My photo of the day! A limestone gravestone ravaged by acid rain erosion and almost completely obliterated! Yorkshire September 2007.

I am going to stay with my friends in Hungary the day after tomorrow and hope to take more photos there and publish some of them here - Watch this space!

Dazzle Ships

I have been fascinated for some time by the succesful use of Dazzle Camouflage on ships during the First World War. Because of the development of radar by the time of the second war, Dazzle camouflage was not a realistic option, but earlier the complex broken lines meant that enemy submarines could not accurately judge distances and directions. No ships and few photos survive, but the World War I dazzle ships definitely earned their place in Art History - See Wikipedi link above.

A Christmas Carol

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/dec/17/christmas-carol-tobacco-factory-review

On the Evening of New Year’s Day we went to see the production of The Tobacco Factory version of the famous Charles Dickens story – A Christmas Carol. It was a wonderful Christmas treat, full of good acting from all the enthusiastic cast and in the intimate space of the theatre: an appreciative audience of all ages, children, parents and grandparents. The little theatre is good for this intimate experience, Scrooge's bed, huge on the little stage was visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and yet to come in the hope that he, Scrooge mends his miserly ways and in the end he is redeemed and does see the error of his former ways. Bob Crachett and his family were able in the end to welcome him to their Christmas meal and we could feel almost sorry for the old humbug Scrooge who had been severely rattled by his nocturnal visitors.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Season's Greetings!

May I wish all my visitors to my Blog the compliments of the season and very best wishes for the comin year.

Christmas Comedy TV

Last night, Channel 5 on UK TV had a three hour long programme devoted to TV’s Greatest Christmas Comedy Moments – I watched most of it and revelled in the rich pickings offered and I will probably watch again when the show repeats on Christmas Eve.
It showed a wonderful variety of writing and acting talent that brought back many chuckles and even belly laughs as I watched familiar and not so familiar shows. There were scenes from Only Fools and Horses, Dad's Army and The Office. Famous Christmas Special moments such as the Morecambe and Wise Show with the newsreader Angela Rippon dancing, Dawn French having too many Christmas dinners as she goes around her parishioners in her guise as the Vicar of Dibley, and from Only Fools and Horses the amazement of Del and Rodney when the sale of their forgotten Harrison watch is sells at auction for millions of pounds, changing their lives forever. OK, perhaps not a very highbrow show and quite predictabled, but one to remind one of the great depth of comedy talent that TV has brought us over many years. Old friends that I had met as guests at my parents’ home in Highgate appeared. Paul Eddington in The Good Life, Graham Crowden in Porridge as the Doctor at Slade Prison telling Fletcher that he’s malingering. Many more too that had me chuckling my way to bed last night. I will try to record the re-run of this programme on Christmas Eve.

My World List! December 2008

Before my memory goes completely and as a reminder so that future plans may be made to visit other counties or of course to revisit old favourites, here is a life list of countries visited so far!


England
Wales
Scotland
Argentina
Australia
Bahamas
Bermuda
Colombia
Denmark
Falkland Islands
Fiji
France
Germany
Greece
Holland
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Malta
Mexico
Monaco
Norway
Panama
Portugal
South Africa
South Georgia
Spain
Sweden
Tunisia
Venezuela

AND Antarctica

Canada
Ontario
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
Alberta
British Columbia
Quebec

USA
New York
Washington
Washington DC
Montana
Idaho
Louisiana
Oregon
Colorado
Wyoming
Missouri
Arizona
Florida
Hawaii
New Jersey

Brunel and Bristol

This is an interesting audio-slide show from the BBC on the subject of Robert Howlett - remembered as the photographer of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his achievements, many of which are evident around Bristol to this day.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7753000/7753202.stm

Well worth a look!

Richard III

This little lead, hand-painted figure is one given to my late father on the set, while father was making the film Richard III with Lawrence Olivier back in 1955. Filming was done in Spain and so some scenes show typical Spanish skies and olive trees, rather than the green countryside of England around Bosworth Field. Nevertheless the film, recently digitally remastered on DVD is an epic of its genre and has wonderful performances from the cast. My father took the part of the Duke of Norfolk and this little model is of him in his court costume. Presumably the artist presented models to other actors in the cast, but I have no further information. I will try to add photos from the film but at this moment have not copied any to my computer.

Now obtained! My father on left - Lawrence Olivier on the right.

England Expects...

