harm’s way quickly. Pictures, especially if they have a protective covering of glass, can be tough to image, but I reckoned these two came out OK…

The stamp lots were not especially inspiring, but there is one that I think worth sharing…

Just for completeness sake here is a single example of a logbook lot…

This is a composite image showing both sides of the logbooks

These two are the individual images that combined to make the other.

I have no idea how much collections of bookmarks will make at auction, but they were fun (if a bit fiddly) to image, and there were many that appealed to me (given my tastes there would have been a big problem had it been otherwise!)…

I will end this post, as day two of the Classic FM Hall of Fame begins, with my personalised “Why I am voting Labour” graphic…

A Frantic Day’s Imaging

Before getting to the main meat of my post, as usual I have some links to share with you. So…

LINKS

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/amazon_corridor_dn_c/?bYDPLib&v=56336 This is a VERY IMPORTANT petition.

http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/04/02/are-zero-hours-employers-committing-electoral-fraud/ Rumours have reached Mike Sivier that some of the unscrupulous bosses who use zero hours contracts have been threatening those on such contracts with dismissal if they dare to vote for anyone other than the conservatives. If these rumours are true, they are prima facie evidence of criminal activity.

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/find-information-by-subject/electoral-fraud/preventing-and-reporting-electoral-fraud This is the website to visit if you suspect someone on electoral fraud.

http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/04/02/economists-agree-austerity-is-bad-for-you/ Mike Sivier acts as a conduit to…

http://mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/economists-vs-business-leaders.html This very interesting post from a professional economist.

https://www.change.org/p/politicians-ian-duncan-smith-come-clean-about-cuts-affecting-disabled-people?utm_campaign=fb_dialog&utm_medium=email&utm_source=signature_receipt&post_id=1319562568_10206450022592245#_=_Not only this is a very important petition, signing it will also help to clog up IDS’s email inbox!

https://tompride.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/ceo-accuses-tories-of-using-his-name-in-business-letter-without-his-permission/ Hot off the press – more bad news for the Tories re yesterday’s infamous letter.

Before moving on to today at work here are some pictures that will feature in the printed catalogues…

This one, unusualyy is not 100% my work - it is my photography but my colleague Andrew's editing. — This one, unusualyy is not 100% my work – it is my photography but my colleague Andrew’s editing.

IMAGING

A combination of factors made today a bit of a tough day, but at the end of it I had accomplished a good deal, and had imaged some very interesting items. By the end of tomorrow the imaging for April’s auction should be complete. Meantime, here is a selection of interesting images from today…

As I was inserting these pictures, I got details of a small victory for the Living Wage Campaign, more info at: http://leftfootforward.org/2015/04/a-victory-for-the-living-wage-campaign/

	Thomas on World T20 Cup Underway
	Anna on World T20 Cup Underway
	London Underground t… on Project Piccadilly
	Thomas on All Time XIs – Detective…
	Anna on All Time XIs – Detective…