Listing Details
| ID: | 14 | |
| Title: | A Changing Life | |
| URL: | http://travellingspouse.blogspot.com | |
| Feed URL: | http://feeds.feedburner.com/AChangingLife | |
| Category: | Society: Lifestyle | |
| Description: | The author maintains an interest in Africa where she was brought up, especially regarding the environment, education, health, and how these affect women. | |
| Sparkling water - Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:33:02 PST | ||
 We haven't had much bright sunshine this winter so when I saw the light shining off the flat surface of the water through the twigs, I had to take this picture. It looks better enlarged but it doesn't capture the full sparkle properly. A two-in-one post for the Photo Hunts.    | ||
| Heritage, or an eyesore? - Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:16:45 PST | ||
These towers, the Richborough cooling towers, have been part of the landscape in east Kent for about 50 years but now they are to be demolished. They were built in the 1950s and started burning coal for the Kent collieries in 1962. Nine years later they were converted to burn oil, then later still to the experimental fuel, Orimulsion, derived from bitumen. Eventually, in 1996, the power station was decommissioned. There have been arguments that they are part of our industrial heritage, a memorial to those who built it (13 died in the process), and one of the few things left from the east Kent mining heritage. Probably the main argument for demolition has been that the site can be redeveloped and put to good use. Most people think they are an eyesore and because the land is so flat they can be seen for miles around. I've always been quite surprised that nobody has ever shown any concern that they can be seen so clearly from the Roman fort of Richborough, the first Roman settlement in Britain. The surprise is that they were allowed to build them there in the first place but we were no doubt less concerned about heritage then.  On the other hand, English Heritage, the owners ofRichborough Castle, made no objection to the demolition plans. The towers will no longer be a blot on the landscape in a few weeks time.   | ||
| The River's Tale by Rudyard Kipling - Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:22:02 PST | ||
The River's Tale (Prehistoric) TWENTY bridges from Tower to Kew - Wanted to know what the River knew, Twenty Bridges or twenty-two, For they were young, and the Thames was old And this is the tale that River told:- "I walk my beat before London Town, Five hours up and seven down. Up I go till I end my run At Tide-end-town, which is Teddington. Down I come with the mud in my hands And plaster it over the Maplin Sands. But I'd have you know that these waters of mine Were once a branch of the River Rhine, When hundreds of miles to the East I went And England was joined to the Continent. "I remember the bat-winged lizard-birds, The Age of Ice and the mammoth herds, And the giant tigers that stalked them down Through Regent's Park into Camden Town. And I remember like yesterday The earliest Cockney who came my way, When he pushed through the forest that lined the Strand, With paint on his face and a club in his hand. He was death to feather and fin and fur. He trapped my beavers at Westminster. He netted my salmon, he hunted my deer, He killed my heron off Lambeth Pier. He fought his neighbour with axes and swords, Flint or bronze, at my upper fords, While down at Greenwich, for slaves and tin, The tall Phoenician ships stole in, And North Sea war-boats, painted and gay, Flashed like dragon-flies, Erith way; And Norseman and Negro and Gaul and Greek Drank with the Britons in Barking Creek, And life was gay, and the world was new, And I was a mile across at Kew! But the Roman came with a heavy hand, And bridged and roaded and ruled the land, And the Roman left and the Danes blew in - And that's where your history-books begin!" A potted pre-history of the river Thames by Rudyard Kipling.  | ||
