The View from my Window

Public


296/365: Steep side road, Bewdley
Click for a larger, sharper image
Yes, another one of those days when I don't have anything particularly thrilling to bring you in terms of 365 photos! Still, I have got this one. It's nothing more interesting than a view down a rather steep side road on a Bewdley housing estate. At least the hills in the distance are reasonably attractive!

Public


294/365: Lost trainer
Click for a larger, sharper image
I had a three quid voucher for Sainsbury's, so I popped in there in the morning and bought some sausage rolls and crisps. Which I've now eaten. Talk about a healthy, balanced diet! :D As it was a nice afternoon, I wandered around the local lanes for a few minutes later on. This was an oddity: a single child's trainer, left on top of a gate in case its owner should happen by. How you lose one trainer I have absolutely no idea, but hopefully they – or their parents – have some other shoes available, otherwise they'll be hopping the whole time from now on! :P

Public


292/365: Wolverhampton Pillar
No larger version available
It's not that often I get to Wolverhampton – I think the last time was February – but I was there today. There's not a lot to it for a city, especially now the Marks & Spencer in the high street has closed and is just sitting there empty, but I have a soft spot for it nevertheless. It didn't hurt that I had a nice deal from the Sunbeam (part of the Hungry Horse pub chain) that got me a cheeseburger, chips, onion rings and lemonade for £6.00 in total. I didn't do much in the way of sightseeing (to the extent that's possible in Wolvo anyway!) but here's one of the few sights that you don't have to get out of the centre for. The Wolverhampton Pillar, what remains of a cross dating from late Saxon times, possibly around the year 1000.

Public


290/365: Edwardian Tearoom, Birmingham Museum
Click for a larger, sharper image
Yes, I'm being silly. What do you expect around here? Anyway, today I was in Birmingham – for once, not for boring reasons but just because I had a free day and I felt like it. The German Christmas Market is in full swing, but in all honesty it's not what it used to be. It's overwhelmingly food nowadays, which is fine but I really miss the craft stalls they used to have that are now reduced to a handful. Still, I managed to buy my annual Berliner. This year's was Rafaello flavour, of all things. Lots of white chocolate all over the place. Very, very sweet, but as a one-off I'll accept it!

Thence to Birmingham Museum to have a potter. I deeply dislike the way they've got the "Free entry but please donate £5!!" thing set up now. Not only a stand inside the entrance but a person standing there as well. I wish some of these places would get it through their head that many of us – including me – are less likely to donate if we feel ambushed or otherwise pressured. This seemed to be the prevailing view, as the large majority of the people coming in with me didn't donate either. Still, I did go for a drink in the Edwardian Tearoom, which is one of the museum's highlights.

Public


288/365: Wribbenhall flood defences
Click for a larger, sharper image
As it finally stopped raining today, I was able to get out and have a look at the new flood defences on the Wribbenhall side of the river. You can see part of them here; these work very similarly to those on the other bank, with aluminium slats slotted in between pillars that are placed in ready-made holes in the ground. Further down, in Stourport Road (just visible in the distance) the end of the road is blocked by several large pumping machines, which stop water from backing up via the drains. It wasn't a particularly serious flood this time, with water not getting into actual houses, but so far so good!

Public


286/365: Environment Agency lorry, Bewdley
Click for a larger, sharper image
Not that I should be getting used to it, given that tomorrow's forecast is absolutely dire. Storm Claudia is on the way, and the Met Office is suggesting 40 to 60 mm of rain, accompanied by strong winds. Given that, it's perhaps not all that surprising that the Environment Agency lorries were in town today unloading and erecting the flood barriers. The EA projection suggests the Severn may peak at slightly above 3.6 metres tomorrow. That's not terrifying and probably won't affect residential properties, but the margin of error is small enough that putting up the barriers makes sense. Photo: one of the aforementioned lorries outside the chemist.

Public

I've decided that the case of Sandra Peabody's mistreatment while making The Last House on the Left is important enough to me that my posts about it need some sort of a dedicated home. As such, rather than continuing to post on the issue regularly on this account, I'm announcing two related new places, which will largely mirror each other in terms of content:

The primary place will be the Not Only a Movie blog on Blogger.

The secondary will be the notonlyamovie  community right here on Dreamwidth.

The reason for my choice of name is explained in the profile of the Dreamwidth community. 

Apart from the intro, the first post I've made in these communities concerns the magazine article I mentioned on here the other week. The post is called David Hess admitted threatening Sandra Peabody with rape in Vanity Fair, and nobody noticed – which pretty much sums up what happened. However, as I'm now writing away from this general blog, I go into a lot more detail; this post is over 1,200 words.

Please note, you won't generally get content warnings with these. You can read the post both on the blog and in the community.

Public

They shall grow not old,
As we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning,
We will remember them.

—"For the Fallen", Laurence Binyon.