The butterfly on the ash

About a week ago, I photographed this butterfly resting on an ash pile:

The butterly did spread its wings when on the ash pile but it was only for a couple of seconds while my main camera was previewing a picture I had just taken. The pile itself is located in a nearby park.

White blossom

I photographed this white blossom about a week ago; these trees are located down one of the popular paths:

I was hoping to take more pictures of the blossom but most of it has fallen off thanks to the weather transforming from sun into (heavy) rain.

The accident

Unfortunately, our diversion in Leicestershire yesterday morning was caused by a fatal motor accident. Dad heard on the radio and read this article that a motorcyclist had lost control of his bike and crashed into a tree. The rider, Anantkumar Morjaria, was declared dead on the scene.

As much as I enjoyed our exploration of rural Leicestershire, I feel bad that it occurred from someone losing their life rather than through our own choice. I wish the best to Morjaria's family during this difficult time for them.

Nottingham in May (2)

There is not much to write about today's happenings, as it was mostly spent indoors and can't be repeated here out of respect for my family's privacy. That being said, there is one event I can write about.

When we travel from Northamptonshire to Nottingham, we usually avoid the motorways and prefer to use the back routes because they are faster. On this occasion, we had completed a third of the journey to Nottingham when our route was blocked by the police due to an accident; rather than turn around and head back out to the main motorway, we instead opted to take a diversion, which took us down the deep country roads of Leicestershire.

This added an additional twenty-five minutes to our trip, but we enjoyed seeing more of rural Leicestershire. Additionally, despite how twisty many of the roads were, I was not car sick because I had been awake for more than a couple of hours and my breakfast had already settled; it is because of the risk of motion sickness that I did not take any pictures during the extended journey (if I focus on a screen or on letters while in a moving car it's almost guaranteed to cause me to be sick).

As for the accident, other than hearing about a piece of news regarding a traffic accident in Leicestershire I don't know anything about it; when we travelled on our usual route on the way back it was as though no accident had ever occurred. I hope the incident did not cause any serious harm.

Nottingham in May

Dad and I spent the day up in Nottingham; our car has been in service up there for this past week and today had been scheduled as the day to collect it. The trip doubled as a visit to family, namely to see my grandparents but also to see my Nottingham-based cousins, aunt and uncle.

I can't go into too many details, of course, as much of what happened is private, but I'd like to share a funny event. The weather has been indecisive all day, swinging back and forth from sun to rain and even to hail: In the afternoon, Dad, my grandfather and I, thinking we could take advantage of a gap in the weather, decided to take a walk. We did not bring any raincoats.

As you can imagine, this was a mistake. We had only been walking for five minutes when it started to rain again, albeit lightly, but five minutes later the rain picked up, forcing us to reside in shielded area for a few minutes. The rain subsided for a second time and we continued our walk. Next? The dark clouds decided to unleash a major bout of rain, which soaked our non-waterproof coats; we waited for a little bit under another area protected from the rain until we realised that we had to go back. The rain intensified as we returned to my grandparents' house, but once we were back inside the rain eased off. Ah, always the way!

Dad and I are going back up to Nottingham tomorrow, and I think Mum is, too. We'll see what happens!

Rutland Water ducks

Near the end of our recent visit to Rutland Water, I photographed this pair of ducks:

As with other wild animals living in public areas, these two were seeking food from humans; I, of course, was the human they were following. Needless to say, I didn't give them anything!

Stumpy

Back in the spring of 2001, my family had been living in Oregon for a few months and were enjoying life there. We had a deep appreciation for the wildlife; my brother and I were fascinated by the lizards, and especially by the western fence lizards (also known as "blue-belly lizards").

For a time, we were fond of a particular lizard whom we had named "Stumpy". Stumpy was an adult male western fence lizard (this could be identified by his more prominent coloring, as the female of the species is less colorful) who resided on the outside of our house; he had lost his tail at some point, hence the name, but it was in the process of re-growing.

Our friendship with Stumpy started when my brother and I caught him one afternoon and found him to be incredibly docile; this is notable because male western fence lizards are aggressive to each other and to humans if the latter handles them. He did not make any attempt to bite us or get away, instead allowing us to stroke him for lengthy periods; it didn't take long for Stumpy to not run away from us and even let us catch him. While Stumpy was obviously a wild animal and did not live inside our house, we cared about him as though he were a pet; whenever we went outside we always looked for him to make sure he was okay.

