Tory MP Neil Parish says he may have opened porn on his phone in the House of Commons, but only “by accident”. Well, I have a desktop computer, a laptop and a mobile phone, and porn never appears “by accident”. For porn to appear, I would have to download an app - Pornhub, say - onto my phone and then tap the app’s icon with an inquisitive finger… and that wouldn't be "accidental” either…
Licenced today: boats in Porthmadog marina, Gwynedd, Wales…
Licenced today: Benthall Hall, a National Trust property near Broseley, Shropshire…
Licenced today: mist envelops Jimmy Saville’s holiday hideaway - now empty and boarded-up - in Glencoe. Following his death, and subsequent unmasking as a predatory paedophile, a barrow-load of encrusted semen was scraped, with a palette knife, from Savile’s candlewick bedspread (this unsavoury souvenir failed to reach its reserve price when auctioned on eBay, and its current whereabouts are unknown)…
Having uploaded this pic to Alamy, it was weeks before I added a caption or keywords (which meant that it wasn't on sale). Not thinking it would sell, I'd thought of deleting it. Though it's only been viewable for a few days, it was licenced today, for the best price of the month (so far). There's a moral there somewhere...
I only found this little church - in the village of Healaugh, north of York - since moving to Asselby...
For the murder of MP Sir David Amess, Ali Harbi Ali, aged 26, has received a full-life tariff. Instead of becoming a doctor, as he had hoped before being radicalised by online ISIS propaganda, the self-styled "moderate Muslim" will live - and die - in prison. According to Islamic teaching - entirely orthodox, in no sense extreme - Ali will then go to paradise where, of course, 72 virgins await. The murdered MP, in the starkest contrast, will face conscious torment, for eternity, in the fires of hell. This is what happens when people really believe what they say they believe.
Both pix licenced today: the church in the village of Rudston, near Bridlington… and the monolith - the tallest prehistoric standing stone in Britain, at nealy 8 metres - in the churchyard…
Wise words from Jiddu Krishnamurti, from a public talk in 1961, which arrived in my email in-tray this morning. “If you are influenced by the speaker, you are creating authority. Any form of authority prevents you from understanding what is real, what is true. If you are influenced by the speaker, you have not understood what the speaker has been saying for the last hour or for the last thirty years. He has been saying: free yourself from influence, look, find out. That demands intelligence. Intelligence is the understanding of every influence and not being caught in any influence. That requires alertness, watchfulness, an awareness of everything inwardly that is going on, every response – not to let a thought go by without knowing the content of that thought, its background and the motive”.
Another shot from Kenilworth...
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Recovering from a fun weekend with son Chas, in Coventry, and his 'international brigade' of chums. The pic is from nearby Kenilworth...
Licenced today: passengers boarding the CalMac ferry, on the Isle of Iona, for the return to Mull…
Ali Harbi Ali has admitted in court to killing Sir David Amess, Tory MP for Southend West, by stabbing him more than twenty times with a foot-long carving knife. He said he feels “no shame” for his actions, because Amess had voted seven years earlier in support of a military campaign in Syria. The accused also said, intriguingly, that he considers himself to be a “moderate Muslim”. In this context we might wonder what the concept of religious 'moderation' actually means. The case continues.
Licenced today: exhibits in Kendal Museum…
There’s more good news for Goole, as reported in today’s Goole Times. A joint operation by Humberside Police, Trading Standards and a sniffer dog has resulted in £100,000 worth of counterfeit cigarettes being seized from six shops in town. The smokers of Goole can rejoice. According to a police statement, “The problem with counterfeit cigarettes is that we do not know what is in them”. Yes, none of the nicotine-y goodness of genuine, branded, taxable cigarettes.
Licenced today: horse riders on the beach at Silecroft on the Cumbrian coast…
It’s just possible that Goole may have ‘turned a corner’ and that the town’s fortunes are on the rise. I noticed today that a couple of new businesses have opened up on Boothferry Road, the main shopping street. There’s the merest hint of a positive vibe, and not before time. I celebrated with a beer at the Mac, a splendidly unimproved boozer next to the docks. It’s like a downmarket Cheers, where “everybody knows your name”, and "they're always glad you came". A guy brought in a bag of Gregg’s sausage rolls and handed them round, and the landlord shook my hand as I left.
The pic is of Skipwith Common this afternoon…
Had a busy - and productive - weekend with my camera. Of course, my idea of a full day taking pix is no longer 9 till 5 (or till 6 or 7) and by mid-afternoon I’m ready for a sit-down and a glass of something cold and wet. By the time I put the camera back in the bag yesterday, I was next to Beverley Minster, so I called into the Sun Inn, nearby, to find the place full of old folk with ukeleles. Yes, the Beverley Ukelele Group were getting ready to perform, so I sat back and listened to what they had to offer.
First came the sea shanties. It’s hard to imagine a less likely crew of a whaling ship than these old biddies, who sang so lustily about hoisting the mainsail and hauling the anchor, while dreaming wistfully of home. They may not have had much first-hand experience of “rum, sodomy and the lash”, but they were having a great time. We got songs of adolescent love - more cognitive dissonance there - by Buddy Holly and the Everley Brothers. A notice in the pub window gave advance warning of upcoming events. This coming Wednesday, for example, the Trappist Monks will be taking the stage. No joke. As the landlord of the Sun Inn told me, “they make quite a racket, apparently”. That was a joke.
The pic is of South Dalton, yesterday…
Out in the wolds today with my camera, heading for the church spire of South Dalton...
Snapped today, between April showers: the Altisidora, an old coaching inn on the outskirts of Bishop Burton. Known originally as the Horse and Jockey, the pub was renamed in 1813 to celebrate Altisidora, the horse which won that year’s St. Leger…
