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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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I took this photo in Richmond this afternoon, next to the Thames River.  It shows a Horse Chestnut tree infected with the Horse chestnut leaf miner or Cameraria ohridella:

Larvae of C. ohridella mine within the leaves of horse chestnut, and the damage caused by large numbers of larvae can be striking. Up to 700 leaf mines have been recorded on a single leaf under favourable conditions. Severely damaged leaves shrivel and turn brown by late summer and fall early, well before normal leaf fall in the autumn.

The spread and establishment of Cameraria ohridella is of particular concern because once established, the moth appears always to maintain exceptionally high rates of infestation without any evidence of decline. In European towns and cities there has been no decrease in populations even after many years, and severe damage to horse chestnuts has occurred on an annual basis, greatly impairing the visual appearance of the trees.

There is no evidence from Europe that trees have died or shown a progressive decline in health as a direct consequence of attack by Cameraria ohridella. However, it is possible that differences in climate or interactions with other pests and diseases might lead to greater impact on horse chestnut in Great Britain.

The second last sentence (“Don’t Panic”) is probably the most significant.

I took this photograph of a notice that someone had hand-written and propped on top of a cash machine. It warns of a £1.85 “hidden” withdrawal fee for using the machine.  The problem is that banks have made effective use of modern technology in order to reduce the need (and inconvenience) of branches. However they now only want to maintain cash machines in the most profitable sites. In less profitable sites, they allow third parties to run machines that charge exhorbitant fees. They started charging fees themselves, but there was an outcry and they have almost all stopped. This hasn’t stopped them tapping into other sources of hidden charges.

It had to happen: things had been too good lately what with the school holidays and all. At the beginning of summer there had been a spate of accidents on the M25. I have mentioned the major ones before. At this time it was not uncommon to pass 8 cars broken down at the side of the motorway when driving from Junction 16 to Junction 6 (coming back from work). Then everyone went on holiday and things improved. There were less cars, and when there was a bit of congestion one still moved along merrily like a queue in Disneyland: optimistically.

This evening it came crashing to an end. There was another major accident between Junctions 8 and 7 on the anti-clockwise stretch. I took the photograph above at 7:30 pm, after eventually clearing it. Two lanes were still blocked off, but they had started cleaning up and it was difficult to see what had happened or how many cars had been involved: possibly four of those pictured.  What was most annoying about the experience was hitting the gridlock an hour earlier at Junction 10, but hearing on the radio traffic bulletin that two lanes were clear and that the jam was only back as far as Junction 8. I could have adjusted my route earlier to avoid some of the worst bits, if the bozos had looked a bit better through the cameras.

This is the selfish taxi driver at Gatwick Airport (South Terminal) the other morning when I went to fetch Scarlett on her return from Brazil. He stopped in the parking garage, blocking the traffic behind him, while he loaded his passengers and their baggage into his vehicle in the most leisurely fashion. He then drove off without so much as an apologetic glance.

If the airport was busy, or there was an unusual amount of congestion I would have been prepared to shrug and make allowances. However this was not the case and there were bays nearby that he could have pulled into in order to let us past. And of course there are the stop-and-drop and stop-and-pick-up areas designed for this kind of thing.

I took Scarlett and Pinkie to Bluewater this afternoon to get some things they needed. I was pleasantly suprised to see the Yo Sushi bar installed in the concourse, outside House of Fraser. After a bit of reflection I decided this was not such a great thing. I have enjoyed going to Yo Sushi in the past, but:

• Bluewater is a closed environment. The smells of the sushi linger in the concourse, like the smell of a fish-head in your waste bin lingers in your kitchen and puts you off your food; and
• I noticed I was looking down on the preparation surface (bottom part of the photo above). If anyone standing where I was standing were to sneeze or spit, this would rain down onto the sushi below. There is a reason deli counters put their wares behind glass.

There’s an article in the Independent yesterday about Sevenoaks School and how it has the best results of all independent schools in the country. The success is linked to the International Baccaulaureate They interviewed Dr Greenhalgh who is now a Deputy Head.

I meant to post this photograph last week, but forgot about it until today when I was going through the pics on my mobile phone.  The story behind the photo is that on 10 August 2006 I read on Kipperfrog how Sainsburys is to open in Oxted. Six days later I saw the news on a newspaper billboard (which was advertising a local paper which was due out the following day).

There is probably nothing faster, or more efficient, as a medium of spreading news than word-of-mouth (even if you take into account the broken telephone) effect.

Submitted for Photo Friday: Circles.

My previous posts on circles have been:

• Circles in the mud
• Circling, and
• Junk Shop (well almost!)

