The flowers that bloom in the Spring tra la ....

....are now all covered in snow

Hull along with most of the country woke up to snow; not a lot in our case and certainly not enough to cause any disruption I would have thought. Cold weather is forecast to last until April by which time if the Casandras are to be believed the country will have run out of gas. Brrrrrr!

Local shops for local people

Well calling them shops is a bit of an exaggeration. Here's two ladies' hairdressers and a gents' barber, a tattoo parlour and a pizza place. Does this reflect  local interest in looking good and stuffing your face with carbohydrate? As I live nearby I couldn't possibly comment. 

For those not from these parts wondering why a barbers is called Tigers Trim; it's a reference to the local football team, Hull City, whose orange and black strip earned them the nickname of Tigers, they have a mascot called Roary ( I kid you not).  Hence Tigers Trim, well it's better than Head Shed.

Surely not

Taken by Margot K Juby

Times is hard and people is selling off their newborns ....

Britannia For Sale

How long have I lived in Hull? Thirty plus years and still I find something I've never seen before. Way up on top of a building at the corner of Bowlalley Lane and Lowgate I found this eroding Britannia peering down at me. The building is your run-of-the-mill Victorian office block turned (inevitably) into a public house. It must have had some importance for a whopping stone statue to be stuck on top but times have changed and now I wonder what Britannia makes of the Barracuda Bar.

 Just noticed the For Sale sign so here's yet another investment opportunity in Hull.

PS & Update: It seems I've come here with half a story. After a little bit of research and a friendly Tweet I find that this building was once a courthouse and before that a public exchange. Now being a law court would explain the Britannia statue. It's Grade 2 listed and details of its architecture can be found here.

In case of emergency

I don't know what sort response you'd get if you tried to use this antique device on High Street. It's outside what used to be the head office of Humberside Police Authority now up for sale since the 'election' last year of  a new Police and Crime Commissioner for Humberside. He wants somewhere more modest in keeping, no doubt, with his modest mandate (90% didn't vote for him).  May I suggest a shed? The building was built in 1899 as a trading exchange for the corn, flour and seed crushing industries. It can be yours for a mere snip of £425,000.

Cod

After yesterday's mammoth posting here's something simpler. Here's another of those piscatorial pavement plaques, this one lies near to the Hull hole at the end of Whitefriargate. 

Pictures from a demonstration

A cold wet Saturday afternoon in March was perhaps not the best sort of day to launch a nationwide protest against the introduction of  the loathed Bedroom Tax. Around 250 turned up nevertheless at this rally in Queens Gardens. They were part of nearly 60 such meetings across the country involving about 13000 people. Not earth shattering numbers I agree but it's a start. If I'm honest I don't think rallies like this and bigger marches planned for later on will have much effect on this Government which seems to have beans in its ears. I hope it does but I'm not holding my breath.

A quick note on media response. The Sunday People had printed out hundreds of placards for these meetings. They, along with the Daily Mirror, strongly back this protest so there's a bias alert on anything they say. The reporting in the press and on TV varied from outright ignoral through  under reporting (shame on you Hull Daily Mail for saying there were "more than 60" attending this rally); the local TV stations had short and reasonably accurate reports. But then I've read newspaper reports of football matches I've attended and they even got the score wrong so any report is a  bonus I guess.

There were a couple of people wearing similar masks, I would have thought to point of the demonstration was to show your face and be counted but maybe I'm old fashioned.

Here's local Labour MP Karl Turner having his say before one of the local TV stations. He's a barrister; does it show?

And when the speakers begin to drag, as they do, you can always admire the hellebores as opposed to the other bores.

And where there's a crowd it obviously needs policing. I have to say this is as close as the police got. The sergeant in the car was probably the driest and warmest person in Hull city centre yesterday and that's why he's a sergeant.