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A guide inside this museum told us how the exterior of the building (Hall’s House) had been restored to its original glory early last century. He was lying: in Tudor times the exterior would have been whitewashed to hide the wooden beams. It was only during Victorian times that it became popular to display the exterior wooden beams. 

This photograph of The Old Ferry House on Waterside Road, Stratford on Avon, shows the water damage on the lower wall caused by the recent floods.

In this week’s New Statesman, Mark Lynas argues:

This is not “a poor summer”. Britain has been experiencing its worst ever climate change event. We must recognise this and our own responsibility for the emerging crisis.

I found another photograph of The Old Ferry House, half way down this page.  On the day I was in Stratford, I couldn’t have taken a photo from that spot - it was under water.  At the end of Lyman’s article he comments that:

Polls show that the general public is still not convinced about the reality of climate change, even as the flood waters rise towards people’s front doors.

The comments on his article reflect the same rather sad reality.

Cappagh is a word derived from the Irish Gaelic word caepach meaning a large tillage plot (of land). This is the very first time I have come across it, and it is somewhat of a surprise to do so on a street sign in Uxbridge, London.

It reminded me of the Welsh traffic sign story in Cambridgeshire, or the Polish traffic sign story in Cheshire. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s as interesting as this: the sign probably belongs to a construction company.

This is the bust of William Shakespeare which is to be found above his grave in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford on Avon. The bust was carved out of Cotswold Stone and placed there in 1623 (a mere 7 years after Shakespeare’s death).  As the bust was commissioned by Anne Hathoway during her lifetime, it is believed that this bust is a good likeness of the bard.

This is the grave of William Shakespeare in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford on Avon. The gravestone reads:

Good Friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here:
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.

There is an onomatopoetic to his name in the verse ("sake" in line 1 and “spares” in line 3), but nobody knows who wrote the epitaph.

Must be something going around. Every leaf on every tree in the vicinity showed severe signs of affliction.

This is the scene in Stratford on Sunday, of the Avon River in flood. It’s hard to assess the damage if you don’t know what this looked like before.

Same old story: cars collide on M25 anti-clockwise between Junctions 11 & 10. Two lanes closed while emergency services attend to the scene. Long delays result.

This is the house where the bard was born in 1564. I spent the best part of today with some friends walking around Stratford-on-Avon, visiting museums & gardens, and looking at the floods.

It’s amazing how you can leap over fences when you find yourself confronted by a large animal in a field, such as a cow.

Today I read the Potter book, had a meeting, did some shopping, went for a walk. Tomorrow it’s off to Stratford with some colleagues. Hopefully the weather will be ok.

Oops, did I let the cat out the bag? Here’s the “mad rush” outside WH bookshop at Gatwick. Not much Potter mania then. Actually as I write this it’s only 11:50 pm so I have no idea what happens in the book. The plan is to run in when the shop opens at midnight, read the last page, then shout out the ending to the assembled throng. It may or may not pan out exactly like that.

Update: The funniest moment was when we got to the queue at the till inside the bookshop. We had been joking outside the shop that we should read the last page and shout out the ending. Clearly the American in the queue with us had heard this because Adam, who was with Pinkie and me, mentioned “I’m going to read the back cover” (there being a blurb on the back cover) when the American blurted out “Dont! read the back cover!”
Yeah, right, because the American might have found out that:

Harry is waiting in Privet Drive. The Order of the Phoenix is coming to escort him safely away without Voldemort and his supporters knowing - if they can. But what will Harry do then? How can he fulfil the momentous and seemingly impossible task that Professor Dumbledore has left him?

What a shocker eh?

Another update: I have replaced the photo with one that is not as blurred. The American in the story above is standing on the left. 

Strictly speaking this is not the Blue Screen of Death but some other kind of Windows error.  I found it on an LCD display which was streaming video into the London lobby of a global company. I find it preferable to the streaming video message, which is loud and garish.

At 6:30 yesterday morning this truck (with an obscured number plate) drove about 15 miles along the clockwise carriageway of the M25 obstructing and slowing down the traffic behind it.  This was nothing compared to what happened 90 minutes later when another truck blocked the M25 in the same spot this time completely and for several hours.

The most heavily used road is the M25 where flows vary from over 125,000 at the Dartford River Crossing to about 180,000 between Junctions 13 and 14 near Heathrow. Peak flows in excess of 160,000 have been reached at Dartford with July flows of up to about 200,000 near Heathrow. The proportion of HGVs is just below 10%. Standards are generally dual three lanes in the east and four lanes in the west. Although the M25 accounts for only about 6% of the mileage of the motorway network, it carries about 14% of all motorway traffic. Studies show that, on average, a vehicle on any particular section is engaged on a journey of around 150 kilometres with 30% travelling from a location outside M25 to another one outside M25. Just over half of the M25 drivers use more than three sections of the motorway (i.e pass through at least two intermediate junctions) and almost a quarter use more than seven sections. Apart from slightly lower flows during the winter there is generally little variation between most months. Severe congestion occurs at many locations and in particular in the south west quadrant around Heathrow. It is likely that the Dartford Crossing will reach its capacity by 2002. In general the peak hours (7 to 9 am and 4 to 6 pm) for the M25 are spreading with flows remaining heavy over most of the day.

From a Department for Transport 2002 study.

This is another view of Victoria Concourse (previous here).  This is not going to be the scene of the next mobile clubbing event in London on Thursday. Details here.

One of the signs on the back of this truck (I know it’s not very clear) reads:

Cyclists beware of passing this vehicle on the inside

There really should be something in Cycling 101 about overtaking a truck this size on either the inside or outside.