Almost total eclipse (of the eclipse)...

Today was a busy day. We went to Felbrigg Hall in the morning and Cromer in the afternoon. We went out again in the evening, because there was a near-total (90% or so) solar eclipse, but we didn't see much of it - we were outside, but the sun dipped behind some buildings. We didn't have special viewing equipment anyway. We did see an impressive sunset over the beach though.

Felbrigg Hall

This morning, we visited Felbrigg Hall (near Holt). We didn't go in the hall itself, though we did go in the walled gardens.

The dove cote was empty, but there were some chickens roaming the grounds.

We also took a walk through the grounds to an old church. Only on the walk were we told about a recent death due to cattle-trampling, but (perhaps in consequence) we didn't see any cows...

Recommendation: Walnut Tree, Thwaite

Driving from Colchester to Sheringham today, we stopped for lunch at an all-vegetarian pub in Thwaite called the Walnut Tree. I've only been the once but, if you're in the area, I'd highly recommend it. The enchiladas were one of the best meals I've had in quite a while.

Full review over on TripAdvisor.

A visit to Clacton

The upcoming Clacton by-election contest, pitting Nigel Farage against Count Binface, has generated a lot of social media attention - including in both music and wargaming circles. With less than a week until polling day, I took advantage of a family holiday in Essex to visit on the ground.

To be honest, we didn't see a lot of the town, except from the car. We only had two hours in the car park and spent most of that walking along the beach looking for somewhere to eat (we ended up at Martello Lounge, reviewed here). Even just driving through though, I saw many posters supporting Farage.

Lordsdale Butterfly

Today, we joined a ranger-guided walk from Shirley Pond along Lordsdale Greenway. I took quite a few wildlife photos, particularly of various insects.

I believe this is a Painted Lady. There were quite a few of them around.

Urban Wild 2026

It's a scorching bank holiday weekend, which also marks the start of half-term I gather. There is a series of 'urban wild' events taking place across Southampton, including a festival today on the Common.

We saw several acts, including...

The Red Star Socialist Choir, who did several numbers, including a song about diversity to the tune of YMCA.

A folk group, Angling for Farthings, who played several songs with a local connection, including one about cabin boy Robert Parker (who was victim of cannibalism).

Shanti Green who did sea shanties. Perhaps they should have done the Robert Parker song, though they did do a version of the Wellerman (not this version though).

And, finally (before we left), The Guillotine Union Boys - another political act, singing about (inter alia) fascism and Elon Musk (two different songs) and a version of Which Side Are You On?

Voted

This morning, I voted in our local elections. That is, I either exercised my democratic right or discharged my democratic duty, depending on your view.

It's the first time I've voted in-person since the introduction of photo ID requirements. (I have postal voted in the meantime.)

I was curious how long the process would take, so I timed myself. I left the house at 8:22 (so this doesn't include getting ready to go out, since I was doing that anyway). I had voted by 8:29. At that point, I was on my way to work, so didn't go straight back home - but I had gone out of my way to get to the polling station.

So, it was about 8:35 by the time I was back on my normal route to work. So, one could say about 15 minutes total or perhaps 10 (because it would have taken me some time to get that far anyway).

I'm always slightly resentful of the fact that our polling station is in the opposite direction from work, so I was interested to learn that experiments are underway that might allow voters more choice over where (and when) they vote. That's something I'd welcome.

Slightly ironically, I then spent much of the day writing against the idea of compulsory voting, in response to this recent proposal. I may have more to say about that later.

Picket

I'm not on strike, but many staff at Southampton Solent are, so today I popped along to spend a couple of hours on their picket line.

We were joined by (UCU General Secretary) Jo Grady - which was expected - but also by one of my undergraduate students, which was more of a surprise.

It's a boy

While the pigeon may be gone, I have another photo update from my garden. The small holly bush has flowers.

I had hoped that flowers might mean berries later but, after some quick online research, these look like male flowers to me. That's a bit of a shame, because it means no berries.

