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…
Some photographic highlights from in and around King’s Lynn and a coin used as case study in editing techniques.
This post features some of my recent pictures of King’s Lynn’s thriving bird life, and also some pictures of a coin that I use to demonstrate the different degrees of editing to which a picture might be submitted.
The title of this section both refers to its contents and pays tribute to Italian composer Ottorino Respighi one of whose pieces has this title. Every bird you see pictured here was within walking distance of my town centre flat, in some cases very close indeed.
Of course it was not only birds that caught the eye while I was out and about on these occasions…
On Tuesday I happened to notice that one of the coins with which I was going to pay my bus fare was one that had been issued to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, so I photographed it while waiting for the bus to arrive. Later while editing the shot I decided to use it to demonstrate various editing techniques…
As well as my title piece I have a variety of links, some infographics and some photos of my own to share…
We are enjoying the best weather of the year so far – yesterday was an authentic shorts and t-shirt day and today looks like following suit. On Saturday, which was prevented from rivalling yesterday only by persistent strong winds, Leicestershire played a one-day match (50 overs per side) against New Zealand. When New Zealand were 153-5 it looked like being a decent contest, but then Grant Elliott and Luke Ronchi smashed extremely rapid centuries to boost to the total to a daunting 374-5. Leicestershire were never in the hunt, and in the end only just got the margin of defeat down below 200 runs.
Yesterday, Leicestershire were straight back in action, against Surrey in the county championship, and although the turn around was not so dramatic, they again let a good start get away from them, as Tom Curran swiped 60 from number 9 in the order for Surrey. Leciestershire regained some of the ground they had surrendered when, Surrey having finally been dismissed, their openers then saw things through to the close without mishap.
The first infographic (of a total of four) that I choose to share is this one on domestic violence:
Infographics two and three both concern the case of Stephanie Bottrill, just one of the idiotic delusional sociopath’s (IDS for short) many victims…
To end this little section a bit of humour concerning the Republicans…
My first link is to a story from the Newark Advertiser featuring yet another example of DWP cruelty.
Next comes an announcement of a victory – the preservation of London’s only floating bookstore.
My next link comes with a couple of pictures, and is brought to you courtesy of Cosmos Up and features the Hubble telescope.
My next link is to a blog I have only just come across which looks both interesting and important, by someone called Eve Thomas – the post that caught my attention being this one.
This story from the Humphrey Cushion blog shows Nadine Dorries in an even poorer light than usual.
From Avaaz comes this petition against TTIP, which I urge you all to sign and share.
That is all my general links, but I also have a couple that I have given their own subsection, which relate to…
The first of the two links in this section is a blog that I had not previously come across, mylifemyautism, run by Dr Marquis Grant who I came across on twitter.
From a new find to an old favourite, my final link is to this post from Autism Mom.
Just before ending this post with some pictures, I thank everyone who has read this post, hope you have all enjoyed it and that you will be encouraged to share it. The first two pictures relate to a Cosmos Up story concerning the possibility of microbial life on Mars, while the rest are mine, all taken yesterday…
First up some important pointers for you…
LINKS
First and most important, I have been helping with a research project by an American. If you have Asperger’s Syndrome and are a social media user (and would be willing to answer some questions about these things), Rocio Watkins would like to hear from you. She can be contacted by email: rwatkins11@apu.edu
For bird fanciers there is an excellent and informative piece about the Himalayan Griffon courtesy of Phuket Birdwatching.
I provided links to several views on the Tory plans to extend Right to Buy to housing association properties, but I think this one is also worth a look on left futures.
The Guardian has an excellent piece about disability rights, focussing on the work of Lee Ridley.
The latest news on activities by the Tory Department of Dirty Tricks comes from Mike Sivier of Vox Political.
On the same theme, a humorous piece from Glynis Millward.
My final offering is an excoriating piece about a horrow show officially known as The “Gay Conversion Therapy” conference. John P Ointon, whose blog Notes from the North is a regular source of good material and who has reblogged me on a few occasions (so he has good taste alround!) provided this savage (but very amusing) account.
Butterflies
I am not suggesting, let alone stating, that these are the first butterflies I have seen in 2015, but they are the first that have been around long enough for me to catch them on camera. I have used one of them as a basis for the very latest version of my twitter thank you message. Most of them are of brightly coloured butterflies, but did also get a pure white one…
Of course, it was not just butterflies in evidence on this walk. There were lots of other photograph worthy sights, some of which I will conclude this post by showing you…
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…
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…
As I prepare for another day at work, I am listening to commentary from the Cricket World Cup. Bangladesh are giving a good account of themselves against New Zealand in Hamilton, while in between rain breaks in Sydney England look like finishing a truly appalling world cup campaign with victory over Afghanistan (maybe they should accept Cricket Japan’s invite to stop by for a few games on the way home!)
