Queen Victoria in Warrior Square

There was a spectacular sunset this evening around 4:30. I went out with my camera to try to capture an image, but by then the view had changed, first the sun came out from behind the clouds, then it quickly set. I got some images, but they were similar to others obtained before. I ended up on the sea-front by Warrior Square and noticed that the statue of Queen Victoria was illuminated with a spotlight and that the plinth seems to have been cleaned. Hence the photo shown here.

I did very poorly in the Weekend Chess Congress, playing in the Minor tournament, since I managed only a draw, and that was against the youngest competitor, where I ended up with a knight and pawn against two knights and pawn. The middle game of the five, played in the evening of the first day, was weird. I made a muddle of the opening and was well down, then somehow revived to fight back to a winning position, and then went to sleep again in the end game and threw it away. Sheer tiredness I think. There are another five games to go in the New Year tournament, which I suspect will be against stronger opposition.

My Photograph Collection

Today and yesterday I have been catching up with updating my flickr photostream which I had neglected for a long while. The idea is to put in it what are the best of my photos, although looking back some of those chosen seem questionable. Since they are available for anyone to copy (though please include an acknowledgment) they also tend to be images others may find useful. For instance some are shared with the Humanist Heritage Group on flickr. Nearly all are town and country landscapes, mostly devoid of people, which may say something about my solitary nature. I like to make pictures with the main subject clearly framed, with no bits cut off. I also like to try to see things from an unusual angle if possible. Some of the photos are classified into sets for the geographic areas in which they were taken, namely London (including Greenwich), Leicester, Lincoln and Hastings (including St Leonards).

The Wider View

This is the wider photo that I took before the telescopic image posted last time. It has been enhanced slightly so the houses are not completely black.

This week I've been getting more minor nose-bleeds. I did think of making an appointment to see the doctor, but their system seems likely to raise my blood pressure more than anything else. Speaking to the receptionist at the counter she was reluctant to arrange anything except a month ahead, and to book on the actual day you have to phone between 8:30 and 9:15 in the morning. Obviously they are completely overworked. So I decided to leave it for now, and nothing has recurred.

I've been getting a series of emails from an chap in St Albans who has very vague plans to set up a chess variants organisation to replace BCVS, but he keeps using my name and that of Variant Chess as if I've already given approval to his efforts. This has not done my blood pressure any good either.

I've also entered the Hastings Chess Club Summer tournaments, those that are not rapid-play at any rate. The first opponent I contacted failed to turn up at the appointed time, but I did get a friendly game, which I won. I've agreed to rearrange the appointment for next week, though apparently I could have claimed the win by default, but really I just need the practice.

Sky View

Fantastic sky this evening, about 8 pm. The seagull seems to think so too. Photo taken through a window of my living room, using a telescopic setting.

Canary Wharf

There really is a Canary Wharf where the river buses dock as this photo I took on my trip last Thursday shows. The buildings above are of course the place where the power of the money markets now resides. Are they now our real masters? It's not my pun but it nicely sums up the results of the election and I can't resist quoting it: We are all Con-Dem'd!

On the River

This is a photo I took on Thursday as the Thames river-bus was about to pass under Tower Bridge on the way down to Greenwich. I was surprised to find that I had taken 50 photos in all when I came to transfer them to the computer. Of course, most of them were not very good. I must get round to putting the best of them onto my Flickr page, which I've been neglecting for some time. I also got quite a good one when the boat stopped at Canary Wharf en route.

Perhaps I should add the results of the election. The sitting Labour MP, Michael Foster was defeated by the Conservative candidate Amber Rudd. On the other hand the Labour Councillor Jeremy Birch won, and in fact Labour took control of the Council.
Here is a report from the Hastings Observer website.

Cloud Scapes

We have had beautiful cloud-scapes over the sea today. I went out in the morning to deliver some notices about the next Hastings Humanists meeting, and walked as far as the Bo-Peep Pub, but unfortunately forgot to take my camera. There were also some seagulls abligingly posed on the promenade railings, but no doubt they will be there to be photographed some other time. In the afternoon I remembered to take the camera. The chosen photo showing the outline of Beachy Head is almost of painterly effect. Earlier in the day the same view was clear enough to show the light reflecting off the white buildings of Eastbourne, and the clouds were bright and all shades of grey.

Weather for Sea Gulls

I took some photos from the promenade trying to give an idea of the heavy seas blown up by the high winds we have had since Thursday Evening. Static photos however cannot compare with a motion picture or the real experience. The sea gulls at least seem to enjoy the gales, perhaps they bring in some fish, but my impression is that the gulls simply like being in the element for which they have evolved to survive. A phrase I claim to have originated is that "Beauty is in the eye of the survivor".

A Tangled Bank

This is another of the photos I took on my walk through Ecclesbourne Glen last month. It makes me think of the famous final passage in Origin of Species in which Charles Darwin writes "It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us." And he goes on to expound in brief the thesis of evolution by natural selection.

There have been some beautiful sky scapes visible on the sea front over the last few days, particularly on Friday mid-day where there were extensive cumulus clouds out over the sea, silvered with sunlight and in numerous shades of grey, and this afternoon when, looking towards Beachy Head the sun's rays were shining down through the clouds. Until I first saw this effect some years ago I had assumed that artists paintings of sunlight as rays pushing through the clouds were just a matter of artistic convention; but they really were trying to capture the reality. Alas on both occasions I went out without my camera. I must try to carry it more regularly.

My Photostream Updated

I updated my Flickr Photostream last night with two photos from the day, and others dating back to October. There are now 51 photos there, nearly all landscape scenes. They are just those that I think are the best ones. They are open for anyone to use, so I don't include photos of a personal nature, like portraits of family members.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73329514@N00/

I can't take any more photos at the moment because the battery is out of power and I seem to have mislaid the charger, and can't find it despite having looked everywhere I could think of. I dare say if I buy a new one the old one will turn up.

Edit: Fortunately Jessops (the camera shop in Hastings) didn't have a charger of the right type, so I was saved unnecessary expense, because I later found it in a box, nothing to do with photography, hidden within another box. Why it got put there I've no idea! I had the same sort of problem with a pair of scissors last year, but it was months before they turned up - in a box I'd looked through several times. Such is the way of the world - or is it a further sign of the way my brain is going?