South Downs Hove – East Sussex 26-02-2013

Foredown Tower formerly part of Hangleton Hospital built in 1881-3  as an isolation hospital for people with Smallpox, Diphtheria, and tuberculosis. In 1909 the huge cast iron water tank supported by this tower was added to provide water for the hospital. When the council restored the tower in 1992 the old, empty, water tank became the viewing area for a Camera Obscura one of the largest still used,  in the world.



Hangleton view overlooking the South Downs

Traditional Chinese figures – Right  to left - Luck, wealth and longevity!

Early Spring in Peterborough 24-02-2013

Common snowdrop (Galanthus)  meaning ‘milk flower’ – widespread in Europe thought to have been introduced to the British Isles by the Romans

Sweet fragrance - Common primrose ( Primula vulgaris )

Rededication to the International Brigaders 1936 –1938 honouring those who fought against the fascists in Spain - Manchester 10-02-2013

Farewell speech to the International Brigaders by La Pasionaria (Dolores Ibarruri ) in Barcelona 15th November 1938

Manchester Town Hall completed in 1877

Blue tiles adorn an open fireplace at one end of one of its ceremonial rooms!

Moments in Reading 07-02-2013

Huntley & Palmers biscuit factory building built in 1846 - once the largest biscuit factory in the world

Gasometer part of the old Reading gas works

Bridge built by Brunel between 1839 – 1840 as part of the Great Western Railway. Note the beautiful elliptical main archway!

Early pussy willow seen along the river Thames

Chequer board brickwork terrace – early 1900’s

January 2013

Almond blossoms in Ibiza

A Prickly pear invasion! – Ibiza

Photos by Pilar Meira

Our begonia – first flowering for years!

Seville Orange Marmalade

Bought at our greengrocers in Millbrook, these bitter oranges are available only for a few weeks at this time of year. They are imported from Spain and perhaps Ibiza! where a local supermarket sold delicious naranja amarga mermelada  (bitter orange marmalade)

Celebrating 150 years of the London Underground

Look through the window as you travel between Tottenham Court Road and Holborn on the Central Line and you'll see a station - where no passengers have alighted since 1932. This used to be British Museum station. Travel on the Piccadilly Line between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner, the tunnel wall changes from cast iron tubing to bricks. This also used to be a station. Down Street, closed in the same year as British Museum. These stations are often referred to as ghost stations.
There are about 40 abandoned or relocated stations on the Underground network along its entire 255 miles (408Km) of trackway - some subsurface and some above ground. Some have vanished without trace whereas others are almost intact, grimey time capsules of the era when they were closed.
The world famous underground map (well, technically it's a diagram not a map), was originally designed by Harry Beck in 1931.

London Underground workers building the Piccadilly Line extension at Turnpike Lane in 1930

Londoners take shelter in the London Underground during the Blitz 1940-1941

The Tube's famously dirt-disguising patterned seat fabric!

The fire-damaged escalators at King's Cross underground station in London in 1987  caused by cigarette stubs falling bellow the escalator housing. Smoking was banned throughout the London underground after this.

Oyster cards were introduced on the Tube in 2003

Torchbearer and London Underground employee John Light carrying the Olympic Flame onto an underground train at Wimbledon Station, London in 2012

Millbrook – Cornwall

Hope for WORLD PEACE – double rainbow and seagull over our back garden.

Sunny view on Christmas day!

First and last ‘Flica’ catamaran launched at Foss Quay – this boat built by Alan

Possibly offices to the old brick works at Southdown - Millbrook

View of Millbrook estuary from Southdown lane

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!