A very brief post about Whitechapel, dedicated to all involved with the East End Womens Museum project.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this latest addition to my series “London Station by Station”. This particular post is also a tribute to the East End Women’s Museum project. I hope that you will all enjoy it and that some of you at least will share it.
WHITECHAPEL – NOT ALL ABOUT THE RIPPER
Whitechapel, which today serves the District and Hammersmith and City lines with a quirky interchange to London Overground, first opened in 1884, although the current station dates only from 1913. The quirkiness of the interchange to London Overground lies in the fact that the direction of travel from London Underground to London Overground is downwards.
A while back a museum was given planning permission on the grounds that it would be dedicated to women of the East End. It turned out that the person behind it had been lying through their teeth and the museum was actually dedicated to Jack the Ripper. A petition having been launched against the Ripper museum, a determined group of people are now setting out to create a museum that genuinely is dedicated to the women of the East End, featuring stories like the one in this book:
An account of attending a music workshop organised by NAS West Norfolk, with plenty of photos, also some important links.
INTRODUCTION
This afternoon I attended a music workshop organised by NAS West Norfolk. The title of piece of this post, acompanied by many photographs, is about this workshop.
OUTWARD BOUND
Having established to my own satisfaction the location of Scout Hut 12, Beulah Street I walked out of town along Bawsey Drain as far as Lynn Sport before heading across the open grassland to the scout hut (my direction finding was up to its usual standard, so no hiccups). Although I was under some time constraint I got a few photos on the way…
St Nicholas Chapel looking splendid.
AT THE SCOUT HUT
First up, “hut” is something of a misnomer – it is quite a substantial building. There were many things worthy of photographing there…
After a brief meet and greet upstairs it was downstairs again to the room where the action was taking place. Fortunately, the music making was being done largely by computer – I would not have inflicted myself playing an actual instrument on anyone (there were some real instruments there but I was careful not to be assigned any of them). In the first session which was group playing I had first stringed instruments and then a couple of keyboard instruments (in computer program form)…
The computer I used to make music.
The second session involved recording ourselves making percussion type sounds from non-instruments – the results were not nearly as appalling as you might expect.
These were the twelve things I used to extract percussion type sounds.
I have a few more pics from the building to display…
HOMEWARD BOUND
For the walk home I headed down to King Edward the Seventh Academy, along to Tennyson Road and through to Seven Sisters, finishing up by heading along the riverbank. Here are the pics from that section of the day…
LINKS
Not so many links as as I sometimes have, but still enough to split into sections.
I am including in this section a petition calling on the government for a full assessment of the impact of welfare cuts on disabled people. My other two links are to an online publication called The ASD Times. They have been kind enough to include some of my stuff, so here a couple of links the other way:
An account of yesterday, with some good pictures. Also some high quality links and infographics.
INTRODUCTION
Although some of the links I have were located this morning, this blog post is really, as the title suggests, about yesterday.
A MORNING WALK
My walk started with the parkland. There is always plenty to see there, and although it was to elusive to capture on camera, I even got a glimpse of a water vole before it darted under cover. Still I did get some good photos…
I left the parkland via the Seven Sisters gate and headed past the South Gate and thence to the river via Hardings Pits, which at this time of year means one thing to a photographer…
BUTTERFLIES
There were many of these creatures in evidence, and I was able to get several good photos…
The river although not at particularly high tide was looking splendid…
Of course no walk along the Great Ouse would be complete without…
CORMORANT PLATFORM
This structure, which I have named for the birds that are its most distinctive users was once again proving popular…
Back in the heart of the town, there were many boats in evidence. One was a small family owned boat using the jetty, and there were various research vessels, at least one of which was owned by company called Gardline…
EAST RUDHAM
A Sunday lunch in East Rudham and afternoon spent sat out in the sun were both very enjoyable, and the latter yielded some good pictures…
I had noted a while previously that this £2 coin had a special picture on its reverse (the obverse was the usual prrofile of a ludicrously over privileged woman) and so I picked a suitable moment at which to photograph it.Wild marjoram, freshly harvested for use in cooking.Wild marjoram serving its principle function as a bee magnet.
