Tiger

My latest model kit project is Project 045 HMS Tiger. Tiger was one of the last gun cruisers in the Royal Navy though its final years as service in the 1970s saw it serve as a helicopter cruiser. My Tiger is now pretty much done, just decals and varnish need to be done really.

Out into the big bad world

The major success of the 2013 growing season so far are my peas which have progressed brilliantly in their nursery trough. Its finally time to transplant them into the garden, unfortunately just as the weather has changed for the worse, snow even fell yesterday in some parts of the Midlands! Hopefully it will warm up again soon. Also hopefully my pea plot will prove fertile, though i worry there is too much grass under the soil, ash and compost layer. Time will tell of course, hopefully in a couple of months i will have some home grown peas to go with my chips...

Broken crockery

While digging a hole in the garden earlier today (to fill another hole with soil... which is where the soil for my raised bed came from - there is a method to this madness) i found a few pieces of broken crockery. Its funny how you always find these little bits of broken cups and plates if you dig deep enough. I wondered why this was so.

Did people in the past often drop cups and plates in their gardens and then leave the shards in the garden? I'm not the only person to ponder this, and their thought that maybe these shards were put in the bottom of pots and over time ended up in the soil seems feasible. Anyway the pea plot is now more or less ready, the cane frame went up today and soon i shall translate the pea plants in my nursery to the big bad world outside.

As well as these pieces of crockery i also found a large rusty metal bolt. Maybe it fell off a Spitfire... well as i live opposite the Castle Bromwich Jaguar factory which in the war made Spitfires perhaps that isn't quite as far fetched as it might seem. Probably more likely off an old lawn mower or something though!

1927 London in colour

Pioneering British film maker Claude Frisse-Greene made a number of silent films showing life in the UK in the 1920s, one of which in London was filmed using the colour film he and his father William developed called the Friese-Greene Natural Colour process. Claude hoped the film could help publicise the process to Hollywood though in the end Technicolor won that battle. The British Film Institute have now released this film online, after performing computer enhancement to reduce flickering.

The film shows a fascinating insight into normal everyday life in the capital. Buses, boats and lots of men in hats! The skyline of London is very different to today though at times the scene hardly seems to have changed that much at all.

London in 1927 from Tim Sparke on Vimeo.

The regeneration of Shard End

The first place i ever lived (i.e. home from the hospital) was Shard End in Eastern Birmingham, which is where my Mum grew up and where my Nan lived. It was my second home too as i was growing up, visiting my Nan's at least once a week. Since she died in the early 1990s i have not visited the area very often though in May 2010 i took the following photographs.

Everything was derelict and ready for demolition. Today i went there again and was surprised at the new buildings. Although i knew the roads around the church well it seemed totally different now that the old buildings have gone and new build is ongoing.

Shard End Library was very important to be as i was growing up, i visited every week and read so many science fiction books from there. In 2010 that had been boarded up too but now has been replaced by a funky new building. I didn't have time to check if the new library has any books too but you never know...

Old...

New...

Overhead

With the Sun shining and not many clouds in the sky i thought i would indulge in my periodic hobby of taking photographs of the planes flying over my house as they fly into Birmingham Airport. I've pretty much always lived under the flightpath (my parents' house is pretty much on the same path, just about a mile further out) and i love it even if the planes mostly fall into a small set of types.

Occasionally you get to see something different, such as an RAF C-17. I remember when i was at primary school Concorde came to visit Birmingham and we waited in the playground for it to fly overhead. If only i'd have had a camera back then...