Sad pigeon update

Disambiguation: it's not the pigeon that's sad...

Unfortunately, our pigeon nest appears to have been abandoned. 

I don't know what happened. I can't see any sign of eggs, though I assume there were some at some point.

 

Weston Shore

We had a few days of nice weather over Easter, so decided to have a day out in (at?) Weston Shore yesterday. We took the bus into the city centre, stopping off at Cafe Thrive to pick up a takeaway lunch, then back on the #17 out to Swift Road, from where we walked along part of Shoreburs Greenway past Jurd's Lake. (This is apparently a butterfly trail, but we didn't see any particularly interesting wildlife.)

When we reached the shore, we stopped to eat our lunch on a bench looking out over the water, then we walked along the shore back towards Woolston. We passed a few cyclists and dog-walkers, but I was surprised how quiet it was given that it's still Easter holidays. Maybe we picked a good day to come in that respect; the day before was warmer and sunnier (probably too warm to be walking around in the midday sun) and the next day (today) there was apparently a kids' litter pick

We had a quick stop in Mettricks (which would have been convenient for lunch, if we hadn't already eaten, but was busy), then got the bus out again to further along the shore and walked back to the Greenway and did that bit again but in reverse. From there, it was back on the bus into the city centre and home again. All in all, a pleasant little jaunt.

Pigeon nesting

 We were away for Easter but, before we left, I'd noticed a pigeon or two taking an interest in the bush in our garden. I thought they might be building a nest and, indeed, it looks like that was the case:

I don't know whether I'll be able to post regular updates, because I don't want to disturb her/them* - but I'll try to if I get a chance.

*Edit: later research suggests it may actually be the male who sits on the eggs most of the day.

Cheesy peas

I knew my partner was cooking chilli for dinner tonight, so I'd been told not to have beans for lunch. Therefore, jacket potato with cheese and peas:

It may seem an odd combination, but if you like peas and you like cheese, then why not...

Halocene VIP

It’s been a long time (as in, 10-15 years) since I last went to a gig, but last night we went to see Halocene playing a support slot at the Engine Rooms, following their festival appearance at Download. It’s not every day that an unsigned band from Tennessee makes it over to Southampton.

We paid extra for VIP tickets (more than the tickets actually), which were supposed to involve a meet and greet before the show. We were told to turn up at 6 (an hour before doors), so got there about 5:45, only to be left standing outside – and wondering whether we were in the right place – until about 6:30, when the small queue in front of us finally started moving.

Then someone came over and called my name out and took us to one side. He explained that we wouldn’t have the usual meet and greet experience, because we were the only two who’d purchased VIP tickets for this show, so instead he took us over to the band’s tour bus, where we got to sit and chat with Brad and Addie (a short conversation, but covering music we like, things to do in Southampton, and the differences between ducks and geese). Then we got given our exclusive VIP t-shirts and a photo opportunity outside:

I wished afterwards that I’d asked for a photo in the van, but never mind. We were escorted into the venue to wait for the show.

It was a bit of a wait, but when they finally took the stage they blasted through ‘Just Won’t Die’ followed by a cover of ‘Killing In The Name’ – where Addie had the crowd singing along, ironically doing just what she asked. The set was mostly originals, including ‘Repent’, ‘This Is Our War’ (my partner’s favourite), and ‘Maleficent’ though, sadly, they didn’t do ‘Devil Inside Me’ (which is one of my favourites).

They did throw some other covers: ‘Unholy’, ‘The Kill (Bury Me)’ (which was largely Addie solo) and then finished the set with ‘Chop Suey’ during which Addie got down into the crowd.

It was a shorter set than I’d like, since they were only the support act for the night (with Atreyu headlining). They’re playing their own headline show in Brighton tonight, but sadly that’s a bit too far, especially given that I’m off to a conference tomorrow while my partner has exam boards to deal with.

Perhaps one day we’ll get another chance to see them in person but, until then, I guess we’ll have to stick to their regular streams.

