And so to the answers to the question posed on Tuesday...
Face 1
The Child Catcher (played by Australian ballet dancer, Sir Robert Helpmann, in the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang).
Favourite colour: Black;
Mode of transport: Horse drawn caravan (with metal bars);
Politics: The Child Catcher operated a fairly strict regime. Class sizes were limited only by the size of the dungeon.
Face 2
David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Favourite colour: Blue;
Mode of transport: Reputedly a bicycle, but occasionally someone else's horse;
Politics: Perhaps not as far to the right as the first gentleman, but his government are introducing proposals on nursery numbers to cut costs.
Face 3
Michael Schumacher, seven times Formula 1 world champion driver.
Favourite colour: The majority of his world championships were won in Red;
Mode of transport: Ferrari F1 car;
Politics: Occasional sudden shifts to the right (Benetton 1994, Ferrari 1997).
Now that my Foot It campaign is over, I may return to normal blogging.
Thursday, 31 January 2013
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Tuesday's tricky trio
"There's no connection between the people in these three cropped photographs."
Or so it says in the statement that my legal representatives have sent me. Any resemblances or notional similarities, whether in looks or any other characteristic or lifestyle choice, are purely coincidental.
So, from left to right, who are these feisty faces?
That wasn't a clue, by the way.
Or so it says in the statement that my legal representatives have sent me. Any resemblances or notional similarities, whether in looks or any other characteristic or lifestyle choice, are purely coincidental.
So, from left to right, who are these feisty faces?
That wasn't a clue, by the way.
Saturday, 19 January 2013
An "Oh... My... God..." bird
Think Friends.
Think Chandler's on-again, off-again girlfriend in the first few seasons.
Think Janice (Litman Goralnick, née Hosenstein), played by Maggie Wheeler.
No, I didn't mean her.
In fact, this could be more described as an OMFG bird.
Our Lass and I were having lunch at home, when all the birds on our feeders suddenly took to the air in alarm.
Neighbour's cat?
Nope.
Sparrowhawk?
Nope.
Woodpigeons having a handbag moment?
Nope.
With soup spoon halfway to my mouth, I registered that every bird in the neighbourhood had also taken to the air.
No fireworks, no shotgun blast, no explosion. Hmmm.
When Jackdaws, Carrion Crows and Gulls take wing in fright, it's something major.
Scanning the sky, I spotted several crows harassing a larger bird, and as realisation dawned, there was suddenly soup and bread crumbs everywhere.
We raced upstairs for a better view, Our Lass to the window, me towards my camera kit. Damn, the small lens was still fitted. Trailing caps, covers and bags, I hurried to the window whilst attaching a larger lens and watched as a Red Kite swooped and dived into the garden of a house several plots away.
It rather begs the question, "What the heck are they putting on their bird table?!"
Think Chandler's on-again, off-again girlfriend in the first few seasons.
Think Janice (Litman Goralnick, née Hosenstein), played by Maggie Wheeler.
 |
| Photo courtesy of http://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=55268 |
In fact, this could be more described as an OMFG bird.
Our Lass and I were having lunch at home, when all the birds on our feeders suddenly took to the air in alarm.
Neighbour's cat?
Nope.
Sparrowhawk?
Nope.
Woodpigeons having a handbag moment?
Nope.
With soup spoon halfway to my mouth, I registered that every bird in the neighbourhood had also taken to the air.
No fireworks, no shotgun blast, no explosion. Hmmm.
When Jackdaws, Carrion Crows and Gulls take wing in fright, it's something major.
Scanning the sky, I spotted several crows harassing a larger bird, and as realisation dawned, there was suddenly soup and bread crumbs everywhere.
We raced upstairs for a better view, Our Lass to the window, me towards my camera kit. Damn, the small lens was still fitted. Trailing caps, covers and bags, I hurried to the window whilst attaching a larger lens and watched as a Red Kite swooped and dived into the garden of a house several plots away.
.JPG) |
| Seen through the branches of the Ash tree in our neighbour's garden |
.JPG) |
| Crow in hot pursuit! |
Sunday, 6 January 2013
Little things...
Sorry, but this report from the BBC News website did make me chuckle...
"An inflatable zeppelin used by Buckinghamshire protestors to show the height of a planned wind turbine has been blown away in strong gusts.
