Pictures can say more than a thousand words and these days emojis can speedily communicate what we want to say. However, because people’s understandings/interpretations of emojis are sometimes different, they can be easily misunderstood. Test your knowledge with our quiz to celebrate World Emoji Day on Tuesday, 17th July.
[HDquiz quiz = “688”]
Poor Prime Minister: the phrase ‘you can’t please everyone all of the time’, seems to highlight the pressure Theresa May is currently under. While no one is disputing the negotiations are sensitive and demanding, let all your frustration out, by casting your vote in our poll.
[totalpoll id=”2755″]
You voiced your opinion about the President’s visit last week. Here are the results
[totalpoll id=”2674″ fragment=”results”]
There is a lot of pomp and protest currently going on about President Donald Trump’s visit this week. Love him or loathe him cast your vote. Do you feel President Donald Trump’s visit will be good for the UK’s future position?
[totalpoll id=”2674″]
Here are your World Cup poll results (sadly we didn’t get the real result.)
[totalpoll id=”2636″ fragment=”results”]
Henley Festival: The boutique, cultural summer festival begins today and ends on Sunday. It celebrates the best of international and UK music, art, food and comedy at a quintessentially British location. Here are some ‘tough’ questions about the headlining acts. For more information about this event visit Henley Festival.
[HDquiz quiz = “672”]
Wear your heart on your sleeve and let us know if you believe that ‘Football’s comin’ home’
[totalpoll id=”2636″]
Feathered, furry, scaly or smooth, I love animals of all shapes and sizes. As a small boy, my bookshelf was full of monumental wildlife encyclopedias.
Growing up in Dorchester on Thames and moving to Clifton Hampden at the age of eleven, I was blessed with seeing countless creatures that many from my generation have not had the privilege of.
I distinctly remember one Sunday morning, my parents excitedly whispering across the kitchen to alert me to the spectacle in the garden. There, in all its splendour, was a tiny weasel running back and forth to the garden shed, climbing up the walls, crawling underneath it, at a pace that even made a child tired. I think I fell in love.
As a young adult, I shared my nature passion with a special friend. We’d go on walks together in the hope of seeing mustelids, especially weasels or stoats… Any nature-lover could have told you I was practically hoping to win the lottery. My friend had a camera, a pretty good Canon with a decent lens. While I was looking on, in the hope of a miracle, they’d stop at every tree, attempting a snap of any bird or butterfly that crossed our trail.
At first I was rather unimpressed by their slowing of my searches, but when I saw their results when we got home, my preferences quickly began to change. It was no longer all about the mustelids, it was about the joy and the beauty of all the creatures, and capturing them in a moment of perfection. It was time I got myself a camera.
Many pass-me-downs and purchases later, I am a well-prepared twitcher. I’ll travel far and wide to get a chance of adding new bird species to my collection. I’m lucky to have a Spanish mother so I can travel to the country, which is simply jam-packed with African migrant species.
Yes, I have a life list. Yes, I have my favourites. But to me, wildlife photography is about capturing the perfect posture, in perfect colour, in exquisite detail. Only then, is that beautiful creature yours.
Photography is subjective; everybody has a different view on what makes a beautiful photo. If you are a fan of colourful lighting, get yourself up at the crack of dawn for the early-morning sunlight. If you’re a fan of scientific accuracy and crisp detail, save up your pennies and splash out on quality gear. To locate rare species, especially local birds, I highly recommend www.oxonbirding.blogspot.co.uk. My humble advice to anyone wishing to take wonderful photos of nature is to start simple, put the hours in, explore your passion. Just get out there and take photos of everything that moves…. Oh, and a little photography course won’t go amiss, either.
In 2016, a quarter of the UK’s electricity was generated from renewable sources – solar, wind (onshore and offshore) and tidal power. On many days in summer 2017, over half of the UK’s electricity generation was renewable. With its high level of sunlight, Hampshire is the largest producer of solar photovoltaic energy in the UK and capacity continues to increase.
The cost of solar panels has fallen 99% since 1977 (that’s not a typo!) and in many parts of the world solar power is now cheaper, without any subsidy, than fossil fuels. Large-scale battery storage facilities are developing fast.
Community group Energy Alton strongly supports renewable energy locally to help allay serious climate change and reduce pollution. In 2014 they won an award from the National Energy Foundation for installing a solar photovoltaic system on Alton Library. They are now encouraging local schools to install solar panels.
Free energy advice
Energy Alton is not just about renewable energy. The team can help you save energy and money, and increase your comfort. Run entirely by volunteers, the group has no commercial interest – just the public’s interest. They offer:
• Free home energy surveys and, in winter, thermal imaging surveys
• Advice on lighting, insulation, damp problems, renewable energy
There are public talks on a wide range of environmental issues, such as climate change and plastic waste.
