Flowers for Manchester

photograph © Gerald England, 2017.
On the afternoon following the tragedy at Manchester Arena, a woman has placed a bunch of flowers below the information display at Piccadilly Gardens and is now taking a photograph. The display says "We love Manchester" and gives out the emergency contact number for the police. Doubtless more flowers will be laid here and around the city as the day goes on.

London - A View Through Time

My photograph of a view from the London Monument 1961 has been included in a short film "London - A Journey Through Time" by James Fox.

It can be viewed on YouTube.

A contribution to Wednesday Waters.

Mermaids with attitude

Kitsch & Sync are a curiously quirky dance theatre collective making performances inspired by vintage and retro music, pastimes, fashions and fads, fusing different dance genres, characters and prop work by injecting a contemporary twist with our own unique style.

Made up of Welsh artists Kylie Ann Smith, Kim Noble and Rosalind Haf Brooks they were in Llandudno as part of the LLAWN03 Arts Festival.

A contribution to Monday Mellow Yellows and Our World Tuesday.

Signs on the North Pier, Blackpool

A notice on Blackpool's North Pier "prohibits the filming of this attraction for public broadcast without the prior written permission of the management. This also applies to the use of stills photography"

Beneath it is a blue plaque that says "On 19th July 1948 Sooty was discovered by Harry Corbett OBE near this spot."

A contribution to signs, signs.

International Olympicosmpoetriada

EARTH AND SKY

This astro-photo-art-poem by Arlene Carol (USA, residing in Turkey) precedes my astrohaiku in the latest web production by SARM MASTER FESTIVAL (PART II OF MASTER OLYMPICOSMOPOETRIADA)

***

across light years
googols of radio waves
oscillate

Gerald England

The anthology of super photographs and poetry also includes

ESCAPING QUESTION

Whispers her dream snake
tongue licked up from pyramid
peak caught fly wise fall
of meteor swallowed spark
reawake mummy's goodbye smile

by Steve Sneyd

SIGNALS, DEDICATED FROM THE SKY

In the picture above, on the bottom left, you see the lunar disk. Ufo Analyzer software has classified the fireball as belonging to the class "J5_And" Andromenidi with estimated magnitude, but perhaps underestimated: - (minus) 4.5!
Latitude and Longitude of observing station:
Lat 46.933300 North
Long 26.366600 East
Date of sighting: 19th November 2011

image © Alfredo Caronia (Italy,
co-discoverer of 5 asteroids, established in Romania)

is followed by

3.3.12

I missed the fireball streak across the sky
That set alarm calls ringing across the land
As people thought a plane was crashing, or
A UFO had brought aliens from on high
(Their mission to invade had long been planned)
But, most likely it was just a meteor.

by John Francis Haines

Another contribution by Steve Sneyd is

TANKA

Twin suns death dancing
tear gobbets of hot flesh : shared
world pretends nothing
much just presents a gain who
hurl harmless lost meteor dreams


Valentin Grigore's VENUS AND JUPITER OVER TARGOVISTE, 15th March 2012

is followed by

twilight
an incoming jet flies by
Venus twinkles

Gerald England

All of this is just a minute part of the International Olympicosmpoetriada coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and Valentin Grigore of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy.

Vote for Best of Hyde 2011

The time has come to vote for the best of Hyde DP 2011.

View the twelve contenders at Best of Hyde 2011 and vote for your favourite three photographs.

Voting closes 12 noon GMT, Friday 30th December 2011.

When Johnny Sang the Blues

A couple of my photographs The Emerging Mersey and Liverpool Skyline are included in this video.



Check the original you-tube post at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pli9cSw7J3Y

Weekend Reflections in a bauble

The classic self-portrait in a bauble is something I've attempted before but with no great success. This monochrome image is the best I've achieved this year.

I wish all my visitors a Merry Christmas.

For more weekend reflections visit Newtown Area Photo.

ABC Wednesday I is for I'm Watching You

We've all been there I'm sure. You see the scene, point the camera, take the shot. It is only later that you find out just who was watching you.

The original from which this was cropped can be seen on Geograph.

For more I posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Weekend Reflections: Camera Obscura in Stockport

This photograph was taken inside a camera obscura that was in Stockport Market last weekend. The image reflected in a mirror at the top of a darkened chamber is projected on to a table which can be raised and lowered to focus the image.


The camera obscura was there as part of the 750th anniversary celebrations for the Market charter granted to Stockport in 1260.


