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)…
The long bill tells me that this one digs for foodMy 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)…
As with my first new species I was capturing these from the opposite side of the Great Ouse.
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…
Three shots starting with this one.A better effortMy 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…
I followed the same route as I had on Wednesday, but this time with no time constraints. I caught a glimpse of a Muntjac (thank you Helen for the ID) but this one proved too elusive for me to photograph, although I did see a few things worth photographing…
Lonely on a rock
This is what happens if you have lined up the shot and the creature decides to move after you have clicked to take it!
GAYWOOD & THE ROOKERY
I ventured in, and was delighted by the place. I will let the photos tell the story of this amazing little piece of woodland that is within walking distance of the centre of Norfolk’s third largest town…
HOMEWARD BOUND
I had left Gaywood & The Rookery by a different path from the one I entered it by, and now headed home by a different route, save for a very short stretch of path to the bridge over the railway, and thence through the Hardwick Estate, and ultimately on this occasion back to the town centre by way of the river (I could also have gone by way of the cemetery and the parklands).
A circle of tree stumps
Many meetings/ partings
The sole stretch of path that i walked twice.
AUTISM AWARENESS
A bit disconnected from the rest of this post I know, but I have an infographic to share to remind everyone that April 2nd – 8th 2016 is World Autism Awareness Week (courtesy of patienttalk.org)
An account of a walk, some final thoughts on the IDS resignation, some very brief comments about the six nations and some stuff about the World T20
INTRODUCTION
With my parents and my aunt away I have been left to my own devices this Sunday. So I am producing this post which features the World T20, a short section on the most despised British minister in living memory (yesterday I posted to links to pieces here and here), and today I am making my last comments on him, and what I shall be starting with…
A SUNDAY STROLL
The live commentary from the World T20 having finished and it being sunny outside I set off for a long walk, starting as so often by heading to the river via the Purfleet.
Captain Vancouver
Not designed as a bird perch but clearly works well!
The river front, from the Purfleet to the Millfleet was, as one would expect on a Sunday, quiet, although the survey boats were still in evidence.
A cormorant in flight – although they fly low they fly very fast, so capturing them using this mode of travel is difficult.
The cormorant in flight above leads on to my efforts to capture a swimming cormorant (even more of a challenge, because if they are in the water they are usually looking for food, so surface only briefly between dives but…)
After this shot where I caught the dive…
Came this one where I got the timing exactly right.
Old Boal Quay provided nothing of interest, but ‘cormorant platform’, the Nar outfall and the stretch of the Great Ouse adjoining Hardings Pits did…
I had thought there would be no ‘cormorant platform’ shot, but just before leaving the river I got this one.
We have lift off!
A second capture of a swimming cormorant in one day.
Neither Harding’s Pits nor the area around St John’s Walk offered very much, but I did get these pictures between the river and hitting the path along Bawsey Drain to to the town centre…
I walked about halfway along the path that follows Bawsey Drain before crossing a bridge and heading through a field and round the edge of another to a couple of ponds, from the second of which a path leads to Littleport Street, and thence a cut a know well that brings on to the train station and finally home.
The new cycle park at King’s Lynn station.
THE END OF THE
INHUMANE DESPICABLE SOCIOPATH
Yesterday morning I woke up to news of the resignation of the most hated of all British government Ministers. His resignation statement was obviously bogus since it mentioned conscience (which he has never possessed). The most popular explanation was that it was a kind of ‘IDS of March’ act with Osborne’s being the back into which the dagger was being plunged. Others thought that it was to enable him to concentrate on campaigning for a ‘Brexit’ vote.
Signs are not encouraging as regards his replacement – Mr Crabb (for he it is – a sideways move from his previous position of Welsh Secretary – sorry about the pun) has a voting record similar to that of the man he replaces. Mr Crabb can hardly fail to be an improvement (that is not so much setting the bar low as not setting a bar at all) but he may very well not be much of one.
I will conclude this section with some of twitter highlights about the man…
The resignation pictureHis voting record on Welfare – a hint as to why this resignation was a matter for celebration
Mike Sivier of Vox Political produced this offering.One view of the real reason for the resignation.The best epitaph for IDS’s political career – this excoriation from Salma Yaqoob on Question Time was bang on the money.#
SPORT SUPPLEMENT
Sport usually occupies the back pages of print media, so I have put it at the back of this post. First a brief congratulation to England for completing their six nations grand slam (as with Wales’ obliteration of Italy – 67-14 – and Ireland’s win over Scotland the result was no great surprise). The rest of this section is dedicated to the
WORLD T20
This is going be longer than such a section would usually be because of this post which appeared on whyevolutionistrue yesterday. As you will see, this attempt at an explanation is too long to submit as a comment to someone else’s blog. We start with a glossary of a few important terms:
Innings: can either apply to an individual performance or to the team performance. In a cricket context the singular and plural are spelled the same way – ‘inning’ has no meaning.
