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About | Bluemeanie | Scarlett
A personal weblog with photographs and comments. Quiet ramblings, quite rambling...

• I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent - Mahatma Gandhi

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• London Mayor - (1)
  
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• What really happened in Croydon? - (3)
  
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• Three Way Chess - (1)
  
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• Oh no! John! - (2)
  
• “Bells and Smells” Mass - (1)
  
• Turn cash into less cash - (6)
  

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This is the view from my bedroom skylight at about 7pm this evening.

There’s an interesting article in InformationWeek about using Wiki’s for Business.  It’s worth reading about the nonsense of knowledge management though.

There are fantastic 360 degree panoramic views of The Louvre at VirtualSweden (of all places).  Unfortunately none of the views are of my favourite rooms at the Louvre.

Talking of rooms, this small London House is only 165 cm (5 foot 5 inches) wide, has 3 bedrooms and is on the market for over half a million pounds.

This is a cygnet at Painshill in Surrey. It struck me that a disadvantage these birds have is that when they are scratching themselves under the wing then they have no idea if a predator is sneaking up on them. Perhaps they have no natural predators in the park.  After witnessing a stand-off between my eight year old neice and this bird’s aggrestive mother, my money would be on the (fully grown) swan to win in the event of child/swan hostilities breaking out.

The houses, the seaside, the pier, the beach and the oyster beds of Cancale in France (near St. Malo). Across the bay Mont St Michel can be seen rising through the haze. High tide comes in at the speed of a galloping horse. The oysters from the oyster beds at Cancale are highly regarded, and are said to benefit from the dramatic tidal reach in this bay.

This is part II in a study which examines the same object from two different angles.

If you ever get bored of GWB’s speeches, you can write your own.

This is part I in a study which examines the same object from two different angles.

I have been looking into the airline situation as I will be travelling to Carles’ wedding at the end of next week. Great news! There won’t be a full blown strike until at least next week if at all. Talking of Spanish Weddings, there were interesting developments on that front over the summer. 

I took this photo a month ago on the River Thames, near Runnymede.  A local advised that the bird on the right of the photograph is the father of the 10 cygnets, and that the mother had disappeared a few weeks previously (and was therefore presumed dead).

Wikipedia has a good encylopedic description of swans, and advise that the male swan is a cob and the female swan is a pen, although these terms are seldom used nowadays. Apparently the notion that swans mate for life is a bit of a myth, but they are mostly but not exclusively monogamous (for a season, like most other birds).

I came onto this a bit late, but Khalid Jarrar of Baghdad has an interesting post about his recent arrest by the Iraq security forces.

I didn’t go running today, but went for a reasonably lengthed walk with bluemeanie and pinkie.

Here are a few links:
What’s in the food you eat.
Dust storm crosses the ocean.
Erotic images do turn you blind.

This afternoon I visited my sister and saw the amazing models she had built out of lego. Which reminds me of the “joke”:

Q: Why are pirates pirates?
A: Because they just arrrrgh!

My sister has two cats: the exquisitely beautiful Starlight, and Billie (above). Starlight does not pose for photographs.

Le 3 juillet 2005 à 18:00, j’ai vu des choses pointues dans le ciel parisien pelucheux.

Le 10 Août, Parisist a regardé la même scène et a vu le vide.  Mais où étaient les touristes?

This is the large chimney at the Elsecar Heritage Centre in South Yorkshire, at the end of the day when the parking lot is empty.  The building in front of the chimney houses a series of craft workshops and displays but access is from the other side.

This evening, just before the rain came down, comme vache qui pisse, I went for another jog at Conkers with Martin and Anja. It was my second time and was noticably easier. It seems we went faster and farther.

The sign on the wall below this roof reads: fragile roof keep off.

What interested me was the Yorkshire sandstone wall, with its typical irregular weathering and the blackened stone indicating the extent of historical pollution.  I assume the blackening is from coal fires in the ironworks, which is opposite this building.

This is the old ironworks at the Elsecar Heritage Centre in Barnsley.  According to the nearby notice, it was

built by William and Henry Dawes in the early 1860’s.  Used as a store since the Second World War, the southern end became ruinous and was demolished.

However another plaque indicates that the old ironworks actually opened in 1795, supplied nails and plates to the local collieries, and then closed in about 1848. There is nothing else to reconcile the apparent contradiction in information.

This really needs to be added to my file containing things that people are blind to or which they chose to ignore. If there is a weak point about the centre it is the rather bitsy and apparently contradictory notices scattered sparsly around the place.

This evening I went jogging at Conkers with Martin and Anja, and then had supper with them at their house, the main component of which was a delicious home-made leek, pea and lettuce soup.

This statue can be found at the Elsecar Heritage Centre near Barnsley, South Yorkshire.  I spent yesterday afternoon at the antique fair at the centre.

Elsecar was a coal-mining village until the 1980’s and boasts a (restored) steam railway line, with a station at the Heritage Centre.  According to the Working Woodlands Trust, the car part of the village name derives from the Scandinavian word carr, meaning a marshy, wooded land. This gives an indication of the age and origins of the settlement there. 

Strictly speaking this was not street theatre, outside the Centre Pompidou in Paris, but some kind of similar spectacle.  The performer in the photo (with black hat) put on a short show involving jokes, mime, as well as good-natured teasing of the audience and passing pedestrians. He managed to persuade two young boys from the audience (one of whom is pictured above) to join in his act.  Their contribution consisted of being placed in a very cardboard box (which looked far to small to hold them both) which was then sealed with packing tape. The performer then stuck a number of wooden stakes through the box at various angles. To the audience’s great relief no harm was done to the boys and they were later released. Before dispersing the audience donates generously to the performer.

Edit: Oops! I wrote this last Friday but forgot to activate the post. (15/08/2005)

This is a photograph I took in Paris recently.  I am not sure what this man was trying to say to the women but they were trying their hardest to ignore him.

The sign at the window reads:

Des pickpockets sont susceptibles d’agir dans cette boutique. S’il vous plaît, soyez vigilant! Fermez votre sac et rangez soigneusement votre portfeuille et votre téléphone portable.

Personal bag thieves operate in this area, please keep a close eye on your personal belongings at all times.

Something is lost there, in translation.

I also feel that there’s an interesting juxtaposition of two swear words in the photo, one English and one French.