Here are the musicians captured by the camera obscura. Stockport Market Hall and some of the stalls are reflected in the shop window behind them.

For more weekend reflections visit Newtown Area Photo.

Global Astronomy Month 2010

The latest anthology page from our friends at SARM is Global Astronomy Month.

Valentin Grigore writes

Many people wanted another international year of astronomy because they felt that astronomy is not only a simple science and the sky is not only a simple study object, so the Global Astronomy Month came naturally.

GAM meant a special living under the starry canopy connected to the coming of the spring, when the sap of the Earth meets the sap of the Sky, and this union arouses all and gives life.

We had a month with many celestial events:
a splendid lunar circuit
(begun and ended with the full moon),
the planet Saturn like a "planet with handles"
(just as Galileo Galilei had seen it four centuries ago),
beautiful conjunctions,
and a supplementary sky gift,
the Lyrid meteor shower.

And sky lovers also organized a solar week, a lunar week, star parties and even remote astronomy programs.

We felt more,
although we had to confront
the barrier of light pollution,
a measure of human ignorance.

Our souls should reflect the light of the stars
just as it really is,
because astronomy is not only a simple science,
and the sky is not only a simple study object.

The sky is all!

The website has hundreds of photographs of the events they organised plus contributions from around the world.

UK contributions include:

Pluto is turning red
they tell us. Warns us of what
force melts its cold face?

Steve Sneyd

My own haiga which first appeared on Spring Haiku 2010.

and

BENEATH THE ASH CLOUD

Across a clear sky
Unsullied by vapour trails,
A meteor streaks.

John Francis Haines

24th April 2010 was

INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMY DAY

Let's celebrate cosmology,
planetology and astrometry,
galactic and extragalactic astronomy,
astrophysics and astrochemisry,
stellar astronomy,
astrobiology and astrophilosophy.

Aesthetically,
this itemization of the profound branches
of the "queen of sciences"
appears like a succession of rhymes.

But only watching and feeling the sky
we can celebrate astronomy
through astropoetry.

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

The Coordinator's Last Words are

SARMs Astropoetry Master Club tried successfully to release this project before May 18th and May 24th, the birthdays of Steliana Gheorghe (1934-2009) and Costica Gheorghe (1927-2007), in order to honour their decisive role in the existence of the international contemporary astropoetry movement.

SARM's Astropoetry Master Club and Friends tried to make in this project not only the largest-ever web page of astropoetry and astropoetic images, but also a record of beauty regarding the cosmic reflection in the human soul.

And after all Astropoetry to the Global Astronomy Month 2010 represented the most beautiful gift for when I turned 50 years.

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe,
2010 May 14th

See it all by visiting Global Astronomy Month

ABC Wednesday: A is for Astropoetry

2009 was the International Year of Astronomy and the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy (SARM) have published a series of some 15 different pages on their Astropoetry site.

The page celebrating the 4th Quarter of the year has a whole host of photographs, cartoons and poetry including

MOON-JUPITER CONJUNCTION OVER TARGOVISTE
(2009.11.23)
astro-photo-poem by Valentin Grigore


The Moon and Jupiter gave again
a show in the evening sky,
a small present for those who
live in towns.

***

ICARUS ON LUNA
by Steve Sneyd

In crater deeps where
sun never reaches comet
head crashes dreams reflight

***

ACCELERATOR
by John Francis Haines

Particles hurtling towards one another
At the speed of light -
Just hope your planet isn't one of them.

***

COURTSHIP RITUAL
by Steve Sneyd

"Prove it" she said "bring
me from black hole's heart Hawking
radiation to
shine on my finger, show your
love", stroked Schrodinger's cat.

***

LAST ECLIPSE OF 2009
by Gerald England

five hours before
the end of the decade
above my window
the cold earth is eating
a piece of blue moon


PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE OVER THE NORTH OF ROMANIA
photo by Constantin Psenitchi

In the Epilogue Andrei Dorian Gheorghe writes

If you daily watch the skies
and admire both
the people and the heavenly bodies,

if you respect and use sciences, techniques, arts and poetry
as means for enriching
knowledge, generosity, feelings and creativity,

and if for you
the celebration of astronomy
does never end,

then you are a
REAL SKY LOVER,
my dear friend!

For more A posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Photo of the Year 2009: Runner-up

The voting for Hyde DP Photo of the Year 2009 was very close this year.