Over: A fixed number of legal balls (these days six, though at various times in cricket’s long history four, five and eight have been favoured) that the bowler delivers before the action switches to the other end and another bowler.
Run: The unit in which a team score is measured. It is based on running the length of the cricket pitch, which is worth one. Balls that reach the boundary score four (if they bounce before doing so) or six (if they cross on the full).
Wicket: The construction, comprising three stumps and two bails that the batter defends. Cricket is generally an eleven-a-side game, so each side has ten wickets to defend (as there have be two batsman together).
The World T20 is genuinely a world tournament (unlike some sports, cricket only uses international designations when they are genuinely appropriate!), with the full member nations of the ICC qualifying automatically, and the ‘associate members’ playing a pre-qualifying tournament from which some make it to the main event. The T20 part of the format refers to the format of the matches, where each side gets 20 overs to bat, and bowlers are limited to four overs each (so you better have at least five folk in your team who can bowl decently). Scoring in these matches is generally fast, though the England v South Africa match of a few days ago in which a South Africa tally of 229-4 proved insufficient was exceptional even for this format. The India v Pakistan match that provoked the google doodle which in turn provoked the WEIT post had extra spice because of the political situation which also means that those two countries only ever play each other in global tournaments, never in bilateral series. For the record India won, not without a few scares along the way. This morning GB time there was a match between South Africa and Afghanistan, won by South Africa but with the Afghans giving a very good account of themselves.
Various bits of autism related stuff, including an account of a talk by Mel Bruce for NAS West Norfolk, and some photographs.
INTRODUCTION
Last night I attended a talk given by Dr Mel Bruce, a clinical psychologist at Starfish Plus. There are also a few other things I will be covering in this post.
MEL BRUCE TALK
The talk was scheduled to run from 7-9PM, and I was required to be there (the scout hut on Beulah Street, as so often for NAS West Norfolk events) early to help with the setup. Mel opened proceedings with a brief account of what she and her team do, and who they work with, before taking questions from the floor. One of the things Mel mentioned when talking about communication was the use of a system of communication cards, which would work rather as the coloured badges at AutismCon did – in that case red was for “don’t talk to me unless it is an emergency”, yellow for “don’t initiate conversations but you can respond if I talk to you” and green for “I am happy to talk”, with freedom to change according to how you are feeling at any given moment (I selected a green badge and stuck with it the whole day as it happens). A great quote which showed how involved she is with the autistic community “Don’t do anything about us without us”. Another excellent point she made was about referring to special interests rather than obsessions.
Although this talk did not deal with issues that relate directly to me, because it was aimed at parents of autistic children, and therefore I maintained a purely listening brief, I enjoyed the evening, and am looking forward to meeting Mel again at the Positive Autism Awareness Conference NAS West Norfolk are holding at the Duke’s Head Hotel, King’s Lynn on April 15th. Meantime, we have connected on twitter.
Clinical psychologist Mel Bruce introducing the sessionA decent turnout for the event.the first of four shots featuring posters.
A POTENTIAL MEETING WITH SIR HENRY BELLINGHAM MP
Just a brief mention of the fact that following a very unsatisfactory response by Sir Henry Bellingham on the subject of the cut to ESA, in which he claimed to be talking to lots of local groups moves are afoot to organize a meeting between ourselves and him. Further information about his record as an MP can be found here (warning – it makes grim reading).
ON DIAGNOSES
This section is here because it was recently brought to my attention that there are still problems with doctors being unwilling to diagnose autistic spectrum conditions (ASC for short) and in some cases unwilling to refer people for diagnosis. In the nine and a half years since I was diagnosed (25 years later than I should have been but that is another story) my life has improved hugely in all sorts of ways.
My message to doctors faced with people seeking a diagnosis of an autistic spectrum is this: if you feel unable to do this yourself, then refer the patient to someone who can. To point blank refuse even to refer someone is unacceptable and indefensible.
