Out and about in Hyson Green Market today was the Lord Mayor, Councillor Michael Wildgust, together with the Sheriff and various other hangers on.
They were all there to campaign for a no vote in the upcoming referendum to decide wether Nottingham should have an elected Mayor.
The Lord Mayor looks pensive in this photo. Maybe, like me, he’s not quite sure how parading around in all his ancient finery fits in with socialist political theory.
A reminder of the true meaning of Good Friday. . .
Candle lit black and white studio shot of Blessed Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Christ. (Peter Morley)
There has been much debate caused by new ‘so-called’ research which claims women are better at parking cars than men. I don’t intend enjoin that particular argument, because I believe this picture illustrates the point to be supremely irrelevant.
This is not a parked car – but rather a car in the process of being parked! I give no clue as to the sex of the driver.
Surely the fact that we have drivers of such staggering incompetence on our roads should be of far more concern than some outdated conception of male machismo?
Someone, somewhere once took a picture of beach huts.
Then, as is the way of these things, anyone and everyone started to copy the picture. Soon shops were full of prints, postcards and all sort of trashy, cheap images of pristine looking beach huts. Next came the sculptures and potters . . . and, yes, even the candle makers. (I wish they’d just stick it.)
The problem for me is that if there were ostriches around our shores, and they proclaimed themselves to be artists, they would still have their heads in the sand. Beach huts are not generally pristine. They tend to be trashy and anything but cheap. In Britain, this is how most of us see them – most of the time.
But is that not the way with modern life? We are conditioned to see things as the image makers and spin doctors would have us see – to blindly follow and accept the trend.
Maybe it’s time we all considered bucking the trend, thinking for ourselves and seeing things as they really are?
Despite denials it appears George Osborne does have a Plan B after all. (Peter Morley)
Spent the morning at Attenborough Nature Reserve yesterday and a couple of the resulting shots are included here.
The picture of the female Mallard on the nest with her chicks is what we conventionally see as ‘cute’.
Attenborough provides a nesting box for Kestrels, and whilst these may not be normally famed for their cuteness, for my part the two little faces peering from inside the box are just about as cute as it gets.
I was alone in paying any attention to these birds, which I find strange. I know they grow up to be predators, but that is all part of nature.
It was ironic to spend time watching and photographing these birds of prey on the very same day a gamekeeper was in court, being fined for using a homing pigeon to lure such creatures into a trap. This ‘gentleman’, who was operating on National Trust land – on behalf of not them but their tenant I must point our – came to the notice of the RSPB when birds of prey numbers fell dramatically in his particular Derbyshire patch.
Gamekeepers do not all behave in this fashion. But what is certain is that he is not the only one. It is good to see that the RSPB, the police and the courts are taking the matter seriously. Nature has a natural balance and it would be nice to think this did not have to be maintained by use of the scales of justice.
I mentioned in my last post the solitary Mandarin Duck which has attached itself to a Greylag Goose family during – at least – the past two springs.
Well here it is, pictured with one of the greylag goslings.
You can find more pictures in my ‘Confused Mandarin‘ gallery.
Country Parks have much which is good to offer, but all too often are abused.
More of that another time.
What can be seen from the composite to the left, are some of the joys of the place. But, more significantly to this post is the pile of stinking, festering rubbish. This doesn’t comprise of industrial or trade waste which can be expensive to dispose of – it is household waste including disposable nappies, follow on milk cartons etc. Just what sort of parent considers it acceptable to dump this in a country park, I am sorry to say, is only too easy to imagine. Could it possibly be someone such as one of the local, hooded-pseudo-hoodlums, complete with status dog who take their swaggering ‘exercise’ here. To be specific, the dogs exercise, both their bodies and the tiny minds of their owners by chasing the wildlife into and out of the water.
A quick perusal of the notices in the composite above – keep your dog under control – do not allow them to enter the water – would have no less effect were they written in doggy – please keep your owner under control. Some chance!
If only all ‘parents’ were as caring and conscientious as that Mandarin Duck!
For many years Nottingham was known as a centre for lacemaking. Indeed, even to this day one of the most attractive parts of the city is known as the Lace Market.
True, many of the old, yet still attractive factories have been converted to desirable apartments and there is very little evidence of this once thriving industry. Nonetheless when my wife received an enquiry for the crafting of a bag for a lace maker’s cushion from a customer in Ipswich (to whom she had previously supplied a knitting bag), it seemed more than appropriate. Lace making was, in a sense, coming home.
It is good to know some of the old crafts are still being practiced, and what’s more there are still people about who take pride in producing the best possible job. All too often today, the all pervading attitude of “I wouldn’t mind having a stab at that” seems to become too easily misinterpreted as commitment, competence, and worse still even excellence.
The lace maker’s cushion bag above was produced by Priscilla Morley
