A somewhat delayed account of Monday and Tuesday, with plenty of photos.
INTRODUCTION
A few brief commenst and some pictures.
AUGUST IMAGING
I havce made sure that nothing big has been left unimaged, with my flgiht out to Sweden now only three days distant. Here are a few imaghes from the last couple of days…
AN EMPHATIC ENGLAND WIN
Although for various reasons I did not catch much of the action in the second test match betwen England and Pakistan I congratulate England on responding in emphatic style to their defeat in the first match. While I consider the decision by Cook not to enforce the follow-on when looking at a first innings advantage of 391 to be bizarre, at least his team still managed to win. Possibly the most red-faced captain of all time over a decision not to invoke the follow-on was the Hon Freddie Calthorpe who in the final match of the 1929-30 series in the West Indies declined to do so with an advantage of 563 on the grounds that the match was scheduled to played to a finish. Unfortunately for him a combination of the weather and England’s return journey caused the match to be abandoned as a draw anyway. Six years earlier in a county game Calthorpe had suffered a different kind fo embarrassment when his Warwickshire side made 223 in their first innings, bowled out Hampshire for 15, and had them 177-6 after following on. Hampshire then made a spectacular recovery to reach 521 in that second innings, with Walter Livsey who had only reached even double figures three times in the course of the season before then making a century at no 10, and bowled a dispirited Warwickshire out for 158 in the second innings. Back to the present, and in the test match that finished yesterday evening Joe Root had the kind of match which had it been presented as fiction would undoubtedly have been laughed out of the publishers office – 254, 71 not out, four catches in the first Pakistan innings, and when given a bowl late in their second innings he picked up a wicket with his second ball!
SOME FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS
I conclude this post with a few non-work related pictures:
An announcement relating to the next five days, accompanied by some photographs.
This is by way of an alert for my followers. Between now and Monday I will be in London attending Marxism 2016, and my computer access will be sporadic at best. Here are some pictures to accompany this brief announcement…
I found this map in a post by Mike Sivier at Vox Political, and he found it on twitter.Lot 497 at yesterday’s auction – a bargain at £10 – splendid pics of trains.The next five images are close-ups of pictures from lot 497
A flowerhead with an insect in attendanceClose up extracted from the foregoing image showing the insect and the centre of the flower.
An account of the finish of the Nottinghamshire vs Surrey game in the county championship, some quality photos and some important links.
INTRODUCTION
As well as an account of a classic finish in the county championship match between Surrey and Notts I have some photos and a few links to share.
SURREY’S UNAVAILING FIGHT BACK
Thanks to Kumar Sangakkara and Arun Harinath in their second innings Surrey came into the final day with half a chance of completing a Lazarus like come back. Surrey’s second innings ended on the stroke of lunch with them having built a lead of 168 – just enough that things might get interesting…
Opener Greg Smith played a solid innings for Notts, but when he was out the score was 152-7 and an upset was definitely possible. However, nos 8 and 9, with a pair of genuine tail-enders to follow saw through the danger to get Notts home by three wickets. There was no play anywhere else in the country.
PHOTOS
Owing to the nature of the day (cricket in the middle thereof), I took two walks, one in the morning and one in the evening and I have pictures from both to share…
Shot through the window of a bus yesterday.All Saints ChurchThe side of All Saints Church – note the checkerboard panel.
These butterflies were enjoying the sun and the dandelions near Old Boal Quay
This pic and the next have gone down well with my twitter followers.
These three shots of the Brunel £2 set demarcate morning and evening pics.
A new page on my London transport themed website, called “Attractions” and
The introductory postto what will be a series based on the disabledgo piece.
My remaining links also belong together, constituting
THREE MORE REASONS FOR LONDONERS TO
VOTE FOR SIAN BERRY IN THE MAYORAL ELECTIONS
Sian Berry has been running the best campaign of all the contenders for London Mayor by the proverbial country mile, and today she has responded as a potential decision maker to not one or even two but three change.org petitions that I have signed. I have links below to the pages that show her very detailed and very positive responses to all three.
Thirdly and finally is a call addressed by the creator of the petition to Zac Goldsmith and Sadiq Khan, but today answered by Sian, to protect independent shop owners in the capital.
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.
Preparations for the Positive Autism Awareness Conference and a post-lunch walk, therefore lots of photos.