BACK TO KING’S LYNN
Arriviing back in King’s Lynn I bagged a few photos on the way home. A quick check on the computer revealed the Australia had emerged from their tour match at Northampton with a draw – cause for celebration on their part given recent events!
LINKS
I have a variety of links to share with you, starting with several about…
I take the opportunity of having this section to once again remind people of the project to create a museum that really is about the women of East London. My next two links belong together:
A piece by fargaregardsanna which features a humorous use of one of Maurits Escher’s most famous pictures – I realize that some may quibble of me classing this as science, but I believe that since the explanation of how such optical illusions work is scientific that this is justified – and also it makes this section of my post neater!
A heretical suggestion for the Australian Mens team selection for the fifth ashes test, some photographs, a section on the Labour Party leadership contest and a section on Carl Sagan.
INTRODUCTION
My title piece is about the current woes of the Australian Mens side, and I also have links (though not on this occasion a dedicated links section), infographics and photographs to share.
DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MEASURES
With the destiny of 2015 Mens Ashes safely settled I am going venture a very radical selection suggestion for them. At the Oval, on what is usually a flat pitch both sides would be well advised to ensure that they have five genuine bowling options available. Australia’s batting having failed in four straight innings they also need some depth there. Watson (although he is playing in a tour match at Northampton today) is out of favour, neither Marsh brother has been convincing and that is all Australia have in terms of batting variation available to them in their official squad. However, there is an Australian all-rounder in England at the moment who is in the form of their life: Ellyse Perry, fresh from playing a starring role in the Aussie Womens team victory in the test match.
I admit that this is a stretch, especially given that Perry’s stock in trade as a bowler is pace, and in the men’s game she would not be especially quick, but in the state that Aussie men are in at the moment the move could hardly make things worse – and maybe even if she proves unable to do much herself against the men the presence of someone with current winning experience will be a boost in and of itself.
Do I really believe that a woman could mix it with the men? Yes – there are plenty of aspects of cricket that are not all about brute strength and although, in spite of the premise of this piece, I would not particularly expect a female to be able to bowl at 150KPH I could see a specialist batter, a spinner or a wicketkeeper being able to mix it with the men.
A PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE
A few photos from in and around King’s Lynn…
Earnest cleric to JBS Haldane “what have your studies told you about the creator?” Haldane’s response “That he is inordinately fond of beetles.”
Butterfly with closed wings.
The first of two ponds separated by the width of a Road.The other pond, with a particularly luxurious carpeting of lilies.
BEES
A very important and well presented infographic from 38Degrees that I picked up by way of Mike Coulson on twitter:
THE LABOUR PARTY LEADERSHIP CONTEST
I have a purely watching brief on this, since I am principled enough not to have taken advantage of the “register as a supprter for £3” trick. This infographic is revealing about the voting patterns of the three long serving MPs in the contest (Kendall has only been around long enough to have voted on two of the issues covered, and utterly unsurprisingly to anyone who knows anything about she is 0 for 2):
My second offering in this section is a headline about an open declaration of intent to sabotage. If this is telling the truth those two MPs (no surprise that they are Blue Labourites Umunna and Hunt – and I’ll bet that the dishonourable Danczuk is in cahoots with them) should be expelled from the party – this is TREACHERY:
I end this section with link to a piece by Molly Scott Cato MEP (as an aside born in the same town – Stroud, Gloucestershire – as me although a little earlier) which talks about one potential consequence of a Corbyn victory – a red/green coalition.
CARL SAGAN
The late legendary Carl Sagan was a superb writer and populariser of science. I was motivated to produce this section when I stumbled on a thread on twitter that had developed from a Turin Shroud picture overlaid with a great summing up of the religious approach, and then a Sagan quote – which led to me to extract some Sagan books from my shelves and photograph them…
The infographic that started it all.The Sagan quoteA montage of my Sagan books – I have given Pale Blue Dot extra prominence because although any book by Sagan is guaranteed to be an excellent read this one is particularly special.
