Jeff Askew 🇪🇺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

The other half has knitted these poppies which will be displayed on Southend Pier, along with thousands of others knitted by many other people.

Totally cloudy here in Shoeburyness, Essex so a bit frustrated and saw nothing.

All that remains of Allhallows church tower, just yards from Fenchurch Street station, is being supported on temporary piles while the whole site is redeveloped.

Paddle steamer “ Waverley “ passing between Sheerness ( pictured) and Shoeburyness after refuelling at Tilbury.

Who remembers these?

Whoops, typo, Berners.

Henriques Street was known as Berber’s Street and was where Jack the Ripper killed one of his victims and according to Wikipedia the street has one of the highest crime rates in London.

Tommy Flowers, an unsung hero of WW2. In total secrecy he built the world’s first digital computer which was used by the codebreakers at Bletchley Park. A Post Office engineer, he received no recognition of his work except his name on this, now rundown and closed building in the East End.

Thought I would give this wine a try seeing as the Ventoux is on a stage of this years #TDF2025 Check out the racer on the label.

Humming bird hawk moth ( I think) on the phlox.

Bap Union anchored near to the Mulberry Harbour caisson which broke its tow on the way to the D Day beaches, got stuck on a sandbank and broke its back.

Bap Union passing Shoeburyness inbound. 4/7/2025

The resident kestrel at Gunners Park nature reserve.

A few of our feathered friends from the foreshore of Shoeburyness’s Gunners Park nature reserve.

A sprawling, textured field of galaxies scattered across the deep black of space. It is filled with the delicate smudges and glowing cores of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. The image focuses on a collection of interacting galaxies connected by delicate streams of stars. At top center lies a large elliptical galaxy that is dense and smooth, like a polished stone glowing with golden light. Like delicate spider silk or stretched taffy, these stellar bridges link the large elliptical to the few larger galaxies beneath, evidence of past collisions. All throughout the image, thousands of galaxies gather in clusters or are spread throughout, like glittering gems strewn on a table. Some are sharp-edged and spiral, like coiled ribbons; others round and diffuse, like polished pebbles. Still others are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. The background is peppered with pinpoint stars in reds, yellows, and blues, crisp against the velvet black.

A cosmic tapestry of glowing tan and pink gas clouds with dark dust lanes. In the upper right, the Trifid Nebula resembles a small flower in space. Its soft, pinkish gas petals are surrounded by blue gas, and streaked with dark, finger-like veins of dust that divide it into three parts. It radiates a gentle, misty glow, diffuse and soft like the warmth of breath on a cold hand. To the lower left, the much larger Lagoon Nebula stretches wide like a churning sea of magenta gas, with bright blue, knotted clumps sprinkled throughout where new stars are born. Both nebulae are embedded in a soft tan backdrop of gas that is brighter on the left than on the right, etched with dark tendrils of dust and sprinkled with the pinpricks of millions of stars.

A sprawling, textured field of galaxies scattered across the deep black of space. It is filled with the delicate smudges and glowing cores of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. To the lower left is a region filled with the hundreds of golden glittering gems of a distant galaxy cluster. In the foreground, below and right of center, two blue spiral galaxies look like eyes beneath the entangled mass of a triple galaxy merger in the upper right. A few bright blue points of foreground stars pierce the glittering tapestry. All throughout the image, thousands of galaxies gather in clusters or are spread throughout, like glittering gems strewn on a table. Some are sharp-edged and spiral, like coiled ribbons; others round and diffuse, like polished pebbles. Still others are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. The background is peppered with pinpoint stars in reds, yellows, and blues, crisp against the velvet black.

Introducing...your sneak peek at the cosmos captured by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory!

Can you guess these regions of sky?

This is just a small peek...join us at 11am US EDT for your full First Look at how Rubin will #CaptureTheCosmos! 🔭🧪

#RubinFirstLook
ls.st/rubin-first-look-livestream

Spent a very hot morning in the stands watching #Troopingthecolour2025

Ship models in Southend’s pier museum. I’ve been on the two “Royals” in the late fifties and early sixties, but not on the paddle steamers.

At @hayfestival.bsky.social with Yulia Navalnaya. Not many people get standing ovations before and after their event but she did. Pleasure and privilege to interview her about Patriot, Alexei Navalny’s final words. Both of them models of courage and hope

HMS Sutherland passing Sheppey having been alongside HMS Belfast.

The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride from the Cart & Wagon shed in Shoeburyness garrison to Battlesbridge.

Lancaster taking off from Southend Airport Friday 9th May.

Really good image but I’ve never quite understood why 250 images need to be stacked when the sun is the brightest object in the sky. I suppose the CSM filtering has got something to do with it.

Kite surfing at Shoeburyness with the Red Sands Fort, a wind farm and the WW2 "Schnellboot" defence boom in the background of one photo.

Day trip to Red Sands Fort from Southend Pier.

As @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social might say - “Tree of the day”.

A recent visit to St Paul’s Cathedral with Nelson and Wellington’s tombs in the crypt and Wren’s architectural model which itself took two years to complete.

Downloaded and will listen later. I’m interested in the snail because a few years ago I was out at night with my telescope waiting for a cloud to pass. I leant against a wall and felt a squishiness - it was a slug I had squashed with my shoulder.

A model of the Royal Daffodil in the church of All Hallows by the Tower. I went in this ship from Southend Pier to Calais in the early sixties and back to Southend as a day trip.

Hamburg Sud container ship and a Finnlines RoRo. This is a hybrid with zero emissions in port and was leaving the Thames estuary.

A bee in amongst the flowering raspberry. Original photo and a cropped image.