After two months of catching Stumpy regularly, he vanished one day. My brother and I were deeply upset by this, as he had an established track record of appearing to us daily...and on this particular day he was nowhere to be found! Mum assured us that Stumpy would be fine; after all, he was a wild animal and had lived perfectly well on his own before we had moved to the area. A second day then went by without Stumpy.

Then, on the third day, out of nowhere, Stumpy reappeared! My brother and I were ecstatic at first — our reptilian friend was back — but after Stumpy had been in our hands for a couple of minutes we noticed that he was barely responding. The weather was not the source of his sluggishness as it was hot outside that day; no, he felt warmish to the touch but he didn't want to move. My brother and I then realized what was wrong with Stumpy: he was dying.

By this point, we were both struggling to hold back tears and Mum had called us inside for something. We placed Stumpy on the wooden rails at the front of our house; we hoped that we were wrong and that once we were outside again Stumpy would have recovered and his eagerness to be held would have rebounded.

Alas, that was not the case. When Mum, my brother and I went outside to check on Stumpy, he had died on the railing. This was too much for me and my brother, and we burst into tears while Mum comforted us. When Dad came back from work, he helped us provide Stumpy with a proper burial.

We learnt later on that Stumpy was likely an old lizard. That might have been the reason why he was so docile towards me and my brother; when we encountered Stumpy for the first time, his reign as the dominant male lizard in his area was coming to an end. I've heard that animals often know when it's their "time", and perhaps Stumpy knew that it was his; to this day, I'm not really sure how to explain his two-day absence combined with his return to us coinciding with his death — he could have taken himself off and never returned, but he didn't: Stumpy came back.

Today has been the 12th anniversary of Stumpy's death. We didn't know him for long, but in the time he was prominent in our lives was special to us; he was the first animal my brother and I expressed grief over. We won't forget him.

Another Rutland Water visit (2)

Here are a few pictures from yesterday's trip to Rutland Water:

Some sheep eating near the shore of the lake. A group of the sheep tried to obtain food from me and my parents; they bleated in disapproval when we merely walked past them!

These two swans are at the dam end of Rutland Water. We weren't sure what they were doing: it looked as though they were guarding a nest but a few minutes after this picture was taken both swans had moved away. Perhaps it was a comfortable spot.

This is Empingham, a small and peaceful-looking town near the dam end of Rutland Water. It's not a big place; it's home to under 1,000 people. The tower on the right is Saint Peter's Parish Church.

A view of Rutland Water from the dam side. The picture is slightly slanted but a good shot overall; I was annoyed that I took an excess of slanted pictures on this visit.

A ewe quietly chewing. I love the expression on her face...it looks as though she's laughing!

Another Rutland Water visit

My parents and I visited Rutland Water this afternoon. We had a pleasant time there and the sunshine made the trip all the more worthwhile.

I have some pictures but I haven't yet sorted through them; for now, I'll leave you with a shot of the top of a local landmark — Normanton Church:

Lilypad pond

A neighbour recently told Dad about a local pond inhabited by fish and a terrapin; the pond isn't far from our house but we had never been to it before because it's by a field we don't usually walk near. Dad and I went to the pond this afternoon:

The pond was filled with lilypads and reeds. There were a few branches and a log present in the water as well.

A goldfish; Dad estimated that there were at least 50 of them in the pond. They would frequently surface near the lilypads or whatever part of the pond Dad and I weren't near, although this particular fish didn't care.

Dad and I did see the terrapin, but it was swimming too fast for me to photograph; it wasn't possible for my camera to focus on a rapidly-moving reptilian head in water. A couple of teenagers who were at the pond while we were there said that they had seen three terrapins in the water before.

The 2013 tulip

The orange tulip has returned:

These are not my pictures; my brother has given me permission to post them here as long as he is credited, which he has been.

"Spitfire" - LeAnn Rimes

I've been away for most of today and only have time for a short post. I wanted to link to "Spitfire" by LeAnn Rimes; it's a song she performed when I saw her at The O2 Arena and is a track from her new album, also named Spitfire:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge_NiWX6tzg

"Spitfire" was among the songs in her set that I enjoyed the most.