One of the most interesting books in my library is a copy of the International Code of Signals published for the use of ships at sea by the British Board of Trade in 1899. I don’t know when or if later editions were published but there was, presumably not much further use of flag messaging after the invention of radio and signalling by morse code.
“Every schoolboy knows” that before the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 Admiral Nelson sent a message to his fleet using flag hoists which read “England expects that every man will do his duty”. My book has various sections, dealing with phrases, individual words, national flags, places around the world. The end papers contain fascinating advertisements of use to shipmasters such as “McInnes’s Anti-corrosive and Anti-fouling Compositions for Ships’ Bottoms. As used by Principal Companies at Home and Abroad. Contracts to the Admiralty. Sole Manufacturers: John McInnes & Son, 13 North Street, Liverpool. Another example: John Phillips & Co, 17 Anderston Quay, Glasgow, advertising cooking apparatus for use in steam ships.
Next time the Antiques Roadshow comes to Bristol I will try to take it for a valuation, hoping that it has increased from the fifteen shillings (£0.75) I originally paid for it, about 40 years ago!

From the three-letter codebook:-
KCQ – Crew have mutinied.
INP – I have been chased by disguised war vessel.
ETN – Do not approach the coast as it is mined!

Greetings from AEQC (Bristol)

The New President

I stayed up late last night watching the BBC's coverage of the US Presidential Election. Gripping stuff! Once it was a forgone conclusion that Barrack Obama was winning the race, I eventually went to bed. I now find that he has secured a landslide victory and general congratulation from most quarters. What a task confronts him though! Moving to see the joyful tears of Jesse Jackson, the excitement of young America of all colours, even the support and graciousness of those he defeated. Interesting times! Good luck America!
One more thought! - I will greatly miss the memorable gaffes and faux-pas of George W who was so worryingly ignorant about so much of the world.

Allt y Rhiw

http://www.struttandparker.com/property-for-sale/oswestry-shropshire/property_SBY080191.html

Update on the old homestead.
Mr & Mrs Whitthread, who bought my parent's property at auction three years ago have decided to sell it again. I gather that despite all the impr improvements to the home, that they are, sadly, planning to divorce and sell the house. The above link has all the details. It originally went on the market at £750,000 but I see that the price is now reduced to £695k. I am sure someone will snap it up before long.

The Wheelbarrow Graveyard

In September I booked myself onto a couse at a school of painting run by a cousin of mine who has been gaining a name for himself as a Welsh painter, sculptor and printmaker. He runs the courses from his old watermill on the banks of the River Banwy in Mid-Wales, in the old county of Montgomeryshire. Accommodation was in the cottage next to the mill, and three other students and I assembled for lessons and practical sessions which were enjoyed immednsly. David is very knowledgeable and was encouraging even going so far as to praise some of my efforts.

Down the gap between the old mill and one of the studios there is a patch of rough ground which fascinated me. In it, there are various bits of timber, roof slates pots, a mannequin's leg and other random discarded items, but most intriguing was the number of deceased wheelbarrows. Not just one or two but four or five in various stages of decay or overgrowth. There are three in the above photo but behind me there were more. I thought of the Time Team archaeologists in centuries to come, digging down to find so many of these strange objects in one place, and thought of sketching the yard myself but in the event only took photos. A few metres away from the graveyard was a pond and here many waterboatmen, curious litte insects that skim accross the surface of the water among the duckweed! Another photo opportunity!

I have returned!!

Though I have been regularly checking for my e-mails by using the public access PCs at the local library in Filton, at long last and with the diligent help of Ibi during her recent visit, I am now back "Up and running" with a new Dell Inspiron laptop and good internet connection. I have been away from the blog too long and my typing, never good anyway, needs more practice. Please forgive any typos! I will publish more later and I would like to thank all my recent visitors who have looked for me here over the last three months but have found nothing new to look at. I'll do my best and try to have a few words and interesting pictures added on a regular basis. More later....

Quick Mesage!

My PC is sick! A virus is suspected, anyway I'm here in the local Library so I'm still mnore or less in contact with the world until my PC shop has sorted out the bugs. Back soon I hope!

Return of the Humpback

Good News for once from Nora Schultz in today's issue of New Scientist, though the comment from Thilo Maack of Greenpeace expecting Japan to call for a resumption of whaling operation is sad.