The pictures I will be sharing at various points in this post are from two sources, imaging for the March Auction (now practically complete) and some pics from in and around King’s Lynn. At some point in the future I will be putting up a post about architectural features to be found in the village of East Rudham, having recently taken some good pics there.
A lot of the imaging I did on Tuesday was of banknotes in albums, but a few other bits got in there as well…
My Wednesday morning walk was fitted in between the cricket commentary finishing and meeting my mother to go to East Rudham for lunch, photographing architecture, providing a tutorial in MS Access and finally playing bridge at the Jolly Sailors. This latter was enjoyable in spite of the fact that I had the kind of luck that should be toasted in extra bitter Fernet Branca!. At 5p a hundred I ended up £1.30 down on the evening – and on the three hands on which I was declarer I made two of the contracts and went one down undoubled on the other. Here are some of the highlights from the walk…
I will finish by showing you some images from yesterday’s mop-up operation…
The best match of the 2015 Cricket World Cup so far took place at the Bellerive Oval, Hobart this morning GB time. Ireland, with a century from Ed Joyce and 97 from Andrew Balbirnie reached 331-8. In reply Zimbabwe fought brilliantly, and at various times, not least when they took 19 from the 49th over, bowled by Kevin O’Brien, to leave themselves needing seven of six balls, they looked like favourites for what have been the largest successful chase in World Cup history. Alex Cusack kept a cool head, and put the finishing touches to a fine bowling performance by capturing the two remaining Zimbabwe wickets for the addition of a single, in three balls. A full scorecard can be viewed by clicking here. Having set the scene with this opening account I will share some pictures before moving on…
Not only was that match a classic, featuring quality performances from many players, but the eventual result means that Ireland have now won three matches at this tournament, and are very well placed to progress to the quarter finals. The only disappointment to me was that the Player of the Match Award went boringly (and in my opinion wrongly) to Ed Joyce for his hundred when the key to Ireland’s victory was the cool head under pressure displayed by Alex Cusack. Having witnessed this amazing match I am more convinced than ever that the ICC would be utterly wrong to reduce associate nation involvement in the World Cup. My response to Aakash Chopra who gets to publicise his ideas on www.cricinfo.com and who believes that the World Cup should be reduced to ten teams and that the associates should concentrate on getting to play more matches against full members outside of world cups is twofold. First he is guilty of presenting a false dichotomy: it is not a case of either or – i would like to see both more matches between full members and associates outside of world cups and greater associate participation in World Cups. Whether he is guilty of any offence beyond sloppy logic I am not prepared to say, but it is only in cricket that anyone argues for a smaller world cup. My thoughts on how the Cricket World Cup should be formatted can be viewed by clicking here.
Congratulations to Ireland on a magnificent performance. Before sharing some more pictures I will comment on nations who first entered the world cup as associates and are now full members:
Sri Lanka – played 1975 and 1979 as associates before being granted full membership – Won in 1996 (a feat never achieved by England), Runners up in 2011.
Zimbabwe – made world cup debut in 1983 as an associate,promoted to full membership in 1992 – beat Australia in their first ever world cup match, nearly beat India (eventual champions), later in that competition, and in 1999 when England were ejected from their own party embarrassingly early came with an ace of qualifying for the semi-final.
Bangladesh – No great highlights yet, but are going fairly well this time, and there is at least one person who would not be in the least surprised were they to end up progressing further than England.
Now for the second batch of pictures…
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The wind was sufficiently high for there to be waves on the Great Ouse, the sky at its best was leaden, and still I managed two walks around King’s Lynn today, one either side of lunch which was at the new Mediterrenean restaurant on King’s Lynn High Street. I have some good photos for you (albeit still with my second best camera)…
Yesterday started with another walk around King’s Lynn, with attendant photo opportunities. A Sunday lunch in East Rudham followed, and then a stroll home from my aunt’s by way of the riverside. My personal twitter account is booming at present – long my it continue. Enjoy some photos (even with the old camera they are not so bad!)…
I am only putting this up because I have some cracking photos to share including some poppy pics that I will be putting on the Great Centenary Charity Auction’s facebook and twitter, where we are on the verge of reaching 150 followers. Enjoy these pics…
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