An account of the Ordnance Survey’s Get Outside pledge, the associated hashtag and my own activities in relation to that pledge. Some important links and a platinum infographic as well.
INTRODUCTION
The title piece refers to a scheme being promoted by the Ordnance Survey, which I choose to endorse by way of this post. I also have lots of other links to share, and a very funny infographic about the right wing Republican approach to religious freedom to share.
THE GET OUTSIDE PLEDGE
I was already moving towards lengthening my walks to and from the bus station on work days before I came across this idea being promoted by Ordnance Survey. For twitterites like me there is a hashtag, #GetOutside that you can use to publicize this. I urge you all to check out this link, and if you can make a pledge of your own.
Yesterday morning I got underway a little later than planned, but still got in a bit of riverside and parkland walking, while yesterday evening, my first post-pledge journey, I got off the bus at Gaywood and took a long walk home. Here are some pictures from these walks…
Enviro-serve, the company running at least some of the boats pictured above were set up to provide appropriate vessels for people developing renewable energy – check out their “about us” page.
Now, here are the evening pics…
“Cormorant Platform” at high tide
LINKS
I have lots of links to share, and so have divided this into subsections, starting with:
PREVENTION OF TROPHY HUNTING
This section includes three links in total, two petitions and a blog:
I conclude this post with a number of links that relate to issues of discrimination. I make no apology, given the current standards of behaviour of the DWP for including a piece about the welfare state in this section.
An account with pictures of a morning walk and a day’s cricket listening, some important links and a couple of cool infographics. Coverage given to the East End Womens Museum project along the way.
INTRODUCTION
As well as my title piece I have some links and a couple of high quality infographics to share.
NAVIGATORS, CORMORANTS AND CRICKET
Before settling into day 2 of the test match between the England and Australia women’s teams I was able to enjoy a morning walk, which featured the first two elements of my title.
NAVIGATORS
One of the things to be found where the lower Purfleet flows into the Great Ouse is a circular display with compass points in the middle and details of navigator’s round the outside. I created a photographic montage from pictures taken this morning…
Having shown you the montage, here are the individual pictures in their full glory…
CORMORANTS
The cormorants were in their usual location…
Making use of a freely available resource.
My next set of pictures feature the walk from the river to the library via the South Gate and the parkland…
The library itself is usually worth photographing, and on a day like this doubly so…
A sideways view also showing the top of Greyfriars TowerThe top section of the tower.
This is a part of King’s Lynn Minster that does not all that often get photographed…
CRICKET
The test match currently in progress is going Australia’s way at the moment – England are playing over defensively having lost a few wickets. Australia declared at 274-9, with Jess Jonnasen making 99 on test debut. She shares this fate with Arthur Chipperfield in the 1936-37 men’s ashes. England’s principle remaining hope is Natalie Sciver.
LINKS
My links are grouped in several subsections, starting with…
THE INGLORIOUS TWELFTH
The title of this section refers to the fact that today is the start of the grouse season, a date referred to by the kind of rich vermin who get their rocks off shooting birds as “The Glorious Twelfth”. My opinion, shared by a gratifyingly large number, is precisely the reverse, and I have two links to go with it:
My first link in this subsection is to a petition calling on the Gidiot (a nickname compounded of the name Gideon and the word Idiot for Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer) to stop using public money to finance private corporations.
My remaining two pieces concern the dishonourable Simon Danczuk MP who has today revealed for all to see how utterly contemptuous he is of both the members of his own party and the democratic process:
This wonderful project (please check out their website) continues to gather support. The latest person to express a wish to be involved is Marie Proffit of womenshiftdigital. I am very optimistic that we will succeed both in getting a museum that really is dedicated to women’s history established and consigning the museum whose planning permission was fraudulently gained (which provoked this resposne) to the dustbin of history.
