Painting of a Dead Bird by Vincent Van B
Vincent Van B is one of the most unique artists and British painters in the UK.
Painting of Dead Bird. Vincent Van B.
Painting of Dead Bird. Vincent Van B.
Arcticterntalk.org
The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world
Archive for the tag “birds of prey”
A 45 Second Rant against Slow people in airports.
Written by the 14 year old and made me laugh.
One of the things that really annoys me is when people walk very, very slowly in front of you. Sometimes these people realize that there is in fact, somebody behind them and obligingly let you go past but most of the time they remain completely unaware, even if you do politely ask them if you could “just get through.” Apparently, this category of people tends to be both ignorant of your polite pleas and also surprisingly very slow indeed. As well as this, these people often seem to appear right when you are in a hurry, in airports for example. You have just gone through the whole rigmarole of trying to find your boarding cards, had your bag checked by security because there was some dangerous hand cream that was over 100mls and not in the plastic bag provided, and finally you settle down on the hard plastic seats before you realize that the departure screen for your flight is reading LAST CALL and you rush off to your gate which is not where the signposts state it is, and just as you are hurrying through those corridors, you are stopped by the people in front as they are walking as slow as is humanly possible. Possibly even slower than that in fact. Unfortunately for the fast walker type of people, the slower people not only can always be located directly in front of you, but also have the tendency to walk in large clumps of slow walking people. The only way out of this situation is to push through and apologize profusely, and hope that no other person has the misfortune to be stuck behind these people at any time that day.
Slovenia- A Beautiful Country
There is little doubt that Slovenia and the capital Ljubljana are two of the more beautiful places to visit. A few photographs from a recent visit just to demonstrate a little of this country. Even the graffitti is beautiful and stylish!
Cowpie Country Show 2015
Cowpie sounds like a strange menu item but in fact is the annual show for the Surrey Young Farmers. Up until this year it had been held at Betchworth near Dorking, but maybe because last years event had to be postponed due to rain , it was moved to near Lingfield.
The Cowpie Country Show is organised entirely by Young Farmers and volunteers and is held annually in May. The Show attracts around 20,000 visitors who come to see the wide range of main ring attractions, livestock, side shows and trade stands.
Cowpie also incorporates one of Surrey YFC’s main competition days, so visitors can see Young Farmers competing in events around the show ground, like hay bail racing, livestock judging, charity racing and archery.
The show is a great day out with a mixture of events, like various dog racing and dog competitions, birds of prey ( a little sanitised if I am honest), stalls, a small fair and various other diverse events that include tarot card reading ( maybe something for Nick Clegg next time?), motorcycle stunt riders, sheep shearers and many more things.
Kestrel at Cowpie 2015
World Food Photos. Like food, like photographs of food
Just a various eclectic mix of food photos taken in various locations. Nothing special. Just enjoy and be hungry.
Coconut Tart
Sliders and Beef Wellingtons
Ice and Snow. What can we learn from Scandinavia? Oslo airport. Gardermoen.
At around the same time Manchester airport was being closed due to snow and bad weather, the weather was not so different in Oslo and flights were leaving on time. Not so many are aware that Norway is the northernmost, westernmost and easternmost all all the three Scandinavian countries and has a population of only 5 million, mostly Norwegian people. And it also is a country without an official religon having separated from the church in 2012. And humble Oslo is only the 17th busiest airport in Europe with 24.2 million passengers in 2014. About half the airport operator’s income is from retail revenue. There are twenty places to eat or drink, in addition to stores and other services including banks and post. In all, 8,000 square metres (86,000 sq ft) are used for restaurants, stores and non-aviation services. And yesterday it felt like an expedition to get through the duty free zone to anywhere near a departure gate. But as Oslo airport is connected to 162 other airports, maybe I can excuse the retail element. This of course has nothing to do with why the airport functions when all others close down.
The reality is pride and equipment and foresight.In Nordic Countries, Skill at Keeping Airports Open Through Blizzards Is a Point of Pride. Winter can last 6 months and airplane de-icing starts in august.Across the chilly water, on the bleak Svalbard archipelago in the Norwegian arctic, winter temperatures can drop to -55C. In winter, airport employees work round-the-clock shifts, at the first sight of snow.
Another Nordic secret: pushing producers for absurdly powerful equipment. Oslo Airport runs two of the world’s largest self-propelled snowblowers, built by Norwegian airport-equipment maker Øveraasen AS. Only two other of the TV2000 units operate at airports; they, too, are in Norway.The 2,000-horsepower machines can shoot 10,000 tons of snow an hour more than 150 feet from the tarmac.