At the end there was only 1 vote between the winner and the runner-up.

The winner with 177 votes was Market Street Chimney Pots.

With 176 votes the runner-up was Drystone Waller at Dunkirk Farm

You can see the winner on Hyde Daily Photo.

All twelve photographs, in full resolution, can be viewed on The Best of Hyde Daily 2009.

Many other daily blogs around the world have also participated in the special theme of Photo of the Year. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Here are the full results of the voting.

177 votes: Market Street Chimney Pots

I remember these skyline attractions well when I lived in Hyde some 40 years ago. As an avid photographer myself I also like the concept of photographing something from the past that may eventually only exist through photographs. Well done, even down to the authentic pigeon poo decorating the sides - for uniqueness of subject, quality - sharpness and color of photo - it makes me want to look at it more closely - it has atmosphere - speaks of hardworking city life, as it is still today and in days gone by. -it is aesthetically pleasing - unique to UK and not to the tropics - I always wanted one like those in my back garden to put a plant in - like the busy starlings.

176 votes: Drystone Waller at Dunkirk Farm

So much history and future in one image! - I've always liked stories about people living in the particular dp city/town - for the waller's expression.

120 votes: Winter Grazing

Those gorgeous horses - just love the romantic atmosphere of the shot - very appealing textures, tones - for the most unusual sight with horses - ever!

88 votes: Sunset on the Trail

I like the golden glow of the sun in this - for the best perspective and colors and the quintessential Hyde countryside.

80 votes: W.I. at Gee Cross Fete

It is colourful, clear and interesting - it is so typically British! - the women's stance, the items for sale, the intensity of involvement on their faces - the photographer has captured a moment in time that is absolutely authentic - quality, colors and movement - not a photo I would put on my wall, but a genuinely historical moment - atmosphere of the stall.

65 votes: Through My Wife's Eyes

It is unusual and original - outstanding reflection and a creative idea! - curious style - quirky perspective.

55 votes: Heron on the Peak Forest Canal

What a beautiful bird! - great capture.

49 votes: Green Lane Pool

The reflections of the sky and trees in the pond are wonderful - rich in nature, beautiful.

37 votes: Quiet Sunday

The Woolworths story sums up 2009 - wonderful composition - The girls are sat on one of Hydes 'Wishing Benches'... during the week you can see poor drunkards 'wishing' they had enough money to get into the local pubs.

32 votes: Hyde Park Bridge

Gorgeous! I'm jealous you have such lovely parks.

30 votes: Mottram Cricket Club

Sharp and clean shot, really captured the moment - for the English green

18 votes: Hare & Hounds at Mid-Summer

We had lunch there in May on a Monday and it was so busy. We loved the long light evenings, sadly it's something we don't have here in Queensland.

Many thanks to all who voted.

ABC Wednesday - V is for Voting

As in the previous three years, it is now time to vote for the Best of Hyde Daily Photo 2009.

There are twelve contenders.

Readers may cast six votes distributed in any manner they choose. You can give all six to a single photograph, one vote to six different images, or divide them between two, three or four pictures.

The thumbnails above are merely representative crops of the full sized photographs which can be found at Best of Hyde 2009, along with a voting form.

Please use the form to vote. Votes given in comments here will not be counted.

The results will be published in January 2010.

For more V posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ASTRO-METEOR POETRY SHOW-PROJECT

© 2009, Valentin Grigore (President of SARM).

Since 1997, the scientific lectures of the annual International Meteor Conference (IMC) have concluded with an original Saturday night Astropoetry Show, combining astronomical poetry, drama, humour, music, arts, improvisations, etc, attracting over time participants from 17 countries and 3 continents.

As the founder and director of the Astropoetry Show, Andrei Dorian Gheorghe, had to remain in Romania to take care of his mother, hospitalized in a critical state of health and was unable to attend the IMC 2009 in Porec (Croatia, September 24-27), this traditional spectacle was replaced by THE METEOR POETRY POSTER, directed poetically by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and photographically by Valentin Grigore.

Another humanistic initiative, the Meteor Contemporary Poetry Project, a periodic anthology published from 2002 to 2008, preserved in the electronic archive of the International Meteor Organization, was absorbed in 2009 by the project Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy.