Electric vehicles have arrived
It’s not just in the home, but on the road, that Energy Alton can help, especially as the Government annouces plans to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040, amid fears that air pollution from vehicle emissions poses a major risk to public health. Electric cars have zero tailpipe emissions which is crucial in the fight against climate change.
Costs are falling – calculated over four years, electric cars in the UK are now cheaper than petrol or diesel, taking into account both purchase and running costs. The mileage from one battery charge is now up to 150+ miles and even 250 + miles for some models. Charge points are becoming much more widely available, too.
Get involved!
If this subject has intrigued, and you want to hear more about Energy Alton, come to one of their monthly meetings, from 7.30pm, in Alton Community Centre, GU34 1HN. This is a free event with a bar. Why not become a member – it’s only £3 a year? Or get in touch about volunteering, the work is interesting and you don’t need to be an energy expert, just passionate about the future of energy.
Contact them on [email protected] or 07811 462659 or visit www.energyalton.org.uk
Q. Who inspired you [Rhys Morgan and Robert West] to get into magic?
Rhys: “Of course, like all of Britain, I grew up watching Paul Daniels on television on a Saturday night. Then I was a big fan of Derren Brown and I loved going to see his live shows. I bought his book Tricks of the Mind one Christmas when I was 20 and there were a few little tricks in it – coin vanishes and such. I started learning those and got hooked.”
Robert: “I spent much of my youth learning to juggle
different things and enjoyed learning new ‘tricks’. Magic was a logical, if somewhat backwards, progression from this when I was at university [Christ Church College]. That and fancy card shuffles were good to make it look like was really good at poker when playing with friends.”
Q. When did you both decide to work together?
Rhys: “We met at university doing a play.”
Robert: “Yes; a student production of Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters.”
Rhys: “I was The Fool and you were Hwel the dwarf, as I recall. We bonded over a shared sense of humour and also how the lighting design wasn’t great.”
Robert: “I spent a lot of time in college doing technical theatre so
Rhys asked me to light his next show.”
Q. Is there somewhere where you’d love to perform your magic act?
Rhys: “I think we’d both love to have our own West End run.”
Robert: “Successful West End run!”
Rhys: “Yes, I suppose anyone can just hire a theatre and do a show to an empty room. That would be awful.”
Q. How did you come up with the concept for this new Time-Travelling Magicians show of yours, and what can the audience expect?
Rhys: “Morgan & West started life as a very serious, Victorian-style act but we quickly realised that we liked being silly.”
Robert: “And Victorians, as people imagine them, weren’t silly…” Rhys: “They were not amused. So, the idea of keeping the look, which we really liked, whilst bringing the act to the modern day appealed. And thus, the time-travelling escapades of Morgan & West came into being.”
Robert: “So, the shows themselves are full of really good magic, lots of our own takes on classic tricks and also plenty of new stuff too. All topped off with silliness, humour, and charm.”
Q. You are also presenting a children’s magic show. What advice would you give to any child who wants to follow you and have a career in magic?
Rhys: “Spend your time learning from all art forms – literature, film, pictures, theatre – the lot. Join an am-dram group. Learn to perform. The tricks are actually secondary.”
Robert: “And have a fall-back plan. We can still teach if everything goes belly-up!”
For more information about these spiffing chaps, including other live dates, see www.morganandwest.co.uk
From pet portraiture to prints of Putney Bridge, Keira Rathbone’s art has captured plenty of attention – she’s even appeared on The One Show and national radio.
So how did Keira discover she could create artwork using a simple typewriter?
“I was at art school in Bristol and I saw someone typing at a typewriter in our studios,” she says. “It reminded me that I had previously purchased a little orange portable one for £5 from a charity shop and I made a note to dig it out when I was next at my parents house.”
At home with the typewriter, Keira’s words dried up: “But I just typed anyway, repeatedly hitting the same characters, actually avoiding creating words. I felt set free and started to enjoy fashioning the distinctive shapes and textures, how they look sitting next to each other or overlapping, experimenting with soft and hard keystrokes.”
Landscapes, city scenes, even celebrities have all been Keira’s subjects, but why not just use a pen or pencil?
“I like the typewriter because of its simple mechanism, she replies. “I stand a slight chance of being able to fix its minor problems. I’m not really into makes and models, as long as they work well and I can fit them in my pannier, suitcase, rucksack or under the buggy, ready for when inspiration strikes.” Keira doesn’t even sketch her subject first: “I don’t really want to know how an impression will turn out before I start, other than a vague composition.”
If you want to know more about Keira’s art and perhaps commission her, there’s more information on her website at www.keirarathbone.com
Welcome to our new website. It’s been a while, but I think you’ll agree, it’s much more fun to visit our website now. You can see our July stories by county or town, or just by subject only.
While you are here, why not enter our July competitions or take part in our poll or test your knowledge with our footie quiz?
We would love to know what you think, so go ahead, enter your comments below.
