Women in the history of Cambridge

Illustrator – Dilara Arin

The Cyclist- In 1897, a proposal was put before Cambridge University’s Senate to grant full degrees to female graduates. Male students responded in outrage. on the day of the debate, an effigy of a woman on a bicycle was suspended out of the window of a building opposite the Senate House. Banners reading ‘No gowns for Girtonites’ and ‘Varsity for Men’ flew alongside it.

The 1897 proposal did not pass and upon hearing this result, the triumphant mob tore down the effigy. They then savagely attacked the mannequin, decapitating and tearing it to pieces in a frenzy. What remained of the woman on a bicycle was stuffed through Newnham Collage Gates.

Women studying at Cambridge University were not to receive the titles of full degrees until 1921 and even then without associated privileges.

A poetry booklet about Women in the history of Cambridge is being republished and all its illustrations renewed.

Henry Scott Tuke – Falmouth Cornwall

Best known for his paintings of bathing boys, Henry Scott Tuke was in fact, a very diverse and talented artist in a variety of subjects and media. His first commissions were portraits of family and friends, including other Quakers such as the Fox family. Tuke was also known as great maritime artist, a very accurate depicter of every kind of sailing craft from Lowestoft fishing boats that came to Falmouth in the winter, to wooden and steel hulled sailing ships such as barques and brigantines, to smaller quay punts and yawls.

 
 


August Blue - 1894

Our Jack – 1889
Jack Rolling standing on a boat with Falmouth town in the background

  
Morning Gossip - 1886


Archway in Rock Pool

  
Denny mending a sail


In Tow

BBC Autumnwatch! - Aigas Field Centre Scotland

Red Squirrel - Instantly recognisable by their red fur, ear tufts and long, fluffy tails, red squirrels were once the only squirrel species in Europe.

David Hockney – Woldgate Woods

Autumn morning – photo by Campbell

London’s TUC March Against the Cuts - 20 October 2012

The NUT’s amazing balloons.

Britain needs a future that works!

Some 300,000 people went on the TUC’s London March, walking from Embankment to Hyde Park  in a march against austerity and for A Future That Works. Let us add to this, the thousands more who marched in Glasgow and Belfast.

BBC estimated 100,000 for the London March, however fifty years of protest marches has taught me to always multiply the ‘official’ estimate by three to obtain a realistic number although why this should work, I do not know!

The Humblebee

Arctic Bumblebee (Bombus polaris)
From Shakespeare through to Darwin they were known as "humblebees", because of the humming sound they make. Then in the 20th century, for some reason, they became "bumblebees".


Tierra Del Fuego Bumblebee (Bombus igneous)
Not a good photo yet the best I could find!
I saw many of these huge bumblebees, on the Straits of Magellan Islets, foraging amongst fuchsia blooms.

  Bumblebees do not store food (honey) to survive winter. The little food they do store serves as a reserve meant for feeding the larvae and the egg-producing queen or it is used to survive cold, windy and rainy days. Just like in social wasps the whole colony dies at the end of the season, usually in late summer or autumn. The new queens seek for a place to hibernate.  Most Bumblebee colonies count about 50 to 150 animals. Only the Earth Bumblebee may have richly populated nests in which you find 200 up to 600 individuals.

Coastal walk via Cawsand and Kingsand - Cornwall 14th October 2012

Kingsand Institute
The Institute in Kingsand was built in 1911 to celebrate the coronation of King George V - its clock tower being a famous local landmark.

The twin villages of Kingsand and Cawsand (notorious for smuggling) merge with one another, but historically Kingsand was in Devon, while Cawsand was in Cornwall. On the old county boundary between the two villages there is a house called Devon Corn, which still has the marker on the front of the house. In 1844 however the boundary was redrawn along the Tamar and Kingsand became part of Cornwall.


Kingsand village


Autumn burning - Cawsand village in the distance


Autumn lichen on the coast path


Mount Edgcumbe Country Park - Folly dated 1747  which replaced a navigation obelisk. Built using medieval stone from the churches of St. George and St. Lawrence, at Stonehouse just across the estuary in Devon.

Millbrook’s strange bird - Cornwall

Egyptian Goose  (Alopochen aegyptiacus)

Related to the shelduck, this pale brown and grey goose has distinctive dark brown eye-patches and contrasting white wing patches in flight. It was introduced as an ornamental wildfowl species and has escaped into the wild, now successfully breeding in a feral state. - RSPB bird identifying service!