AUTISM
My first link in this subsection is to a piece produced by autistictimes which is a searing indictment of the organisation that miscalls itself Autism Speaks.
Finally, Autism Talk have produced some splendid stuff today, making this a segue to…
An account of a day at James and Sons, with lots of lovely images, and a selection of quality links to round things off.
INTRODUCTION
The body of this post features today at James and Sons, but also I have plenty of other stuff for you…
BACK TO WORK WITH A BANG
Today was devoted to catching up on imaging for our August sale (two weeks tomorrow, Fakenham Racecourse). The day started with some coin lots done with the aid of the scanner…
After the coind there were some general lots done with the camera…
My final items of the day were militaria, and involved both scanner and camera…
The next six pics relate to lot 22, which I scanned first and than also did with the camera to see if I could improvee the images.
Lot 160, done exclusively with the camera.
Lot 187 was a scan job.
Lot 199, back to the camera.
LINKS
I start this final short-ish section with two pieces that refer to…
An account of a walk yesterday morning, the journeys to and from East Rudham, and Sunday lunch in East Rudham, with a subsection devoted to bees enjoying wild marjoram.
INTRODUCTION
This post concerns yesterday, and us set part in King’s Lynn and part in my parents village, East Rudham. A running theme is nature. I hope you will enjoy it and that some at least of you will choose to share it.
PART 1: KING’S LYNN, MORNING
It was a beautiful sunny morning, so I decided to take a long walk from my flat, planned to finish at the bus station in time to catch the 11:55 bus to arrive in East Rudham for Sunday lunch. Right at the start, the upper Purfleet yielded these pictures…
South Quay then yielded a few more good pictures…
A gull swimming in the Great Ouse
A few minutes later came one of the regular highlights –
CORMORANT PLATFORM
The set of pictures I have this time indicate precisely why I have given this structure which sits at the meeting point of the Nar and the Great Ouse the name I have…
Before leaving the river there was just time for a couple of shots looking back at the town…
On leaving the river I headed through Harding’s Pits, which at this time of year means…
BUTTERFLIES
It is difficult to capture butterflies on camera, but I got a few pics…
After this, the next pictures worth sharing came from near the end of the walk, along a stretch of river near Morrison’s…
My photographic comment on Australia’s recent batting performances!
A VARIATION ON THE USUAL BUS JOURNEY
A combination of a spectacular day and herd mentality increased the journey time to Hunstanton and the sea to two hours and rendered the Knight’s Hill junction with the A148 effectively unusable for buses, so the X8 towards Fakenham went by way of Leziate, Ashwicken and Roydon joining the A148 just short of Hillington and its first out of town stop. Thanks to this intelligent alteration of the route the bus was only a couple of minutes late arriving at East Rudham.
PART TWO: EAST RUDHAM
Following a delicious lunch of roast beef the afternoon was spent sitting out in the courtyard outside my parents house, until it was time for me to get the bus home. I was reading the book by Robert Bakker that I mentioned in a previous post – keep an eye for a review in the near future – and also endeavouring to do photographic justice to…
THE BEES
As well as being useful for bringing out the full flavour of lamb, the wild marjoram that grows in abundance just outside my parents door is much appreciated by bees. Bees are a vitally important part of the ecosystem and are under ever increasing threat from the combination of the insensate greed of pesticide companies and the cravenness of governments (the latter do not have the guts to stand up to the former). Their activities so close to where I was sitting were an irresistable opportunity for the only sort of shooting I am interested in – that done with my trusty Nikon Coolpix P530!
THE RETURN JOURNEY
The bus turned up precisely when it was scheduled to, and until it hit the now customary traffic jam on Gaywood Road (at which point I decided to get out and walk the rest of the way) it ran exactly to schedule all the way.