Thus the 13th Astropoetry Show and the Meteor Contemporary Poetry Project was merged into a celebratory electronic page, including a meteor poetry prologue, new meteor poems from the summer of 2009 from all over the world (which reproduce much of the content of the IMC 2009 poster), astro-thoughts from the IMC 2009 participants, photographs, and a commemorative post-scriptum.

***

SUMMER METEOR POETRY 2009-

MOTTO:

a dusty filament
drifts across Earth's orbit
raining light

-Gerald England (U.K.,
Editor of New Hope International
and Honorary Member of the International Artists and Writers Academy);
first published in Meteor Contemporary Poetry Project 5,
IMO-News Mailing List, 2005 June 21st-

***
was my own contribution to the poster.


A METEOR OVER SAND WALK-WAYS - artwork © by Calin Niculae (SARM).

The ASTRO-METEOR POETRY SHOW-PROJECT is a special page realized by the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy-SARM with the support of some members of the International Meteor Organization, coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe, Alastair McBeath and Valentin Grigore, and web designed by Florin Stancu.

Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy 2009 2nd quarter.

MOON AND VENUS IN THE MORNING AURORA, 23rd April 2009 photo © Valentin Grigore.

The 2nd quarter issue of Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy has just been released.

It includes many photographs, artworks and poetry related to all aspects of astronomy.

Alastair McBeath (UK Vice-President of the International Meteor Organization) reports

April 4 brought another widely-seen fireball to the British Isles,
around 23:32 UT, the magnitude -8/-10 object probably moving roughly south to north over western Wales or the seas nearby. ... May 11 produced a magnitude -9 fireball at 21:35 UT or so ... Being up all the short night in June has much to recommend it (though not the unexpectedly late, patchy frost on June 17/18...), particularly when the crescent Moon starts or ends the night, and still more so when the Moon slips by a planet or two, like the brilliant Venus and the binocular-bright Mars on June 19.

Ion(ut) Moraru contributes HEAVENLY PARTY

The Moon, Mercury and the Pleiades
thought to make a party:

The Moon turned off the light on her surface,
Mercury turned to the Sun,
and the Pleiades exploded:
fireworks!

Alin Iosif wrotes about how he SAW VENUS DURING THE DAYLIGHT

At about 12 o’clock,
my boss asked me again what happened with me.
I tried to show him the reason, but he could find only the Moon.
It was enough:
he didn’t note me as an absent at the job office.

My own contribution is the haiku

something stirs
on one of the moons
of Saturn

Gerald England

John Francis Haines contributes ALONE, AGAIN

After the fury of the tsunami subsided,
We saw the Moon was gone,
Wrenched out of its orbit and flung
Across the sky, to become
Just another minor planet.

There are highlights of an Astro-philosphical debate on Global Warming.

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe in LIMITS writes

Using a lunette,
Galileo showed that
the sky of the fixed stars
is not a stellar limit.

Discovering the planet Uranus,
Herschel showed that
the planet Saturn
is not a planetary limit.

We still have to discover that
love and passion
are not human limits.

Marge Simon writes of THE AMERICAN SOLAR SYSTEM

Pluto remains number nine
in primary schools where
teachers must use manuals
updated time to time.

Astrophysicists may
change their minds...

Arlene Carol is

.. angry with the stars.
They are such liars.

Appearing to be there, when in reality,
They may have gone millennia ago.

Another page is dedicated to VISIONS OF A SUMMER SOLSTICE EXPEDITION, Bucegi Mountains, Romania, 18-21, June 2009.

This has even more photographs of the Milky Way, The Moon-Venus Conjugation, sunsets and many other astronomical phenomena captured amid magnificent scenery.

35 Years Married: A Reflection

My mother gave us six months, and my mother-in-law probably less, but 35 years on we are still together.

Anyhow, there'll be no big celebrations; as always we'll just get on with day to day living.

This is a photograph of myself reflected in my wife's sunglasses.

Christine is looking down the Market Place past the entrance to the shopping mall, as you can see more clearly on Hyde Daily Photo.

Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy 2009

Moon and Venus over the Royal Church in Targoviste, Romania, 2008-12-31 © Valentin Grigore introduces Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy 2009 by members and friends of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy; Project Coordinator: Andrei Dorian Gheorghe; Project Designer: Florin Stancu.

Already published are a prologue including some excellent photographs and poetry concluding with an ASTROTIPURITURA by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Choose the light, man, choose the high light,
Then follow it and become bright!

and the 1st Quarter.

