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I was looking back through the older posts in the blog today to be dismayed that all the early pictures are missing and need replacing. There were all originally hosted Facebook and is seems the linking doesn't work any more at all. I had noticed it before but thought it might be something that Facebook itself might fix and left it to sort itself out.
I would love to also post some of the early pictures of all the girls together, like this one from when Lucy was just a baby sitting on Catherine's knee. Although I have no date for when it was taken I know the location was the Adventure Playground at Rutland Water near the Sykes Lane visitor center and I can remember all four girls having a wonderful day together. Happy times indeed now very sadly passed and missed.
Hopefully over the summer I can get some time to at least replace the missing pictures and fill in the gaps. If time allows maybe it time to post some of those older pictures too before they get lost in the mists of time and memory.
In the last few days we have had two largish, by UK standards, earthquakes in the Oakham area, which have shock peoples houses and rattled peoples never to some extent.
The first of the two earthquakes measured 3.2 occurred on Thursday morning at 6:07 am and woke everyone up in the house, while the second was stronger and measured 3.5 and occurred today at 6:50 am. It was the first one that was more shocking than the second despite the fact it was slightly smaller. Maybe that was due to the fact that it woke us all up with the shacking of the house while the other was sightly later in the morning and was more like thunder with what appeared to be less shaking.
Both earthquakes were in the Ashwell area, rather than Oakham as reported in the press who managed to find some what they called terrified locals to give them interviews for the news paper. All the people I talked to were more matter of fact about it all and just curious to know and understand why they had occurred and if we were going to have a third even bigger quake. Like usual the National newspapers blew the whole thing up and sensationalised the whole thing, and that included the quality press too.
UPDATE 28th April 2014 - The third Earthquake arrived today at 10:05pm centered again in the Ashwell area. Much smaller than the other two at 1.7, didn't really feel anything, it was more sort and large clap of thunder.
UPDATE 25th July 2014 - Hopefully the final earthquake for a while which measure 1.5 occurred at 10:36am, this time located between Langham and Cold Overton. This time it was just more of a rumble rather than anything really noticeable.
No this has to be one of the hottest days of the year so far and long may the days like this stay with us until the summer really arrives to warm out hearts. Without outside temperatures beating the forecast highs and the skies so blue and the air so clean it always a lovely time of the year when you get weather like this after the winter.
The last of the daffodils are still in flower and these have now been joined by the deep beautiful red of the tulips that have started to flower making some of the places, were occasionally you find both, look so wonderful with there contrasting colours. It really is a lovely time of year with green shoots appearing in the gardens of flowers yet to come. There is the blosom of the trees, especially the cherry blossom so loved by the Japanese which looks so lovely in it's pink and white which is just starting to come to an end.
I hope this all means we are in for a good summer this year, unlike the summers of recent years. We could all do with some sunshine, especially the farmers come harvest time and those that were flooded earlier this year that need the ground water to return to the norm.
When someone famous dies it is always a bit of a shock but to hear of one that has died at the young age of 25 year age it really is quite shocking. That is what happened today with the announcement of the death of Peaches Geldof, who was found dead at her home in Kent.
In life she was, not only the second daughter of Bob Geldof and Paula Yates, but she had worked as television personality, a model, and as a writer (which included writing for the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian). In addition to this she was a Mother with two young children who were with her in the house when she died.
It was lovely what Bob Geldof said in a statement in the press: "We are beyond pain. She was the wildest, funniest, cleverest, wittiest and the most bonkers of all of us. We loved her and will cherish her forever." My heart goes out to her family who must be in deepest shock today after the loss of one so young and with so much to give to the world.
Generally there are few politicians that would be missed by many, but there are few as iconic as former Labour Tony Benn, who was a member of Parliament for 47years. So it is with sadness that I find myself writing about the death of this great man today at the grand old age of 88. I think everyone in politics will be morn his passing today.
Tony Benn major influence in British left wing politics who was instantly recognizable from his distinctive voice, intense self-belief and fondness for a mug of tea and a pipe. He was a superb speaker, at his best in the Commons, but articulate and usually humorous, as occasion demanded, and made good use of any platform which he thought he could use to get his message across. Over the years he recorded a Dairy of his political life that was broadcast by the BBC at one point. It made interesting listening to especially on the workings of the Labour party and lift wing of British politics.
He was born into a family with a history in politics, both his grandfathers were Liberal MP's, as was his father before he joined the Labour Party. His father, William Wedgwood Benn, was given the hereditary peerage of Viscount Stansgate which was later to prove a problem for Tony Benn after his father died, as we see later. Tony followed Father into the Labour Party entering Parliament in 1950 on the center left of the party.
In 1955 he introduced a bill to allow him to renounce his peerage when his father died. as peers where not allowed to sit in the House of Commons, however the House of Lords voted against the bill, which led him to champion constitutional reform.In 1960, Benn's father died which disqualifying him from remaining in the Commons, however was eligible to stand as a candidate but he could not take up the seat.After a three-year struggle, he gained the support of the Conservative government for the Peerage bill and was able to renounce his title and once again sit in the Commons.
Labour won the 1964 general election, Tony was appointed postmaster general, outside the cabinet. He was also an efficient spin doctor, focusing on eye-catching policy decisions that he took time and trouble to communicate effectively, frequently leaking documents in the name of freedom of information and defending his right to discuss general issues in speeches.
Later he was appointed to cabinet as minister of technology and he backed the building of Concorde, a post he stay in until the fall of the Government in 1970.
When Labour came back to power, 1974, he was given the post Industry Secretary and promoted to Secretary of State for Energy a year later, a post which he held until the fall of the Labour Government in 1979 when the Conservative Party led by Margret Thatcher came to poor in 1979. During this time he was a champion of Britain gaining membership of the European Economic Community.
With the Labour party in a political mess after losing 1979 election joined the fight on the left of the party, where he advocated reforms to the party which would have given greater representation to the views of activists and trade unionists. However it became apparent to him that when he chance to run as leader for the Labour party that by standing he would split the party in two, which would have left the Conservatives in power for decades.
In 1983 he lost his seat due to boundary changes and was out of until he won a by-election for Labour in 1984. In that year the Leadership of the Labour Party had neutralized the left wing of the party and their reforms. Thus he became a widely respected and effective backbench critic of the Conservatives and latter a backbench member of the Labour Government until he retired in 2001 saying "I'm leaving parliament in order to spend more time on politics".
Retirement never stop him trying to get his message across through any programme that would have him, and was a resident on radio's Any Questions and television's Question Time for decades. If he wasn't in the media he would be writing or turning up any where he was invited speak to audiences that wanted listen and take on his ideas and his message. He was often compared with Thatcher. They shared the same qualities of unblinking belief but unlike Thatcher he was not a hater, as policy genuinely mattered more to him than personality.
In November 2011 it was reported that Tony had moved out of his home in Holland Park Avenue, London, into a smaller flat nearby that benefited from a warden. In 2012 he suffered a stroke, and spent much of the following year in hospital. He made a brief return to political life in 2013, but he was reported to be "seriously ill" in hospital back in February this year.
Politics will miss him and his drive, but his children have followed on the family tradition in politics, with his son Hilary Benn being a member of Parliament and a member of the Labour Party and his granddaughter Emily Benn being the Labour Party's youngest-ever candidate in an election. My heart goes out to his family and friends and all, like me admired his man.
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