Campaigners gathered at the site in Ford, near Aylesbury to release the airship-shaped "blimp" to the turbine's 99m height.
They had previously said one of the reasons they opposed the turbine was the lack of wind to power it."
OK, so we're not supposed to be at home to Mr Schadenfreude.
Saturday, 5 January 2013
Football News
Today, at the Riverside, Middlesbrough hosted non-league Hastings United in the third round of the FA Cup.
Ian Dennis, the Senior Football Reporter for BBC Radio 5 Live tweeted...
Hastings away support is 1068. If only 2 had not made it!!@Iandennisbbc 52 minutes ago
Classic!
Oh, and we won 4-1, which makes a nice change, eh?
Ian Dennis, the Senior Football Reporter for BBC Radio 5 Live tweeted...
Hastings away support is 1068. If only 2 had not made it!!@Iandennisbbc 52 minutes ago
Classic!
Oh, and we won 4-1, which makes a nice change, eh?
Monday, 31 December 2012
It seemed like a good idea at the time
I began 2012 with a post about the birds in our garden at Tense Towers. On a similar local theme, I am going to end the year, and kick off the next, with another Tense-centric ornithological project.
A couple of birders have set up a national* challenge called Foot It for the month of January 2013. In essence, anyone taking part estimates the number of species that they are likely to see on their local patch, during the month.
The catch is that no transport is allowed, other than your feet. You have to walk there AND back. So, with the prospect of some healthy exercise and a bit of nature watching to boot, what's not to like?!
I've limited myself to a 2.5 mile radius of Tense Towers,because I'm lazy and unfit in the faint hope that I can manage a 5 to 6 mile circular walk if there's a particularly tricky species to see (there is, a Little Owl often roosts on the perimeter of my notional circle!).
Fortunately, there's plenty of habitat not too far from home, a good mixture of rivers, fields, lakes and woodland. However, before I've even taken the first step, I may have tripped myself up by estimating an optimistic 89 species.
As my occasional (oh, ok, constant) mutterings have alluded to of late, there's been plenty of rainfall around the country. I carefully forgot this fact when calculating my species target, so if the Great Ouse is in flood, I will not be able to reach Little Linford Wood without a detour of several miles. This would involve a journey to the east or west to find a bridge that is passable and not underwater. A brief glimpse at the local OS map (Landranger 152) tells me that this would mean a 15 or 16 mile hike. Not impossible, obviously, but rather more of a challenge than I was initially contemplating. The days when I could manage 90km in 19 hours are long gone and have been filed under "Memories of things I've done, but without the pain".
Here's hoping for some dry weather to start 2013!
* Actually, it's gone international, with entrants from The Netherlands and Austria.
A couple of birders have set up a national* challenge called Foot It for the month of January 2013. In essence, anyone taking part estimates the number of species that they are likely to see on their local patch, during the month.
The catch is that no transport is allowed, other than your feet. You have to walk there AND back. So, with the prospect of some healthy exercise and a bit of nature watching to boot, what's not to like?!
I've limited myself to a 2.5 mile radius of Tense Towers,
Fortunately, there's plenty of habitat not too far from home, a good mixture of rivers, fields, lakes and woodland. However, before I've even taken the first step, I may have tripped myself up by estimating an optimistic 89 species.
As my occasional (oh, ok, constant) mutterings have alluded to of late, there's been plenty of rainfall around the country. I carefully forgot this fact when calculating my species target, so if the Great Ouse is in flood, I will not be able to reach Little Linford Wood without a detour of several miles. This would involve a journey to the east or west to find a bridge that is passable and not underwater. A brief glimpse at the local OS map (Landranger 152) tells me that this would mean a 15 or 16 mile hike. Not impossible, obviously, but rather more of a challenge than I was initially contemplating. The days when I could manage 90km in 19 hours are long gone and have been filed under "Memories of things I've done, but without the pain".
Here's hoping for some dry weather to start 2013!
* Actually, it's gone international, with entrants from The Netherlands and Austria.
Wednesday, 26 December 2012
Norfolk and tea rooms
Our Lass was keen to visit the coast during the Christmas break, as she starts to pine if she doesn't have a fix of shoreline every so often. Boxing Day looked like it would have the best weather and so it proved. We left Tense Towers early and were most of the way to Norfolk before the sun put in an appearance above the horizon.