PART THREE: KING’S LYNN AGAIN
In this last section I am going to share some pictures from yesterday evening and also the pictures I got of the bus station immediately before setting out…
The new London Connections map, one of the many things that can be obtained from the visitor’s centre at King’s Lynn Bus Station.On the reverse side the whole of the South East.
The front of the vistor’s centre and the Lynn museum
Focus on the visitor’s centreThe clock, courtesy of King’s Lynn Civic Society.The barrier at stand C – interleaving Captain Vancouver and the Custom House.
Welcome this little look back the test match that finished yesterday morning. I also have links, photos and infographics to share.
ENGLAND REGAIN THE ASHES
The third and fourth matches of this series have just about totalled five days (one test match that goes the distance) between them, such has the speed with which England destroyed Australia in both games. Previously England had won the first match comfortably, but were utterly monstered at Lord’s in the second. All in all, this means that England now have an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five match series. Given what happened on the Lord’s shirtfront the groundsman at the Oval would be well advised to prepare a pitch with some life in it for the fifth match.
In four successive innings Australia have had their batting wrecked by four different bowlers (never before has one country had four different bowlers pick up six or more wickets in four successive innings). The figures that Stuart Broad produced in the first Australian innings of the match that concluded yesterday still test credulity.
Both captains had good moments near the end of the match: Cook by giving the youngster Mark Wood a chance, duly accepted, to finish things, and Clarke by announcing that the Oval will be his last test match, thereby sparing Cricket Australia an unpleasant but necessary decision.
Stuart Broad deservedly got the man of the match award for his destruction of the Australian first innings which set England on the road to victory, while Ben Stokes’ sensational catch (check it out here) deservedly won the champagne moment.
A PHOTOGRAPGIC INTERLUDE
Here a few pictures from yesterday evening…
This picture and the next two come from the same original but with different degrees of cropping.A closer cropThe closest crop – a little blurred because it is so close.
LINKS
Not so many links to share as sometimes, but enough to split them into subsections.
PETITIONS
Three petitions for your consideration this morning:
This piece, from respectfullyconnected is a heart-wrenching account of a piece of thuggery perpetrated someone referred to due to their conduct as “Ableist, Sexist Jerk” or “ASJ” for short. I am sharing at here, as I already have done elsewhere (twitter, facebook, google+) not in any hope that “ASJ” will see it but because it so outraged me that someone thought it was OK to behave in the manner described. The title of the piece is “Don’t You Dare Call My Autistic Son a Sissy”
A link to quirky new blog, featuring Walthamstow among other locations, which I wish every success, called dutchgirlinlondon.
A SEGUE LINK
This is to a new find from this morning, which I got onto courtesy of a post on twitter by Jon Swindon. It is a blog called pollysshortattentionspan and it will no surprise to anyone familiar with Jon Swindon that the segue is to…
INFOGRAPHICS
This was the one that caught my eye on twitter.And this caught my attention when I visited the blog for a closer look.
A brief, personal account of an Autism Awareness Day event organised by NAS West Norfolk.
INTRODUCTION
This is a brief post devoted to an event that took place at Gaywood Community Centre today.
THE EVENT
As someone who lives in the centre of King’s Lynn there was only ever one way I would be getting to an event in Gaywood: walking. Although principally concerned with locating the event I did get one pic en route…
I heard the event before I actually saw it because they had a live music act performing…
After briefly taking in what was on offer I headed to the main National Autistic Society stall, picked up a flier and took some photographs…
I spent £2 on tombola tickets and £1 on a keyring (It was an NAS keyring featuring Thomas the Tank Engine – as an autistic railway fanatic named Thomas I could hardly not buy it!).
I did not stay terribly long, but I was very favourably impressed – while it was not really my type of event it was very vibrant and very well attended – well done the NAS. The homeward journey yielded another couple of pictures…
Back in the heart of the town, there were many boats in evidence. One was a small family owned boat using the jetty, and there were various research vessels, at least one of which was owned by company called 
aspiblog 