Midweek Mixture

Today it is mainly about the photos, but I make a mention (and link to) this year’s number one in the Classic FM hall of fame – Karl Jenkins’ “The Armed Man – a Mass for Peace” in the intro.

Today has been warm and sunny (to the the extent that for the first time in 2026 I have been out and about in short sleeves), and I have lots of photographs to share. Over the Easter weekend the Classic FM Hall of Fame countdown happened – the top 300 pieces of classical music as voted for by listeners. Though the county cricket had most of my attention I listened to the last stage of each day. I mention this because this year for the first time in the history of the countdown (now 31 years) the number one slot went to a living composer – Karl Jenkins’ “The Armed Man – a Mass for Peace” (click here for a recording) gaining the accolade.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Now for those photographs…

Match Drawn at Edgbaston

A look at day four in the county championship and a photo gallery.

Today was the fourth and final day of the first round of County Championship 2026 fixtures. This post looks at events in the match between Warwickshire and Surrey.

A GREAT PARTNERSHIP

Surrey resumed today on 169-3, still 47 runs short of avoiding an innings defeat. There were some close calls early in the day, but both Jamie Smith and Dan Lawrence batted very well, and by lunch, with the fourth wicket pair still in residence, the draw was already looking the likeliest outcome. The pair went on to break a record that had stood since 1906, for the biggest fourth wicket partnership for Surrey against Warwickshire. By the time Chris Woakes took a catch off Rob Yates to dismiss Smith for 132 the score had climbed to 366, and any result other than a draw looked very unlikely indeed. By the tea interval the score had risen to 390-4, and it was just a question of when hands would finally be shaken. In the event it took another hour and 57 more runs before the moment arrived. Dan Lawrence was undefeated on 161, and at the other end Ben Foakes who had saved Surrey from a disastrous start on day one was unbeaten on 36. Surrey had scored 288-1 on this final day. The pitch, lively on day one, seemed very flat indeed by the end of day four. Nevertheless both sides have reasons to be pleased. For Warwickshire there was Dan Mousley’s first championship hundred, especially significant in that while their bowling depth was obvious for all to see some had had questions about the batting, and 50+ scores from a number of their other players. For Surrey there were three individual tons (Foakes, Smith, Lawrence), a new career best score from Tom Lawes, and considerable resilience demonstrated on two occasions, first recovering from 65-6 to post 328 in the first innings, and then batting very well to secure the draw after what they themselves admitted had been a poor bowling display. I would expect both these sides to be near the top come the end of the season – both have considerable bowling resources, and as both showed in this match, they can bat more than adequately. |Essex and Sussex have each recorded victories in their opening games, Somerset and Nottinghamshire drew their match, and rounding out division one Yorkshire and Glamorgan are still playing, though a draw looks likely there.

PHOTOGRAPHY

My usual sign off…

Warwickshire Take 216 Run First Innings Lead

A look at the latest developments in Warwickshire v Surrey and a photo gallery.

Today is day three of the opening round of county championship fixtures for the 2026 season. This post looks at what has been happening between Warwickshire and Surrey.

THE DAYS EVENTS

Sam Hain was the first to fall on day three, trapped LBW by Matt Fisher for 94. Mousley continued his impressive play of the previous day until he fell for 144, caught by Rory Burns off James Taylor. That was 394-4. Warwickshire skipper Ed Barnard looked in magnificent form until Burns caught him off Fisher for 25. Aussie Beau Webster became the fifth Warwickshire player to top 50 in the innings before being pinned LBW by Tom Lawes. Numbers 7,8 and 9 in the Warwickshire order, Kai Smith, Chris Woakes and Jordan Thompson, all fell to 18 year old left arm spin bowling all rounder Ralphie Albert, Smith to a catch by Foakes, Woakes clean bowled and Thompson caught by Fisher. Thompson’s dismissal ended the innings, with Ethan Bamber having been LBW to Taylor for 11. Warwickshire thus ended on 544, a first innings advantage of 216. Albert’s figures were 20.3-1-80-3, splendid in such a huge total. The only Surrey bowler to be more economical than Albert was Australian veteran Sean Abbott, whose right arm seam yielded 25-4-74-1.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Pictures from Norfolk

A gallery of recent photos.

The weather has been fine in my part of the world of late, apart from Friday which was dull and grey. I thus have lots of pictures to share, and not being inspired to think of things to write about I offer up this gallery:

One of the villains of the natural world – an ichneumon wasp (this variety lays its eggs in a caterpillar, which then gets eaten from the inside by the larvae).

