Microscope to help Appledown Rescue Centre

Starting this weekend Appledown are holding an auction to raise funds so this is going in and hope it raises plenty for the dogs.

It’s an Olympus microscope together with a PM-6 film camera and a variable light with transformer all in their own wooden lockable cases.

Bird Hide,Narrowboats and Boat for Sale

This week it was deemed too cold to walk the dogs at ttp://www.appledown.co.uk/, so I decided to have a short walk at Marsworth to see if anything was moving in this cold weather.Walking along the towpath towards the Aylesbury Arm I saw a for sale notice on a cruiser stern narrowboat.

 

and this is the NB Brianthea for sale.

 

 

I walked up the Aylesbury arm and the sun was shining for a change which makes me want to take pictures,so I took another one of the lock keepers cottage at Lock 4, Black Jacks lock which is a different view to which I took in the rain earlier on last year.

 

 

Just a bit further on I took this of a narrowboat with the cottage in the distance.

 

 

Now I have to watch the time so I turn around and decide to have a look at the bird hide on the reservoir and on the way saw NB May moored in a popular point next to the reservoir.

 

 

This is the hide at Star Tops reservoir..

 

 

and inside is a plaque explaining those responsible for installing and looking after it.

 

 

Here are details of those named on the plaque..

http://tringanglers.org.uk/1home.php

http://www.tringreservoirs.org.uk/

http://www.chilternsaonb.org/conservation-board.html

http://www.therothschildfoundation.com/

 

and lastly the new

 

http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/

 

a new organisation which replaces the old British Waterways.

Have a read of these organisations as without them our enjoyment of the waterways would be greatly diminished.

Then I had to rush to get the weeks shopping done before my time out was up.

 

Next week weather permitting it’s back to walking the dogs.

Two more dogs I walked at the rescue centre today

 

 

Both dogs are looking for a forever home at….

http://www.appledown.co.uk/

Visit to Working Narrowboat Hadar

This week I managed to get to Marsworth and after tracking Hadars progress through Keith's blog http://narrowboathadar.blogspot.co.uk/ and Jo’s blog   http://diaryofaboatwoman.blogspot.co.uk/              managed to catch up with them to have a good chinwag and pick up tips on living on a narrowboat. It must be two years since I saw Hadar and it looks as good as new which takes a lot of time and effort to keep it looking spick and span. Mooring just by the Bluebell Tea Room was ideal for parking and walking over the lock gates to see them.

After about an hour it was time to go and leave two happy people who so much enjoy their life on the waterways and me to do the weeks shopping.

Next week it’s back to the dogs although looking at the weather forecast that might change.

Horse and trap on Parade

 

I thought I would add this to by blog out of interest. It is a copy of a photo I took about 40 years ago with my old Canon Ftbn camera.In black and white,developed and printed by me in my camera club days.

Lurcher / Saluki Sighthound Cross at Rescue Centre

 

This week I took two dogs for a walk at http://www.appledown.co.uk/ . Two lovely dogs who are looking for a forever home. The first was….

                                                               Gulliver

Full of life and ready to play anytime. He needs to put on a bit of weight but with a lot of love and care should do well in a new home.

The second dog was…

Fillius

He was timid at first but soon relaxed after a couple of circuits of the field. After my photo was seen on the rescue centres facebook page…..

 https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/68892502164/ 

someone is interested in re-homing him which is great news.

It was very cold this week with a northerly wind blowing so I didn’t want to keep them out of the kennels too long and I didn’t want frostbite in my fingers.

Last week I went over to Marsworth to look at the narrowboats but nothing presented itself for a photo opportunity but I took this of a widebeam out of interest as the top was rusty which I should think is being made ready for a re-paint.

Police Officers Thoughts on Leaving the Force

So last night I packed all my kit into two large bin bags, marked them FAO stores, gave my Skipper my warrant card and pass-key and walked out of policing.
I cannot begin to express how weird it feels. I’m a civvie for the first time in a decade. I have no powers, no obligation to “get involved”, I’m no longer a part of the family that had made me laugh harder and longer than any other. I already feel distanced from it, and my (former) colleagues. Not by them, but by my own emotions. I cannot begin to express how weird it feels.
But what I do have is my life back, my weekends back, some stability back, the feeling that my physical health will improve from that stability and structure, and the certain knowledge that my mental health, which suffered badly enough last year that I had a significant time off work with medication, is already better, and I will soon be my old gregarious, easy-going self again.
I hate what that job did to me, I hate how it made me feel at the end, I hated feeling under the microscope all the time for insignificant stuff that the keyboard warriors demanded regardless of actual importance in the real world. I hate what successive governments have done to the job, none more so than this pack of charlatans and their almost pathological hatred of the police.
So I packed my kit and walked out, and in the words of Pink Floyd “The years and all the sadness fell away from me”.
It’s significant to me that in the time between resigning and leaving not one single person I spoke to in the job said anything other than “good on you, you lucky bastard, I wish I had the guts” etc. And that includes people up to and including Inspectors. Above that, I care not for their opinions, because they are honed and refined in the rarefied atmosphere of comfortable offices disconnected from the reality, and moulded by statistics on screens they use to beat the people doing the real work.
Morale isn’t just low, it’s gone. Those in those warm offices may have pause to consider what I write, and note that the reason they can live in denial is that they are constantly lied to (when they’re not busy promulgating lies of their own) because people are scared to be heard, terrified of Stasi-esque PSD spying on every aspect of your life they can get or force access to, scared that there’s no life outside their little corner of policing.
There is actually a deep well of sadness and melancholy inside me about no longer being a part of this family. But it is a sadness for what should be, not what is. It’s mourning for something that has died (or been killed). But I’m glad I’m gone, just sad that I should be glad, if that makes sense?
To my brothers and sisters I leave behind; Stay safe, look after each other, because you are the only people who will. I will always feel connected to the job, even if from afar, and I can only hope you who continue carrying the burden will not resent me for having decided I can’t shoulder my share any longer.
Headhunter, January 2013.