HELPING THE NATIONAL AUTISTIC SOCIETY WITH A PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN
The National Autistic Society are running a Public Awareness Campaign, to which I am pleased to say I have been able to contribute. In answering the questions I was sent as part of this I referred on many occasions to things that happened before I was diagnosed, precisely because (see above), things have been so much better since I was diagnosed.
A VICTORY – #JUSTICEFORKAYLEB
Yes – a good news story to end the text section of this post. Kayleb Moon-Robinson, a 6th grade student with autism, was facing life with a conviction for a felony offence. Following a prolonged campaign, all charges against him have been dismissed. More details are available as follows:
New build in keeping with its surroundingsI would have started work on this ghastly, out of place building with a wrecking ball, but I am glad to see that something is being done.
Change point – this is the last of the daytime photos – others were taken on the way to the Mel Bruce talk.
This post does exactly what the title claims. The photos are all from yesterday, which has the distinction of being the first day in 2016 on which I ventured out without putting a coat on (yes folks, it has been a long wait but spring really is on its way)
TOP AND BOTTOM SETTLED
WITH A ROUND TO GO
This weekend saw the penultimate round of the Six Nations rugby tournament. Ireland, coming into this round with a draw and two defeats to their name, faced Italy who had lost all three of their matches. Ireland racked up 58 points in the end, to open clear daylight between themselves and the foot of the table. England played Wales at Twickenham and at half time the score was 16-0 to England, probably should have been 23-0 and had it been 30-0 Wales could have had no complaints. Wales played much better in the second half, but had left themselves too much to do to get back in the match. In the third match Scotland faced France and followed their victory over Italy in the previous round with another in this match. The key try that put Scotland out of reach was a brilliant solo effort from Duncan Taylor.
The effect of this action was that England with four wins out of four are now uncatchable at the top of the table and head to Paris with their sights firmly set on completing a grand slam. This is a mightily impressive first campaign for new England coach Eddie Jones. As well as leaving England out of reach at the top, Scotland’s win over France left Italy marooned at the bottom with no way of avoiding the wooden spoon. Of the teams in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, separated by just two points, Wales have a massive advantage because not only are they currently in second, they finish their campaign at home to Italy. Scotland and Ireland face each other, while France have an England team with confidence sky-high to contend with.
PHOTOS
These photos were all taken while out walking yesterday and are presented in the order in which they were taken…
I took this picture because I was so annoyed that this had been left lying around.
The cormorants were out in force.
There will be a long post about various autism related issues coming either tonight or first thing tomorrow.
As it’s title says, this post is a mixture of all sorts of things – enjoy!
INTRODUCTION
I have a wide range of stuff for you, including pictures and links.
GREYFRIARS
In the second of my series of posts about “Buildings of King’s Lynn”, I put up some pictures of Greyfriars Tower. Tucked away in one corner of the grounds is a scale model of the friary as it would have been back in the 14th century…
A five image composite showing the model and the key (four images)The keyeight individual images starting with this one.
More details about the company that this second survey boat belongs to cna be found by clicking here.
For the opera lovers among you.
LINKS
I have a plethora of links for you today. I start with a subsection dealing with…
PETITIONS
Two petitions today:
On the Government’s own petitions website, is this call to protect academic freedom. The government have new legislation in the pipeline to include an ‘anti-lobbying’ clause in all government grants, and this petition seeks to exempt academic research from this law.
My second petition is on a matter of local interest. A new factory farm is planned for Sedgeford, Norfolk and if you find the notion as repellent as I do please click hereto sign and share the petition against it.
AN APPROPRIATE STAND ALONE LINK
Appropriate because the MP about whom this piece was written, the dishonourable Julian Lewis, is in a club of one as a British MP who will not accept communication by email.
A TRIO FROM COSMOS UP
The website cosmos up has been in fine form recently, and here (two of them accompanied by images) are three crackers they have produced in less than two full days…
This picture shows the orbital path of a donut planet’s moon should it have one.
A NEWPOST ON WWW.LONDONTU.BE
A reminder of the existence of my London Transport themed website. Today’s new post focusses on London Bridge, partially inspired by this picture…
REMINDER: POSITIVE AUTISM AWARENESS CONFERENCE
This will be taking place on April 15th at the Dukes Head Hotel, Tiesday Market Place, King’s Lynn, starting at 9:30. It has proved very popular – my latest information is that just 13 tickets are yet to be bought.
The venue for the Positive Autism Awareness Conference.
An account of this weekend’s six nations action plus some pictures and some links.
INTRODUCTION
The third weekend of the six nations rugby tournament is done and dusted. As indicated in the title I also have some links and pictures to share.
