Bimbar's Birthday - 50 Balloons

The 50 Balloon Lift off from Chalkwell Essex 18.00 Feb 25th 2017

Last night from a garden in a leafy suburb of Southend on Sea, to celebrate the fortieth birthday of  'Duracell bunny' Bimbar Roberts, 'celebrity chef', 'raconteur' and 'bon viveur', fifty labelled helium filled biodegradeable balloons were launched by a motley band of family, friends and wellwishers. If you come across a label please send a comment to this blog stating where it was found and any other relevant data you wish to share on line.

The legendary 'Steve Dongle', Eco-warrior and environmental activist  has agreed that for every label found and reported to this blog he will donate £5 to UNICEF.

Steve commented "Helium is a very useful and finite planetary resource so it's imperative that the Helium used in this event is not wasted.  Please send in those comments and maximise the money I donate to this amazing charity"

"Every one of us in our daily lives affect our fragile ecosystems. Every balloon you inflate, every membrane you dilate, every birthday you celebrate - I'll be watching you!" Steve Dongle; Eco-warrior, environmental activist and compiler of the Waveney Gazette's Top 100 Trees.

Chocolate Fondue

Toot's Chocolate Fondue heaven on a plate

Is chocolate fondue healthy? Its a great way to get your 'five a day' but is it good for you? Well its a comfort food in our home and after eating it I now feel very comfortable! Nice one Toot!  Once again I guess I will have to postpone my audition for the 'corps de ballet.

Five Hundred Posts

'500 Muted Posts in Disarray - Centre-fold perspective' mixed media George Roberts 2017.

Since my first post in February 2011, I have enjoyed putting together a random collection of thoughts, art works, images of the night sky and mouthwatering recipes for your delight and approbation. I hope to continue this bizarre activity and largely one way dialogue with the world well into the future. Who knows, I may remain blogging long enough to chalk up another 500 posts and the world might just remain interested enough to keep viewing them?

Contemporary British Architecture

Papa and Toot's House with Love, Lamp Post and Radio Telescope - pen and paper by Oscar Boon February 2017

The Seventh Seal

The Grey Seals are back in numbers at Horsey Gap Norfolk. This year a record number of pups have been born - 1423.  It is a wonderful privilege to watch them swimming through the breakers and sunning themselves on the shingle and sandy beach.

How much do I love You?

Toot xxxx

Oysters for Supper

Step One

Step Two

Step Three

Step Four

Step Five

Five steps to supper happiness. Thanks to 'World of Fish' Lowestoft for supplying the freshest of oysters from Colchester. Thanks to Aldi  and the good folks in New Zealand for supplying the excellent wine. Thanks to Toot for making the cheesy, creamy, garlic sauce, covering the oysters and gratinating the lot under the grill.

Auriga - The Charioteer

The Constellation Auriga the Charioteer 10x 4 minute lights stacked to create this image. Taken on the 24th January 2017 from our backyard using my Canon 600D DSLR with an EOS 18-55mm. lens at f=45mm. all mounted on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount.

Not sure whether the blurriness of the detail in this image was caused by too long an exposure of each frame (4mins) or poor manual focussing by myself. Either way the open clusters M36, M37 and M38 show in this images as amorphous blue blotches rather than individual stars. I shall point my 66mm. refractor at these open star clusters and make them the subject of a future post.

The bright star centre-left top is Alpha Aurigae also known as Capella. To the naked eye I always think Capella looks yellow in colour although in my image it appears white.

Updated image having used software to bring out the winter Milky Way which runs through this constellation

 Although Capella appears to be a single star to the naked eye, it is actually a star system of four stars in two binary pairs. The first pair consists of two bright, type-G giant stars, designated Capella Aa and Capella Ab, in a very tight circular orbit some 0.76 AU apart and a derived orbital period of 104 days. Capella Aa is the brighter of the two at spectral class G8III (G8 Giant) whereas Ab is slightly smaller and of spectral class G0III (G0 Giant). Aa has a calculated mass of 3.05 times that of the Sun and Ab some 2.57 times that of the Sun. These two stars have both exhausted their core hydrogen fuel and become giant stars, though it is unclear exactly what stage they are on the stellar evolutionary pathway. The second pair, around 10,000 astronomical units from the first, consists of two faint, small and relatively cool red dwarfs. They are designated Capella H and Capella L. 

 The Capella system is relatively close, at only 42.8 light-years (13.1 pc) from the Sun.

Credit: Wikipedia

The Venetian Lagoon

Running to catch the Ferry to Lido and dinner at the Hotel  Principe - oils on board - George Roberts November 2016 - by kind permission of Rachel Roberts

We always stay too late in this wonderful city and have to run to catch the ferry back to Lido de Jesolo for a wonderful evening meal at Hotel Principe Palace, the most splendid of seaside hotels.  The food is too good to miss!

Good Words

Dictionaries in every country of the world are full of good words. These are just a few of them that I could recall as I sat drinking my coffee. I'm sure if you think about it, you could come up with lots more.  It is true that there are probably as many if not more 'hateful' words, there you go I've just used one inadvertently, but its only the good words that help everyone to feel happy and make for a safer, better world for all .

Scarlet Macaw

Papagayo-watercolour on paper circa 2006 George Roberts

I painted this in the afternoon and by 11.30pm. that night, I was inebriated  and as a consequence fell in the bath and became stuck.  I remember that I was in Fuerteventura with Toot but I cant remember: the exact year or month, the name of the hotel or why I chose to paint a scarlet macaw a bird not native to the Canary Isles. "Who's a silly boy then"

Steve Dongles Top 100 Trees: - No 5 The Dioon spinulosum or Gum Palm

Dioon Spinulosum-Tropical  Green house Berlin Botanical Gardens - photograph taken from the cover of Steve Dongle's latest book listing environmentally friendly adhesives 'Stuck up a Gum Tree'

Dioon spinulosum, giant dioon, or gum palm, is a cycad endemic to limestone cliffs and rocky hillsides in the tropical rainforests of Veracruz and Oaxaca, Mexico. It is one of the tallest cycads in the world, growing to 12m in height. The tree is found at low elevations to 300 m above sea level.
Dioon spinulosum prefers well-drained soil with regular water. It will grow in soils containing few nutrients, in soils rich in limestone, and on slopes. It is hardy to USDA Zones 9B – 11.
Dioon spinulosum has pinnate leaves that grow to about 5-7 ft (1.5-2.1 m) in length and radiate out from the trunk. The 120-240 leaflets on each leaf are small and flat, have small thorns and taper to a sharp point.
Credit: Wikipedia

Every one of us in our daily lives affect our fragile ecosystems. Every trunk you stake, every cone you take, every pinnate leaf you shake - I'll be watching you!" Steve Dongle; Eco-warrior, environmental activist and compiler of the Waveney Gazette's Top 100 Trees.

Cockle Shed Leigh on Sea

Cockle Shed Leigh on Sea by Ronnie Magritte (Rene's less talented brother) - 2016 Oils on Board - by kind agreement of Mr. William Roberts of Chalkwell Essex.

"If one looks at a cockle with the intention of trying to discover what it means, one ends up no longer seeing the cockle itself, but of thinking of the question that is raised". Ronnie Magritte Lowestoft 2015.


"If the cockle is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the cockle". Ronnie Magritte  Oulton Broad 2016.


"The purpose of shellfish is mystery". Ronnie Magritte  Oulton Broad 2017.


" Man with hole in bivalve feels cockle all day". Anon.