Gulls – Page 11

A Tale of Two Rivers

It was the best of days, it was the worst of days: as so often the King’s Lynn weather could not quite decide what it was up to.

The two rivers of my title are the Great Ouse and the Nar, both of which I walked along some of yesterday. Rumours the spring is upon us may not be so far wide of the mark – I saw a privately owned boat at the Jetty on the Great Ouse in King’s Lynn…

A brief diversion to check in on my Aunt’s place in her absence, revealed that even the most familiar of surroundings can spring surprises – this cannon ball in the entrance way to Hampton Court that I had not previously noted…

“Cormorant Platform” revealed no cormorants, but some other sea birds…

I continued along the riverbank further than usual, passing the new road bridge (before this was built the river could be crossed either by ferry or by taking a 12 mile detour via Wiggenhall St Germans, and paying a punitive toll to the Barons of Rising – the ruling class were even more open about fleecing us in those days!) finding more stuff to photograph…

I spotted a position from which I could take “townscape” photos of King’s Lynn looking back down the river and bagged a couple…

Townscape 1 - can you ID all the landmarks in there? — Townscape 1 – can you ID all the landmarks in there?

Townscape 2 - with the zoom increased. — Townscape 2 – with the zoom increased.

I walked on past Palm Paper (first photograph of next series) and then just before leaving the Great Ouse (and far further inland than I would expect) I finally spotted a pair of cormorants…

The small section of walking between leaving the Great Ouse and joining the Nar produced only a few photos…

An unusual sight - a British roundabout and no traffic! — An unusual sight – a British roundabout and no traffic!

The South Lynn logo.

The Nar Valley way runs almost interrupted (save for the bit where it intersects with the Nar Valley Park development) from King’s Lynn to Dereham, so once I had hit the Nar I could follow it to the South Gate, and which point I diverged to head home through the parkland…

A distant view of the Nar Valley Park development.

A tributary of a tributary (the Nar ultimately flows into the Ouse at what I call Cormorant Platform)

A moorhen in the urban section of the Nar

Almost the last pic, and the only one of the day of Britain's soon to be national bird! — Almost the last pic, and the only one of the day of Britain’s soon to be national bird!

I had a go as a kind of tribute to this blog’s latest follower, Charlotte Hoather, at creating a ‘playlist’ to fit my themes:

The Birds by Ottorino Respighi, The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams,The First Cuckoo in Spring by Frederick Delius,The Banks of Green Willow by George Butterworth, Symphony no 6, The Pastoral by Ludwig Van Beethoven. As well as these there were naturally a couple of famous ‘river’ pieces the sprang instantly to mind, Vltava (Bedrich Smetana) and the Blue Danube (Johann Strauss II) – The Great Ouse when the sun is shining is bluer than the Danube ever is (and I have seen both).

A West Norfolk Walk and Britain’s National Bird

For those interested in birds, a vote is being taken to decide which will be Britain’s national bird. There is a shortlist of ten, from which I have voted for the Blackbird. For more details and/or to vote visit www.votenationalbird.com. Below is how I introduced this to my twitter followers…

Britiains National Bird

Yesterday afternoon I felt like varying things a bit, so I decided I would follow Bawsey Drain as far as possible, and did so until it hit the Gaywood River, at which point I followed that waterway until I reached Wootton Road, whence I headed back into town, via the Gaywood Clock. I finished up by walking through the parkland to Seven Sisters, past the South Gate and down to the Great Ouse via Hardings Pits, following the river as close as is permitted until reaching Devil’s Alley, which I diverged down as it was necessary to check in on my Aunt’s house and make sure all was OK. Having finished there I returned home by going down St Margaret’s Lane to the river and heading along the bank to the Lower Purfleet, which I followed into the heart of the town before crossing the bridge into Baker Lane car park and arriving back at my flat almosgt exactly three hours after departure.

My candidate for Britain’s national bird was much in evidence, as these pictures show…

There were many other birds in evidence as well, some of which I did justice to…

Of course, I also spotted some interesting architectural features…

For my penultimate set of pictures I am going to focus on the Great Ouse…

To end this post, although it came in the middle of the walk I will feature Gaywood’s principal landmark, a clock that is also a war memorial…

Bellerive Brings More History

The match between Scotland and Sri Lanka at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart is at the halfway stage and has already seen a record set and another equalled.

Kumar Sanggakara kept his appointment with a century, becoming the first to achieve the feat in four successive ODIs. His century was matched by one from Tillekaratne Dilshan and the main course was followed by an explosive 51 from Angelo Matthews as Sri Lanka ran up 363 from their 50 overs. In amongst this carnage Josh Davey took three wickets, taking him up to 14 for the tournament and temporarily leading wicket taker, one ahead of Trent ‘the conductor’ Boult. That figure of 14 wickets for the tournament also ties Eddo Brandes of Zimbabwe for most wickets ever taken by a bowler for an associate member at a world cup (in 1992 Zimbabwe had yet to be promoted to full member status).