THE SIX NATIONS
On Friday night Wales took on France at the Principality (nee Millennium) Stadium. Yesterday’s two matches featured Italy versus Scotland at Stadio Olimpico and England versus Ireland at Twickenham.
WALES V FRANCE
Wales came into this match with one win and one draw to their name, France with wins over Scotland and Italy (a record which flattered them – given a decent kicker Italy would have beaten them and they were not convincing in the second game either). The match was fairly close throughout, and not of the highest quality. The Welsh emerged victorious and thus temporarily sat at the top of the table.
ITALY V SCOTLAND
Since Italy were included in the tournament, making it the Six Nations, these two sides have accrued 14 wooden spoons between them (Italy 10, Scotland 4) and few would bet against one or other adding to that tally this year. Often of late Italy have come to grief in the kicking department (see above) so it was ironic that on a day when Kelly Haimona was flawless with the boot they were well beaten, and are now very likely to finish bottom.
ENGLAND V IRELAND
England came into this match having won both games, unconvincingly against Scotland in the Calcutta Cup match and very comfortably against Italy. Ireland, winners in 2014 and 2015 had started with a draw and a defeat. England dominated the first half but failed to register the points to reflect that, and when James Haskell got himself sin-binned (for the fifth time in his international career) defeat was more than a possibility. However England were only one point behind when Haskell was able to rejoin the action, and two converted tries in a short space of time thereafter put them 13 points ahead. Although Ireland pressed hard in the closing stages England had done enough and on the balance of play over the whole 80 minutes their victory was well deserved.
THE TOURNAMENT SO FAR
England now lead with three wins from three games, Wales are second, and France third, with Scotland currently fourth, Ireland fifth and Italy sixth. England and Wales face each other in their next match, and the winner of that will be a strong favourite for the trophy, with France likely to finish third. Ireland, Scotland and Italy are fighting out the bottom half of the table. Thus far the quality of the play has not been especially high.
PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE
After a big chunk of text, here are some pictures…
This is the frontage of the Royal Arcade, Norwich
The back of the Guildhall – the work is nearly complete.
LINKS
Although there are not that many of them I am splitting these links into sections, starting with:
A link to a very interesting piece about Asteroid 2013 TX68, accompanied by an image:
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Three links, and also three pictures, the latter showing how I have combined two metal badges to make a composite public transport badge. Since I am talking about public transport, here is a reminder of my London transport themed website, www.londontu.be on which I have already posted two of the links.
Citymetric expose in great detail the lack of a business case for the controversial garden bridge.
Following on from the previous link, change.org are running a petition against the building of the garden bridge – please sign and share.
Our first building of the day is sadly not being used for anything. It used, in the days when such things existed to be our main Post Office (we now have the services of a few cashiers at WHSmith instead), and no subsequent use has been found for it.
Now we have some buildings near the train station…
The first of the two pictures I combined to make the ‘juxtaposition image’
The Fenman Pub – there is lots of railway memorabilia inside (it is directly opposite the station)St John’s Vicarage
From here, since we are at the start of St John’s Walk, we enter the parkland area…
The Guanock Gate
The South Gate.
On our way from the South Gate to the Great Ouse we get a glimpse of the Baptist Church.
Looking across the river, we get a glimpse of West Lynn Church (one can use the ferry if one wishes to get closer, or walk down to the road bridge and cross there)
Near Marriott’s Warehouse one can see the Rathskellar wine bar…
The Rathskeller, with a side wall of Marriott’s in the background.
We finish this section with a few quirky images from the town centre.
In spite of the size of this poster the map is next to useless – I know the Hardwick Sainsbury’s well, but could not find it using that map.The side of Boot’s .Close up of the metalwork.The top of the guildhall. The green structure projects the light show on to King’s Lynn Minster at night.
GAYWOOD AND PLANNING PERMISSION
My aunt had noticed a cause for concern in a planning application for something in Gaywood, and as we were heading for Sunday lunch with my parents in East Rudham anyway we went via Gaywood. We actually saw no evidence there of the planning application that had caused the concern, but did see another, for an extension of the pub. The original planning application that had been brought to my aunt’s attention was for a small new build, and these photos from the area in question show, a plain concrete box which is what apparently was on the table would have been very inappropriate.
The planning application that was on display in GaywoodTwo brick houses with distinctive features.
Trees that may i danger of being knocked down.Not brick and flint, but (like the library) brick and Carr.
