Monday, April 22, 2013

don't get me started ...










not long ago, i walked in to malmesbury's athelstan museum and "discovered" a new acquisition bequeathed by richard hatchwell

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/richard-hatchwell-antiquarian-bookseller-whose-customers-included-betjeman-sassoon-russell-and-rowse-1806784.html

http://www.sheila-markham.com/Archives/hatchwell.htm

not the house where i was born, but my earliest memories were formed whilst living in the little cottage, second door on the right

it wasn't even a two-up-two-down, more like one-and-a-half-up-one-and-a-half-down, with an outside loo and the tin bath hanging on a nail in the yard

when i "chanced" on this drawing, my heart almost stopped

it was made seven years before my parents moved in, and the view is just as i first recalled it, though mine was from a lower viewpoint

in the days when most people didn't own a car and traffic was unusual, infant ears delighted in the double echoes of footsteps crossing the square, horses' hooves on their way to the vet's. the rattle of milk bottles in steel crates, the chatter of sparrows, the laughter of children, quiet adult voices in the still air outside the bath arms, etc

we moved out in 1954

my father borrowed a handcart from the nearby undertaker and moved our possessions in half a day

Sunday, April 14, 2013

tibetan mining incident revision .... i hadn't realized that there are other pictures "behind" the ones that you see on google earth

you find them by clicking VIEW and then clicking HISTORICAL IMAGERY

curiously there are newer views in this archive

possibly they were not used because there was some cloud, or maybe the editors hadn't time for an update

what the pictures reveal is a massive extension of the mining and quarrying operation

there are numerous new buildings in the valley bottom














and there is a whole new quarry right up high on the ridge with a new scree of waste spilling down the back of the mountain













so where was the landslide ?

which side of the mountain ?

i don't know yet but this website suggests the disaster was on the back slope

http://tibet.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/AR-Gyama-9-April.pdf

my new back-scratcher ... i just have to summon the courage to break the glass and scamper off down the euston road