The Bellerive seems to be a serendipitous ground for great things to happen at – it was here that Ireland edged out Zimbabwe in a thriller just a few days ago. The word serendipitous derives from the wondrous island encountered by Sindbad the Sailor in his sixth voyage, the Arabic name of which is rendered in English translation as Serendip, Serendib or Sarandib. The name by which this island is now known? Sri Lanka.

I do not see this game developing into a Zimbabwe v Ireland style thriller, especially with Kyle Coetzer, the Aberdonian with a South African surname having gone to the second ball of Scotland’s reply.

As those familiar with this blog know I never leave you without sharing some pictures…

Work on what will be the Northbound exit from the new bus station.

Gaywood Clock through the window of an X8.

A lacewing on the inside window of an X8 on the return journey.

A new dawn (something English cricket needs) breaking over King's Lynn — A new dawn (something English cricket needs) breaking over King’s Lynn

My new bathroom window - I also have secondary glazing on the High Street side of the flat. — My new bathroom window – I also have secondary glazing on the High Street side of the flat.

A glimpse into the Jewish Cemetery, Millfleet, King's Lynn — A glimpse into the Jewish Cemetery, Millfleet, King’s Lynn

These swans, swimming in the Nar, were a trifle uncooperative.

Moorhen about to take the plunge... — Moorhen about to take the plunge…

...And now happily swimming. — …And now happily swimming.

KLASS and the Cricket World Cup

A week today is the date of the next meeting of the Kings Lynn Asperger Support Society. We will be meeting at the Lattice House on Chapel Street from 6PM. Our April meeting will be a week later than usual, on the second Monday of the month, because April 6th is Easter Monday. We will be moving to our summer venue of the quayside near the Lower Purfleet, which gives us the back up option should the weather decline to co-operate of ducking into Marriott’s Warehouse (what – British weather decline to co-operate – surely not!). I have produced an information sheet using Word, which I have then turned into a JPG for online usage (already shared with my twitter followers)…

KLASS

This is the original photo of the Lattice House used in the document.

This is the original photo of Marriott's used in the document. — This is the original photo of Marriott’s used in the document.

The Cricket World Cup is still in full swing. Recently we have witnessed India thrashing South Africa, Sri Lanka just sneaking home courtesy of a magnificent innings from Mahela jayawardene against Afghanistan who continue to do the associate nations and themselves proud and England finally demonstrating that they have not completely forgotten how to play the game they invented. On that last however, a victory over a Scotland team whose bowling had about as much venom as an earthworm is nothing to be shouting about. I for one would not be prepared to put money (even had I such a commodity) on England getting the better of Afghanistan and Bangladesh as they need to to progress. In many ways actually, falling at the first hurdle would be better for England than a reprise of 1996 where they reached the quarter finals having beaten the non test playing nations in their group and not looked remotely like beating any test playing opposition and were then thoroughly humiliated by Sri Lanka in the quarter final. An elimination at the first stage cannot be window dressed so it would mean reality having be looked squarely in the eye. A few final pics…

Guist post office (approx 5 miles from Fakenham), viewed through the window of an X29 bus

St Ann's House - directly opposite St Nicholas Chapel — St Ann’s House – directly opposite St Nicholas Chapel

Where 38 Degrees members will be meeting on Saturday for NHS related action.

The flag flying from the Guildhall on Saturday.

Similar size and shape to mallard drake but very different colouring.

Of Birds, Local Heritage and Rugby

I will start with the local heritage. I had the opportunity at my aunt’s house yesterday before the rugby started to photograph a modern replica cast iron piece that was made from the original…

Although there were other contenders, so remarkable was yesterday photograph wise this is the feature image.

In the first of the rugby matches, England eventually ran out comfortable winners, although Italy scored first through Sergio Parisse and kept things close for about the first hour (and would have been close still had they possessed a number 10 with a functioning boot – whatever other merits he possesses ex-Kiwi Kelly Haimona is a liability in this area) but England, just as Ireland had been last week were too strong for Italy in the end. The second game between Ireland and France was much less of a spectacle. Ireland managed to win, thereby ratcheting up the stakes for the game in two weeks time between Ireland and England. There was one very serious misdemeanour by a French player in that match, when he gave one of the Irish guys a vicious knee in the back. Somewhat surprisingly the referee only deemed this worthy of a yellow and ten minutes in the sin bin. Personally, given how badly the Irishman could be affected by the blow, I think it should have been red, end of the French offender’s participation in the match and indeed of this years Six Nations.