Arlene Carol exhorts

Come, let us join together
To celebrate
All of these glorious celestial bodies
And other galactic orrery…

The poems and photographs record such events as the Moon-Venus Conjunction, Ursa Major over the Retezat Mountains, the Quadrantid meteor shower, Star trails of Orion and Canis Major, Moon sequences, the Rosette Nebula, the Sun Pillar, eclipses, Saturn's rings, Comets Lulin and Kushida, Northern Lights and halos.

My favourite poem (and not just because he is a friend from down the road) is EARTHSHINE by John Francis Haines (U.K. Leader of the Eight Hand Gang - British network of SF poets)

Basking in dim, reflected glory, the Old
Moon sleeps in the New Moon's arms, but behind
This faded face lurks the Darkside, forever
Hid from view, accessible only through
Direct visit by man or probe, a land
Beyond our ken, Luna's shadowy secret.

Three more collections are promised before the end of the year and I shall look forward to viewing them.

Hyde Photo of the Year 2008: Runner-up

A footpath runs from Four Lane Ends at the top of Higham Lane down to Lower Higham Visitor Centre in Werneth Low Country Park.

About half way along is a kissing gate which gives access to Rye Field.

Today's theme on Hyde DP is Photo of the Year. I couldn't pick just one out of all the photos I'd published this year, so selected twelve contenders, created a web page, and asked all my readers to vote for their choice. I want to thank all the people who took the trouble to vote. The winning picture is shown on Hyde DP. The runner-up is shown above.

Here are the results, together with links to the original postings and some comments from voters. All twelve photographs can be viewed together at The Best of Hyde Daily 2008

199 votes
Path from River to Canal
a brilliant image ~~ excellent artistic merit ~~ extremely evocative photo ~~ a beautiful composition and the black & white enhances it ~~ a very romantic english scene ~~ wonderful perspective.

137 votes
Kissing Gate to Rye Field
as a kid I walked through many of those same country gates when I used to walk with my grandfather on the Low ~~ Werneth Low has many happy memories of growing up a walk was always a cheap day out ~~ I love how you can see out over the town ~~ reminds me so much of the countryside around Hyde, where I was born ~~ the texture of the stone wall is awesome.

101 votes
Border Post
I love the scene depicted ~~ it shows serenity.

87 votes
Newton St Mary's
some of my relatives are buried there ~~ like the light and shadow.

82 votes
Out into the Light
The pigeon was very helpful at sitting still, you must have crept around it! difficult light shines into a tunnel ~~ love the hazy effect.

82 votes
Close-up on Time
I have looked up at that clock so many times ~~ beautifully done ~~ being an ex builder the brickwork and stonework are a delight.

76 votes
Authentic Indian Cuisine
appealing on many levels - color, composition, subject, the figure ~~ I wish I could visit this food stall ~~ it contains delicious morsels.

63 votes
Horsemen at Windy Ridge
I love anything equestrian and this is a particularly good photo, framed as it is by the plants ~~ like the fluffy willow herb in the foreground.

57 votes
Gee Cross in Springtime
purely for nostalgia as both my wife and I were brought up in Gee Cross, almost too long ago to remember ~~ for the relationship between heritage and youth.

41 votes
April Fool's Day
the boy's bored look wins it for me.

23 votes
Hole in the Road
maddening but fascinating.

17 votes
Jolly Carter
can remember it as a boy about 1937.

ABC Wednesday - V is for Voting

On 1st January 2009, the CDPB theme will be "Photo of the Year".

Now I can't decide myself which one I should use, so have selected twelve contenders for the honour, and I am asking readers to vote for their favourites.

The full photographs and a voting form can be found at Best of Hyde Daily Photo 2008.

All readers will have 6 votes at their disposal. You can put all six on one photo or spread them out giving one each to six separate photographs, three each to two, two each to three or any combination you choose so long as the total votes given is a total of six.

Voting will close at noon GMT on Saturday 27th December 2008.

The winning picture will be posted at Hyde Daily Photo on the 1st January 2009. The runner-up and full details of the results will appear on Ackworth born, gone West.

More V posts can be seen on the ABC Wednesday Anthology blog.

Others can be found via the ABC Wednesday with Mister Linky which carries a registry of participants.

Note: Please visit Best of Hyde Daily Photo 2008 to cast your votes and look at the full pictures.

Do not vote on the basis of these thumbnails - there is no "chimney" included here! Votes made via comments to this post will not be counted.