Castling with care in Whitstable and Margate 90s and 60s Ramsgate

 Starting with these two 1994 Ramsgate pictures of the bit of the town that is seeing some major changes

 So am I, that is buying books here at the moment,

 This is 1968 around the time I first had a boat in Ramsgate and first worked on boats in the harbour

 I am a bit obsessed with castles today although I guess few would realise this is a photo of 'Hawarden Castle' c1920, as well as Margate pier - different people see things in different ways at different times.

Auntie Google says: Built as German sailing vessel Emma Linnemann for Reederei Hermann Linnemann, Hamburg. 1910 renamed Columbus for Claus Dreyer, Bremen. The ship was seized at Antwerp when the First World War broke out and was blocked in the harbour. After the war the ship was returned and converted to a motor merchant. From 1922 to 1923, she was owned by Carl Joh. Klingenberg & Co, Bremen and then by the Atlantic Reederei AG, Bremen. 1924 sold to Britain and renamed Hawarden Castle for W. Worall, Chester.

On 13 September 1939 the Hawarden Castle (Master William Worrall, DSC) left Nieuport and was reported missing thereafter without a trace. The ship probably hit a mine laid on 5 September by U-17 east of South Foreland

 We were off in Whitstable and Herne Bay buying books for the bookshop today

 Lunchtime is often difficult, the combination of reasonable food, somewhere with an interesting view to eat it, paint and some bit of free or cheap all weather entertainment, nearby parking, clean toilet. This is related to having produced something at the end of the day, recorded it on the blog as other people would perhaps write a diary. Turner Contemporary pulls this off in Margate, the cathedral and adjacent Chocolate Cafe in Canterbury, In Whitstable it's Whitstable Castle.

The result in a

 cheap sketchbook from The Works

Pot of tea, bacon and cheese roll around a tenner, the car park is free as is the entry to the castle and grounds, which are a bit municipal.

Here is the link to the content of my camera's SD card, mostly the castle, which of course isn't a castle in a defensive sense and I think was built as a decorative family home.

Bookshop wise this is the link to the pictures of the books we put out yesterday 

Carl K Hawkins at Nice Things a few old photos and a bit of a ramble

Ramsgate Town Hall, I assume decorated for Victoria's jubilee

 Not sure how many Ramsgate lucky cat postcards I have

On to Nice Things and the Carl K Hawkins exhibition which is well worth a look at

 and finally a very large page

This is the link to 1849 Map of Ramsgate

Old local pictures, rant and stuff

I think we are getting pretty close to needing to reintroduce something like Plato's Academy. You may remember that the ancient Greeks found they needed the academy to improve the standards of those in public life.

I think one group that could benefit from an improvement is our politicians and that thinking about the infinite and suchlike could help them out a bit over minor issues[compared to the infinite and suchlike] like Brexit or whatever.

The ancient Greeks were tricky though separating everything up as either good or bad is one thing but separating the sexes this way, well a bit gay; as my children would put it. Although the ancient Greeks thought it was the gods who separated man, originally an eight legged two headed creature, into the the two sexes. Hence finding your other half - however it seem that things are a bit vague about whether women were involved at all.

On the local political front I note my emails today contain one from Roger Gale explaining why we don't need a stroke unit, here is the link for anyone who wants to read it I think it is fair to say that people who don't survive a stroke are unlikely to vote for you.

We have just had a big fire near Manston with the smoke blowing into Margate because of the prevailing wind. Of course the minimum 10,000 tonnes of aviation kerosene, to satisfy DCO requirements, 1 tonne per movement, that would need to be burnt a year on the ground at Manston will give off particles you can neither smell or see.

The real rub with this one is that RSP Riveroak's own documents say that this pollution will increase the chance of, heart disease, stroke, premature death and dementia. Even those happy to lay down their lives for increased airfreight seem to find the idea of increasing their chances of getting dementia a bit much. 

It looks like the hydraulic rams and the new harbour gates and bridge control unit have arrived and are being installed, this should mean that we can walk the full length of the crosswall soon.

Here is the link to the photos I took just now

Pricing books in the bookshop today,

got to this one and thought a picture inside was interesting

Bill Stone was the baker in King Street Ramsgate and Ron Smith the butcher in Ramsgate High Street.

Here is the link to the rest of the books we put out today

 Town Council activity in King St today

Police activity on Plains of Waterloo.