Results of the 2013 local elections

The results are in: as expected the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have been the two parties to lose the most council seats while Labour and the United Kingdom Independence Party were the two to gain the most. According to BBC projections, no party has reached 30% of the overall vote, with Labour gaining 29%, the Conservatives 25%, UKIP 23% and the Liberal Democrats 14%; the average turnout has been reported as 31%.

The Conservatives lost 335 seats, but their 1116 councillors gives them the largest share of seats in this cycle; of their 28 councils up, they lost control of ten. Labour gained 291 councillors and control of two councils; the Liberal Democrats lost 124 seats, reducing their numbers to 352. Eight councils were rendered "No overall control".

UKIP's 23% of the overall vote and 139 additional seats gives them their biggest victory on the local level to date; it is unclear if UKIP's recent trend of success will endure and what effects it will bring if it does. The Green Party of England and Wales added five more councillors, which brought its number in this cycle up to 22 (they have over 140 in all cycles combined). Independent candidates added 24 councillors, bringing them up to 165 in this cycle.

In the mayoralties, the incumbent Conservative Mayor of North Tyneside, Linda Arkley, was defeated by Norma Redfearn, a member of Labour; the vote was not close, with Arkley losing by 19 percentage points. In Doncaster, the incumbent independent, Peter Davies, was narrowly defeated by Ros Jones, the Labour candidate. As for the South Shields parliamentary by-election, Labour won the seat with UKIP coming in second.

The results are mostly in line with what I was expecting; however, I thought the Conservatives' and Liberal Democrats' losses would be more severe and the Labour gains greater. I also mentioned in the previous post that both mayors were vulnerable due to their positions in Labour strongholds: Both were defeated, although I wasn't expecting the North Tyneside mayor to lose by such a wide margin. While Labour did not have a massive victory all across England, in their strongholds Labour overwhelmed the other parties; the two mayors were swept away by the coattails.

Should any updated information about the results arise, I will cover it in another post.

Local elections, 2013

The 2013 United Kingdom local elections are in progress. Over 2,300 council seats are being contested this year, with all of them except for one council being in England. The mayoralties of Doncaster and North Tyneside are up, and the parliamentary constituency of South Shields is voting for a new Member of Parliament due to the resignation of David Miliband last month. The locals being contested this year were last up for election in 2009.

The predicted outcome? As with last year, the Conservative Party is expected to receive severe losses in their number of councillors; they have the most seats to defend and have experienced poor polling numbers for several months. The Labour Party is likely to be the biggest beneficiary of the Conservatives' losses, but the sudden and recent rise of the United Kingdom Independence Party makes this election hard to predict: A significant amount of Conservative voters, dissatisfied with the lack of a referendum on the United Kingdom's membership in the European Union, are intending to switch to UKIP; if significant vote splitting occurs, this will exacerbate the Conservatives' defeats.

The Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives' coalition partner in Parliament, also have low polling numbers; however, their losses might be cushioned if Conservative/UKIP vote splitting is widespread. The Green Party of England and Wales is defending its strongholds and is seeking to move beyond them, although the Greens are concerned about the continuously-rebounding Labour Party and the effect of UKIP. The British National Party, which was notable for making gains in 2009, is unlikely to move away from the heavy defeats it has received in every election since, owing to its abysmal amount of candidates and virtually non-existent poll numbers.

As for the two mayors, both are incumbents; the Mayor of Doncaster is an independent and the Mayor of North Tyneside is a Conservative. Both are potentially vulnerable, as Doncaster is in Yorkshire and North Tyneside is in North East England; both regions usually back Labour overwhelmingly and if Labour has a strong performance nationwide, the two mayors could be defeated by the party's coattails.

It will be interesting to see how these elections turn out; we'll find out the majority of the results tomorrow.

Light on the stairs

Back in the early days of my blog, I wrote a post about a rainbow effect created by sunlight being reflected off a red jug. Here is another rainbow reflection, which I photographed this morning:

This reflection was generated when the morning sun shone through the peacock tail-shaped patterned glass at the top of our front door. It was difficult to take the picture: using the flash would have erased most of the patterns in the final image, thus, it was necessary for me to keep at still as possible so ensure no blurring occurred.