So we can say that foresight, effort and equipment play major roles in explaining why Scandinavian airports stay open , but also airport capacity . Heathrow for example, one of the worlds worst airports in my opinion, operates to 98% capacity and thus even small disruptions can be chaotic. Stockholm Arlanda has over 40 people dedicated to snow clearing during the winter.The airport has 18 PSB (ploughing, sweeping, blowing) machines. These are followed by snow throwers which move the line of snow left by the PSBs. Behind these come friction measuring vehicles that test the likelihood of skidding on the runway.
Tsunami Photo Museum Telewatta Sri Lanka
On Dec 26th in 2004 the Tsunami hit different Asian countries including Sri Lanka. Very many lives were lost, at least 40,000 and because records are not so excellent there numbers may well be higher. Sri Lanka in fact was the second worst country that was hit. Since then the country had had a resurgence with a second international airport recently completed in the south and the start of a motorway system embedded in the country, meaning what was previously a 5 hour trip from Colombo Airport to the south is far nearer two hours now.
What however many people remain unaware of is that there is a museum devoted to the Tsunami. From the outside it does not look like a museum, in fact it looks remarkably like a ramshackle house that was hit by the Tsunami in the Pareliya area just back from the coast. This is exactly what it is, a house ruined that has been left essentially damaged but turned into a small museum that houses photographs, paintings and stories of how local people built up their lives from scratch. There is free entry and one can leave donations in a small box.
The aim of the museum is to keep the stories alive for future generations and show people what actually happened.
When I visited in August 2014 it has to be one of the most emotional places I can recall visiting.
The museum is almost opposite the National Tsunami Monument near Pareliya junction ( where around 2000 people on a train lost their lives that morning), and is on the main road traveling north out of Hikkaduwa around 4 km or 9 km south of ambalangoda.
Their website is
tsunami-photo-museum-srilanka.blogspot.com
Further information can be got on info@kunstkoffer.nl
Below are a selection of photos I took of the photos in the museum, I challenge anyone not to find these things quite emotional.
Please vote for your favourite photo
Strawberry from the garden. My favourite photo of 2014.Copyright chris Bushe
Spider in Motspur Park Copyright chris Bushe
Peregrine Falcon eating a chick.Copyright chris Bushe
coffee by the canal in amsterdam. Copyright chris Bushe
Heron in Vondels park amsterdam. An old heron i guess.Copyright Chris Bushe
Heron in Vondels park amsterdam. An old heron i guess.Copyright Chris Bushe
Lemur at Twycross zoo.Copyright Chris Bushe
Meercat at Twycross ZooCopyright Chris Bushe
Starfish point on Grand Cayman, as lovely as it looked. Copyright Chris Bushe
Crab Spider in the garden one summer day. What was it doing thereCopyright Chris Bushe
Arctic Tern on Farne Islands.Crab Spider in the garden one summer day. What was it doing thereCopyright Chris Bushe
Iceland geysers.Crab Spider in the garden one summer day. What was it doing thereCopyright Chris Bushe
Crab Spider in the garden one summer day. What was it doing thereCopyright Chris Bushe
Bird of prey at Painshill Park Copyright Chris Bushe
The first apples ever grown on the small tree in the garden we planted 2 years ago. Copyright Chris Bushe
Best Photographs of 2014
Around this time each year I sit down and try and sort out my best 13 photographs of the year to make up my annual calendar. Not easy. This year is easier than some. These are the said photos. Each has a reason for being there and each has a story. Please feel free to share this post and this blog with your friends and colleagues.
The first apples ever grown on the small tree in the garden we planted 2 years ago. Copyright Chris Bushe
Bird of prey at Painshill Park Copyright Chris Bushe
Crab Spider in the garden one summer day. What was it doing thereCopyright Chris Bushe
Iceland geysers.Crab Spider in the garden one summer day. What was it doing thereCopyright Chris Bushe
Arctic Tern on Farne Islands.Crab Spider in the garden one summer day. What was it doing thereCopyright Chris Bushe
Crab Spider in the garden one summer day. What was it doing thereCopyright Chris Bushe
Starfish point on Grand Cayman, as lovely as it looked. Copyright Chris Bushe
Meercat at Twycross ZooCopyright Chris Bushe
Lemur at Twycross zoo.Copyright Chris Bushe
Heron in Vondels park amsterdam. An old heron i guess.Copyright Chris Bushe
Heron in Vondels park amsterdam. An old heron i guess.Copyright Chris Bushe
coffee by the canal in amsterdam. Copyright chris Bushe
Peregrine Falcon eating a chick.Copyright chris Bushe
Spider in Motspur Park Copyright chris Bushe
Strawberry from the garden. My favourite photo of 2014.Copyright chris Bushe
A Great Place
The rants and warblings of an active and some would say disturbed mind. A Brentford Fc supporter and a psychiatrist and photographer. Welcome to my musings and rants.
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 