New book

I got a new book in today. It was a birthday gift from me mum. It is a book about the geology and natural history of Hampstead Heath. By now I am sure you all know how much I love the Heath. This is one of the first, if not the first, books written about the heath. It doesn't so much have a history of the Heath, it is written about what is on the Heath. It was published in 1913, so nearly a hundred years old. It is a handsome copy with all the maps and plates intact. And it was fairly cheap considering. It was gotten of abebooks.co.uk. A worthwile place to go if you are looking for a rare or out of print book. They have a US site as well. I believe it is abebooks.com.

Long live the Heath!

My new icon.

This is my new icon. It will be added to my site as well. It was designed by my brilliant auntie Janine. She is an amazing graphic designer. She had made me one when I was trying to be in the media with a film strip coming out of the hat. But since I am in conservation now, it was necessary to change. It is one of the best gifts I could get. The leaf coming out of it is a willow leaf, and I liked it since it looked like a feather. I also hope to add a page soon to my website about my job on the heath. Enjoy.

Shoreditch

My second event last friday was to visit Shoreditch station. This station, on the east london line, was closing. The reason for this is because the new extension is on a slightly different alignment than this station. The line won't be fully completed until 2010, but they have to close this to build the ramp up to the flyover.

I should add that one of my hobbies since being in London is on disused and abandoned underground stations. I have collected several books on this subject and have even visited a disused station that closed in 1994 called Aldwych. I have also been on two walks along old railway lines that were either in use by London Underground or was going to be.

As this was an historic event for me, as I don't know if there will ever be another station closure, I wasen't going to miss it. I hopped on the bus from the heath and made it to the station in about an hour. When I got there, they were making speeches inside and I thought I had miss my opportunity to take pictures inside and on the platform. They finished their speeches and all came out the door. Then they did the ceremonial closing of the door for the last time. After that I noticed people filing in a side door. I slowly followed and found myself in the booking hall. I promptly took some pictures and went to the machine to buy a ticket to show I was there on the last day. I ended up getting the second to last tickets as they were closing the machine. After that I went down to the platform to take snaps of the last train. I then boarded and took snaps inside. After a little while, the whistle blew, the doors closed and the train departed. We arrived at the next station, Whitechapel, in a few moments. Everyone disembarked. I then went over to the adjancent platform where I met up with people I recognised. I might add that I knew about all this from a website I frequent and one of the people was the author of this site.

They then asked me how I ended up on that train. Confused, I said I walked on. They then told me that the "final" train was infact a special train intended for staff and the media and bigwigs. I was floored!!! I guess at the end they weren't too fussed who got on as there were a few other "normal" people on. So, I went from thinking I had missed it all, to experiencing the best of it all. I was well pleased. One sucky thing was that my camera switched to short focus at some point and some of my pictures are a bit blurry. But, you can check them all out on my pictures site under a new album called Shoreditch. Also, the website I frequent is: http://underground-history.co.uk.

All in all, it was a terrific friday that made me well happy. :)

Education Centre Launch

Last friday I attended 2 events. The first was for the launch of the education centre on the heath, which I have had a part in. Basically, it used to be an info centre, but has been transformed into the centre which you see on the right. Each wall of the room represents a different habitat area on the heath, whether it be grassland, heathland, ponds or woodland. I helped with making some of the decoration for the wall before I started work on the heath. It was a great event just to get to see so many people I knew. As you can see on the table there was light refreshments. Sam, the education officer, has put in a tremendous amount of work and energy to get this up and running and was well deserved of the celebration. It was a fun event that makes me pround to have been a part of and to continue to help as much as I can while working. Please be sure to view more pics of the centre in the new education centre album I created in my pictures site which is linked on the right.

I shall write about my second event, going to an underground station closure, in my next post.

Me in uniform...finally.

I have taken a few photos of myself in uniform. The building behind me is the bothy that I am based at. For those of you not familiar with the word, it is where are canteen and office is. It is basically the place where we chill and chat. As you can see, hopefully, I wear a green top (two of the pics is with a waterproof on, the other with my jumper) and either grey or brown trousers. Here they are grey. I wear black steel capped boots. It was a great day to take the picture, and it was my birthday. I hope you enjoy them. I have also added a new album on my pictures site, which I have linked on the right. It is called Heath. You can find these pics, plus some others of the heath. I have also added a couple pics of me in the suit I wore to my interview for this job. It is well worth looking at.

I am also getting quite excited for the end of the week. I have the opening of the education centre to attend on fri night. After that, on the same night, I am hopefully going to go to Shoreditch station closure. It is on the east london line. They are closing it to extend it northwards via a different route. Friday is the last train, and I visit a website that is organising being there and a pint afterwars. So, I hope I can have pics of both. I will for sure write about it.