Four decades after their hunting was banned in 1966, the humpback whale seems to have finally swum clear of the danger zone.
On the newest compilation of the Red List of Threatened Species, humpbacks are no longer classed as "vulnerable" but have made the leap into the "least concern" category, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature announced on Tuesday. The reclassification is sure to encourage pro-whaling countries to lift the ban on commercial humpback whaling.
Randall Reeves, chair of the Cetacean Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, who led the assessment, says that the humpbacks' recovery is down to the ban on whaling.
"It's pretty clear-cut. Of all the large whales, humpbacks are maybe the best at responding to the availability of food and breeding habitat, so as long as you leave them alone, they have a strong capacity to bounce back."
Safe to hunt?
Greenpeace campaigner Thilo Maack says he fully expects Japan to call for a resumption of commercial whaling.
"But we must not forget that even if numbers have improved, they are still miles away from what they used to be before whaling started. Commercial hunting should definitely not be allowed."
Reeves says he hopes that the good news "will not be used to reverse the humpbacks' recovery. But if there was a concrete proposal for very precautionary, sustainable whaling on the table, then we have to talk about it."
The IUCN estimate that there are now at least 40,000 mature humpback whales, up from a total population of less than 1500 before the ban was introduced, but still significantly below the estimated 240,000 humpbacks in the pre-whaling days.
Disappearing dolphins
Along with the humpback whale, the Southern right whale has also made it into the "least concern" category. But the future does not look as rosy for many small cetaceans, which continue to be taken in large numbers as fisheries by-catch.
"It is frightening how quickly and quietly some dolphins and porpoises are disappearing," says Reeves. "There is no blood and gore and no whaling ships. They are just quietly dying entangled in fishing nets."

Small Tortoiseshell

Kettlewell, Yorkshire -September 2006

Antarctic Photo of the Day

Photo taken 22 November 2005 - Click to enlarge.

St Andrew's Bay - South Georgia

King Penguins with sleeping Elephant Seal in the background

Welcome boys!

Tibi, Norbi and Peti together with Ibi their English teacher, came to stay with me for five days. They flew into Bristol from Budapest on Monday 24th June. All were just about squeezed into my small flat and we all enjoyed (I hope) a packed itinerary of visits. On the first full day we visited Brandon Hill and its Grey Squirells. Expressing a desire to see a major football stadium, we failed to get into Bristol City's stadium as preparations were being made there for a concert by Bon Jovi but we had a look at the Suspension Bridge and Clifton before returning home. The football crazy boys were more satisfied the next day when we all took a coach to Birmingham, where we did manage to include a trip to Aston Villa's Doug Ellis Stadium and also experienced the Imax film about the prehistoric dinosaur T. Rex. We also visited Weston Super Mare where the boys visited the Aquarium and managed to get down to to the sandy beach for a few minuted with their toes in the Atlantic Ocean.

On Saturday we walked to Parkway Statiom and got the train to London where we "did" the major tourist sights: Westminster, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, St James Park, changing the guards at Horsegaurds Parade, Trafalgar Square and the London Eye. I was sad to see them go last Monday, they had been great company.

The Eskimo Curlew

The Eskimo Curlew – Numenius Borealis (Museum specimen)

The curlew and its distinctive call has always had special fascination for me. It was one of the sounds that I remember from a very early age, first hearing the wonderful plaintive call echoing around the Welsh hills, then seeing them flying between nearby feeding grounds. These were the European Curlew Numenius arquata the largest of European wading birds. However since reading “The Last of the Curlews” by Fred Bodsworth (London 1964) which is a sad and moving tale of the inevitable extinction of the Eskimo Curlew, I have regularly "Googled" for possible news of the species.

The following link is from the excellent Depasrtment of Ornitology at Cornell University in New York State: -
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/conservation/extinctions/eskimo_curlew
In the nineteenth century this Curlew was a common sight on migration between its summer breeding grounds in the tundra of Canada’s North West Territories and the pampas of Argentina. Between 1870 and 1890, unrestricted hunting rapidly reduced populations of these curlew. Considered very good to eat, the birds were killed by thousands of market hunters, just as the Passenger Pigeon had been years earlier. The curlew's lack of fear and habit of traveling in large flocks made it an easy target. Since reading their story and suspected demise, I have kept an eye open for news of the species, in the forlorn hope that perhaps a few might still survive; it seems not, but I found this from The Guardian newspaper from 2005:
In 1962 another rapidly declining North American species, the Eskimo curlew, was seen in Texas. In the four decades since, several other sightings have been claimed, but none has totally convinced the authorities whose job it is to pass judgment on records of rare birds.
With any species like these, on the brink of annihilation, there is a point at which we must finally admit that it has become extinct. Yet, it is human nature to hang on to the slim hope that a lost population may somehow, somewhere, survive.
So perhaps even now a flock of Eskimo curlews is migrating unseen across the crowded North American airspace, on the epic journey from their South American winter quarters to breed in the wilds of Alaska. With the resurrection of the ivory-billed woodpecker, this may not be quite as farfetched as it seems.
A close relative of the Eskimo curlew is now considered to be Europe's rarest bird. Once common, the slender-billed curlew underwent a rapid decline during the 20th century, and by the 1990s could only reliably be seen at a single site in northern Morocco. Gradually numbers there fell, until finally none remained.
But in May 1998, in a remarkable turn of events, a small curlew resembling this species was found at Druridge Bay in Northumberland, England. Though photographed and even captured briefly on video, the identification was doubted by some sceptics, who simply could not believe that such a rare bird could turn up in Britain.
Away from the well-watched regions of Europe and North America, it is much more likely that birds long considered extinct may yet be rediscovered. The last known Spix's macaw disappeared from its native forest in north-eastern Brazil some time towards the end of the last millennium.
But some species simply refuse to lie down and die. BirdLife recently revealed a possible sighting of the legendary pink-headed duck, the first since before the Second World War, in the remote region of northern Burma. Frustratingly, the bird was seen for just three minutes; and none of the observers had a camera to hand — making it yet another in the long line of "ones that got away." Which brings us to the $64,000 question. Is there any chance — however remote — that any of the three best known extinct birds in history could still be alive, awaiting rediscovery? In ascending order of notoriety, they are the passenger pigeon, whose flocks once darkened the skies over North America; the great auk, the last British example of which was killed by islanders who thought it was a witch; and finally the dodo, which fell victim to hungry sailors and the even hungrier dogs, cats and rats they brought with them.
Were any of these birds to be found again, it would be front-page news all over the world. Sadly, there is about as much chance of this happening as of Elvis being found alive. But then again, we can always dream ...
- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

