Seal protest staged in London

Members of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) staged a demonstration today in front of Canada House in Trafalgar Square in Central London. The pictures are a Gifted Typist exclusive, taken by GT's newly appointed Chief London Correspondent.

Winter gets the last laugh on first day of spring

Spring 2007 officially arrives 21 March 00:07 GMT.
That means it arrives 20 March at 9:07 pm in this part of the world.
By the looks of things, it would seem that Spring is real a joker. Ha ha ha

SS Atlantic remembered

These two roses* appear to be overlooking the scene of one of the worst marine disasters in Canadian history. They were found attached to a bench on the memorial boardwalk of the SS Atlantic in Lower Prospect. In the waters beyond, 546 of 975 passengers perished on the night of 1 April 1873 when the steamship Atlantic encountered a storm and struck an underwater rock off the Nova Scotia coast near Terrance Bay. Local residents, many of them fishermen, helped with the rescue. Just behind the boardwalk is the resting place for 277 of the victims.


*the roses were not real

Lobster feast

Here was the lobster feast that produced the odd crustacean Pushmepullyou. It was lobster on an Asian theme and it was every bit as mouth watering as it appears, possibly even better.

Pushmepullyou lobster

A lobster feast resulted in this curious arrangement of crustacean carcasses. What would Dr. Dolittle think?

More cool frost

More cold weather; more frost. It's curious how similar these fractals are to ferns or evergreen trees. Perhaps our Chief Forestry Correspondent might have something to offer. Dick? For more frost bite(s) click here.

Lunar landing

It isn't of course, but it has that look. What we have is more frost fractals on the window as the result of another cold snap. Intriguing how dramatic the change in patterns. It's almost as though the frost lays itself down as a geological formation. See Frost Bite(s) for more fun with winter fractals.

A total eclipse of the ... moon!

Caught this quite by chance tonight. Wondered why most of the full moon was covered in a red shadow on a clear night. As it turns out, this the red shadow is the earth's shadow. It is the first lunar eclipse in three years. Amazing!1.6 sec, f4, 200mm, ASA 100, tripodnar eclipse
(Thanks to KLH for pointing it out.)

Below TagBagger captures the moon at the peak of its eclipse complete with surrounding stars. The photographic challenge here is to stop the moment but capture right amount of light, colour and crispness. His photo achieves this. (2.5 secs, f5.6, 300mm, ASA 1600).

Mall cowers under angry sky

This angry sky bullied its way into a sunny day casting a dark shadow over the mall. The stark contrasts of light and dark made for a dramtic afternoon that day. The photo entitled Geisha's Lips was also shot on that day, an hour later.

Frost on my windshield

Got up one bitterly cold morning and slept walked to the car. I turned the key and looked up to the most brilliant blue sky and this smattering of yellow frost on the windshield.

Forestry correspondent pronounces trees dead

When the Gifted Typist appointed a Chief Forestry Correspondent, brows furrowed. Why, some mused, would a typist's blog require a Chief Forestry Correspondent.

Well, today our Chief Forestry Correspondent proved why blogs like this one need such a correspondent.

It turns out that our artistic tree is in fact dead. Here is the news as dispatched from our Chief Forestry Correspondent, dick.

The trees are dead. Note the missing bark. These are dead eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) and are common throughout the Acadian and Great Lakes Forest Regions. They are conifers and, when alive, keep their green foliage year round.

Winter tree

This tree, denuded by winter, stands in an area stripped of most trees by Hurricane Juan which struck Halifax in September of 2003.

Point Pleasant Park was transformed that night from a heavily forested urban park to a park of fallen trees.

But what it lost in tree cover, it gained in views. If strollers look beyond the fallen trees, they have a spectacular view of the Halifax Harbour.

Shriveled rosehips

Like people, berries shrivel and wrinkle with age, but the vibrant colour of this bunch shines through on a bitterly cold day. These rosehips (thanks dick) were shot in front of the IWK Hospital in Halifax.

1/100; f14; ISO 200; 50mm

A forest of frost fractals

Another frost fractal on the bedroom window, zoomed and cropped. The tiny ice crystals capture rays of early morning sun. It has the look of a moonlit line of scruffy evergreens on the crest of a hill.

(1/400, f4.5, ISO 200, 200mm)

Geisha's lips

Here is a shot of the bandstand in the abandoned Halifax Public Gardens. It was taken on a moody day through two prongs of the iron post fence surrounding the garden. TH said the shot reminded him of a geisha's lips. So TH, I give you Geisha's Lips on Valentine's Day.

Late afternoon delight

It's not often that a sunset stops cars on the side of the road, but this happened on Wednesday in Halifax. The sky was covered in cloud except for a small band of blue settled on the western horizon. When the sun plunged into the blue band, a reddish yellow spotlight shot sideways across the city, lighting the sky, the water, buildings and air in a strange, almost artificial glaze. These shots were taken across the Northwest Arm of the Halifax Harbour. The buildings were shot looking east.

St. Paul's II

Here is Herbert Mason's iconic shot of St. Paul's Cathedral (previously blogged here) as it appeared in the Daily Mail on 30 December 1940. Mason captured this shot from the rooftop of the Daily Maily building during the German firebombing of the City of London 29 December 1940. The paper's headline says: "War's Greatest Picture: St. Paul's stands unharmed in the midst of the burning City."

St. Paul's Cathedral

There's something about this image. St. Paul's Cathedral endured the brutal firestorm inflicted by German bombers on the "City" of London on 29/30 December 1940. The church survived thanks of the efforts of the Auxiliary Fire Brigade which fought to keep the fire from engulfing the dome. You can see that all the surrounding architecture is post-war, including the Millennium Bridge which takes walkers across the Thames to the Tate Modern Art Gallery where this typist snapped the shot in 2002.

Here is the iconic shot snapped by Herbert Mason for the Daily Mail during the event that became known as the Second Great Fire of London.

Slacker mum?

This wilting flower so perfectly captured the "Monday Monday" mood felt by this typist on a cold dark morning in February. Is it just me? Or is this too a slacker mum?

Dingle at dusk

En route the other day to pick up one of the little typists at the swimming pool, I noticed this red dusk materializing in the west behind the Dingle Tower in Flemming Park in Halifax.
Because this typist learned a hard lesson the day she didn't have a camera to shoot the fantastical sea fog that settled over the Halifax Harbour a few weeks ago, she now makes it a rule to carry the camera everywhere, just in case. And, just in case happened here.

(Canon 20D 50 mm 1/1000 f6.3 ISO 100 handheld)