Edit: This video is a similar set from the same tour.

Mordheim undead

I haven't posted any hobby content in a while, but I just finished painting this set of undead heroes for Mordheim and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out:

Pictures of barriers

When I'm out and about with my camera, I'm often looking for things that might be useful to illustrate lecture slides. I have a number of pictures of fences, fallen trees, and other obstacles that might be useful for lectures on freedom. (I've shared some of these before.)

Unfortunately, I didn't notice that the BBC were inviting pictures with the theme of barriers until I saw a selection of entries published here. I wouldn't use these, if only for copyright reasons. (If I want other people's photos, I tend to go to Pixabay.) There are some nice ones though.

Stalin Road

 Back in September, I was in Colchester visiting relatives when this picture was taken:

There's a post-war estate that contains Churchill Way, Roosevelt Way, and - more controversially - Stalin Road.

This was featured in the local newspaper back in 2009, when it reported that only four out of thirty households responding to a poll wanted the name to change. It was back in the newspaper the other day though, in a more recent article that partly repeats the older one. This article was also reprinted further afield. However, this also gives more detail of the debate at the time.

First, it reports a tweet from the council (which I haven't located) according to which changing the road name would require consent from 75% of the residents. (It's not clear whether that's 75% of those who vote, or 75% of all residents - making abstention an effective no vote.) That's interesting, given that I've been teaching majority rule lately. Here we have an example of bias towards the status quo, as often used in cases of constitutional entrenchment.

Second, it reports disagreement over who should have standing here. One resident is quoted as saying, "it should be our decision" because it is the residents who would be inconvenienced by a change of address. On the other hand, another letter argued that the name is an embarrassment to Colchester (and even Britain) and that residents don't have the right to choose the name of their road. (For the record though, I think the latter point is something of a non-sequitur. The residents here didn't choose Stalin Road. Their objection is to having the existing name changed.)

This is also interesting, given that I've recently been discussing the so-called 'boundary problem' with students on my democratic theory module. This is a case where it's not clear what the relevant 'demos' is. If not the residents of the road in question, then who should it be? Everyone in Colchester? Everyone in Britain? What about residents of the former USSR?

Post-storm fallen tree

I was forced to cancel a lecture last Friday due to Storm Eunice. 

It's not the first time I've known campus to be closed due to inclement weather. I had assumed that, in these post-pandemic days, classes would generally be moved online rather than cancelled. That is what many people did, but unfortunately my personal laptop chose the day before to die. (I think/hope it's a charger issue rather than the laptop itself, but don't have a spare to test it.)

Local damage is not as dramatic as some of the pictures that I've seen online, but there are a few broken/fallen trees around, including this one that blocked my route to the local shops on Saturday:

As I said, not the most dramatic, but this picture might be useful for lecture slides when discussing freedom and obstacles. If someone were to put a barrier across the path, then this would be a restriction on my negative freedom. A fallen tree, however, may leave me unable - but not unfree - to walk down to the shops.

Merry Christmas

 I gather that 'elf on the shelf' is popular at this time of year, so here are some elves that I made last year:

 

Parts are almost all from Northstar's Frostgrave/Oathmark lines, though I did use a few GW bits including the old Bretonnian shields (featuring stag faces, which I gave a red nose).

One day I hope to use them in an Xmas-themed Frostgrave scenario, though I've not had the chance yet.

Pixabay

I've not updated for a while as we were away for a bit. I took quite a lot of photos during our travels, so I decided to upload some of them to Pixabay. This is a site that I've used for a while, because pictures can freely be used even for commercial purposes, without attribution, which is ideal for lecture slides. I figured that, having used pictures from this site, I should give something back by uploading some of my own.

 

I'm still figuring things out over there. I'm not a professional photographer, so my pictures aren't as good as many of the others on the site. Still, it may be a handy way for me to organise photos that I may want to use again, even if no one else does. If you're interested, my pictures can be found on my profile here.