Falcons in the Cathedral
Brussels cathedral has a nest of peregrine falcons in the tower.
They also have a viewing cabin in front of the building.
Falcon Viewing Cabin by Brussels Cathedral
You can also see the webcam from this link, so you don’t need to go to Brussels.
A Coloured Police Horse
I was walking around the City of London last week and saw a coloured police horse. Coloured in the UK and Ireland includes both piebalds and skewbalds.
A Coloured Police Horse
It’s funny, but years ago you never saw big coloured horses, except for those with perhaps a lot of Shire in them. Now there are quite a few and I suppose it wasn’t surprising that one would be used by the Police. This report in Horse and Hound says that the City of London Police horse is called Ken and is a skewbald Irish Draught.
There is a link here to another horse in the Merseyside Police. Their horse came from Ireland and is actually tri-coloured. I’ve owned a tri-coloured English Setter, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tri-coloured horse.
A Nice Old Rover 3500
This Rover 3500 was parked in a street in Den Haag.
Rover 3500 in Den Haag
What is surprising now about this car, is how small it is. It is a lot smaller than my Jaguar X-Type.
The engine is also a 3.5 litre V8. So for their day, they went very well. It should also be remembered that the structure of the car was unusual with a strong steel frame covered in aluminium panels, which gave great strength and a lot of protections in accidents.
Princess Grace of Monaco was driving one of these cars when she had the accident that killed her.
The Evil of Gravel
It seems to me that councils are increasingly setting nice gravel on paths.
Here’s some in Den Haag.
Gravel Path, Den Haag
It may look good, but try wheeling a case over it!
My Late Wife
I can’t go on calling her this in this blog, especially as many of you know her real name.
So I’m going to call her C.
Liverpool Reborn
Stephen Bayley wrote an article in The Times yesterday about how inspiring architecture is creating wealth, health and happiness.
Cities are living organisms. This means sometimes they die. Pompeii is one example, although no one saw it coming. Detroit’s fate was more predictable, possibly even inevitable: Motor City is stuck in reverse and headed for oblivion.
Liverpool nearly died. Like Detroit, it fell at great speed from economic and social grace. Unesco World Heritage credentials describe old Liverpool as “the supreme example of a commercial port at the time of Britain’s greatest global influence”. It was the New York of Europe.
He talks about how good architects have rebuilt the city and made it fit for the twenty-first century, but observes that politicians in London haven’t noticed. London to me is a city of good modern architecture, but save for a couple of nice buildings, those bridges and Grainger Town, Newcastle doesn’t seem to have been improved. Surely now, in the depths of a recession, we should be encouraging good building to leave a legacy to the future and also provide the jobs and homes we need. I’m not sure you need that many more shops and offices, though.
He ends the article by asking what makes a good building. He believes it is one that makes you feel better. He is absolutely right and having created a few in my time, I like to think I know how to create them. I shall create another when I return to London. Somewhere to live and somewhere where I will probably eventually die.
But then Liverpool in the 1960s turned me from a shy young boy with ideas into a shy young man with ambition, drive and a strong belief in myself. It does that to people. Even now, I go back occasionally to make sure that I know what life is about. It is still the second city of the UK despite what others say.
I shall be buying his book. If nothing else it will give me the faith to carry on in this world.
Loch Ness Monster
The Loch Ness Monster is one of these stories that refuses to go away.
Now, as the tourist season approaches the National Archive of Scotland have released documents to show that there were worries that Nessie would be hunted and shot in the 1930s.
In 1938, the chief constable of Inverness-shire raised concerns about protecting Nessie from hunters.
In a letter he wrote: “That there is some strange creature in Loch Ness now seems beyond doubt.”
I don’t believe that the monster exists.
Loch Ness has been closed off from the sea for many thousands of years, so if a monster exists it is either that number of years old or they have lived and bred happily in the Loch.
The first premise is unlikely, so there must be at least two. But then if there were only that small a number, then they would have so many genetic problems because of in-breeding. So if they were more, then surely they would have provided more evidence.
It’s a myth designed to get tourists to Scotland.
The Demise of the Nightingale
This article in The Independent blames deer for the demise of the nightingale.
Nightingales are disappearing from Britain because deer are eating the woodland undergrowth the birds need for nesting, a new study has shown. It is a significant breakthrough in understanding why numbers of the renowned songbird are rapidly falling.
It just shows that we must get a balanced view on conservation. Deer numbers have increased greatly in recent years and as they have no natural predators, this will continue unless culling is introduced.
The Castle, Newcastle
As you would expect Newcastle has a castle.
The Geordie Accent
At times walking round Newcastle city centre, I thought I was hearing some foreign language.
It wasn’t!
It was just the version of English that Geordies talk to each other.
The Anonymous Widower 