Although it was dark by the time the Rugby ended, I had been out and about earlier in the day and snagged some good pics – I also got one on my home…

The front of King's Lynn Minster, beautifully lit up. — The front of King’s Lynn Minster, beautifully lit up.

Birds, Buildings and Quilts

Some historic buildings, a quilt and some birds plus a notice from the Environment Agency.

The title is a reference to what I have been photographing over the weekend. To start with some of the buildings:

1)Greyfriars Tower, all that remains above ground of the Franciscan priory…

This is a montage created for putting up on twitter, the rest of the gallery follows... — This is a montage created for putting up on twitter, the rest of the gallery follows…

2) King’s Lynn Public Library…

Once again, we start with a montage... — Once again, we start with a montage…

3)Custom House…

4)The Red Mount Chapel, Guanock Gate and various interesting bits of buildings…

I chose to include this with the buildings, although it also features birds!

The quilt reference is to a very elaborate quilt that my aunt made and will be submitting to a competition, for which she required photographs of it. I have provided two versions of each picture, one with very little editing, and one with much more editing….

The first five images of this quilt are the fully edited ones.

These next five images have been cropped but not fully edited.

Now we have some bird images…

To finish, a notice from the Environment Agency…

The First Fruits of My New Camera

My new camera was ready for collection today, and since picking it up I have been enjoying myself testing it out. For comparison purposes before going into the main set of pictures here are the images for Lot 723 in our February auction, the last set of pictures I took with the Samsung…

For the rest: Camera Nova Ipse Loquatur (Let the new camera speak for itself)!

This panel is quite attractive. Pity about the building it belongs to - £1.2 billion tax dodger B**ts — This panel is quite attractive. Pity about the building it belongs to – £1.2 billion tax dodger B**ts

Stage one of sorting out this disaster should involve the use of a wrecking ball!

Victory in Cumbria

The text is mainly devoted to celebrating a big success in Cumbria. As usual there are some good pictures form in and around King’s Lynn.

What is this victory in Cumbria that I have used as the title for the post? Well, this body text should make all clear:

“19 Jan 2015 — FANTASTIC NEWS!! We had the meeting this morning and we got the yes we’ve been fighting for! Mike can now stay in the best home for him, in his local community and a street away from my mum! This has been a hard fight so thank you so very very much, without you we couldn’t have done it!! My brother deserves the best which is what we have got. Thankyou so much! xxxx”

My involvement in this was courtesy of an online petition circulated via change.org. For more details please click the following link: https://www.change.org/p/national-health-service-cumbria-give-mike-a-chance-to-live-in-a-home-near-his-family-in-wigton-cumbria I have already shared this FANTASTIC news with my twitter followers on @aspitweets

If you read this, you will see that although this was a small, local campaign, it was of great importance, and as such the victory is worth celebrating.

It was cold today, to the extent that I have some shots of gulls walking on water…

This sequence of ten shots all show gulls walking on water.

I have plenty of other pics, some of which are worth sharing…

A classic FA Cup match and Some Other Stuff.

Last night’s FA Cup 3rd round match between AFC Wimbledon and Liverpool was thoroughly enjoyable. Although two goals from Steven Gerrard were enough to prevent what would have been an almighty upset, there were moments in the match when memories strayed back to 1988.

The BBC’s Assistant Political Editor, Norman Smith suffered yesterday for parroting the Tory line, a hecklers shout of “Get back to London” being one of the politer comments. The full story can be read at: http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/01/06/pillock-bbc-reporters-duff-nhs-question-makes-milibands-day/

One of the pictures I tweeted yesterday on @aspitweets was of one of the new buildings at Hillington Square, and I received a response from the official Hillington Square twitter account, @HillingtonSq thanking me for doing so.

I have plenty of photos to share…

From yesterday in King's Lynn. — From yesterday in King’s Lynn.

No not the Hillington Square shot mentioned in the text - this was taken a day later. — No not the Hillington Square shot mentioned in the text – this was taken a day later.

The Hillington Square shot that was praised on twitter.

Winter Sun and the Lower Purfleet Freezes Over.

We are in a post Christmas cold snap. There has been nothing yet to approach the icebergs on the Great Ouse of half a century ago, but at 11:30AM today under a bright sun the lower Purfleet was frozen. Birds of various species have been enjoying the conditions in spite of the cold. “Cormorant Platform” where the Nar joins the Ouse had no fewer than nine visitors today.

I have two days worth of pics to share with you (got some good ones yesterday too)…

This is the first of today's images. — This is the first of today’s images.

The next two images show the improvements happening at Hillington Square.

Behold - the lower Purfleet frozen! — Behold – the lower Purfleet frozen!

	Thomas on World T20 Cup Underway
	Anna on World T20 Cup Underway
	London Underground t… on Project Piccadilly
	Thomas on All Time XIs – Detective…
	Anna on All Time XIs – Detective…