Having breakfasted near Ely, we pushed on to our first port of call, RSPB Titchwell, where we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the car park wasn't yet full. This may have been due to the Visitors' Centre and cafe being shut (but, fortunately, we'd checked beforehand and made other arrangements).
With a cold breeze for company, we walked along the causeway to the beach, stopping occasionally to scan the lagoons with our binoculars. There were plenty of Golden Plover about, huddled on one of the low islands.
.JPG)
Whilst several small flocks of Brent Geese were moving between the lagoons and the marshes.
The light from the low sun threw up some odd reflections on the windows of one of the new hides. At first I thought they'd run out of cash and used clingfilm instead of glass.
Once through the dune bank, we stopped for a while to watch some Turnstones searching for food amongst the razor shells deposited on the high tide mark. In the photo below, the bird furthest from the camera has a slightly deformed bill, the top mandible being longer than the bottom one.
The tide was out, so we wandered across the beach towards the water's edge. This is usually the only walking scenario where Our Lass scoots off ahead and consequently I have a large collection of images like this one...
There were plenty of species to be seen: Oystercatcher, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Sanderling, Grey Plover and Redshank.
Once we'd had enough of being buffeted by the breeze, we retraced our steps and went to explore the Fen Trail, which was much more sheltered, and we managed to spot four Marsh Harriers.
The bird feeders behind the Visitors' Centre were busy with finches, including several Siskins and a solitary Brambling.
By this time, grey clouds had replaced the sun, so we drove a few miles south to RSPB Snettisham before we lost the light completely. From the sea wall, we scanned the huge mudflats of The Wash and could see distant flocks of waders. The tide had turned, forcing these flocks back towards us, but unfortunately we knew that dusk would fall before high tide. Worse than that, it started to rain, further reducing visibility, so we didn't manage any close-up views of the wheeling and whirling flocks.
I did manage a few shots of the far throng whilst there was still some light...
but I think we will have to return in the not-too-distant future when tide, time and weather allows.
On the journey home, despite it now being dark, we detoured slightly to call in at WWT Welney. Not so much to see the wildfowl, but more because the cafe was open late.
"Pot of tea for 4, please, but only two cups."
Having breakfasted near Ely, we pushed on to our first port of call, RSPB Titchwell, where we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the car park wasn't yet full. This may have been due to the Visitors' Centre and cafe being shut (but, fortunately, we'd checked beforehand and made other arrangements).
With a cold breeze for company, we walked along the causeway to the beach, stopping occasionally to scan the lagoons with our binoculars. There were plenty of Golden Plover about, huddled on one of the low islands.
.JPG)
Whilst several small flocks of Brent Geese were moving between the lagoons and the marshes.
The light from the low sun threw up some odd reflections on the windows of one of the new hides. At first I thought they'd run out of cash and used clingfilm instead of glass.
Once through the dune bank, we stopped for a while to watch some Turnstones searching for food amongst the razor shells deposited on the high tide mark. In the photo below, the bird furthest from the camera has a slightly deformed bill, the top mandible being longer than the bottom one.
The tide was out, so we wandered across the beach towards the water's edge. This is usually the only walking scenario where Our Lass scoots off ahead and consequently I have a large collection of images like this one...
There were plenty of species to be seen: Oystercatcher, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Sanderling, Grey Plover and Redshank.
Once we'd had enough of being buffeted by the breeze, we retraced our steps and went to explore the Fen Trail, which was much more sheltered, and we managed to spot four Marsh Harriers.
The bird feeders behind the Visitors' Centre were busy with finches, including several Siskins and a solitary Brambling.
By this time, grey clouds had replaced the sun, so we drove a few miles south to RSPB Snettisham before we lost the light completely. From the sea wall, we scanned the huge mudflats of The Wash and could see distant flocks of waders. The tide had turned, forcing these flocks back towards us, but unfortunately we knew that dusk would fall before high tide. Worse than that, it started to rain, further reducing visibility, so we didn't manage any close-up views of the wheeling and whirling flocks.
I did manage a few shots of the far throng whilst there was still some light...
but I think we will have to return in the not-too-distant future when tide, time and weather allows.
On the journey home, despite it now being dark, we detoured slightly to call in at WWT Welney. Not so much to see the wildfowl, but more because the cafe was open late.
"Pot of tea for 4, please, but only two cups."
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