A PETITION TO THE GOVERNMENT ABOUT HEDGEHOGS
Dedicated followers of this blog will know that yesterday I put up a post supporting a team4nature thunderclap. I am finishing this post by linking to an official petition to the UK government to give hedgehogs better protection. The petition can be viewed here (note and apology to my international followers – you have to be a British citizen to sign petitions on this site).
A pot-pourri of a post, featuring my website, mental health, public transport, a new find in the blogging world (for me), human evolution and a few pictures.
INTRODUCTION
I have spent a good part of today working on my website, www.londontu.be, and I also have some pictures that I have not previously shared, plus a few other things.
THE LATEST FROM LONDONTU.BE
I have recently created three new posts that I choose to share here:
Cheshunt – a post that grew out of seeing this on my twitter feed:
Covent Garden – a post that was in part inspired by this:
THE MENTAL HEALTH TASKFORCE
Mind, the mental health charity, have produced this about the Mental Health Task Force:
MUSICAL KEYS
On Monday evening, Musical Keys had another session for autistic people. As well as my usual i-pad generated strings (cello only on this occasion), the session ended with something new – generating sounds by constructing lines on the i-pad screen for balls to bounce off (for those with long memories the approach is bit like reverse “bat and ball”). Here some photos relating to that event:
The Custom House viewed from Queen Street
The Mart.
This is exactly the sort of ride that I hate!
The Pilot Place development
A Rainbow while I was waiting outside (there was a session for youngsters going on, so I felt it best to stay outside although it was cold.
The Scout “Hut”
I-pad screen.
The lines and dots program.
A NEW FIND
To give credit where it is definitely due, it was a post by Mike Sivier at Vox Political that introduced me to anewnatureblog, which I am now following. The particular post that Mike shared and that I followed up on was this one. I subsequently also read this one. I highly recommend this blog.
BETTER TRANSPORT MAPS
It was also courtesy of Mike that I found the Guardian piece that led to my discovery of the better transport campaign. One thing they are doing is producing maps which show how transport services across the UK are being endangered. Just one example: in Norfolk, where I live the county council’s transport budget was £4m in 2010 and £2.67m in 2015 – a cut of 33% in five years (and as a regular user I defy anyone to suggest that Norfolk’s transport provision is not in need of improvement!).
A GIF ABOUT HUMAN EVOLUTION
This little GIF, which WEIT picked up via twitter, started life in Carl Sagan’s Cosmos TV series. I have two links for you:
Accounts of England’s triumph in South Africa and of a local fund-raising triumph for NAS West Norfolk.
INTRODUCTION
My title refers to one great sporting triumph and one fabulous fund-raising triumph, which I shall cover in that order.
SOUTH AFRICA SUCCUMB TO STUART’S BRUTAL BROAD-SIDE
An extraordinary Test match at the Bull Ring in Johannesburg ended on the third day. South Africa batted first and reached 313 without anyone managing a half century. England gained a lead of 10 largely due to the batting of three people, Root (110), Stokes (58) and Bairstow (45). South Africa had a tiny bit of batting before lunch which they achieved without loss, before things started to happen immediately thereafter. Stuart Broad settled the match, the series and the destination of the Player of the Match award in 10 overs which brought him 6-17 (I heard the commentary on the first five, but had to leave with South Africa score 67-8, and by the time I was back from my engagement, the last two South African wickets had fallen and England had knocked off their victory target for the loss of three wickets).
FABULOUS FUNDRAISING SUCCESS AT COSTA COFFEE (HARDWICK)
Molly, a barista at the Hardwick branch of Costa Coffee who has an autistic brother and whose mother is a former chair of NAS West Norfolk decided to do some fundraising on our behalf. She managed to raise £335.20 in cash which Costa will be matching with a direct payment into the NAS West Norfolk bank account, meaning that in total the organisation benefits to the tune of £670.40 from her endeavours.
We had arranged a presentation and photo-shoot at Costa Hardwick at 2:30PM today (not being clairvoyant I had not realized when I agreed to the arrangement that it would mean missing England sealing their series victory over South Africa).
Of course, it was not only at Costa itself that I got some photos…
The railway line viewed from Hardwick Bridge – this would be a suitable location for new station to serve the Hardwick Industrial Estate.
The solar system in mosaic form.
Now for the fundraising pictures…
For reference NAS West Norfolk chair Karan McKerrow is the one in the middle, Molly the fundraiser is to her left as you look and the store manager is on the other side.
aspiblog 