The Six Nations 2026

A look at the state of the Six Nations as the tournament nears its end.

The 2026 Six Nations rugby tournament is approaching its conclusion. This post looks at the remaining possibilities.

IRELAND v SCOTLAND

Three teams came into today with a chance of winning the trophy – Scotland, Ireland and France. Scotland needed to beat Ireland and hope for a favour from England, who face France in the last match of the tournament tonight. In the event Ireland were in control virtually the whole way through the match, although Scotland reduced the deficit to five points midway through the second half. Ireland finished strongly, and the final score was Ireland 43 Scotland 21. Ireland sit top of the table at present.

WALES v ITALY

Wales are guaranteed the wooden spoon having lost all four of their matches so far and managed only one bonus point. Even if they win they will be behind current second last place side England. A win for Italy on the other hand would ensure them fourth spot ahead of England (they cannot catch Scotland, now in third place, whatever happens.

FRANCE v ENGLAND

Any win will be enough for France to lift the trophy since they have a much better ‘points difference’ than Ireland, and this is used as the tie-splitter. A bonus point win (scoring four tries or more) would avoid the need for tie-splitting. They are level on points with Scotland as things stand, so only the vanishingly (almost worthy of using Dan Dennett’s “Vanishingly” with the V capitalized, from “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea”!) small chance of England winning by 80 points or more, which would put Scotland ahead of France on ‘points difference’ could see them below Scotland. England have had an awful tournament by their standards, losing to Scotland, Ireland and Italy and beating Wales, but if Italy lose against Wales and they record a bonus point win over France they will slide into fourth out of six. It has been a splendid Six Nations overall, and either France or Ireland would be worthy winners.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Scorchers Win BBL15

A brief account of today’s BBL Final and a photo gallery.

Today saw the final of the 15th edition of the men’s Big Bash League. The match featured the two most successful franchises in the history of the competition, Perth Scorchers and Sydney Sixers, at the former’s home ground since they had won the league stage of the tournament.

ONE WAY TRAFFIC

Scorchers won the bat flip, put Sixers in to bat and went about things utterly ruthlessly thereafter. Other than Steve Smith early on with 24 from 13 balls none of the Sixers batters really got going against some fine Scorchers bowling. David Payne, an English left arm seamer, was the star with 3-18 from his four overs, and he was a little unlucky those figures weren’t even better – Joel Davies was saved from becoming his fourth victim when a replay indicated that a diving catch in the deep had not in fact been cleanly taken. Sixers had only managed 132-9 from their 20 overs. Scorchers never looked in any danger of not scoring the runs. Although they made slightly heavy weather of finishing the job they still had six wickets and 2.3 overs in hand when Josh Inglis finished things with a six off Ben Dwarshuis, which is a thrashing in anyone’s language. Scorchers have now won six of the 15 editions of this tournament.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This Egret provided lots of pictures, as you will see…

Cardiff Caper

A look at yesterday’s Women’s Six nations clash between Wales and England and a photo gallery.

Yesterday in the women’s Six Nations rugby England travelled to Cardiff to take on Wales at the Principality Stadium. England has won comfortably in their opener against Italy, but the Italians had given a good account of themselves in the second half, albeit one not reflected by them scoring many points of their own. Thus they went to Cardiff looking for a complete performance, not just another win.

THE FIRST HALF

Wales started fast, with Jenni Scoble scoring the first try of the match, which was duly converted. England hit back hard with three tries in the next ten minutes, the first from Meg Jones, not merely possessed of a Welsh surname but an actual Welsh speaker. The second try was scored by Sarah Bern, by dint of sheer power. With 27 minutes on the clock Feaunati scored her second try of the match and England’s fourth to secure the bonus point. That was it for first half scoring, but it was clear that holding England at bay was the limit of Welsh capabilities.

THE SECOND HALF

If the first half had been impressive the second half was downright frightening from England, as they absolutely steamrollered the home side. First Ellie Kildunne showed why she is rated by many as the best female rugby player on the planet right now by scoring a hat trick of tries in the space of about ten minutes. Abby Dow was the next to make her presence felt, scoring England’s eighth try. Try number nine came from Abi Burton, who has been through health problems of sufficient magnitude that at one point she was in an induced coma. Dow scored her second, which took England to 60 points. Then in the dying embers of the match Burton, only on the field for seven minutes, scored the second try of an astonishing international debut, with the conversion ending the match. The final score was Wales 12 England 67, and England were not especially flattered by that score line. This tournament, at least for England, is really a warm-up for the upcoming world cup, of which England are hosts. On the evidence of this performance few would dare to bet against the home side lifting that trophy.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Pensthorpe – The Trailer Ride

Completing my account of the WNAG visit to Pensthorpe a week ago with the trailer ride.

