Tuesday 30 November 2010

Penny’s London launch of The Doll Makers

Yesterday morning I visited the beach again and found just an ear-ring and a 1944 halfpenny. In the afternoon we travelled up to Tower Hill, London to the HQ of ALCS which hosted the London launch of Penny’s second crime thriller ‘The Doll Makers’. ALCS is The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, which looks after the copyright interests of writers and Penny is currently chair of ALCS. The 24 hour tube strike affected attendance but there was still a good audience for the event with family and friends attending from Hull and all over London. Penny gave a reading from the novel and outlined the history of the thriller which was many years in development. Jason Burley of  Camden Lock Books attended with copies of the The Doll Makers. Jason runs this well respected independent bookshop near Old Street Station, Islington.
signed copies of all Penny’s novels are available from DansbarnUK post-free
Another Hale Books author, Jan Jones, attended and blogged the event.
 
Battersea Power Station by the Thames just before we arrived at Victoria  Station
Yesterday's sunrise as I went down to the beach
This morning we awoke to a sprinkling of snow which disappeared in a few hours
The sun finally poked through and briefly gave a beautiful glow to the calm sea

Sunday 28 November 2010

Sanderlings on the beach

Sanderling
To view Slideshow, click this photo, then choose Fullscreen (top right) then Fast (top left)

The past two mornings have been icy cold, but as the tide was out I took my metal detector to the beach. This morning I found two rings, one a silver Man United signet ring, 925 fine, with the Birmingham mark of an anchor. The other is a cheap plated ring with a red ‘stone’ in the middle and one of four ‘diamonds’ left, presumably all glass. I then spotted a flock of Sanderlings feeding along the waterline as the tide came in so I returned with my camera.
Turnstones
Sanderling taking off
keep your seat belts fastened please
undercarriage up
on the run
Turnstone
Sanderling digging deep
finds food (looks like a mussel), takes it to the water & rinses it, returns,
puts it down, picks it up and swallows it
Stumpy
Stumpy running
Stumpy with his mates

Friday 26 November 2010

Sunrise over curlews at Pagham

the lagoon at Pagham Harbour
To view Slideshow, click this photo, then choose Fullscreen (top right) then Fast (top left)
The clear sky gave another spectacular sunrise over the channel.
A stroll on the beach early this morning gave me Oyster Catchers, Turnstones and Gulls and Carrion Crows:

 Oyster Catcher



 view west
Oyster Catchers
Turnstone and below in flight



We visited Pagham Harbour this afternoon, Sue’s first visit. The light was beautiful and the highlight was a pair of Curlews:
Curlew
Eurasian Wigeon (male)
Winter has arrived!

view east to Bognor and Butlins

Turnstones landing and in flight below

Cormorant

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Digging in the Maldives afterglow

 
sunrise Wednesday over the East Beach Cafe

I had a good trip back by BA on Saturday, landing at Gatwick 6:10pm, 11 hours after taking off. I arrived at the flat around 8:30pm. Roger had arrived for one night so it was good to catch up with him over a couple of bottles Chianti. We had lunch the following day at the George & Dragon at Houghton.

These are Bandos Island land shots from the last day:
 My Beach Villa
fish in middle of jetty
Bougainvillea





Indian Myna bird
dive boat dock

sailing centre
main jetty
harbour
Thanks to Lewis for the following shots which show various members of our group on land and underwater:
Tricia and Cody, Peter
Moi
Hassan, head of diving operation
Lewis
Peter
Chris from Germany, Peter and me
Adel, Tricia, Cody and Sydney
Chris, Peter, Cody & Tricia,
Me and Peter stuying manifest
Hassan and shoal at end of dive

On Sunday afternoon  I attended a club dig on pasture near Steyning and found a William III halfpenny in poor condition but with enough detail to identify. These coins were notable for the low grade copper alloy and most suffer severe corrosion. I also found an 1857 Victoria gaming token and a strange suspension hoop.

William III ((1694-1702)) halfpenny. 
above Obverse: Kings bust, laureate and draped, facing right. GVLIELMVS - (TERT)I(VS)
below Reverse: Britannia seated right with raised hand. BRITAN - NIA.

Victoria gaming token dated 1857 above and below.

The weather has turned icy cold and the forecasts say we are in for a freezing night. In compensation we had a lovely sunrise this morning: