HBN blogging seminar and setting up a marine hay infusion.

This morning, I was able to devote several hours to editing and selecting the best images from Mr Eberts visit and our travels In London at the end of March (see Monday 28th March entry). The images were uploaded for public perusal at https://picasaweb.google.com/miltoncontact/FeinkaesereiInTheUK.

The images of the Tate Modern reminded me of Mr Weiwei' exhibition of millions for porcelain sunflower seeds therin and his arrest a week later on Monday 4th April in China. Since his arrest, the whereabouts of Mr Weiwei is still unknown. He is not alone in this as several of his staff are also missing..

A clear run up the A14 to huntingdon took me to the HBN seminar and buffet. Mr Howell gave an educational talk on his experience of blogging on the internet, with many useful tips. With his permission, I recorded his presentation. I did so at radio quality (44khz) but with a higher data collection (24bit) to permit a larger dynamic range.

After the seminar, a small nucleaus of MR Williamson, Mr Wishart, Ms Ekblom and myself remained to look at different issues relating to the use of Twitter and Wordpress blogs. Mr McInroy arrived at the close, with the vexing news that the A14 was yet again seized up with regards to traffic.

I therefore took the long route to Over, via St Ives, Earith and Willingham, to reach the Tutorcloud meeting with Mr Beal and Mrs Farndale.

That evening, my concern about my marine aquarium spurred me into action. The water is remarkably clear due to the filtration by the two barnacles and rapidly growing bivalves, the latter now several millimetres in size. Despite a twice daily manual turbulence of the water to suspend potential food debris for the filter feeders into the water, I was not convinced that there were sufficient nutrients for continued fast growth.

Whilst a few drops of milk might provide an interim solution, I prepared an infusion of hay with some of the thawed sea water, collected and stored frozen a couple of weeks ago. The culture was seeded with a few millilitres of water plus sediment from the tank itself and the hay infusion jar placed on a window ledge to mature.

I had also picked a horse chestnut flower and used this as a still life example for painting practice. I look forward to seeing the result in daylight tomorrow.

A late check of the local council election results returned the gratifying news that Ms Hazel Smith, who resides in ou close, was successfully re-elected as out liberal councillor. Sadly, the national referendum on whether to adopt the alternative vote system was answered with a resounding no!