I spotted another one. The question still remains: Exactly what kind of organisation refers to its employees as operatives?. 

At My Heritage you can upload a photograph of yourself and let their facial recognition software compare you to 4,000 celebrities. I got this from Chicken Yoghurt, who comments:

If the ID card facial recognition software works like this we’re in for some hilarity at the airports in a year or two.

I generally agree, although 4,000 is not a very large database for a subject such as this, plus the percentage matches are quite low (nobody over 66% in my case).  It would be interesting to load a photo of someone like Andre Aggasi and see how well they map it to their own image of him.

This is a detail of two of the doors of the medieval building in Biddenden that I posted on yesterday.  Click on the picture to show further the detail of the carving above the doors. I suspected that the head was a likeness of Edward III of England who reigned (for over 50 years) during the cloth-making heyday of this village.  However, further searching informs that:

Biddenden is a quiet, typical Wealden village with one of the prettiest un spoilt main streets in England and a wealth of genuine examples of mediaeval to 17th century architecture. The first recorded mention is a 10th century charter quoting Biddenden as a ‘’Den” belonging to Brabourne. During the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, when the cloth trade was flourishing in this part of Kent, Biddenden grew in prosperity and as a result many buildings of significant architectural importance were built. The weavers’ houses on the south side of the High Street are fine examples of Kentish half-timbered buildings The first floors were once continuous workrooms, built like this so the looms could be placed next to the broad windows so the craftsmen had enough light. There is a carved head from a wrecked ship of the Armada over one of the doors.

So perhaps the head is Spanish? Then again I seem to recall that a number of different nationalities sailed in the Armada, not just the Spanish. 

This medieval building was once the Cloth House of Biddenden.  It now contains a row of cottages, shops and restaurants in Biddenden. In times past Biddenden was the centre of the iron industry in these parts (as well as cloth-making).  It was for this reason that Flemish cloth-workers settled here during the reign of Edward III of England. 

These days the largest wave of immigration is of workers from Poland, taking advantage of the Free European Market. There are 3,000 Poles in Crewe and probably more than 20,000 Poles in Southhampton. Last week the local paper even published a special edition in Polish.  Nationally, 228,235 Poles registered for work between May 2004 and tMarch his year. This does not take account of self-employed workers and others who did not register. 

This photograph shows the detail of the Biddenden Village sign, which I posted on yesterday.  Click on the photograph to see the reverse view. 

A plaque on the sign states the origin of it:

Following a speech by His Royal Highness the Duke of York at the Royal Acadamy in 1920 on the revival of village signs, the Daily Mail organised a village signs competition and exhibition, offering a total of £2200 in prizes. Ten awards were made, and the design from which this sign was constructed secured special prize £50.

This sum was worth a lot more in 1920 than it is today, but the above indicates that the sign of the Biddenden sisters won a lesser prize because the average award would have been £220. The sign seems to have subsequently suffered from neglect because it was then completely refurbished in 1993. There is more information about the conjoined twins of Biddenden at the moulded cookie site. 

This is the village sign for Biddenden in Kent. The sign (hand-crafted in 1920, and winner of a £50 prize in a competition) depicts two sisters, known as the Biddenden Maids. A notice on the sign states that

Eliza and Mary Chulkhurst the famous twins also known as the Biddenden maids were born in the year 1100 joined together at hips and shoulders. They lived together thus joined for 34 years when one of them was siezed with a fatal illness and died. The other, refusing to be separated, died 6 hours later. By their will they left their property to the poor of Biddenden.

On the reverse side there is another notice, which states:

In commemoration of the Biddenden Maids, an annual distribution of bread and cheese takes place on Easter Monday morning from the old workhouse. Biscuits bearing the impress of the two maids, their names and year of birth, are available at the same time to all who apply: visitor and parishioners.

There’s a stub article about Mary and Eliza at Wikipedia, but it is worth pointing out that much of the story is probably pure local legend. 

I quite like the idea of living in one of these barges on an English canal: hopefully they are not as small, cold and damp as they sometimes appear. OK, let’s be clear: it might make a nice relaxing hidey hole for the occassional weekend break. For nipping over the channel to France, or for mojitos in Havana, I would need something a bit faster and ocean-going. Yes, I saw the movie Miami Vice last week so I know exactly what I’m talking about. The Wikipedia link of the original TV series makes mention of its role in transforming the location in South Beach, Miami. Adam was telling me about this at work too.

These three red sentries can be found in the centre of Uxbridge, and many other places around the UK. The photograph shows a different angle of the bar/restaurant Baroosh.