The Leaving of HMS Liverpool

HMS Liverpool leaving the Mersey for the last time - 1pm 28 Feb 2011. Saluted by ferries and tugboats she sailed out to sea with Rod Stewart's 'Sailing' (amongst other appropriate tunes) playing over the landing stage tannoy.

Heaven and Earth

One of the pieces of artwork on the Liverpool Discovers trail.

Captain Walker

Whenever I see this statue, I think of the opening song in Tommy - the Rock Opera by The Who.

Captain Walker didn't come home.
His unborn child will never know him.
He's believed to be missing with a number of men,
Don't expect to see him again.

Of course it's got nothing to do with that! The truth is even better:

Captain Frederic John Walker specialised in hunting down and and sinking Nazi U-boats. By all accounts a charismatic and eccentric character, blasting out the tune "A Hunting We Will Go" over his ships Tannoy as he returned to base from an operation.

HMS Liverpool

HMS Liverpool, originally uploaded by Dark Dwarf.

Took this photo this morning - HMS Liverpool, a Type-42 destroyer, on it's last major visit to Merseyside, where she was built, ahead of decommissioning next year.

The crew and officers paraded through the streets, exercising their freedom of the city - you can see them in this picture on the landing stage.

Monkey

Monkey, originally uploaded by Dark Dwarf.

This is the stuffed toy monkey that Frodo made at his Art & Craft club on Wednesday. "The nature of Monkey is irrepressible!"

RIP Nicholas Courtney - "The Brigadier"

Nicholas Courtney - the actor who played a character who has been around since my childhood died today. Farewell Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart

"The Brigadier never encountered an alien that he didn't attempt to shoot or blow up". :-)

Scarab

Samwise visited the Liverpool World Museum with his Mum on Wednesday, and brought a gift back for me - an Egyptian Scarab - hopefully it's a replica one from the museum shop!

Flowers

Trying out the camera that I got for Xmas, on the valentines day flowers I bought for Novelist Supermum.

Valentines Day - Zombie Attack Survival Guide

I've received a couple of gifts from my Valentine, in book form.

1. Dr Dale's Zombie Dictionary, The A-Z Guide To Staying Alive, from How To Survive a Zombie Apocalypse

2. The Necromonicon - not the original evil grimoire (I hope), but a well presented, large collection of the tales of H.P. Lovecraft.

Some say it with flowers, and some with animated corpses and unspeakable terrors :)

Still Got the Blues - RIP Gary Moore

There's some breaking news going round the interweb that Gary Moore has died.
e.g.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12377862