Life in Millbrook village - Cornwall

Card from niece Janet - Artist Nina Hutton – Oyster catchers, always in pairs!

Our Brika coffee and Alan’s ‘Anzac snap’ made with black treacle yum!

Millbrook Pumping Station – still pretty despite its colours fading with time.  It was painted by primary school children 20 years ago.

At Foss Quay, a recently launched catamaran, one that Alan built in 1986 !   It was the first ‘Flica’ (a Richard Woods design) off the mould.

‘Sarona’ - Millbrook’s prettiest little timber sailing boat

International Peace Day – 20th September 2012

Brian Haw – Parliament Square Peace Campaigner against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since his death. the peace campaign at Parliament Square continues; now an incredible 4129 days since Brian Haw’s initial stand 2nd June 2001

248 days without shelter since tents were stolen 16th January 2012 by the London Metropolitan Police

Tucson Arizona  - USA

The highly vulnerable, unique & endearing marsupial - Australia

 

Ned Kelly bushranger and Australian folk hero

Sydney Nolan’s  ‘Ned Kelly’ 1946

The skeleton of Ned Kelly will finally be returned to his descendants 132 years after he was executed.
Last year, scientists identified Ned Kelly’s skeleton after it was found in a mass grave outside a now-closed prison.
The decision ends the family’s long quest to find and properly bury the remains of a man many Australians now consider a folk hero.

Ned Kelly is the only bushranger known to have left a detailed written justification of his actions, and his 'manifesto' is regarded by many as an early call for a republican Australia.  The 56-page document he tried to have published at Jerilderie -New South Wales, in February 1879 appears to be the final working of one that was first circulated at Euroa in December 1878.

It reflects the voice of a man who feels he has been deeply wronged. He admits to crimes but claims he was forced into them by a corrupt police force. He demands that squatters share their property with the poor.

Copies of the document were made by the police and by publican John Hanlon. John Hanlon's transcription of the Jerilderie letter was later purchased by the National Museum of Australia .

Cloud Atlas - from the Met Office archives

New Zealand plate stack: New Zealand's Southern Alps run along almost the entire length of the country's South Island.   In the bottom right of this picture you can see the peak of one of these 3,000m mountains. When the wind coming from the Pacific in the west hits them, it bounces off, causing clouds to become altocumulus lenticularis, a pile of plates shaped like the lens of an eye.

Sunset stratiformis:                                                                     Altocumulus stratiformis floating idly over central England. A stratiformis is simply a horizontal layer of cloud. They float at a medium height, which can be from around 2438m to 6096m

In this picture, windflow at Robinson Crusoe island ? off the coast of Chile ? hits the island's edge (bottom left), causing the clouds about the islands to spin off in clockwise vortices to create this incredible satellite shot

The ash cloud from the Icelandic volcanic eruption is captured on a satellite image as it approached the UK.

The drifting ash from the volcano Grimsvotn, in the top left of the picture, was taken by Nasa's Terra satellite, has been published by Dundee University's Satellite Receiving Station.

The white cloud sitting over north west Scotland is a low pressure system which has brought high winds and heavy rain to many areas of Britain.

The winds were coming from a north-westerly direction, blowing anti-clockwise round the low pressure system, drawing the ash plume from the volcano towards the northern half of Britain.

Giant Pandas – San Diego Zoo USA

A 20-year-old giant panda has given birth at San Diego Zoo, and set a record.
Officials at the zoo said it is the sixth cub born to Bai Yun, the most at a breeding facility outside of China. Zookeepers and researchers watched the birth via a closed circuit camera mounted inside the birthing den.  Zoo officials said Bai Yun (White Cloud) immediately scooped the cub into her arms and comforted the newborn.
Because of her advanced age, the pregnancy was considered high risk, but zookeepers said mother and baby are doing fine.

Saltaire village – West Yorkshire

David Hockney -The Love Potion – Tristan and Isolde 1987

David Hockney – West Yorkshire landscape-untitled

Display from Saltaire Museum -Joseph Walmsley’s design –1890’s

Teesdale walk Middlesbrough

Graffiti underneath bridge

Amazing Infinity footbridge across the River Tees

The Newport Bridge across the Tees - built in 1934

Giant dandelion clock – R iver Tees

Angela’s luscious, seriously chocolate torte - laced with orange oil and orange zest!