Welcome to the final post in my series (posts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 can be viewed by clicking the appropriate number). about the West Norfolk Autism Group trip to Pensthorpe. This post deals with the trailer ride (we had two booked, and I was on the second at 12 noon).

THE JOURNEY

There are some parts of Pensthorpe that cannot be accessed on foot, and others that sufficiently far from the starting point that doing so would take a very long time. The vehicle that pulls the trailer is a Land Rover Defender. In the course of the journey one sees some of the farm area, both old and new growth woodland, lakes, ponds that are a remnant of the last ice age and nesting sites of one sort and another for birds and bats. We got a glimpse of the Aberdeen Angus cattle but not the longhorns that they also have. The route takes in parts of two former railway routes which crossed the land – one was part of a major railway company, the other a smaller local route, and both were killed by Beeching in the 1960s. We also saw a family of greylag geese, with six youngsters. On a day like we had the absence of shelter was never an issue, and being in such an open vehicle did make photography easier. If you do not do the trailer ride you will never have anything close to a complete picture of Pensthorpe.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my photographs from the trailer ride…

Musical Keys and Birds

A brief account of Musical Keys and some bird pictures.

INTRODUCTION

Saturday was a music day, and I have plenty of pictures to share from recent days.

MUSICAL KEYS – THE KORG

These sessions are organised for the benefit of autistic people, so before I get into the meat of this section here is stimtheline’s magnificent Autistic Bill of Rights:

The Korg is a very sophisticated machine (for classical music enthusiasts it looks a 21st century version of a clavichord, but it does so much more). I will let the photographs tell the story (I got most of these by playing with my left hand while using the camera with my right FYI):

BIRDS OF ALL SIZES

We start with the largest bird to be a regular feature of life in Britain – the mute swan:

Next we come to a much smaller species, which I have not previously captured on camera, a little wader called a turnstone (I seem to recall that a few years back The Lynn News had a columnist who used Turnstone as a nom de plume):

Further along the Great Ouse and on the side of the river were a few specimens of a larger bird that is not a regular sight in these parts – the greylag goose:

We end with a couple of cormorant shots:

Scotland – Ferry Cottage and Environs

The .latest in my series of Scottish posts.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest installment in my series about my holiday in Scotland. This one deals with the immediate area around the house where we were staying. It features pictures from a small walk on the Saturday evening, a longer walk on Sunday morning and the house itself.

FERRY COTTAGE

Ferry Cottage is part of a large estate, the Balmacara Estate, which was given to National Trust Scotland in lieu of death duties in 1946 and has been administered by them ever since. As the name suggests a Ferry service used to run from just outside it. Here are some pictures…

Map, Ferry Cottage — The first of two maps on display at Ferry Cottage

View from window FC — A view through the kitchen/diner/sitting room area

THE FIRST WALK – LOCHALSH HOUSE AND BALMACARA SQUARE

Lochalsh House was pretty much rebuilt in the 1930s – a total of £230,000 was spent on it then, and it reflects that heritage.

Lochalsh House1 — Lochalsh House through the treers

Having seen Lochalsh house we went back in the other direction, and walked by way of a Visitor’s Centre to Balmacara Square…

WALK TWO – RERAIG

On Sunday morning we walked to the village of Reraig where newspapers and food can be bought. Rather than retrace our steps we walked back along the foreshore of the loch (under British law no one can own foreshore). Here are the pictures…

Reraig info board — Info board in Reraig

P1000378 — One of many and various shells I saw – there is a special post coming about this aspect.

AMONG THE ROCKS
OUTSIDE FERRY COTTAGE

I subsequently ventured out again although I did not go very far. Here are the pictures…

	Round Three of the 2… on The Headingley Heist
	Maiden County Ton fo… on Cricket Season Underway
	Aoteroa Axed by Ahme… on South Africa Finnished as Alle…
	Thomas on World T20 Cup Underway
	Anna on World T20 Cup Underway

INTRODUCTION

MUSICAL KEYS – THE KORG

BIRDS OF ALL SIZES

INTRODUCTION

FERRY COTTAGE

THE FIRST WALK – LOCHALSH HOUSE AND BALMACARA SQUARE

WALK TWO – RERAIG

AMONG THE ROCKS OUTSIDE FERRY COTTAGE

AMONG THE ROCKS
OUTSIDE FERRY COTTAGE