Cook-out by the Körös

I am flying back to Bristol tonight and so last everning was my last with Ibi and family for a few weeks. As it is my birthday next week and by way of a little celebration, Ibi and Tünde, together with Tünde's friend Vera, we had a cook-out evening meal by the Körös river bank not far from Mezőberény. Ibi had bought a cauldron to hang over the fire and we had been given a bagful of wood by one of the boy's parents. The girls chopped wood while Ibi and I prepared food and soon a good fire was keeping mosquitos at bay and an excellent stew was on the boil!

A lovely Mezőberény orange birthday cake was also produced and eaten and a few glasses of wine consumed before returning home for a shower and an early night.

Canoe on the Kőrős

Another visit on Saturday to Szarvas. Ibi had happy memories of her student days paddling kayaks on the river here and had made enquieues as to the present facilities. We hired a Canadian style canoe and enjoyed the experience very much. I was certainly a very rusty canoeist, not having paddled my own canoe since my Outward Bound Mountain School at Eskdale in 1981! (photo below)

We saw much wildlife on the river, birds, insects, fish and freshwater turtles. A few photos are here.

Szarvasi Arborétum and Bodies Exhibition

Yesterday, Sunday was beautiful weather and we drove to the city of Szarvas, visited Tescos for supplies of food and drink then went over the river bridge to the Arbotertum. Photos - here. There were wonderful specimen trees from all over the world and some familiar trees laid out among well tended parkland with many birds including peacocks and meadows to enjoy the fresh air in beautiful surroundings. We almost got lost on the way back but eventually found the way back to the car park and the trusty Trabant. We had had a late picnic breakfast in the arboterum but followed this with a great lunch at the terrace restaurant by the river. We then returned home and I seem to have slept for many hours. Ibi has gone to school and Janos has gone to Budapest to take an exam. 5* Ibi took her exam on Saturday while I was visiting the Bodies exhibition. "Bodies" was well worth the entrance fee. It is an exhibition travelling the world with specialy disected and prepared real human bodies, respectfully displayed and labelled.

Birdsong

Once again I am back in the home of my dear Hungarian friends the Kalmans. I arriverd on Ryanair via Budapest on Wednesday night. All well here and I have amused myself on the first two mornings lying in my bed and trying to sort out the various participants in the dawn chorus coming through my window. Birdsong has been a conscious and recurring wake up call most of my life. Here the summer visitors have arrived and the swallows and house martins are feeding young under the eaves. Common once in Britain, but now increasingly rare, there are many House Sparrows busy with new families. Wood pigeons are giving their distinctive cooing which I remember from childhood sounded somethging like "Take two coos taffy! Heard too are the wingbeats of local White Storks that fly from thier lofty nests to ponds and streams to feed. The swallows and martins are constantly cheeping as they teurn with food for their young and I have heard, though not seen a local cuckoo as it overflies the house on the way to lay alien eggs in some poor Reedwarbler's nest I suspect. I am sure there will be more in my current bird list. Childhood memories of the Rookery in my grandfather's elm tree persist, but no rookery is closeby but I mayl add here others to the list as I identfy them.

Apropos of birdsong: - If you, dear reader have not yet read it, I thoroughly recommend Birdsong, a World War 1 novel by Sebasdtian Foulkes is one of the best novels of its genre in print today. ,