INTRODUCTION
Although the Positive Autism Awareness Conference that we at NAS West Norfolk are holding on April 16th at the Duke’s Head Hotel, King’s Lynn on April 15th is at the heart of this piece there are also lots of new photographs for me to share.
AN ORGANIZING MEETING
Today there was a meeting at the home of NAS West Norfolk branch chair Karan McKerrow to assemble ‘goodie bags’ for the event. As she lives out in the country and not on a regular bus route, this meant arranging a pick up for me, so my first task was to get to Churchill Park School to meet the person who would be giving me a lift. Thus before anything else I have to say a…
MEA CULPA
I was almost twenty minutes late at the meeting place because I walked and made the mistake of not sticking to a route that I knew, and lost my way at one point. I had left myself an hour in which to make the journey, which should have been ample but for the mishap. Also, although I can supposedly connect to facebook and my phone I tried twice and was unable to do so, so could not communicate my whereabouts (I had no contact numbers with me either). The confession out of the way I can now attend to the rest of…
GETTING THERE
I set off exactly when I had intended to, headed for the parkland, following roughly the line of St John’s Walk, taking these photos in the early stages…
At this point I was close to the Tennyson Road level crossing, which was in the process of closing, so I walked to the barrier and waited. The train was goods train, and worth a few more pics…
Immediately after this, at the point at which I made my first wrong move (the path forks, and one direction leads through to KES and the main road, which would have been safe but dull, the other heads in the direction of the hospital – closer to my goal, and a more interesting route) I saw something very unexpected given the proximity of a main road and the even closer proximity of the railway tracks – a brace of deer.
Both deer in one shot
The incipipent antlers possessed by this one combined the face confirm that it is a species of deer.
I have shown these as individual images rather than a tiled mosaic in the hope that someone can identify the species of deer (anyone there at whyevolutionistrue?).
Now we come to the point at which things went pear-shaped, near this sign…
I decided not to venture in to the woodland (ironically I would probably have saved time by doing so), but chose the wrong path, and it was in this section of the walk that I ran irretrievably late. By the time I located Gayton Road (by way of Gaywood Hall Drive) I was already ten minutes late, and as previously mentioned, could not log on to facebook. It was another ten minutes rapid walking before I arrived at the head of Winston Churchill Drive, and was spotted by the people picking me up.
THE MEETING
We had 100 Autism Awareness event packs from NAS HQ, which was not sufficient as we had sold 120 tickets for the event (and had a significant waiting list) an also wanted the people who would be running stalls to have packs. In addition to these the bags (thick brown paper with comfortable but robust handles) were to contain a balloon, a pen, various stand alone leaflets and an NAS flag (placed flag end up so a wide flag rather than a narrow stick pointed out of the bag).
In addition to this activity various timings were confirmed (some setup will be done the night before the event, and everyone who has a stand and/or will be involved in running the event will be expected to arrive for doors opening at 8AM, so that there is no overlap between us setting up for the day and people arriving for the event from about 8:45AM onwards (starts at 9AM).
Before we got started on assembling the ‘goodie bags’ I spotted a couple of interesting cushions…
THE JOURNEY HOME
Very uneventful fortunately. One of the group planned to visit her mother-in-law who lives not that far from my place, so I got a lift as far as Loke Road and had a walk of under 15 minutes to get home. After lunch, the weather remaining bright and sunny I decided it would be foolish to remain in the flat and took myself out for…
AN AFTERNOON WALK
Since the river was one place I had not been in the morning I started by heading to the point at which the Purfleet meets the river.
From South Quay I headed past old Boal Quay to the Nar Outfall, and the structure I have dubbed Cormorant platform. Today there was only one cormorant about.
I made my way home by way of the parkland, enhancing my stock of moorhen pictures along the way.
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.
While I would be very unlikely to produce anything worthwhile by painting rocks as I have no talent for that sort of things many people have noted that I possess a talent for photography, and at mother’s suggestion I used this to design calendars for use as Christmas presents. Here are some photos of the completed calendars, made to my specifications by Vistaprint:
Save for the front cover which does feature a composite image all the photos used were single pictures, and with no exceptions all were of things seen within walking distance of my flat in central King’s Lynn. Those of you who follow me on twitter will recognize the August photo, because that forms the basis of my current thank you message.
Maybe you have a talent that you can use to produce presents that only you could provide.
aspiblog 